eWeek Europe readers like Google Android phones for business, according to a poll which also revealed strong loyalty to the Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry platform, and lower-than-expected Apple iPhone support.
With a 42% share of the market, and plenty of business apps, it is no surprise to find the Android topping our poll of business users.
However, the support for RIM’s BlackBerry platform surprised us, given the company’s poor financial health, and market research that suggests users are not sticking with BlackBerry phones.
Android phones came top, with 37% of the vote in our poll which asked:
“Which is the best mobile phone platform for business?”
That part of the result has been long expected.
But the struggle for second place was more noteworthy.
Despite being universally very popular, the iPhone still faces resistance from business users.
Or perhaps, it is suffering a slump in popularity as people wait for the arrival of the iPhone 5 (as no one, including this writer, can consider in their right mind that Apple is losing favor with the public, and that a positive reasoning must be given to explain that Apple is sliding down, but in fact it's not!)
Whatever the reason, Apple’s phone was beaten down by supporters of RIM’s BlackBerry, despite the general perception that the latter is virtually a basket case.
Next in the rankings, Microsoft Windows Phone 7‘s 12% showing might seem small, but is well above its tiny – roughly one percent – market share.
Business people will be looking at the platform as a good way to mobilise their Outlook calendar and Email, and the new Mango release (expecting within a week or two - some say 27th September) could increase the level of interest.
Below that, the once-proud Nokia's Symbian scored 3%.
Nokia has moved on to Windows Phone, but hasn't produced any phone yet, and business users have lost interest with Symbian.
Similarly, HP webOS is a nice OS, but abandoned by HP, it makes no sense in a business context.
Source: eWeek
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