Feds love document-editing apps on iOS devices

The obvious upside of mobility is the ability to work on anything on any device, any time. For federal employees, that “anything” is often document-based. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise which apps are seeing the highest adoption rates in the public sector.

Document-based workflow apps saw nearly a 50 percent adoption rate in the public space during the second quarter, according to Good Technology’s latest mobility index report.

According the report, 47 percent of app activations in the public sector were document-editing apps, while 23 percent were document-access apps.

“The document-based workflow growth in public sector was unique,” said Chris Roberts, Good Technology’s vice president of public sector. “While a few industries have roughly 50 percent of their apps focused on document workflows, public sector was substantially higher than any other industry with 70 percent.”

Apple remains the No. 1 platform on which those apps are used. The report found 79 percent of all public sector mobile activations used iOS. While the operating system continues to hold the highest market share (64 percent), Android (32 percent, up from 26 percent) and Windows (3 percent) grew over the quarter.

Android and Windows’ market share in tablets is growing as well, with 25 percent (up from 15 percent) and 11 percent (up from 4 percent) respectively. Apple iOS still holds the lead on tablets (64 percent), but its share is down 17 percent.

Roberts attributes Apple’s hold on the public sector to the company’s “trust and accreditation.”

“There is a far higher correlation between app growth and iOS growth in the public sector as secure mobility becomes more pervasive on government-furnished equipment,” Roberts told FedScoop.

Read the full report below.