back to article Corporates love iPhone, iPad more than Android kit

Good Technology makes BlackBerry-style infrastructure and client software for big businesses. Good is popular with a fair few corporates, and it released some interesting data last night about the mobile platforms these giants are implementing. The bottom line: they favour iOS over Android, by a very big margin. Data for the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    not surprising

    Course they do, it's shinier. What do Execs like?

    It's a great way to expense a status symbol :P

    1. Volker Hett

      And a Status Symbol surely is what everybody else has.

      Luckily I have a Casio G-Shock :)

  2. SteveBalmer
    FAIL

    Which tells us one thing

    how stupid corporate IT departments really are.

    I mean implementing a closed system like iOS that only allowed authoirised apps to be installed after being vetted by Apple, and relies on corporate PC's having iTunes installed.

    All Android devices I know have the ability to untick an option to allow non-marketplace installed, and these corporates could be installing their own home-grown solutions....

    I'm guessing however this is nothing more that Apple funded PR bullshit thou, as I really can't believe corporations are so stupid to deploy closed and propriety iOS and iTunes on all their systems, rather than the much more open and corporate policy friendly Android.

    1. Stacy

      Or that they have no choice

      And that the execs want a shiny toy to play with, and apple kit has the biggest pose value.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Stacy

        ...it is a shame that I can only give your post one, "thumbs up." I'd like to give it a massive thumbs up the size of St Pauls Cathedral.

        Nail. Head. 'Nuff said. There are also pro-anti-apple fashions at work within IT departments as well.

        The adoption of iGear in corporates is all down to politics (or actually, the non-adoption of iGear in corporates.... I've seen iPads rejected in a task that would make a significant dent in a £200,000 paper duplication and distribution bill, because the politicos thought that the public would have a hissy fit.)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Re: Which tells us one thing

      It certainly does, but not that one.

      What it actually tells us is that corporate IT departments are rabbits in the headlights of senior execs insisting that their shiny toys be supported.

      This is a "Jump!" and "Yessir. How high sir?" thing. Any research, evaluation and analysis you may see going on exists purely to generate the right questions leading to the correct answer already given up front.

      That's the only reason we're doing it AFAICS.

      1. SteveBalmer
        Stop

        Don't worry, it will soon change

        Just the other week I was on a 12hr flight to Singapore, with a iPad2 owner in the "cubicle" opposite me. I let him feel smug for about half an our, and then I took out my Asus Transformer (initially in tablet only mode ), and I can see his reaction, "ahh, one of those Android tablets, nothing to fear here", after luring him into his false sense of security for a while longer, I then pulled out the dock, docked into the keyboard with it's reassuring clunk, and then proceeded to do some proper work with the office suite and keyboard whilst he jabbed the touchscreen keyboard...

        I think it was 5 minutes before he hid his ipad2 in shame by being "out-tech'd"... Victory is mine.....

        1. Robert Synnott

          RE: Don't worry, it will soon change

          Hmm. You're very competitive in your tableting. What would you have done if he'd pulled out a bluetooth keyboard, committed ritual suicide?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Happy

            RE: Don't worry, it will soon change

            But would his Bluetooth keyboard have given him an extra 7 hours or so of runtime...? ;o)

          2. SteveBalmer
            FAIL

            Hmm

            Sounds like a response from someone that doesn't grasp that the Transformer is not a tablet with a bluetooth keyboard, it's a very decent tablet, and a very decent netbook too,

            tablet + BT Keyboard != netbook

      2. jai

        @AC 10:02

        you're exactly right on that, it's exactly what happened in our office.

        i don't think our IT dept had any warning, it's just that suddenly, half the IT team, have the business users and a very large number of the higher management were using iPhones as our personal phones and so began to also use them to access the online Outlook web portal, forwarding emails to home accounts, storing meeting details and contacts on the phone. so the only sensible option was to implement the Good Technology solution which at least keeps all that sensitive corporate date locked and encrypted.

        The point that SteveBalmer's post above overlooks is that, it doesn't matter what solution the corporation implements, if the users are going to go ahead and use their own technology regardless.

        Maybe it's different in your industries, but in mine, IT Departments are cutting costs as fast as employees and so finding a secure way for users to make use of their own phones and tablets is far more preferable to spending the money buying blackberries for them all.

      3. FanMan

        I need an IT guy just to run my Berry

        People like iPhones because among other things they are easy to configure. They just work.

        Trying to sort out a BB means entering a maze of bafflement and pain. For example, we use Google Apps for Domains email which Google have been furtling with recently in ways (as the alleged administrator) I do not need, want, or comprehend.

        My iPhone continues to deliver without skipping a beat. My colleague's Torch, on the other hand, no longer delivers our company mail. I don't even begin to understand how to fix this - is it a BB issue or a Google Apps issue - who knows.

        Who needs it. My point is: Pick something easy to use.

    3. Mr Brush
      Unhappy

      Private Apps

      I'm pretty sure there's a mechanism for private/corporate apps to be delivered to iDevices without having to go through Apple vetting and iTunes. Only stuff that is to be available to the great unwashed has to run the gauntlet of Jobsian approval.

      The article is probably right. The phone supplied by my employer is an iProduct because the managers and purchasing bods like to have shiney stuff that tells everyone how important and tech savvy their people are. However, my personal mobile is Android because I actually know what I'm doing.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        @Mr Brush

        I think you're right. My silly lot I work for have a supported list of smartphones and on this great list is just one phone! They do install a company specific app with no stuff from iTunes. Thankfully, I'm not one of the 'important people' who get one of those phones. To make it worse...it's Apple laptops all round..but, and this is good...they rip of the OS and put Wiindows 7 on them! They just want to show off we have Apple machines but not running Apple software! It's costing them a fortune...makes me giggle everytime. Fools.

        AC for very obvious reasons!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Dangerous

        You sound classicly smug, ignorant, bigotted and dangerous - a sadly prevalent set of self-named "techies". I would suggest that, at least when it comes to user interfaces, security and the facts of human behaviour, you do not know very much at all.

        I assume you slam Blackberry even harder, all Windows incarnations, Symbian .... I know many people with Android, mainly on cost or "technical" grounds. All but two have things that just do not quite work, hve to "factory reset" for trivial things like wireless not working properly or send in for repair because the wonderful, free "apps", installed in their technical wisdom, poisoned the device or simply brought it to a crawl. The remaining two avoid installing "apps" and use it, basically, as a standard mobile 'phone. They are happy.

      3. Volker Hett

        Yes, there is.

        For homegrown apps you'll have a developer account anyways.

    4. D@v3

      Or maybe..

      these places don't just *happen* to have someone who can knock together the app that they need. I know I have never worked somewhere that has had it's own on site software development department.

      maybe, these places like to know that their new shineys can't be filled up with whatever unsigned apps that their 'users' feel like cramming onto them, that will then have to be supported by the poor unfortunates in IT when they go wrong.

      I can think of a couple more maybes, but im bored now, so im leaving

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        re: Or maybe..

        I actually work in the onsite software development departmen for a company, and quite often there are people around that can knock together these sorts of applications.

        Unfortunately, as it is a large company, no-one ever asks. It just goes straight to an outside contractor, unless there is a team specifically set up to work with the technology long term. If they actually consulted the existing development teams when something like this came up, most would be happy to do it... even if just to get something new to add to the annual review forms!

        The engagement process seems to involve asking the offshore companies if they can do it. If they can't*, then they'll ask around the exec table if anyone knows of an internal team that could do it. When they say 'what's IT?' they then get a contractor in to do it.

        *Quite often they can't, but it's very rare that you will ever be told this. Usually you find out 6 months into the project!

    5. Robert Synnott

      RE: Which tells us one thing

      Apple has an option for enterprise app deployment, which doesn't go through their approval system. For many corporates, this is a nice compromise; tell employees to go to the magic section of the app store and install the home-made app, rather than having to distribute it themselves.

    6. Chris007
      Trollface

      Change the wording slightly and you've answered your own question

      as I really can't believe corporations are so stupid to deploy closed and propriety Windows on all their systems, rather than the much more open and corporate policy friendly Linux

    7. Volker Hett

      Closed is good! I want it as locked down as possible!

      From a network security point of view. How do you tell your Boss that it was him introducing the trojan to your corporate network while installing that media player so he could view that, hm, special interest video site?

  3. Geoff Thompson

    Good grief

    "Mostly US" is the telling phrase. That introduces a huge bias. Business is a conservative market too. Give it a few more months

  4. Martin
    FAIL

    This is a bit misleading....

    The point about Good is it allows you to use your OWN kit to safely access work emails and calendars.

    Hence, all it demonstrates is that there are more people who want to use their own iPhones and iPads to look at corporate mail than want to use their Android phones. It says NOTHING about what the IT departments want, use or support.

    Good is supported on iOS and Android where I work. It's up to you what you use.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good

    The name's a misnomer because when we tested their product it was quite the opposite.

    However they're right that iPads are the tablets of choice. Not because corporate IT departments are stupid (cheers, SteveBalmer) and not because anyone prefers iOS but because iPads provide one user benefit that Android never will - that of "having an iPad".

    People want iPads so that they can be seen to have an iPad - or more specifically so that they are never in the position of being seen *not* to have an iPad when everyone else in the board room does.

    Added to that they do the job people want and don't cost more than the competition.

    We could be installing our own home grown 'solutions' on Android tablets that people don't want or we could use web apps or an ICA client on whichever device the client prefers, remaining platform agnostic.

  6. Eponymous Cowherd
    Holmes

    Alternate headline

    Corporate drones in "lack of imagination" shocker.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    post first facts later

    itunes is not needed in anyway within the business to put users iphones and ipads onto the corporate infrastructure. A closed system is actually far more popular with the suits than other more open mobile OS's

  8. Chris Griffin
    Facepalm

    Consumerisation

    I would hazard a guess that this is more to do with the increasing trend of "consumerisation", i,e. this is what the employees want, not the IT depts.

    In my company both iPhones and Desire HDs are offered, but the corporate types want iPhones.

    Because they're tools.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    Duh !

    Of course they do. Execs, directors and managers like their shiny status symbols. We get that here with our higher-ups wanting iPhones and iPads while the rest of us get to use Blackberry. They've never even heard of Android and have no idea on the technical merits of any of the systems. They just want the system that the general media keep giving free marketing to.

    Maybe they think that rocking an iPhone will allow them to more easily bag a mistress.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Android @ Fault

    There are two reasons for Android falling behind...

    1. VPN support is poor because of the lack of the TUN driver in the kernel... and Cisco only released their AnyConnect last month but only for certain Samsung devices.

    2. Android was too far behind Apple (time-wise) in getting out a tablet... that was stable (3.1)

  11. James Hughes 1

    Tablets

    Surely the tablet figure is grossly distorted by the fact that iPads were by far the biggest (only?) seller at the time. Decent Android tabs were few and far between. Android tabs are now gaining traction, so I would expect the figures to skew in their direction.

    Not going to argue with the phone figures though, although same may apply.

  12. Alastair Dodd 1
    Stop

    very little to do with the quailty

    or usefulness or even corporate/business suitability of iOS devices compared to Android - this could be mainly due to the mee too effect of the predominant status symbol which is iphone/ipad. In my company none of which have been recommended by the IT department but the Directors, marketing marpets, etc have just chosen them as they are 'cool' and android just isn't as cool.

    Chalk one up for the turtleneck and his marketing.

  13. uhuznaa

    Small wonder...

    Really. First, Google (as well as most Android handset makers) is somewhat ignoring business needs. There's no kind of FS encryption of any sort, support for things like Cisco SecureIP VPN is missing, managing business email accounts with deep hierarchies of folders with the Android email clients is a bad joke, the Android market is a crapfest, there're hundreds of devices to evaluate and every single one of them might be replaced with a totally different model three months later with no updates anymore for the one you bought in large numbers...

    Apple at least has device management software, Enterprise solutions for app distribution (yes, without Apple controlling what you install), iOS offers ways of locking down, locating and wiping devices, the included email client works nicely with accounts with lots of folders, VPN of any kind is fully supported out of the box, you can rely on updates for years, you have just two models to chose from...

    Face it, Google cares only for one thing: Eyeballs looking at the ads Google sells. Yes, Android is somewhat "open" and as a geek you can have lots of fun with it. But basically Android is a vehicle to beam ads at consumers and Google has everything revolving around that.

    To employ iOS in the business you just need to look at things in a sober way. To employ Android you need to be a fanboi.

    Things may (and probably will) change later on, but right now you need to be a kind of Android fanatic to coerce Android devices into corporate/business settings. And as usual with "everything is possible but hardly anything you need works out of the box" you need to take full responsibility and lots of time. With iOS you evaluate some products, look at the costs, make a decision and you're done with it. In any professional setting the latter is just the thing you want to do. It's work, not a hobby.

    Sorry for injecting some realism into the discussion.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hardly a suprise

    Corporate drones always want the latest shiny-shiny, and until Android tablets start to compete more effectively with the iPad iOS will always have a huge advantage in this market.

    If you want to build an IT system to support your staff's tablet usage at the moment you are going to go iOS, even a blind man can see that.

  15. nick47

    Couldn't it be that iPads are good?

    Anyone reading these comments might think that the iPad is a terrible device which anyone who uses must have a screw loose! They're not that bad surely!

  16. symbol_soup
    Mushroom

    Real world example

    We have 45000 employees. We have a project starting to assess iPads and yet we already have 2000 'unoficial' iPads deployed via local business units. We sell drugs and the iPads are shiny, can have our own apps put on and look sexy. THese are a saleman's wet dream and they have imrpoved sales substantially.

    Personally I am not an Apple fan but the sales figures don't lie.

    Now, if I could have some the increased revenue to actually support the blasted things.........

    Explosion - because I know that sooner rather than later the support costs are going to do this

  17. Frederick Tennant
    Trollface

    Ive never seen so many upset people

    iOS vrs Android is a no brainer, IT Pros will accept a crash without an issue, I was listening to an engineer the other day saying that his only crashes a few times during the day now he's has updated the software??? IT SHOULD NOT CRASH AT ALL!

    Apples closed system keeps out the real doggy software, yes i will admit that some software is crap and crashes but they rarely take out the phone with it. As for Flash or Flash programs? well we all know that they have had the 4 years to produce a version of flash which don't drain your battery or crashes your phones and pads.

    So how many malware ridden phones are out there? The worst thing is the 'Suites' who want iphones often struggle with a powerpoint presentation so how do you think they will get on with Android?

  18. Atonnis
    Stop

    Well...

    As an admin I find myself not wanting iOS products anywhere near the network, but I'm far more tolerant of when management decided they want iPhones/iPads than I would be with any Android device.

    iOS I can handle - I may not be interested in joining the Apple ecosystem, but their fairly draconian methods have mostly eased some of my worries. I wouldn't go out and buy iOS products, but I can handle them being around.

    Android products I shut down instantly. I block Android as an OS and refuse to support anyone with a personal Android product in the company. Unless they can prove to me that they have sufficient security on their devices I won't allow them.

    Here's waiting for Windows 8 and WP7 to be updated to allow AD integration.

  19. Keith Crooks
    Trollface

    I love these comments!

    Android pots call Apple kettles fanbois!

  20. streeeeetch
    FAIL

    Perception - Apple is expensive, Android shouldn't be

    I think it's to do with the perception that Apple have always made nice but expensive products. Android is perceived as being functional and good at what it does but we're all expecting (and waiting for) it to be cheaper than Apple.

    Currently a *good* Android tablet costs the same as an iPad. The iPad isn't necessarily better but it's perceived as more expensive, so the Android device isn't perceived to be a good deal.

    IMHO Android pads will sell when there's a good functional product that undercuts Apple by a significant margin and then they'll sell like hot cakes.

  21. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    What really matters

    The decision by the Financial Times to drop its Ios only app and create a cross-platform web app. The delays to the Android tablets have definitely played to Apple's advantage but the development speed of phones in 2010 and growth in marketshare could well be followed in the tablets.

    IT departments want: secure VPN access; secure e-mail; remote wipe; private apps and they will pay Cisco, IBM and the rest whatever it takes to get this. Apple is actually playing catch up with the private apps which will only really work once Ios 5 is released.

  22. Tankut Erinc

    Good vs what?

    I'm all for Android, I use a couple myself.

    But the argument presented here holds some water: iOS is very much homogeneous hardware and softwarewise - thus easier to debug, provides device-based encryption and remote-wipe out of the box. Not many Android devices does that.

    In the olden days when I had a WindowsMobile device (since it was designed to be incorporated into a corporate environment) all these security and remote management facilities were built-in.

    I am sure in time Android will come around to implementing these sort of security measures.

    On a corporate setting populated by a lot of suit wearing noobs, configurability and flexibility is something you would want to avoid. Anything more complicated than an etch-a-sketch is asking for trouble.

    (Maybe some genius will make a Launcher for Android called CorpoDummy, and will get around this?)

    1. Arctic fox
      Happy

      Re "Good vs what? " Howls with laughter as he reads..........

      ......."Anything more complicated than an etch-a-sketch is asking for trouble."

      The image of one of your corporates struggling with his presentation on a dear old etch-a-sketch (lovely toy BTW, many happy memories from my childhood) is hilarious.

  23. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Simple reason

    If you have to support multiple versions of Android it gets painful. Someone might want HTC but another want a Samsung.

    Multiple GUIs are a support nightmare. Talking through the process with someone a phone where the interface is totally different to the one you know just isn't going to work.

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