Survey: iPhone more popular than BlackBerry in workplace

The Apple iPhone has unseated Research in Motion's BlackBerry device to become the most used smartphone in the enterprise environment as more employees bring their smartphones into the workplace, according to a new survey.

Released Wednesday, the quarterly Mobile Workforce Report by iPass revealed that iPhones dethroned BlackBerry handsets as the top enterprise smartphone, with 45 percent of respondents using the Apple device. The proportion of BlackBerry devices in the workplace dropped to 32 percent from 35 percent last year, the report noted.

The findings were based on on a survey, of 2,300 mobile enterprise employees from 1,100 companies worldwide, that was conducted between Sep. 27 and Oct. 26 this year.

Some 21 percent of respondents owned a Google Android device, nearly double that of last year. The open source mobile operating system overtook Nokia Symbian to became the third most popular smartphone platform, according to the survey.

The total number of mobile employees with smartphones increased to 95 percent this year from 85 percent in 2010. At 91 percent, more workers used their smartphones for work today, a 26 percent increase compared to last year, said iPass. The enterprise mobility services company attributed the growth partly to BYOD (bring-your-own-device) schemes.

The survey found that 42 percent of mobile workers used individually-liable smartphones instead of company-issued handsets, an increase from last year's 34 percent.

"Today's mobile employees are critical to the success of every enterprise, contributing 240 more work-hours a year than their non-mobile counterparts," Evan Kaplan, president and CEO of iPass, said in the report. "Connectivity is essential because work is no longer where you go, but what you do."