Enterprise mobile roundup

Creative Commons photo by Matthew Hurst. Click to see the source.

And now, some links to interesting news and articles about mobile technology as applied to the enterprise…

Good Technology’s data suggests iOS has a dramatic lead in the enterprise

CIO points to the latest report from Good Technology, the Good Technology Mobility Index Report Q4 2013, which says nearly three-quarters of all activations in the fourth quarter of 2013 among its customer base — more than 5,000 organizations in over 130 countries — were for iOS devices:

iOS accounted for 73% of all Q4 2013 activations of mobile devices using Good’s security platform, followed by Android at 26%, and Windows Phone for the remaining 1%.

When you look at just the tablet activations, Apple’s lead is even more stunning, accounting for 91.4% of tablets with Good’s security solution installed. Android accounts for the remaining 8.6%:

Samsung’s enterprise push sees success with the US Army and the NSA

The recent exodus from the BlackBerry platform — one we recommend — has created an opportunity for its rivals to capitalize on. While Apple’s been doing a good job of winning over the enterprise, Samsung is also actively courting the enterprise by pushing features like its Knox security platform and chip-level security. Their efforts seem to be paying off, as the US Army has placed an order of 7,000 devices, and “several thousand” have been ordered by the NSA. Both were originally BlackBerry customers, who chose the platform for its security features; Samsung Knox-enabled devices received approval from the US Department of Defense last year.

5 arguments to convince your boss to let you BYOD

Dell’s Tech Page One has these five arguments you can use to persuade your boss to let you bring your own device for work purposes:

1. It’ll save the company money. They point to this CIO Insight article that suggests that BYOD can save a company up to $80 per month per employee.
2. The support requirements for BYOD are very low. They say that consumer phones and the apps that run on them are quite easy to use, choosing one’s own device means that users will be using platforms that they know and love, and users will be more likely to upgrade their own software and rely on the manufacturer for support.
3. It’s not insecure. It’s no more insecure than any given company-issued desktop computer, and people are far more likely to take better care of devices that they own.
4. It’ll make workers happier and more productive. Users will tend to choose the phone that’s right for them and their job.
5. You can’t stop them, anyway. Shadow IT is pervasive. “You may not want to hear this, but asking for permission to BYOD is really just a formality. Just as your employees are already using their work phones for personal stuff, we’re also using our personal devices to access work stuff as much as we possibly can. We just don’t tell you about it.”

5 enterprise mobility myths you probably think are facts

In BizCommunity.com. Nilesh Talaviya lists five thing people think are true about enterprise mobility that actually aren’t:

1. It’s best to wait and watch. With many enterprises already building mission-critical mobile apps, the longer you dawdle, the more you’re giving your competition the lead.
2. BYOD is mandatory. BYOD makes sense in a lot of situations, but not all of them. There are other approaches, such as COPE (Company-Owned, Personally-Enabled), and CYOD (Choose Your Own Device), for starters.
3. Enterprise mobile apps are a security nightmare. With the right security measures, apps on mobile devices are no more dangerous than desktop applications.
4. Enterprise mobility is too costly. There are lots of inexpensive options for building enterprise apps, and custom-built enterprise apps don’t have to have the same UIs as consumer apps.
5. Enterprise mobility needs big investment in infrastructure. Most of the infrastructure is taken care of by the carrier and wifi — most of what you’ll need to add is made up of building ways to integrate mobile devices with your back end.