Smartphone OSes In Three-Way Tie Among Global Information Workers
My blog post Apple Infiltrates The Enterprise: 1/5 Of Global Info Workers Use Apple Products For Work! got lots of visibility because of how hot Apple is right now, but our data is much broader than just Apple. Our Forrsights Workforce and Hardware surveys have lots more data about all types of PCs and smart devices that information workers use for work, including types of operating systems — and we even know about what personal-only devices they have.
For example, as of the fall of 2011, the top three smartphone OSes have essentially the same share of the installed base of smartphones used for work by information workers across the globe (full-time workers in companies with 20 or employees who use a PC, tablet, or smartphone for work one hour or more per day). See the chart below and the reference in the Monday, January 30, New York Times article on Blackberry in Europe.
This data shows the time lag in installed base users of smartphones used for work versus the story coming out of smartphone shipment trends, which focus on the ongoing competition between Android and Apple’s iOS. So even though Blackberry share of sales has slipped, it’s still the smartphone used for work by 26% of information workers across our 17 country sample, second only to Android at 27%, with Apple iOS at 24%. The rest is a grab bag led by Symbian, followed by a 9% presence of Microsoft. It will take several years for Microsoft’s Windows Phone to build a significant installed base presence — Windows Phone is at 4%, with the obsolete Windows Mobile at 5%.
Clients should note that we can segment these results by management hierarchy, age, personal and household income, company size, and many other criteria, including the individual 17 countries of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, the UK, and the US.