Nearly a quarter of small UK businesses plan to use big screen devices at work, like the iPhone 6 Plus or Samsung Galaxy Note 4
The recent availability of new big screen devices including yesterday's announcement of the iPhone 6, as well as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Nokia Lumia 1520, has triggered a surge in demand from small businesses.
More than a fifth (21%) of small business employees are planning to acquire a device with a 5.5 inch screen or bigger for work purposes, according to research by EE, a British mobile operator.
The online survey of over 1,000 UK SMEs found top uses for larger screen devices include managing work email plus viewing and editing PDFs, documents and spreadsheets. In fact, as many as one in ten (10%) small business employees said they could conduct all of their day to day work tasks on a big screen device alone, suggesting a reduced dependence on laptops and fixed computers.
Mike Tomlinson, director of small business at EE, said: 'Until now, big screen devices have been seen as a fairly niche product category. However, with Apple launching the iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung unveiling its new Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Edge, they are on the verge of becoming an indispensable business tool. In response to increased demand from our small business customers, we continue to build on our range of larger smartphones and are expecting to see a huge uptick in the adoption into 2015.'
As well as increasing the number of big screen devices on offer, EE has launched Business Apps, a curated range of apps for small businesses to help boost productivity.
'With the larger screen size of these devices, we also predict a rise in business-specific apps in small firms,' continued Tomlinson. 'The ability to not only view, but create and edit documents but also conduct specific business tasks like finances, expenses, payroll and CRM while on the move is easier with a bigger screen, so it is inevitable the two will go hand-in-hand for businesses looking to drive workplace efficiencies. With business apps and 4G on the UK's biggest and fastest network, small businesses will be able to get more out of their day, regardless of where they are, enabling them to concentrate on the things that really matter.'
