Back in the day, devices by BlackBerry were considered to be the preferred mobile device for enterprises. This is thanks to BlackBerry’s encryption along with the BES service that allows IT admins to remotely monitor and wipe phones in the event that it is stolen or lost. However these days it turns out that Windows Phone handsets might be starting to become the preferred device for enterprise.This is according to IBM who has found that in the enterprise, there is an increasing demand for Windows Phone handsets. This is due to tight integration with Microsoft’s back-end systems, which might explain why it would be preferred over iOS and Android, despite both those platforms clearly dominating the smartphone market at the moment.
According to Jim Szafranski, senior VP of customer platform services at IBM’s Fiberlink unit, “IT likes Microsoft and likes Windows. They’ve made a lot of investment in things like Active Directory and Exchange and as a result they have a lot of interest in seeing Windows Phone used by employees. I don’t think anyone is going to be all Windows on mobile, but enterprises do want it and I think they have a strong opportunity when it comes to the enterprise side of purchase decisions.”
In fact the increase in interest in the Windows Phone platform is evidenced in a recent study by Kantar which has found that the Windows Phone platform is the fastest growing OS in the world, although we’re not sure how much of that growth was contributed by enterprise users. What do you guys think? If Windows Phone doesn’t succeed with your normal consumers, could it succeed in the enterprise space?
Filed in . Read more about Microsoft and Windows Phone.