Android is the New Hot Favorite With Mobile Field Service Organisations in EMEA: Citrix

iOS continues to dominate the mobile platform for enterprise and Android is the favourite with mobile field service organizations, these are the findings of the new report by Citrix on ‘ Enterprise Mobility Cloud’ for Q4 2012. Last quarter we saw several organizations deploy big Android-based mobile line-of-business initiatives and as a result this quarter Android has gained eleven percentage points in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the report said.

Here are some of the findings from the Citrix report

• North America being the largest (71%) area of deployment, saw an increase in iOS deployments (62%) at the cost of Android (35%). Windows Mobile was limited to a mere 3%.

• In Asia Pacific region (Accounts for 2% of worldwide deployment) we again saw iOS maintain its dominance by climbing to 75% at the cost of Android , which fell to 25%.

• Strangely in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (Accounts for 27% of worldwide deployment) we saw iOS falling from its top spot to reach 43%. Android and Windows Mobile seems to have gained in this region to reach 36% and 21% respectively.

• Globally iOS gained at the cost of Android, reaching 58% and 35% respectively. Windows mobile stood still at 7%.

• Of the iOS device deployed iPad seemed to be the leading device with a deployment rate of 53% closely followed by iPhone at 46%. iPod accounted for a negligible 1%.

• Asia Pacific region accounted for a low iPad usage rate at 28%, with the remaining regions accounting for the remaining 54%.

Industry Vertical findings

• iOS turned out to be the most prefered platform for most vertical industries with one-to-one mobile engagement with customers, such as retail and restaurants.

• Largest iOS Adopters were Energy, Entertainment, Insurance, Legal and Leisure industries.

• Android was the prefered platform for sectors with mobile field service organisations, like transportation and utilities.

• Largest Android adopters were Communication, Healthcare, Non-Profit and transportation industries.

• Surprisingly Oil & Gas industries seemed to prefer Windows Mobile over Android & iOS.

Policy Deployments findings

• Passcode and GPS seemed to be the most deployed mobile policy, with 63% and 39% deployment rate respectively.

• Restriction of device resources and Wifi seemed to follow in the policy deployment hierarchy, with 32% and 31% respectively.

Mobile App findings

• Most deployed third party apps were business apps process followed by productivity apps .

• The third party apps deployment in the business section was led by Citrix Receiver, followed by Nitrodesk Touchdown and Adobe Reader.

• The productivity section was led by Numbers, followed by Box and Dropbox.

• The highest number of apps in the Enterprise app store were in the business services industries.

• Organization were more aggressive on app blacklisting wit 18% of customers deploying this policy.

• The most common blacklisted apps were Angry Birds, Facebook, Dropbox, Youtube and Skype.

• The most whitelisted apps were Evernote, NitroDesk Touchdown, Skype, Chrome and Adobe Reader.

• Dropbox seemed to be a leader on the top productivity app list but strangely also seems to be on the blacklist.

• Skype is the only app that managed to make it to both the lists.

• Evernote move from the blacklist to the whitelist this quarter.

• Most apps on the blacklist seemed to be there as they seemed to pose a threat to data or network security. Some other app were present as they tend to be a productivity drain, such as games.

In summation the report seemed to show continued dominance of iOS worldwide, but also a  steady emergence of Android in the EMEA region. The report also showed that productivity and data security are major concerns, especially for corporate-issued devices.