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Small and home offices shifting away from landlines to smartphones

A new survey finds that small businesses are leaning towards smartphones over landline telephones to keep their workforces connected.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Many consumers have been opting to pay only for cell phone plans over landline options for personal reasons for several years now. One would imagine that businesses must be the core customer base for landline telephone providers now, but even that is changing to some degree.

Multimedia research firm In-Stat reports in a new survey that smartphone purchases is expected to increase by up to 44 percent within the small and home office (SOHO) business sector between 2010 and 2015.

During the same time frame, In-Stat predicts that non-smartphone unit purchases will decline by 32 percent from 2010 to 2015, which could be referencing both landline and feature phones.

In-Stat analyst Greg Potter explained in a statement as to why small and home office companies are probably making this transition:

The SOHO market includes all firms with 1 to 4 US employees, and these businesses are realizing the benefits of having data access in their wireless handsets. Employees can now work efficiently either on the road or at home, with access to email and other business applications from their smartphones. This creates a more connected and engaged workforce.

Although In-Stat has broken down the results by 20 markets, it looks like we could see the most growth in the healthcare and social services verticals as smartphone purchases are expected to grow from 3.9 million phones purchased to 4.5 million during the reporting period.

In 2015, an estimated 27 million smartphones will be sold to businesses in the United States, and enterprises will be responsible for over 19 million phones. Related:

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