Business tablet adoption is accelerating in the UK, France and Germany, says IDC. Penetration is expected to exceed 15% of the total client base by 2018 – compared to just 6% in the second half of 2014.
IDC found that enterprise tablet use is no longer limited to executives; 60% are used by line-of-business staffMore than 10 million tablets are currently in use by businesses in Western Europe. As adoption rises, IDC expects more than 40 million tablet and hybrid devices to be sold over the next five years. These products will have a 25% market share of the business computing market by 2019.
According to IDC’s Marta Fiorentini, more businesses are considering tablets today due to rising worker mobility, as well as workplace digitisation. These mobile products enable gains in efficiency and productivity.
Adoption differs across verticals. The transport sector leads, with tablets already representing 12% of computing devices. In other sectors, penetration is 9% in distribution (i.e. retail) and 5% in government. Adoption was found to be on the rise in all vertical markets, however. 70% of companies are planning or are likely to purchase tablets in the next two years.
The aviation industry is expected to be a key user of tablets, as it shifts away from traditional heavy paper material. However, growth is also expected in healthcare and some pockets of the public sector. Penetration is forecast to pass 17% in these three markets by 2018.
75% of tablets used in enterprise are currently ‘slates’, with touch. This is considered a key input method by over 80% of respondents. However, physical keyboards are still important for hybrid devices. Use of hybrid form factors is expected to grow significantly over the next two years, as they are taken on to replace notebooks.
