iOS grows to 73% enterprise share in Q4 2014, Android drops to 25%, and Windows Phone stays flat at 1%

Apple still rules the mobile enterprise space and is extending its lead. iOS gained another 4 percentage points, growing to 73 percent of global device activations in Q4 2014. Android device activations, meanwhile, dropped the same amount to 25 percent of total activations last quarter.

The latest findings come from Good Technology‘s Mobility Index Report. Windows Phone activations remain consistent with the seven previous quarters: flat at 1 percent. Since BlackBerry devices use BlackBerry Enterprise Server for corporate email access, Good Technology does not have insight into BlackBerry handset activations.

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In Q3 2014, Apple reversed its trend of declining quarterly enterprise share for device activations, thanks to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, a growth that continued in Q4. This makes sense, as Q4 is traditionally the company’s best iPhone quarter thanks to the holiday shopping season. While the iPhone 6 continued to be more popular than the iPhone 6 Plus, the breakdown slightly shifted towards the latter: In Q3, the breakdown was 85 percent for iPhone 6 and 15 percent for iPhone 6 Plus, while in Q4, it was 77 percent for iPhone 6 and 23 percent for iPhone 6 Plus.

Google has of course been trying to boost Android use in the enterprise, though it has been unable to crack Apple’s lead. Just yesterday, though, the company announced new initiatives in the corporate world as part its Android for Work platform.

“Device adoption varies significantly between industries, with iOS devices outpacing Android in regulated industries such as legal (95 percent), public sector (82 percent), and financial services (81 percent),” Good Technology said in a statement. “Android was more widely adopted in industries with fewer regulatory compliance restrictions, such as high tech (45 percent), manufacturing (39 percent), and transportation (35 percent).”

The report highlighted three other interesting findings:

• iOS and Android both saw smaller model phones outpacing larger models: In the enterprise, the iPhone 6 continued to prove more popular than the iPhone 6 Plus, and Android’s Samsung S4 Mini proved more popular than models of the Galaxy S4 and S5.
• Secure browser activations nearly tripled quarter-over-quarter: Activations increased by 197 percent quarter-over-quarter and was up by tenfold year-over-year.
• Secure instant messaging activations grew by 900 percent in 2014: Activations increased by 131 percent quarter-over-quarter and ninefold year-over-year.

Good Technology’s reports are an ongoing initiative to track activations across the breadth of mobile platforms and devices in enterprises and governments. They are based on data aggregated from all devices spanning “more than 6,200 organizations in over 190 countries.”