An IDG Connect report published this week found 91 per cent of businesses that have deployed the iPad do use it primarily for work. “Much has been written about the iPad as a ‘stay-at-home’ device, used predominantly in the living room in a ‘lean-back’ context. According to one recent survey of US consumers, 60 percent of iPads never leave the home, and 70 percent of usage occurs in the living room,” said the report. “IT and business professionals use their iPads more intensively, across a wider range of scenarios. Fully 51 percent of IT decision-makers say they ‘always’ use their iPad at work (and a further 40 percent say they sometimes use it at work). Out-of-home usage is even more intense, with 79 percent of IT decision-makers saying that they ‘always’ use their iPads ‘on the move’.” Yet despite the participants questioned in the report, just 16% found the tablet device competent enough to replace their notebooks, six per cent found it an adequate substitute for their PC, eight per cent used it to replace their portable music player, and two per cent used it to replace their TV and smartphone. Instead, the device has successfully cultivated its own category, with 79% “always” using the device for web browsing, 76% use it for reading, 73% for news consumption, 54% for work communication, 44% for social networking and 42% for personal communication. “What this survey makes clear is that iPad-based media consumption among IT and business professionals is predominantly text-based and work-related. In particular, web browsing, news consumption and reading emerge as the three most intensive usage scenarios, the killer apps that transform the iPad into a viable business tool.”
|
