​New Apple/Microsoft mobile devices set to trigger enterprise deployments

Shipments of business smartphones and tablets had mixed results in Q2 2015, with smartphone shipments declining from Q1 to Q2 2015, while quarter-over-quarter tablet shipments grew.

According to Strategy Analytics, business smartphone shipments reached 89.3 million in Q2, down 3 per cent from Q1 2015, but up 16 per cent from the same quarter a year ago.

While tablets had slumped the past few quarters, they were up 2 per cent in Q2 from Q1 at 19.6 million units.

In both business markets, personal-liable, or “bring-your-own-device” (BYOD), is still the dominant type of device, accounting for over two thirds of device shipments in each respective category.

Android was the dominant mobile operating system for both smartphones and tablets in Q2, accounting for 65 per cent and 52 per cent of each respective market.

Meanwhile, Apple iOS devices accounted for 28 per cent of business smartphone shipments and 38 per cent of tablet shipments.

In addition, Microsoft accounted for six percent of the business smartphones shipments in Q2 and 10 per cent of tablets - breaking the double-digit mark in terms of business tablet shipment share for the first time.

Strong shipment growth of Microsoft’s Surface tablet - 42 per cent from Q1-Q 2015 - contributed to this.

“Many enterprises in Q2 were hesitant on investing in large, new deployments of tablets and phones, as new device announcements from corporate-favourite vendors such as Apple and Microsoft were on the horizon,” says Phil Hochmuth, directory of Mobile Workforce Strategies research, Strategy Analytics.

“Going forward, we predict enterprises will continue to roll out tablets as laptop replacements for certain groups of employees, as well as for more single-purpose functions, such as kiosks and point-of-sale devices, which will be corporate-owned.

“This will mean a slight shift away from the BYOD model of tablets to a more corporate-liable model.

“Although the majority of smartphones and tablets in businesses will still be personal-liable in the near-term.”

Regionally, Asia Pacific was the largest market for business smartphones in Q2, accounting for 50 per cent of worldwide business smartphone shipments.