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Interop: Windows Phone emerges as BlackBerry alternative for enterprise market

by Roberta Prescott
written by Roberta Prescott Share
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NEW YORK – As companies end their IT support for BlackBerry devices, Windows Phone 8 has a chance to conquer the mobile enterprise market. During an Interop event session in New York, Philip Clarke, research analyst at Nemertes Research, said that 29.4% of companies have already ended BlackBerry (BB) support, another 11.8% have plans to do so in 2013 and 29.4% are evaluating to end-of-life (EOL), making a total of 70.6% of enterprises that will end BB support at some point.

While companies are showing some concern about continuing BlackBerry adoption, Windows Phone 8 (WP8) adoption grew from 0% in 2012 to 25% in 2013. It’s still a small percentage of overall devices, but the operating system integration with existing Microsoft infrastructure is the top driver for WP8 adoption, followed by unified desktop and mobile architecture.

Shortly after Microsoft and Nokia first announced a partnership, an RCR Wireless News article examined the potential for the two companies to threaten BlackBerry maker RIM’s leadership in the enterprise market. At the time, observers said that Microsoft/Nokia taking RIM’s position in the corporate market was unlikely in the short term, especially in markets such as Latin America where BlackBerry maintained a strong presence.

At Interop, Clarke showed a report revealing that in addition to the 25% of surveyed enterprises that are using WP8, 16.7% have plans to adopt it, 20.8% are evaluating it and 37.5% have no plans. The survey interviewed 250 IT executives from global enterprises in all regions.

This trend can also be seen in Gartner’s second quarter report on worldwide mobile phone sales. According to recent data, in the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Microsoft took over BlackBerry for the first time, taking the No. 3 spot with a 3.3% market share in 2Q13. “While Microsoft has managed to increase share and volume in the quarter, Microsoft should continue to focus on growing interest from app developers to help grow its appeal among users,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. Android continued to increase its lead, garnering 79% of the market in the second quarter.

HP provided travel costs to NYC.

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Editor, [email protected] Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.

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