Apple, long viewed as primarily consumer-oriented, now supplies more smartphones to corporations, taking the No. 2 spot from Palm’s Treo and breathing down the neck of RIM, according to a survey released Thursday.
Apple’s iPhone now has 14 percent of the corporate market. Palm’s Treo fell to 11 percent and third place while RIM’s BlackBerry held 76 percent of the market, according to a ChangeWave Research survey of IT spending plans.
Apple’s gains came mostly at the expense of Palm, which lost 4 percent of its marketshare to the iPhone. Meanwhile, RIM saw its lead trimmed by one point.
Although one analyst described the iPhone as often just corporate bling, the shifting numbers indicate an attempt to keep ahead of the curve in terms of the iPhone in a business.
“IT managers don’t want to be caught flat-footed,” Kevin Burden, ABI Research’s chief wireless analyst, told Cult of Mac.
The iPhone is making inroads on the Treo because of Palm’s uncertainty.
“There is a fear about how long Palm is going to last,” Burden said.
Unlike Palm, RIM has an infrastructure and product family that cannot easily be converted to another platform – a major reason why plans to buy Blackberrys fell by just one point.
In terms of expected sales, 22 percent of corporations said they plan to purchase an iPhone, up from 17 percent in August. Future orders of Treos will drop to 5 percent from 6 percent in August. Market leader RIM fell to 78 percent of expected sales, down from the 79 percent planned in August, according to ChangeWave.
Apple’s iPhone shows particular strength among small-to-medium businesses.
The news comes amid rough times for IT budgets. The ChangeWave survey found nearly half — 45 percent — of the 1,926 IT managers question plan to cut spending. However, 35 percent of IT planner expect to purchase smartphone with the next three months.
Earlier this month, the iPhone was named a top pick among businesses in a customer satisfaction survey conducted by J.D. Power and Associates.
