ABI Research estimates that at the end of 2013 Samsung had 166 million mobile business customers defined as employed individuals using their smartphone for business and personal reasons. However, most of these customers are the more fickle BYOD users.
Samsung wants to capture more share of the corporate liable smartphone market, and wants more enterprise apps developed for its platform.
In a new report, ABI Research quantifies Samsung’s success with estimates of subscriber activations through 2019 on two of its enterprise platforms: SAFE and KNOX. The report also examines Tizen’s role as an enterprise platform, and the role that virtualization will play. The report concludes with an assessment of Samsung’s impact on other market participants including Apple, BlackBerry, Nokia/Microsoft, Android smartphone OEMs, and mobile operators.
“Samsung continues to make strides in the enterprise and remains confident in their strategy to support enterprise mobility efforts,” comments Jason McNicol, senior analyst. “If you look at other device OEMs with an enterprise mobility focus, they tend to have a single solution available. Samsung on the other hand has SAFE, Knox, virtualization, and possibly Tizen as enterprise solutions. No other OEM is taking such an aggressive stance towards enterprise mobility.”
Samsung’s move towards the enterprise began in 2009 and has slowly built up momentum since. Key initiatives along the way have led to twenty-three smartphones and tablets being released and deemed enterprise ready as a result of a diversified partner network that focuses specifically on enterprise needs.
McNicol continues, “This past year, however, showed Samsung is not invincible as evidenced by launch delays and security issues in KNOX, its flagship enterprise mobility platform. Samsung has the capabilities and resources to overcome these hurdles, but is the market willing to wait? Fortunately for Samsung, the enterprise mobility market has lots of room to grow.”
