The iPad’s status in larger enterprise businesses is nothing sort of spectacular – it pretty much is the entire enterprise tablet market. As great as that is for Apple, the company has put a lot of effort into courting small and mid-size companies – Lion Server being one example.
According to a new study, that effort is paying off as more than half of small businesses have begun integrating the iPad or some form of tablet.
The report from market research firm iGR looked at technology use in the small to mid-size business (SMB) companies. The primary results were that 52% of SMB organizations have invested in tablets for business use. Although the study didn’t break out iPad use in particular, it’s logical to assume the iPad constitutes a large share of the SMB tablet market much as it does the over tablet space as well as the enterprise market.
iGR also found a handful of other interesting results.
- 47% of those surveyed said their tablet was for both business and personal use
- Executives and managers were more likely to report business tablet use while lower-ranking employees reported more personal use
- 24% of SMB companies provided employees with business-owned tablets
- 26% said that tablet use would lead to decreased laptop purchases in the future
- 31.9% said tablet purchases this year would be to handle tasks traditionally done on a laptop
- 31% said purchases this year would be due to added staff
- Only 55% reported IT involvement in choosing, purchasing, managing, and maintaining tablets compare to 89% for laptops and 90% for desktop PCs
The clear message from this survey is that smaller companies are moving to the iPad and other mobile devices as much as larger companies. Given that a large portion of small businesses surveyed reported tablets to be company-owned and that there was a high level of personal use illustrates that BYOD is clearly a common occurrence – either intentionally or simply out of necessity.
Source: Marketwatch
