We have seen that people feel more productive, creative and valued when they are given a Surface as their work device and now a recent report from Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies signals an increase in the number of consumers who want to use Surface at work.

Creative Strategies asked a panel of 1300 US consumers about their preferences for how they use their PCs for both personal and professional scenarios. Responses showed Surface is winning over early tech adopters and continuing to challenge Apple within the broader survey set.  People cited Surface’s ability to bridge both creativity and productivity and their professional and personal lives as key reasons they chose Surface.

Here are a few key insights to take away from Carolina’s (@caro_milanesi) report:

People want the device that does it all.

People increasingly expect flexible work conditions, including when, where and on what device they work. This has resulted in people buying and using multiple devices for different purposes and parts of their lives. But they still want one device that can span both work and personal life.

According to Creative Strategies:

• 72% of people who use Surface at work want to use it all the time, at work and for personal use. (+7pts versus Apple MacBook).
• When considering replacing their laptop with a 2in1 device, early mainstream users significantly choose Surface Pro (+11pts) over Apple iPad Pro.

Company-issued devices play a pivotal role in attracting and retaining talent.

Investing in the right technology and devices is critical for companies of all sizes to recruit and retain top talent.

According to Creative Strategies:

• 91% of employees surveyed believe that technology choices reflect on the company.
• Millennials and early tech adopters are 3x more likely to decline a job offer if there is no choice of computing device
• 77% of people who use Surface for work are proud to be seen with it (+15% over Apple)
• Overall, employees who receive a Surface device feel more cared about than those that receive Apple Notebooks. (+8pts)

The take away: if you as a business leader provide a Surface to your employees, not only will they love working on it, but the fact that you provided them with a Surface will help endear them to the company. They will love the fact that you invested in them. There is a sense of pride that comes from owning a Surface. 

Creativity is important to people, but not at the expense of being productive.

Employees want to be creative without sacrificing productivity. With Surface, employees get the creativity that Apple promises *and* the productivity they expect from Microsoft, all in one device.

According to Creative Strategies:

• Users perceive Apple Notebooks and Surface devices to be on par when empowering creativity.
• The Surface brand is perceived to empower users to be more productive relative to Apple Notebooks. (+8pts)
• Both early tech adopters (+11pts) and early mainstream audiences (+21pts) believe Surface empowers you to be most productive compared to Apple

Investing in Surface makes the most of your Microsoft investments.

It is critical for software and services to live across devices. The next generation of talent is used to working from the cloud, seamlessly sharing information across borders.

According to Creative Strategies:

• People who perceive the Surface as the leading notebook brand over Apple do so because they see it as the best implementation of Windows and Office
• Employees who use Apple for work feel strongly that Surface devices have the best implementation of Windows 10

But quite possibly my favorite part of the report is this:

“There is also no doubt that in consumer’s minds the only brand able to compete with Apple is Microsoft Surface.”
 

I encourage you to read more of Carolina’s report here, or visit Surface.com to learn more about how you can deploy Surfaces in your organization.

– Julia

Source: Windows Blog
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