The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon is a global one, with users increasingly using their mobile devices for both business and personal purposes. Forty-one percent of online survey respondents said they use their private smartphone for business while nearly as many, 37%, said they use their tablets for business purposes, according to research results from IDG Global Solutions.
Mixed private/business use of tablets was highest in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America at 59%. That dropped to 36% in North America and 29% in Western Europe. Employer IT department support for employee smartphones was also highest in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions, followed by Eastern Europe and North America, according to an IDG press release.
Of 25,601 online survey respondents canvassed from March to May, 93%-94% said they rely heavily on both tablets and smartphones to read email. Fully 90% of respondents said they use their tablets to watch videos, up 24% from 2012.
Between 67% and 71% said they use tablets to download or use mobile apps. The mobile CE devices are also being used to search for industry news and conduct research regarding technology issues and products, according to IDG.
Additionally, 56% of smartphone and 73% of tablet users on average use their devices to make purchases, IDG found. The vast majority were for personal products or services as opposed to being business related.
Prominent among IDG’s findings, 75% of respondents in North America use their smartphones to make online purchases and 84% do so using their tablets. Across all regions, a majority of tablet users said they had made online purchases using their mobile devices. Thirty-three percent of smartphone and nearly 21% of tablet users use their devices to click on or interact with advertisements.
“Mobile and tablet are becoming the preferred media consumption devices and are relied upon as users move from research to purchase,” IDG Global Solutions’ director, mobile strategy Christina Carstensen commented. “Users expect an experience tailored for a mobile screen when they access content on the go, so mobile optimization will be important for both marketers and media companies.”
“These findings should remove some of the doubt over the impact of mobile ads and the hesitancy to spend more on mobile marketing,” added Matthew Yorke, IDG Global Solutions’ CEO. “Markets outside the United States should not be ignored for both the fast adoption of mobile and as trendsetters for other countries.”
