More independent business owners use tablets than either laptops or desktops according to a recent UK poll that measured the computing tastes of over 1,100 respondents. Furthermore, 55% of business owners expect to use a "tablet or other device" in the future.
The poll, conducted by UK group The Small Business Authority (TSBA), found that 28% of business owners currently use tablets to run business applications, while that number dropped to 19% for laptops and 17% for desktops. When asked what they planned to purchase next, 45% selected "a new tablet," compared with 41% for "a new laptop" and just 14% for "a new desktop."
"We are surprised but closely focused on the growth of the tablet as a tool for independent business owners," said TSBA president and CEO Barry Sloane in a statement. "Our client base in excess of 100,000 business accounts when surveyed indicated that over 50% are using the tablet as one of their several devices for business applications."
The findings are somewhat surprising because Forrester Research recently estimated that a quarter of all computing devices used for work globally are tablets or smart phones, laptops still comprise 26% and desktops 37% of the total pie. Furthermore, of the 25% smart phone/tablet slice, only seven per cent was tablet-based, slightly more than Forrester’s "ultraportable" category, but tied with netbooks.
The import from the TSBA poll is that workforce tablet use may be poised to surge as business owners explore new applications that take advantage of tablet computing’s unique profile while adopting tablets as official devices. The Forrester study notes that a majority of tablet users currently pay for the tablets they use for work themselves, so business-sanctioned adoption of these devices will be key.
The challenge for business owners lies in determining precisely what tablets excel at within the parameters of their operations, beyond, say, their novelty appeal.
IDG News Service
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