40 Percent of Fortune 500 Companies Claim Their Biggest Mobile Challenge Is Developing Across Multiple Operating Systems and Devices | Kony

40 Percent of Fortune 500 Companies Claim Their Biggest Mobile Challenge Is Developing Across Multiple Operating Systems and Devices

ORLANDO – Today’s fragmented mobile landscape is directly affecting many organizations’ mobile plans, with 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies stating that developing applications across multiple operating systems and devices is the biggest challenge to their mobile strategy. Other top challenges ranked by corporations include keeping up with changes in the mobile market (27 percent) and supporting connectivity and technology challenges/updates (20 percent).

These findings come from the second annual Mobile Marketing and Commerce Study commissioned by Kony, the leading mobile platform provider. The study surveyed Fortune 500 corporations to uncover valuable information relating to their mobile computing challenges and strategic initiatives.

Highlighting the confusion over the muddled mobile space, the iPhone retained its position as the highest-prioritized operating system for companies to support for the second year in a row. This is despite Nielsen’s recent report stating Android holds the largest market share among mobile operating systems. Android comes in as the second-highest priority for the second year in a row, with BlackBerry falling to third place on the list (it had previously tied with Android in Kony’s 2010 survey).

“As companies increasingly look to mobile to help them achieve strategic business goals, they are faced with very real challenges due to the fragmentation of the mobile industry,” said Raj Koneru, founder and CEO of Kony. “With the rate at which the mobile landscape is evolving, it’s vital for these companies to choose a partner with capabilities across a multitude of devices and channels, including tablets, to ensure their offering reaches their full customer base.”

In a report from March 2011, Gartner predicted that nearly 70 million tablets would be sold worldwide in 2011. When considering how rapidly the tablet market is growing, along with the vast potential that the iPad and other tablets offer businesses, it’s surprising that the survey reveals only 25 percent of respondents have plans to deploy a tablet offering in the near future. On top of that, only 2 percent of respondents believe developing an offering for the iPad is a priority.

The lack of urgency these companies are taking toward developing tablet offerings is not due to lack of resources. In fact, the survey revealed that many companies are now finding it easier to procure necessary funding to develop and deploy their mobile offerings. 89 percent of respondents expressed they can obtain funding with reasonable or little effort; up from 73 percent in Kony’s 2010 survey. Along with this, only 11 percent of companies find it difficult to fund their mobile initiatives, a figure that is down from 27 percent a year ago.

“The internal debate at many organizations is no longer about whether or not they need a mobile offering, but about the most effective way to develop and deploy one across all devices and operating systems,” Koneru added. “We address this problem head on, having built our platform from the ground up to develop, deploy and maintain offerings across numerous devices, operating systems and channels.”