At 80% smartphone usage (up by nearly 10 percentage points on April 2010) and 29% tablet ownership, the global business elite leaves the general population stuck somewhere in the mid-1990s and makes pen and paper ancient history. Always ahead of the curve, the business elite, as always take the lead in technology with only 5% of the rest of the UK population owning a tablet.

Familiar faces still dominate the smartphone market, but Apple is certainly making a dent in BlackBerry’s once huge monopoly, with almost of third of business elites welding an iPhone to their hip now instead.

On the tablet market, the iPad is almost ubiquitous. At 91% market share Apple is the BlackBerry of tablets for the business elite.

Apps are set to redefine how we do business, and with the number available exploding in the past few years alone, the business elite have downloaded over 14.3 million of them. However, they aren’t using them as a new way to do business, and the bigger the screen the more they favour apps designed for entertainment.

Downloads of business and international news apps top the smartphone list (57%), followed by weather (51%) and games apps (38%), but for tablets, app downloads sway toward leisure with games (64%) and books (60%) and news apps arriving only third at 58% (even counting in business and financial news).

Although tablets and smartphones have arrived on the scene fairly recently, our study shows around a third of the global business elite get their business news via smartphone, and about 16% via tablets.  

Note: To download this presentation, click the link just above the presentation and click the Download button to download the PDF.

Director of Ipsos Media CT, James Torr, said:

“While the speed at which technology now evolves and is being adopted has changed, the Business Elite are always ahead of the curve when it comes to technological developments. It’s all about them having more control, allowing them to process the information they need, as quickly as possible. Overall, technological changes have had a profound effect on how they operate. The Business Elite have experienced these changes first hand, as they are the people who implement infrastructure changes allowing corporations to profit from technology. Embracing the digital evolution will allow them to maintain competitive advantage in the business world and remain informed at all times.”