Smartphone more popular than tablet among GenY

BANGALORE, INDIA: Networking gear maker Cisco has released a report that says what is very obvious - GenY, i.e. those aged between 18-30, prefer to stay connected all the time, irrespective whether they are in bed, office, meal table or bathroom.

Based on Cisco Connected World Technology Report (CCWTR), 96 per cent of Gen Y in India said they check smartphones for updates in e-mail, texts, and social media sites, often before they get out of bed and One-third of them check it at least once every 30 minutes.

The survey conducted by InsightExpress of 1,800 college students and young professionals aged 18 to 30 and 1,800 IT professionals across 18 countries also finds that in many parts of the world, smartphones now rival laptops as the single most desired device. And, given a choice, a third of respondents will prefer a smartphone, while slightly more than a third will favour laptops. According to the report, smartphones have surpassed desktop computers as the preferred workplace device from a global perspective and were rated twice as popular as a desktop PCs and three times as popular as a tablet.

V. C. Gopalratnam, vice president of IT Globalisation and CIO, Cisco India, noted, "Workforce is becoming younger and diverse and dependence on smartphone is becoming key. Everybody is today looking for the flexibility and to be productive from wherever they are. Smartphones have become the 207th in our body. Earlier, technology changes happened perhaps every five year, however, they happen every eight-ten months today."

In India, about 84 per cent said mobile applications are important to their daily lives and a fifty four per cent spend more time online with friends than socializing in person.

While this is a good news for online marketeers to reach out to this 'always connected generation', on the other hand, there are some bad news for enterprises in the report.

As per the report almost one third of IT professionals stated they check their smartphones ‘continuously', while 40 per cent of them check smartphones for updates at least once every 10 minutes. In India 41 per cent (and two out of five globally) of respondents said their company's policy forbids them to use company-issued devices for non-work activities and 56 per cent (71 per cent globally) say they do not follow those rules all the time.

Moreover, a majority (66 per cent) feel that employers should not track employees online activities because 'it's none of their business'. IT professionals know that many employees do not follow rules. However, at the same time, they do not understand how prevalent it is because in India, 58 per cent of IT professionals (and 50 globally), believe employees follow rules.

"Mobile devices are just the beginning. As more and more people, processes, data and things join and interact on the "Internet of Everything," the volume and potential value of all the data generated by those connections grow exponentially," he added.

Note: The catch in the report is that it is based on a survey of 200 people, each from 18 countries across the world. Now, only Cisco can explain how a mere 200 can represent the whole of mobile device user community of a country - not just in India, but also in countries such as the US, the UK, Germany, China etc which have a much larger population of smart device users - and be made the base in order to study user behaviour.