Piper Jaffray: Survey shows Apple iOS devices dominate enterprise market

A recent survey by investment bank Piper Jaffray shows that Apple's iOS devices have dominated the enterprise market. Piper Jaffray analysts surveyed 112 chief information officers of companies, of which 98% said they prefer to use iOS in their corporate work, and 89% said they have equipped their employees with iOS devices.

On the contrary, only 79% of CIOs said they support Android, 58% support Windows, and 24% support BlackBerry. In addition, 57% of the respondents said they have equipped their employees with Android devices, while the proportions of providing Windows devices and BlackBerry devices are 30% and 25% respectively.

The survey shows the difference between the enterprise and consumer markets. Data from market research firms Strategy Analytics, comScore and other institutions show that Android leads the consumer market both in the United States and globally. However, as Good Technology pointed out in a report released in November, Apple has become the absolute leader in the enterprise market.

Apple has been vying for a bigger share of the enterprise market. In July 2014, Apple and IBM reached a cooperation agreement to jointly develop applications for the enterprise market, and IBM would sell iPhones and iPads for enterprise use in a bundled manner. In December, the two companies released the first batch of applications after the cooperation.

Overall, enterprise tablet adoption is likely to slow in 2015. Fifty percent of organizations surveyed by Piper Jaffray said they expect to equip employees with tablets this year, compared with 60 percent last year. However, Piper Jaffray's analyst said he believes tablets will continue to gain popularity in the enterprise, given the current low adoption rates.

"We view this as an opportunity for tablet makers, particularly Apple, which we believe has the largest share of enterprise tablets," said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. "We note that Apple's relationship with IBM could be an opportunity to accelerate tablet adoption, but it is too early to determine the impact of this partnership."