While BlackBerry continues to be the dominant force in the business smartphone market, physicians are showing a distinct preference for the iPhone.
According to a report on cnet.com, doctors who responded to a survey in 2006 reported that only about 56% used a smartphone. In 2010, that number has jumped to 94%, according to the survey done by Spyglass Consulting Group. According to their results, 44% of doctors with a smartphone chose the iPhone. BlackBerry came in second at 25%.
While this may seem like good news, the margin of error on this study is quite high. Spyglass Consulting only polled a little over 100 physicians in North America which is too small of a sample group. Another study done this year by Manhattan Research of over 2,000 physicians found that the percentage of smartphone users was only around 72%.
No matter what the exact figures are, the vast majority of those polled expressed frustration with efficiently processing the high volume of communication they receive. Here is what Spyglass's report had to say:
"Physicians interviewed report they are overwhelmed by the daily volume of communications received from colleagues, care team members, and patients. They lack automated tools to manage voice mail, pager messages, SMS messages, and electronic mail. They are forced to continually check separate data silos, and manually filter and prioritize communications based upon sender, subject, and priority. Critical communications easily fall through the cracks."
So while Doctors seem to be adopting smartphones at an accelerated rate, they do not seem prepared to deal with the volumes of communication that a smartphone can provide. Also, while BlackBerry is the leader in the enterprise smartphone market, the results of Spyglass's survey suggest that new smartphone adopters do not have the same interest in BlackBerry devices that their predecessors did.
