Apple proves sweeter fruit as most business leaders switch f
Source: Michael Zennie

Smashed Blackberry

Smashed: Blackberry usage fell to less than 1-in-3 this year and is likely to continue falling since few said they planned to buy one next year


For the first time, more businessmen and women use use Apple's iPhone than all of Blackberry's mobile devices combined.

In a new survey, 45 percent of business users say they have an iPhone, compared with 32 percent who are Blackberry users and 21 percent who have one of the myriad Android-based smartphones.

Apple has worked to make the iPhone 4 a tastier choice for businesses - offering compatibility with Microsoft e-mail servers and Office documents, as well as adding a host of business-friendly apps to help employees get more done on the road.




Sweeter fruit: Apple's iPhone now has more users among businessmen and women than any other smartphone maker... including Blackberry

Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry, meanwhile, was tied up last month in the thorny brambles of an outage that cut Internet access to millions of customers.

Usage of Blackberry phones fell by more than 2 percent this year.

Perhaps the worst news for Ontario, Canada-based Research in Motion is that just 2.3 percent of the people surveyed said they planned to buy a Blackberry next year.


However, the survey was taken, in part, during the Blackberry service outage, which could have skewed the results.

Phones with Google's Android operating system nearly doubled their numbers among workers in this year's survey -- up from 11 percent last year. Another 11 percent of employees said they plan to buy an Android phone for work next year.

The survey of 2,300 workers was completed by iPass, a company that specializes in helping businesses outfit their workers with mobile smartphones for work.

The report points out that Blackberry hasn't fallen in business use nearly as much as other devices have grown.

One possible reason is that more and more information technology departments are allowing workers to use mobile phones that aren't purchased by the company.

This means, more workers are using their own smartphones as opposed to company-issued Blackberry phones, the survey found.

Apple iPhone use grew more than 10 percent from last year and the survey suggests Apple is likely to to continue growing its market share. More than 18 percent of workers said they plan to buy an iPhone next year.

One potential worm in the apple, is the new BBX operating system that Research in Motion plans to release in early 2012.