EE predicts surge in demand for big screen devices amongst small businesses

21% of small businesses in Britain plan to use big screen devices at work, like the iPhone 6 Plus or Samsung Galaxy Note 4
SMEs say they could carry out all of their day-to-day work activities on a large screen device alone

The recent availability of new big screen devices (e.g. smartphones such as the iPhone 6 Plus, 5.7 inch Samsung Galaxy Note 4, and Nokia Lumia 1520) has triggered a surge in demand from small businesses. More than a fifth (21%) of small business employees are planning to acquire a device with a 5.5 inch screen or bigger for work purposes, according to research by EE, the UK’s most advanced digital communications company.

The online survey of over 1,000 UK SMEs found top uses for larger screen devices include managing work email plus viewing and editing PDFs, documents and spreadsheets. In fact, as many as one in ten (10%) small business employees said they could conduct all of their day-to-day work tasks on a big screen device alone, suggesting a reduced dependence on laptops and fixed computers.

Mike Tomlinson, Director of Small Business at EE, said: “Until now, big screen devices have been seen as a fairly niche product category. However, with Apple launching the iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung unveiling its new Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Edge, they are on the verge of becoming an indispensable business tool.

“In response to increased demand from our small business customers, we continue to build on our range of larger smartphones and are expecting to see a huge uptick in the adoption into 2015.”

EE was recently awarded the Best Network for Business for the second year running at the 2014 Mobile Industry Awards. 4G from EE now covers 75% of the population, 263 major towns and cities, and over 2,500 villages and small towns.

Notes to Editors

For more information, please contact the EE Business press team on:

eebusiness@mcsaatchi.com or 020 7544 3735

Paula Westcott t: 020 3617 8463 e: paula.westcott@mcsaatchi.com

Richard Bell t: 020 7544 3758 m: 07805 568395 e: richard.bell@mcsaatchi.com

About EE

EE is the largest and most advanced digital communications company in Britain, delivering mobile and fixed communications services to consumers, businesses, government and the wholesale market. EE has approximately 15,000 employees and 520 retail stores, and serves more than 30 million customers across its mobile, fixed and wholesale businesses.

EE runs the UK's biggest, fastest and most reliable mobile network, pioneering the UK's first superfast 4G mobile service in October 2012. EE's 4G coverage today reaches more than 70% of the UK population. EE’s 2G coverage reaches 99% of the population while 3G reaches 98%. EE's superfast fibre broadband service covers 54% of the UK population, and ADSL broadband service covers 98.7% of the population.

In the last few years, EE has received extensive independent recognition including being ranked the UK's best overall network by RootMetrics®, Best network at the 2014 Mobile News Awards, Fastest Network at the 2013 uSwitch Awards, Best Network at the 2013 Mobile Choice Consumer Awards and What Mobile Awards, Network Innovation at the 2013 Recombu awards and Best Network for Business at the 2013 Mobile Industry awards.

Facebook at: www.facebook.com/ee

Twitter at: www.twitter.com/ee

YouTube at: www.youtube.com/ee

LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/company/ee-uk

* Online survey of 1,083 UK small businesses conducted by Vision Critical during March 2014