Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile

iPhone overtakes BlackBerry to become top phone for business users

Trevor Mogg
By

There was a day not so long ago when the BlackBerry was the phone of choice among members of the business community. But according to the results of a new survey, this is no longer the case.

Questioning 2,300 mobile workers at more than 1,100 enterprises worldwide, the iPass survey found that Apple’s iPhone is now the leader among such users, with 45 percent of respondents saying they use one, compared to 32.2 percent who use a BlackBerry. A year ago, BlackBerry was marginally ahead of the iPhone, with 34.5 percent of the share to the iPhone’s 31.1 percent.

Recommended Videos

Notably, Android almost doubled its share over the past year, with 21.3 percent of those polled saying they use a phone running Google’s mobile operating system.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

When asked about buying intentions over the next 12 months, the iPhone came out on top with 18 percent saying they intended to purchase Apple’s device. Android was the next most popular choice, with 11.2 percent planning to get a phone running the increasingly popular operating system.

Related

The outlook appeared to be rather grim for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM), with only 2.3 percent thinking of buying one of its devices in the coming year. This can be explained in some part by the fact that the damaging service outage suffered by BlackBerry users in October happened during the month-long period when the survey was being conducted. How about that for bad timing.

If RIM can turn a few heads with its new BBX operating system when it begins to appear in its mobile devices early next year, it would certainly have a more than decent chance of building on that measly 2.3 percent. Earlier this week an image was posted on the web of a new-look BlackBerry device that some are claiming will be RIM’s first phone running BBX, possibly set for a June 2012 launch. There’s been no official word from RIM on that though.

Apple will be pleased that its single phone looks to have been adopted by the business community, and is now more popular than all of the BlackBerry devices combined. Android phones, while still some way behind Apple in this poll, made a big gain in the past year and will be the one to watch.

[Image: Reno Martin / Shutterstock]

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
iPhone SE 4: news, rumored price, release date, and more
The Apple iPhone SE (2022) and Apple iPhone SE (2020) together.

While the spotlight always seems to be on Apple’s mainline iPhones, the iPhone SE is a great pick for those who are on a budget. If you want an iPhone that doesn't break the bank, the SE is the way to go.

The original iPhone SE came out in 2016, and then Apple revamped it in 2020 and 2022 by giving it some more modern hardware. The iPhone SE tends to get updated every two or so years rather than annually like the traditional iPhone. This means  that we should see a new iPhone SE 4 this year, but it’s not so cut-and-dried with this particular model.

Read more
3 reasons why I’ll actually use Anker’s new iPhone power bank
A person holding the Anker MagGo Power Bank.

Power banks are a necessary evil, and even if you don’t consider yourself a “power user” who's likely to drain a phone’s battery in less than a day, there will be times when one comes in handy. And when I am forced to carry one, I want it to be as helpful and versatile as possible.

I’ve been trying Anker’s MagGo Power Bank 10K -- meaning it has a 10,000mAh cell inside it -- and there are three reasons why I'm OK with it taking up valuable space in my bag.
It has a screen on it

Read more
Here’s how Apple could change your iPhone forever
An iPhone 15 Pro Max laying on its back, showing its home screen.

Over the past few months, Apple has released a steady stream of research papers detailing its work with generative AI. So far, Apple has been tight-lipped about what exactly is cooking in its research labs, while rumors circulate that Apple is in talks with Google to license its Gemini AI for iPhones.

But there have been a couple of teasers of what we can expect. In February, an Apple research paper detailed an open-source model called MLLM-Guided Image Editing (MGIE) that is capable of media editing using natural language instructions from users. Now, another research paper on Ferret UI has sent the AI community into a frenzy.

Read more