iPhone Trumps BlackBerry and Android in Business Community

By Brendan Giusti, Christian Post Reporter Monday, November 21, 2011

Apple’s iPhone beat out the BlackBerry for the title of most-used phone in the business world, according to a recent survey.

Nearly half of workers surveyed used the iPhone for business needs in 2011, according to the study by iPass. That number was up from roughly a third in 2010.

Android usage nearly doubled from last year. Slightly more than 21 percent reported using the device for business in 2011, which is up from slightly more than 11 percent in 2010.

The Blackberry, however, saw a slight decline from 2010 to 2011. Roughly 34 percent reported using the device for business needs in 2010, while only 32 percent used it in 2010.

About 95 percent of people surveyed had a smart phone, according to the poll. More than 90 percent used it for business purposes.

The results might point to the decreasing popularity of the Blackberry, but the surveyors maintain the results show that the number of competing phones in the market once dominated by the Blackberry is on the rise.

"While increasing iPhone usage in the workplace was inevitable, this is the tipping point when the iPhone has overcome the BlackBerry on its traditional enterprise turf, and business smartphones are in the hands of nearly every knowledge worker," iPass president and CEO Evan Kaplan said.

With fewer and fewer businesses supplying devices to workers, users’ preferences in smartphones also takes into account entertainment and home use, according to iPass.

The iPhone recently scored the highest in a customer satisfaction survey conducted by J.D. Power.

The survey judged phones on five criteria, including: ease of operation, operating system, physical design, features, and battery functionality.

"It really is Apple, and then the next tier," Kirk Parsons, J.D. Power's senior director of wireless services, told Mobiledia. "The iPhone just keeps getting better. Apple keeps upping the ante by finding something, one key feature or a design change, to separate it from the rest."