Smartphones are by far the most popular mobile device of respondents -- 81% said they currently use a smartphone for work two hours a day on average. By comparison, respondents said that laptops are used by 65% of small business employees for an average of 4.1 hours per day and tablets used by 25% for an average of 1.7 hours a day.
Mobile device users surveyed listed "providing better customer service" as a top benefit from using mobile devices though most small businesses surveyed are not yet offering their customers mobile-friendly service features.
While 63% of IT managers surveyed said they believe that their company is taking full advantage of what mobile devices have to offer, only 28% said their company's website optimized for mobile use. CDW said 23% of respondents offer text message marketing, 17% offer mobile coupons and 14% offer customer mobile apps.
"CDW's report says that small business users consider productivity and business apps on mobile devices to be game changers that make them more efficient and competitive," said Jill Billhorn, CDW vice president, small business. "They want still more apps to help them manage unique aspects of their businesses, and the prospect is for dramatic growth in tablet use."
Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian, or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed . His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.
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