Once geared towards enterprise usage, smartphones today have
approximately 31% of U.S. small businesses (SBs, or companies with up to
99 employees) utilizing vendors such as RIM, Palm, Motorola for e-mail
accessibility or mobile calendar and contact information on top of their
every day cell phone features. According to the latest study by Access
Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc., a whopping 20% of SBs who
currently use a smartphone have plans to purchase a new one in the next
twelve months. Of the SBs who do not presently have a smartphone, 11%
have plans to purchase one--equating to
approximately 400K U.S. SBs.
With a compounded annual growth rate of 6%, AMI-Partners forecasts that
U.S. SBs will spend a total of $375 million on these devices alone
(without services expense) in 5 years. This is a rate 6X greater than
the estimated spending of medium businesses (MBs, or companies with 100
to 999 employees). That said, brands such as Blackberry and Palm--who
currently hold the number 1 and 2 spots for smartphone devices currently
used by SBs--have to continuously entice these
businesses by providing basic solutions such as email accessibility as
well as accessibility to the business's
calendar and contact information.
As data reveals, 84% of Blackberry owners and 68% of Palm owners use
their smartphone to access email, while 65% of Blackberry owners and 75%
of Palm owners access their calendar and contact information as they are 'on
the go.' Not surprisingly, though, as SBs
demand access to additional high-value business applications,
AMI-Partners has found that these above-mentioned features are becoming
basic functions attached to a smartphone, and business applications such
as location-based (field service/delivery) and CRM applications are
becoming the trend. Thus, pricing plans from telecom service providers
are crucial when it comes to driving adoption as well.
Given the above, partnerships between mobile manufacturers and telecom
service providers have been a key to driving adoption. "It
will be interesting to see where the new bold face of RIM--BlackBerry
9000--will take SBs,"
says Ms. Chew. As this new smartphone with 3G technology-enabled and
lightning processor installed is sold initially under AT&T, this
partnership has a chance to capture the 18% of Blackberry SB owners
under T-Mobile, and the 26% of Blackberry SB owners under Verizon.
"Small business owners are realizing the
necessity to stay connected," says New
York-based AMI-Partners Research Analyst Yedda Chew. "And
with the ease of smartphones like Palm Centro or the Blackberry
Pearl/Curve, these low-cost solutions are providing SBs a seamless
connection between business owners and their customers and employees
anytime and from anywhere. What's more, with
13% of the SB workforce being mobile, staying connected is crucial for
the owner to stay abreast of his/her everyday work activities."
About the Study
AMI's 2007
U.S. Small Business Market Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity
Assessment studies highlight these and other major trends
in the context of current/planned IT, Internet and communications usage
and spending. Products and services covered include established and
emerging hardware, software, applications and business process
solutions. Based on AMI's annual surveys of
SBs across USA, the studies track a broad spectrum of issues pertaining
to budgets, purchase behaviors, decision influencers, channel
preferences, outsourcing, service and support. Also covered are detailed
firmographics and critically important technology attitudes and
strategic planning priorities. These data point to key opportunities and
messaging hot buttons for vendors and service providers seeking to match
their offerings to SB market requirements.