Security and data management driving mobile app demand
As mobile becomes ubiquitous in business, a new survey finds application security and access to corporate systems remain among users' chief concerns.
What do mobile users really want? Apparently, better access to business docs and more secure communications.
Good Technology's just-released fourth quarter Mobility Index Report, which leverages data collected from its customers to plot market trends in mobile application, platform and device preferences, found that users' concern for mobile security increased in the final three months of the year. There was a significant surge in secure browser (197 percent) and secure instant messaging (131 percent) application adoption quarter-over-quarter.
Secure browsers comprised 27 percent of all applications deployed by organizations while custom business apps and secure IM constituted nearly 20 percent each, leaving document editing and document access to account for the remaining shares.
Top Application Categories by Mobile Device Type
| Smartphones | Tablets | |
| 1. | Secure IM | Document Editing |
| 2. | Secure Browser | Document Access |
| 3. | Custom Apps | Custom Apps |
| 4. | Document Access | Secure Browser |
| 5. | Document Editing | Sales Tools |
Whereas smartphone users prioritized rapidly accessing information through IM and browsers, tablet users were shown to have predominantly used their devices for document editing (42 percent) and document access -- a trend that falls in line with each platform's innate characteristics and design.
Market Breakdown by Platform Activations in Q4
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Platform | Share Percentage |
| iOS | 73% |
| Android | 25% |
| Windows Phone | 1% |
| Other | 1% |
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Total iOS activations increased to 73 percent last quarter, up from 69 percent in the previous quarter, while Android’s share of the market dropped from 29 percent to 25 percent.