Smartphones have become the standard in smaller companies and are generating $65 billion in annual savings.
It has now reached the point that nearly all small businesses are using mobile technology in the form of smartphones, with 94 percent claiming that they are using them, this year, which is still a notable increase over the high level that was recorded last year, at 85 percent.
Millions of small to midsized businesses (SMBs) across the United States are taking advantage of the tech.
These SMBs are using the smartphones to be able to save a considerable amount of time and money. A recent survey which was commissioned jointly by AT&T and by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) estimated that every year this mobile technology is saving SMBs $67.5 billion. This includes not only the use of the mobile devices, themselves, but also tablets and apps.
The survey looked into both the time and the money saved by the use of mobile technology.
Among all of the different types of mobile tech, smartphones alone are saving small to midsized businesses the largest amount of money ($32.3 billion) and even time (at an estimated 1.24 billion hours). Tablets came in second, with a savings of $19.6 billion per year and an estimated 754.2 million hours. Mobile apps are saving $15.6 billion per year and an estimated 599.5 million hours.
According to Karen Kerrigan, the CEO and council president of SBE, “Clearly, we are at a point where entrepreneurs now look first to communications technologies and innovations for solutions to improve productivity, cut costs and better manage and engage with customers.” She added that this is money and time that can all be redirected back into the business and improving market innovation while boosting sales.
The report on the study showed that over half of all small businesses say that they are currently using mobile technology in the form of apps. Among those who are using applications, 91 percent say that they use them for time savings, while two out of every three claim that money is being saved in this way.
The most recent data from Thailand has shown a new phase of decline has begun.
At a time in which political unrest is starting to take away from consumer confidence and is leading them to spend less, the smartphone market is starting to feel the pinch for the first time.
Recent figures have begun showing that the decline in the sales of these mobile devices is not a small one.
The Thailand Mobile Expo 2014 was just held in the country, running until the end of the weekend. Although many attended this largest exhibition of mobile phones, gadgets, and other tech devices at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, and it appeared to be just as booming as always, this was occurring within a smartphone market that is rapidly slowing in its sales.
This is the first time in four years that the smartphone market in the country has seen a sales decline.
Also contributing to the shrinking of the sales in this mobile device market is that many consumers have already purchased the technology and have yet to find a reason to want to upgrade to a massive degree. This is indicating that the country may have entered into a longer replacement cycle that is now considerable enough to actually affect the sales within that ecosystem.
This year’s event was the largest one yet, despite the fact that the organizer of the exhibition, Thailand Mobile Expo, M Vision Co, downgraded its sales projections by a tremendous 20 percent, to bring it to 1.2 billion baht (local currency).
That company isn’t the only one to revise its figures in a downward direction. Global research firm, IDC Thailand, has also done so, but in their case, they have reduced their sales projections by 25 to 30 percent growth, this year. This is a reduction from having previously predicted that there would be a growth rate of 35 to 40 percent, as they had expected that there would be a 14 million unit sales volume.
Senior analyst for client devices at IDC, Jarit Sidhu, explained that the slowing growth rate in the smartphone market is primarily due to low customer confidence and sentiment in an environment of political instability.
