Employees Still Favor Laptops Over Tablets

Despite the love affair employees have had in recent years with their smartphones and tablets, it's the laptop they turn to most when they want to get things done, a new study finds.

Research from APQC, a nonprofit organization that researches benchmarking and best practices, shows that employees overwhelmingly view their laptop computers as the technology tools that make them most productive.

Specifically, 68 percent of those surveyed said they were more productive when using their laptops, compared to just 38 percent who said the same about smartphones and 20 percent who said so about tablets.

"The results were somewhat surprising in that the tool which has seemingly garnered the most attention over the past year — the tablet — is at this point not viewed as favorably in making people more productive," said Jonathan Kraft, a research program manager for APQC.

Overall, laptops and smartphones dominate employees' time daily. The study found that 89 percent of employees work on their laptops each day, with 85 percent using smartphones. Just 31 percent of those surveyed use their tablets for work regularly.

Validating a longstanding trend towards mobility, the research also revealed that the desktop computer is increasingly meeting its demise, as nearly half of employees indicate they do not even use one.

"The primary objective of this benchmarking survey was to understand how individuals are using tools to be more productive at work and in their lives in general," Kraft said.

The study was based on surveys of 336 employees across more than 15 industries.

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