More Thais own smartphones than laptops: survey

In this post-PC era, more Thais own smartphones than laptop computers, and three in four of them have more than one mobile device, according to a survey of company workers.

It was found that the penetration of smartphones among Thai business employees is 89 per cent, compared to 62 per cent for laptops, while 75 per cent of respondents said they own more than one personal device.

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend has also become increasingly popular in Thailand.

Almost all of the Thais surveyed (99 per cent) said they bring their own personal devices to work for reasons including increased job satisfaction (83 per cent), productivity even when out of the office (78 per cent), and greater efficiency (76 per cent).

As many as 65 per cent of the respondents said they spend time working during holidays, and of those, 92 per cent use their own personal devices to get work done while on vacation.

The findings of the "New Way of Life 2013" survey were released yesterday by US-based VMware Inc, which is a leader in virtualisation and cloud computing. The study was commissioned by VMware and conducted by Acorn Research on 2,100 people in 12 Asia-Pacific countries, including 150 from Thailand.

The respondents were aged between 18 and 64 and work for organisations with more than 1,000 employees. The survey was conducted in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

"Thai workers are taking mobility matters into their own hands and using their own technology to increase work efficiency and job satisfaction levels," said Chawapol Jariyawiroj, country manager of VMware Thailand and Indochina.

"Today's mobile workers increasingly expect the flexibility to work in their own time, anywhere and from any device. We have also experienced instances when employees simply cannot get to the office, such as periods of flooding and unrest," he said.

As many as 81 per cent of the Thai respondents said they prefer to work for a company that is open to their choice of software and devices - the highest percentage among the 12 countries surveyed - and 70 per cent deem such employers to be more progressive and dynamic.

However, one in three respondents said they do not have access to IT support to use their mobile devices effectively in the workplace. In fact, 87 per cent said their companies have strict IT policies that prevent them from connecting their personal portable device to the corporate network.