New research released on Tuesday by Appcelerator and IDC shows that Apple’s iOS has opened a significant lead over Google’s Android operating system in the enterprise market.

According to the research, which surveyed 3,632 developers on their development plans, Apple now has a 16 percent lead over Android when considering who will win in the enterprise space. A majority of developers, or 53.2 percent, said iOS will win, while 37.5 percent said Android would win.

“This is a very significant change over only three quarters: in Q3 2011, developers viewed iOS and Android in a dead heat at 44% each,” researchers wrote in the report. “Appcelerator and IDC attribute this change to the growing strength of Apple in the enterprise, especially considering several factors: the popularity of the iPad; frequent reports of Android malware; enterprise challenges in dealing with Android fragmentation; and resultant anecdotal reports of enterprises re-evaluating widespread Android deployment outside of particular business vertical implementations like M2M.”

Apple still has a significant lead over Android even If you split the developers between business and consumer focused development. According to the report, 53.3 percent of business app developers prefer iOS, while 35.5 percent prefer Android. On the consumer side, 53.6 percent of developers prefer iOS and 37.9 percent prefer Android.