Check Point Software, a leading firm in the mobile security industry, claims that Apple’s iOS is the most preferred platform among executive and business users. The survey was done over 700 professionals, mainly from the IT industry and the results showed that 30% preferred Apple while the next highest was BlackBerry at 29%.
Since it made its entry, BlackBerry has been regarded as the corporate standard of mobile communication for its safety features, but recently Apple has taken over as professionals seem to prefer using the same device for both work and personal affairs. Moreover, it looks like Apple is preferred as it aims each product at a specific customer rather than take on an entire demographic. Apple’s iOS and BlackBerry were followed by Android which captured 21% of the market and Windows Phone behind it at 18%, while Symbian OS brought up the rear with a meagre 3%.
With the increase in the frequency of mobile phone usage for work affairs, the number of people connecting their devices to their corporate networks has gone up too. In the survey, a whopping 89% of the professionals said that they would do the same. Moreover, around 65% of the people claimed that they use both company supplied devices and their own personal ones. In fact, the number of personal devices has increased about 75% over the last two years according to the survey.
The increase in the number of personal devices has brought some risks with it. Though corporate devices are usually protected by a strong encryption system (such as that offered by Blackberry’s enterprise service), personal devices are usually unprotected and are the prime target of hackers looking to exploit easily available personal information. The growing trend of using corporate devices for personal use has also led to greater incidents of data theft since only company communications are usually covered by security measures like encryption.
Among the platforms surveyed, it was revealed that Android had the greatest security risks, followed by Apple. The BlackBerry OS won favor in terms of security as it hides all data behind a virtual iron curtain. Despite the recent blemishes that BlackBerry has encountered and a loss in market share, corporates continue to use it for its safety for lack of a better option.
