Shipments of business smartphones were down three percent from the previous quarter in the second quarter of 2015, while business tablet shipments saw a small quarter over quarter boost, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics.
In the second quarter, business smartphone shipments topped out at 89.3 million units, while business tablet shipments crept up two percent over the previous quarter to 196 million units, the report said.
“Many enterprises in Q2 were hesitant on investing in large, new deployments of tablets and phones, as new device announcements from corporate-favorite vendors such as Apple and Microsoft were on the horizon,” said Strategy Analytics director of Mobile Workforce Strategies research Phil Hochmuth. “Going forward, we predict enterprises will continue to roll out tablets as laptop replacements for certain groups of employees, as well as for more single-purpose functions, such as kiosks and point-of-sale devices, which will be corporate-owned.”
Android devices accounted for more than half of devices shipped in each market, including 65 percent of business smartphones and 52 percent of business tablets. Apple iOS devices accounted for the second highest number of shipments – with 28 percent of business smartphone shipments and 38 percent of tablet shipments – while Microsoft devices accounted for six and 10 percent of business smartphone and tablet shipments, respectively. Particular shipment growth was seen for Microsoft’s Surface tablet, which saw its figures jump 42 percent over the previous quarter.
Approximately half of business smartphone shipments went to the Asia Pacific region, while just under a quarter went to North America. The third largest business smartphone market was Western Europe, with 11 percent of shipments.