Rapid mobilisation of business apps taking place

Organisations are mobilising applications and content at a rapid and accelerating pace, according to Good Technology's latest quarterly Mobility Index Report.

The report shows total app activations grew 160% over the past year, as companies enable their workforces with enhanced collaboration tools and corporate content across an increasing range of mobile devices.

"As organisations continue their secure mobility journeys, our customers are realising that they can transform their businesses with custom apps," explains Christy Wyatt, chairman and CEO at Good Technology. "The Good Dynamics Platform enables forward-thinking industries and companies with new business processes to drive new revenue, productivity and access into new markets through mobile."

Good Technology says the mobilisation of key business processes is accelerating rapidly across industries.

"Insurance, in particular, is going through rapid business transformation that has resulted in aggressive custom app development, with 34% of all apps activated by insurance organisations being custom built," the company says in a statement.

Financial services showed that speed to decision is a desirable feature, with secure IM representing 27% of all apps activated. Business and professional services demonstrated a preference for apps that help mobilise content, with document editing, document access and secure browser making up 64% of all apps deployed by these firms. In manufacturing, almost half (47%) of activated apps were secure browsers, indicating secure access to intranets and web apps.

Good Technology says these trends illustrate that while usage patterns in unregulated and regulated industries may differ, mobilising key business processes is a key priority.

The Bring Your Own Device movement continues to mature with more personal tablets joining employee-owned smartphones as the devices of choice for business productivity on the go, the company explains.

It says iOS continues to show the strength of iPhone 6 devices in the enterprise with 72% of all device activations in the quarter. Android market share grew to 26%, while Windows Phone held steady with 1% of the market share in total device activations.

Specific to tablets, iOS maintained its lead with 81% of all activations in the quarter. After checking in with 92% during the same quarter last year, iOS surrendered market share to Android and Windows, which grew to 15% and 4% of the total tablet market share, respectively, in Q1 2015. Good Technology says this demonstrates a continuing trend of increasing diversity in the tablet marketplace.

For the second quarter in a row, iOS significantly outpaced Android in regulated industries such as education (83%), public sector (80%) and financial services (76%), though its dominance in those industries dropped across the board from the previous quarter.

Android again saw wider adoption in less-regulated industries such as high tech (47%), and jumped significantly in energy (44%). Microsoft operating systems increased in certain verticals for the first time, with Windows tablets making ground in retail at 5% and Windows Phone grabbing share in entertainment and media to reach 7%.