Tablets penetrating SMB landscape

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are getting on the tablet train early, as a May 2012 report from market strategy firm iGR shows more than half of SMB employees currently use the devices at work.

Larger corporations, with bigger budgets and a wider distribution of resources, have been expectedly enthusiastic about tablet computers, but the study shows 54 percent of SMB employees are now getting in on the fun and putting the new gadgets to work as well.

Technology news provider TabTimes, reporting on the study, notes that 24 percent of SMBs provide tablets for their employees, which means the slight majority of SMB tablet users are bringing their own devices into the office.

Bring your own device (BYOD) is the practice that allows employees and executives to use their personally owned smartphones, laptop computers and tablets for work-related purposes. And as iGR's study finds, the tablet seems to be receiving a healthy portion of the attention in recent years.

A January 2012 study from Avanade predicts the BYOD movement to continue growing in the near future, among both SMBs and their larger counterparts. According to that study, nearly 80 percent of companies plan to invest in initiatives that support BYOD.