What's Your Device Vice? SMB Owners Speak Up About Mobile

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 10, 2013) - Will our mobile devices outnumber us? The answer is likely to be "yes" according to projections found in a new Cisco® Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update. The report projects that by the end of this year, there will be more mobile-connected devices than there are people on earth, and by 2017 there will be nearly 1.4 mobile devices per capita. ¹

A recent survey commissioned by eVoice®, a virtual phone number service for small businesses from j2 Global, Inc. ( NASDAQ : JCOM ), suggests that small business owners are driving this device domination. According to the survey, more than one in three small business owners (36 percent) use three or more mobile devices to run their business.

Privacy, Please! According to the survey, 75 percent of respondents won't share their personal mobile phone number with staff, 19 percent with partners or investors and 18 percent with vendors, reinforcing small businesses owners' desire to filter their personal phone numbers for business contacts. 

A virtual phone system enables small business owners to do just that. With a virtual phone system, small businesses can keep their personal number private by having calls to their business number routed to a home, office or cell phone during specific times of the day.

Overall, the survey results seem to underscore the need for small businesses to stay productive and competitive. They also appear to highlight small business preferences and pain points for mobility and mobile technologies. Other interesting findings from the survey include:

• An Apple a day: 40 percent of respondents prefer doing business on the iPhone®, iPad® or iPad mini®.
• Who Shares More? : Of the respondents, women are 8 percent more likely than men to share their personal mobile phone number.
• The Business of Texting: Texting is on the rise for small businesses, as 58 percent of respondents text for business at least once a month.
• Voicemail - Over, and Out?: Only 33 percent of survey respondents still listen to voicemail from business contacts.
• No Time for Mystery: Only 18 percent of respondents will listen to voicemail from an unknown number.
• "You're Fired": 20 percent of men who responded said they would fire a full-time employee to cut their monthly cell phone bill by 50 percent.

"In an increasingly mobile work world, small businesses are finding themselves juggling multiple devices and maneuvering the grey area between their personal and professional lives," says Mike Pugh, j2 Global VP, marketing. "With virtual phone systems like eVoice, small businesses are able to stay connected no matter the device they're using and can do business anytime, anywhere while keeping personal contact information private."

Drink Coffee & Share Your Number -- How the Cloud Can Help An eVoice virtual phone number enables small business professionals to work efficiently anytime and anywhere, such as a coffee shop, without jeopardizing privacy or productivity.

Features include:

• Advanced call handling features including call screening
• Enhanced voice mail service with transcriptions and audio files sent to email or as a text message
• 24/7 auto attendant to professionally answer and route inbound calls
  • Transfer calls to another destination
  • Record calls with one touch (premium feature; must subscribe to call recording to initiate)
• Make and receive phone calls via a WiFi connection or 3G/4G network using VoIP
• Intercom connection to other eVoice extensions using VoIP
• Mobile app that transforms a cell phone into a virtual professional business phone system

About the Survey Commissioned by eVoice® This survey was commissioned by eVoice using Google Consumer Surveys between February 19 and March 13, 2013. Each question sampled at least 500 unique, randomly sampled Internet users across the Google Consumer Surveys publisher group, who identified themselves as small business owners. The average margin of error is +/- 4%.

About eVoice® eVoice is a brand service and trademark of j2 Global ( NASDAQ : JCOM ). eVoice , one of the industry's leading virtual phone services, offers a wide selection of local or toll-free numbers and is the only phone service of its type to offer personalized U.S.-based VIP setup and support for new accounts. eVoice is online at www.evoice.com .

About j2 Global j2 Global (JCOM) provides Internet services through its two divisions: Business Cloud Services and Digital Media. The Business Cloud Services Division offers Internet fax, virtual phone, hosted email, email marketing, online backup, unified communications and CRM solutions. It markets its services principally under the brand names eFax®, eVoice®, FuseMail®, Campaigner®, KeepItSafe® and Onebox® and operates a messaging network spanning 49 countries on six continents. The Digital Media Division, created with j2 Global's November 2012 acquisition of Ziff Davis, Inc., offers trusted news and reviews of technology products on its web properties, which include PCMag.com , ExtremeTech.com , ComputerShopper.com , Toolbox.com and Geek.com . The Digital Media Division also operates BuyerBase®, an advanced ad-targeting platform; LogicBuy.com , a leading provider of online deals; and Ziff Davis B2B, a leading provider of research to enterprise buyers and leads to IT vendors. As of December 31, 2012, j2 Global had achieved 17 consecutive fiscal years of revenue growth. For more information about j2 Global, please visit www.j2global.com .

iPhone, iPad and iPad mini are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

¹ http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collater...20862.html