In a 2011 AT&T survey, almost 40% of small businesses (those with 2-50 employees) reported that, “[T]hey could not survive – or it would be a major challenge to survive – without mobile apps.”
Wow!
One can imagine how those numbers have increased with the mobile explosion.
The most widely used type of app? GPS and mapping, which almost half of responding small businesses use to get around.
Employees are also working remotely, and using cloud-based apps, as well as software-as-a-service apps. (It’s worth noting, however, that about a third of respondents are still a big foggy on what the “cloud” is.) Social media use was also growing, and was up 50% from the prior year. About 40% of those surveyed even said that they had “measurable success” using social media.
In general, anything that saves time or money, or increases productivity, will ultimately be adopted by businesses. As this AT&T survey shows, certain helpful apps have become deeply embedded into a significant number of small businesses.
As these experiences become more common, we can expect resistance to mobile apps to decrease and adoption to continue to climb.
