News
AMI Partners: Smartphone: Connectivity’s new face for Small Businesses.
6/22/08
New York, New York—June 23, 2008—Once geared towards enterprise usage, smartphones today have approximately 31% of US
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.
“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.”