Despite a sharp increase in Google Android devices enrolled in Europe, Apple iOS still leads in enterprise mobility worldwide. iOS is also the preferred platform in many vertical industries, such as retail and restaurants. 
Citrix’s Enterprise Mobility Cloud Report also details trends in how enterprises are dealing with apps and security policies, with a rise in mobile app blacklisting, including Facebook and Dropbox.
The report for Q4 2012 is based on aggregate data from Citrix customers who have deployed enterprise mobility in the cloud.
iOS continued to lead in the enterprise as the mobile platform of choice with 58% of all global devices enrolled. Android lost two percentage points globally and Windows Mobile remained the same at 7% of devices.
Android was the fastest growing platform for enrolled devices in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa with an 11% gain from the prior quarter to 36% of the region. Apple saw its iOS penetration drop from 56% to 43% share of enrolled devices in the same region, and Windows Mobile gained 2% share to 21%.
iOS was the preferred platform for enrolled devices in vertical industries in which mobile users engage their customers one-on-one, such as in retail and restaurants. Android was the preferred platform for those with mobile field service organisations, such as in transportation and utilities.
The largest adopters of Android were healthcare (a preponderance of which are home healthcare organisations who have deployed cloud-based enterprise mobility), and transportation. The largest adopters of iOS include the legal and insurance industries.
Organisations have become more aggressive on app blacklisting, with 18% of customers deploying this policy, an increase of 11% from the prior quarter. Often associated with corporate-issued line-of-business use cases, a rise in blacklisting indicates an increase in such deployments.
Typically, organisations blacklist apps they feel pose a threat to data or network security, such as apps that synchronise and share files outside of the corporate network. Some also blacklist apps that are considered a drain on productivity, such as games and social media. This is especially true for devices used for workers doing task-based activities.
The most commonly blacklisted apps were Angry Birds, Facebook, Dropbox and YouTube, while the most commonly whitelisted apps were Evernote, NitroDesk TouchDown, Google Chrome and Adobe Reader. Skype was the only app that made both the blacklist and whitelist.