While Android continues to rule the roost in the consumer space with around 80% of the global smartphone market, Apple’s iOS has, over the years, pretty much replaced BlackBerry as the platform of choice for enterprises worldwide. With security continuing to be the number one priority for the enterprise, the open nature of Android – ironically, the very thing that has made it wildly successful in the larger scheme of things – continues to remain the platform’s Achilles heel when it comes to the enterprise sector, in spite of efforts by Google to address the issue in earnest with initiatives like Android for Work. Individual manufacturers, like Samsung Electronics, too, have been doing their bit to convince businesses that Android in general and its own devices in particular, are safe, secured and ready for mass deployment in the corporate sector.
Those efforts may well have started paying off, if a survey conducted by Tech Pro Research is anything to go by. According to a report released by the organization, the adoption of Samsung devices in the enterprise has increased substantially over the past few years, to the point that their use is now almost as widespread as that of Apple’s devices. Much of that can be attributed to Samsung’s Knox security solution for mobile devices, with the latest version, Knox 2.6, recently designated by Gartner as the ‘Strongest Mobile Security Platform’. However, most IT departments around the world continue to believe that Apple’s iOS is safer and less prone to security breaches than Android devices, including those from Samsung with Knox 2.6. Even then, as many as 62% of those surveyed admitted to using Samsung devices in their companies, while 67% of respondents said they were using Apple.
Meanwhile, even as Samsung is seeing more widespread acceptance for its devices among businesses worldwide, the company continues to lag Apple in terms of perceptions about security and usability. As can be seen in the gallery images below, just 30% of respondents in the aforementioned survey described the South Korean company’s offerings as being ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good’, while a whopping 51% of all respondents described Apple’s devices in similar terms. What’s remarkable is that most respondents also reportedly claimed that established platforms like, desktops and laptops are much more secure than new-age mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Meanwhile, even as wearables are beginning to take their first tentative steps in the enterprise sector, the devices elicit a whole lot of suspicion, with most IT departments seemingly agreeing that they represent an emerging risk to the security of enterprises worldwide.
