Enterprise Apps Take Hold At High Speed

In yet another sign that B2B companies may not be so slow to adopt innovative technologies as once thought, a new study has found that businesses are adopting mobile apps at an impressively fast rate.

Good Technology released its eleventh quarterly Mobility Index Report on Monday (May 11), revealing several trends in the B2B community across an array of industries that all point to an embrace of mobile technology.

Corporations led a 160 percent increase in app activations in the last year alone, with insurance companies spearheading the movement. According to Good Technology, the figures represent businesses’ desires to adopt secure, customized apps to streamline their operations and make their workforce more efficient.

“As organizations continue their secure mobility journeys, our customers are realizing that they can transform their businesses with custom apps,” Good Technology CEO Christy Wyatt said in a statement. The company added that on the Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform, more than 1,600 apps, backed by Good Technology security, have now been built.

The insurance industry itself has contributed to more than one-third of all custom built insurance apps, researchers found. The financial services market, however, is similarly open to the use of mobile apps, revealing a high need for apps that facilitate the decision-making process. For example, secure instant messaging features are found on 27 percent of all custom apps created for this segment. On the other hand, business and professional services showed a preference for apps with custom document editing and accessing.

Nearly half of all apps built for the manufacturing sector were secure browsers, a finding Good Technology said represents the industry’s need for secure access to Web apps.

According to the researchers, Apple’s iOS remains in the lead for helping businesses to adopt mobile apps, especially as the Bring Your Own Device movement continues. The study found that 72 percent of all device activations in the most recent quarter were for the iPhone 6, helping iOS retain the lead over Android and the Windows Phone. Similarly, iOS remained in first place among tablet activations.

Unsurprisingly, iOS was also the top platform over rivals in several industries, including education, the public sector and financial services, researchers found.