End-users increasingly choose iOS, Android over BlackBerry

The tight grip that Research In Motion has held over the enterprise mobility market is clearly loosening, as more end-users are abandoning its BlackBerry line of smartphones for those run on Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

Consumerization of mobility programs around the world has accelerated during the past several years, and the trend took a dramatic step forward in 2011. More so than ever, employees are requesting mobile device management support for technology that was originally meant for the consumer market.

That was reflected in the latest report from Colorado-based research firm Enterprise Management. It found that mobility consumerization is creeping into the IT departments of all companies, both large and small.

At small- and medium-sized businesses, researchers found that 60 percent of mobile users plan to trade in their BlackBerry for an iPhone during the next 12 months. The trend is less dramatic at larger enterprises, but apparent nonetheless as 30 percent of users plan to get their hands on an iPhone.

“Today's dynamic workforce is more mobile than ever before,” the report stated. “The explosive adoption of smart phones and tablets - most notably Android, BlackBerry, and Apple iOS platforms - has broadened the effectiveness of professional workers to remotely support business requirements, improving productivity, streamlining communications, and increasing opportunities for revenue generation.”

Still, a large segment of the mobile population utilizes a BlackBerry at the moment. This is true for more than half of users at large companies - those with 10,000 or more employees. Of those, 36 percent of respondents said they will still be using a RIM product in 12 months.

BlackBerry is apparently less popular among small business users, as 16 percent of them told researchers they have one right now. Only 7 percent will still be using them next year.

"If you look at the amount of adoption of Android and iPhones - devices that didn't exist a few years ago - that shows that this trend [of declining use of BlackBerry phones for business] has been going on but is accelerating now," Steve Brasen, the report author and EMA managing research director, said, according to Entrepreneur.

Analysis of the overall smartphone market has also shown a declining share for BlackBerry. According to comScore’s latest research, RIM’s BlackBerry OS was third in the market with 19.7 percent share during the three-month period ending in August. That was down 5 percentage points from the previous three months.