Apple’s iPhone 4S has helped it regain ground lost to Android in consumer smartphone market share, but it’s also having a very positive effect on enterprise adoption, according to a new report. The iPad also remains virtually the only choice when it comes to tablets in business.

Enterprise mobile security provider Good Technology on Wednesday released its quarterly data data report for the fourth quarter of 2011. The report detailed the progress of iOS and Android devices in enterprise activations among its customers, which include half of the companies on the Fortune 100, among others. Apple’s iPhone 4S was the big winner of the quarter, nabbing the top spot as the most-activated device, followed by the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively.

Credit: Good Technology

The 4S represented 31 percent of all device activations counted during the quarter, nearly matching the total for all Android handsets, which accounted for 35 percent of all smartphone activations. Apple’s iPad 2 and iPad together accounted for 94 percent of all tablet activations.

Much like we’ve seen with new consumer device purchases, the release of Apple’s iPhone 4S in October began the reversal of a trend in which new Android activations were approaching Apple’s numbers, as you can see in the chart below. From October to December, Good saw a steady monthly increase in the percentage of iOS activations, matched by a decrease in Android device activations. Good says bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies likely had a strong impact on Apple’s enterprise success with the iPhone 4S.

Credit: Good Technology

A new phone from Apple was bound to incite a buying spree, but the numbers have remained strong in the months following launch. It’ll be interesting to see if the trend of growth continues, both in the consumer and enterprise markets, now that the 4S has been on the market for some time.

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After months upon months of investor backlash, RIM’s making some significant changes. And by “significant,” we mean the co-chief executives (and founders) are out. As of tomorrow, both Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will be stepping away from the top posts, enabling “a little-known company insider” to take over, according to The Wall Street Journal. Purportedly, this is all part of “a board and management shuffle,” with COO Thorsten Heins (seen above) to step into what many expect to be an impossible role to thrive in. The Globe and Mail asserts that he’ll be immediately seeking a Chief Marketing Officer to polish up the company’s severely damaged brand, and he “will not rule out licensing RIM’s new BlackBerry 10 operating system to other handset manufacturers.” In an interview with the outlet, he stated that he’ll be executing “flawlessly” and with vigor — not unexpected, but still, bold words.

Startlingly, Heins also asserted that he’s “confident” in the existing lineup of BlackBerry handsets and the software update recently made available for the PlayBook; call us crazy, but he’d be wise to just spout out reality and make clear that RIM’s existing lineup is nowhere near competitive in the grand scheme of things. As for Mike and Jim? The former will become “vice-chair of the board with special duties to examine innovation,” with the latter becoming a traditional director. In an interesting move, outgoing co-CEO Lazaridis stated the following: “I think it’s that unwillingness to sacrifice our long-term value for short-term gain. That’s why we didn’t choose Android. That’s why we decided to build the future on QNX.” So wait, RIM had the chance to choose Android… and didn’t? No time like the present to reach back and shake things up, Mr. Thorsten.

Continue reading RIM’s Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are out, new CEO Thorsten Heins may license BlackBerry 10

RIM’s Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are out, new CEO Thorsten Heins may license BlackBerry 10 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I saw several quad-core tablets at the Consumer Electronics show, but no smartphones. Luckily, Sascha Pallenberg, my friend who runs the Netbook News site, captured video of a Fujitsu handset running on the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. From the looks of it, this phone’s performance will rival that of the Asus Transformer Prime tablet.

Fujitsu doesn’t target the U.S. market, so I don’t expect to see this Android 4.0 smartphone for sale here. However, Sascha’s video gives us an idea of what to expect from the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona next month: console quality games on a large screen piped from a smartphone and played with using a wireless controller. Although this demo uses a wired HDTV connection, I anticipate we’ll see more wireless video solutions introduced  this year.

I’m still holding to the idea that throwing hardware alone at Android’s problem won’t solve any issues. However, I’ve used Android 4.0 for the past 6 weeks. The user interface improvements in Google’s platform, along with more powerful hardware, will allow Android to better contend against Apple’s iOS system.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a number of quad-core handsets shown off, with a few available in the first half of 2012. By mid year, we’ll start to see a larger number of these powerful handsets hit the market. Samsung, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and others will also be touting quad-core chips. But if my mobile predictions for 2012 hold true, far more dual-core handsets will be sold this year.

Then again, Apple is rumored to include its own quad-core chip in the next iPad and would be likely to use the same in a future iPhone design. That means 2012 will be more exciting to watch than 2011 when it comes to tablets and smartphones from a consumer perspective: Two great mobile choices in combination with what I think will be a third up-and-comer in Windows Phone handsetsand possibly in Windows 8 tablets.

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Yes, Sony Ericsson has already gone about communicating its intention to deliver Android 4.0 to its Xperia smartphone collection, but the company is now sharing further details about the pending arrival. So, we thought you’d like to be in on the know. For starters, the first devices to receive the upgrade will be the Arc S, Neo V and Ray, each of which are on-track for a late March / early April rollout. Then, beginning in late April / early May, Sony intends to deliver Ice Cream Sandwich to the Active, Arc, Mini, Mini Pro, Neo, Play and Xperia Pro handsets. Even the Live with Walkman is set to receive a new lease on life during the time frame. In each case, the latest version of Android will be rolled out in phases, over the course of a few weeks. Now, let’s just hope that Sony Ericsson is able to keep to its schedule.

Sony details Xperia’s Ice Cream Sandwich progress, remains on track for late March kick-off originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s love affair with iOS isn’t over yet. Hot on the heels of an iPad-supporting OneNote update and the App Store debut of Kinectimals, comes an official SkyDrive app for the iPhone. Of course, the Redmond crew isn’t leaving its own handsets out in the cold. Windows Phone 7 is also getting an app to compliment its already rather deep integration with cloud storage service. Both apps sport, more or less, the same feature set: the ability to browse all of your files, share them with others, delete them and create new folders. When sharing links you can even choose whether or not a person can edit a document or simply view it. At least for now it appears that Android users who also happen to be SkyDrive fans will have to make do with the mobile web site. To see both the iPhone and WP7 versions of the app in action head on after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft launches SkyDrive app for Windows Phone and iPhone, forms No Androids Club

Microsoft launches SkyDrive app for Windows Phone and iPhone, forms No Androids Club originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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