Windows Mobile Adopted by Businesses More than BlackBerry

Recently published results from a survey conducted by Boston-based Aberdeen group shows that Windows Mobile is the smartphone operating system that is expected to see the highest adoption rate among business users during the ongoing year. According to the report, a number of around 7 percent of the surveyed companies said that they planned on introducing Microsoft's platform in their businesses during 2010, the highest percentage among legacy mobile operating systems on the market.

In comparison, 6 percent of the businesses intend to invest in Symbian devices, while only 3 percent announced their interest in RIM's BlackBerry platform. “This could be a warning sign to RIM that their enterprise momentum has slowed considerably, and to Microsoft that the market is not yet convinced that they have a coherent mobile strategy. And although SymbianOS still has dominant world market share of all types of phones, their smartphone market share in the enterprise has lost nearly all of its momentum,” the report notes.

However, RIM's BlackBerry OS was the leader in enterprise adoption during the last year, the survey shows. 74 percent of businesses use BlackBerry smartphones, while Windows Mobile enjoys only a 63 percent usage. Even so, the legacy platforms might see increased competition from newcomers, including Apple's iPhone, which managed to out pace Symbian, and Android and Palm's webOS platform. Android is expected to see a growth of around 26 percent within the next 12 months, while the iPhone should rise by 14 percent, it seems.

“With smartphone capabilities no longer imprisoned by a paltry mobile Internet experience and a confined set of preloaded software applications chosen by the wireless carriers, the iPhone unleashed enormous creativity among developers, and a hunger by consumers and businesspeople alike to customize and personalize their mobile experience. […] In any case, enterprise IT now has to consider at least six mobile platforms for smartphones; not to mention recent announcements by Nokia of their Maemo platform, and Intel of their Moblin platform for Netbooks and other mobile devices,” the report also notes.