Some 284,000 Australian businesses – more than one in seven – now own or rent a tablet computer, according to a Roy Morgan business survey compile in March. Between them the companies use 478,000 tablets, Morgan estimates – though it does not say how this compares with last year.
Morgan apparently did not ask the businesses it surveyed what brand of tablet they used, but other surveys suggest most of the 478,000 would be Apple iPads, due mainly to Apple’s current domination of the business apps market.
However Morgan suggests there could be changes ahead. “While the current tablet computer market is being led by the Apple iPad (iOS), Google with their open-source software platform, Android, and Microsoft with its recently launched Mobile Windows operating system (and new tablet Surface) could emerge as big winners in the business market,” the pollster says.
The survey claims one in seven Australian businesses own, rent or lease a tablet computer and that the larger the business (in terms of number of employees), the more likely they are to have at least one tablet. It estimates 46 percent of all businesses with 200 employees or more have tablets, compared to only 12 percent of businesses with less than five employees.
In a separate report, Morgan also estimates only 45 percent of Australian businesses have a mobile broadband Internet service – a surprisingly low level given the increasing use of smartphones, tablets and laptops under BYOD practices. According to Morgan, finance and insurance businesses are the most likely to have a mobile broadband Internet service (56pc), followed by education and training (53pc), wholesale trade (52 pc) and – extraordinarily – information media and telecommunications with just 51 percent.
We have no idea how Morgan bases its estimates, but we have to say we have never seen – and can’t imagine – an ICT business where mobile broadband is not in daily use.
