iPad Owning Small Businesses’ Exhibit Higher Adoption Of Social Media and Cloud Technologies

A recently finished survey of 2900 small businesses across four countries- US, UK, Brazil and Germany shows that 1 in 5 small businesses own an iPad and 2/3^rd of these iPad owning small businesses will likely continue investing in iPads.

iPad owning small businesses are also more prolific users of social media platforms for both personal and business use. Survey shows that 1/3^rd of iPad owning businesses actively use one or more forms of social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter whereas only 1/5^th of non-iPad users use social media.  Besides higher social media usage, these iPad owning businesses also seem to be early adopters of Cloud Computing. Nearly three times as many iPad businesses vs. non-iPad businesses are actively investing in Cloud Computing technologies.

On the question of iPads vs notebooks, not surprisingly, 15% of iPad owners prefer iPads over notebooks. On the flip side, non-iPad owners seem to be die-hard notebook users. Given a choice, 52% of non-iPad owners prefer to use notebooks only. 21% of small businesses consider all three: Notebooks, Netbooks and iPads to be important.  Those that use iPads have very low preference for Netbooks. The research shows that currently there is a clear polarization between iPad and Notebook users.

Besides being a “cool device,” the number one stated reason to purchase an iPad was sales and marketing. When specifically asked the most regular uses of iPad, the survey showed that iPads are being used for internet searches/news, emails, vertical applications and social media interaction.

96% of all small businesses that have an iPad also have a smart phone. In addition to smart phones, it is inevitable that iPads will become the center of SMB Future Workplace.

Tavishi Agrawal
Market Analyst
Techaisle