What devices do you carry around?

During our weekly Ascentium UX team meeting, we were discussing the rapid change and proliferation of devices in the market. With new phones, tablets, readers, netbooks all coming out at breakneck speeds, we got into a discussion about how that trend will impact what devices people are going to rely on day to day. 

We decided to take a look at ourselves, of course. We took a quick survey of the team to see what we carry around with us all the time and what we leave behind. The results were a bit surprising, but in another light, not surprising at all.

The question was: "what devices do you carry around all the time? what do you take from home to work and back again?"

We wanted to eliminate the devices we use on a day to day basis to do our design jobs at work, since that would skew the meaning of the poll. And, we wanted everyone to list as many devices as were essential, so they are not limited to one choice. The results?

   smartphone

   laptop / netbook

   e-reader

   tablet

   music device

   none

I'm not surprised by the domination of smartphones or the fact that smartphones have replaced dedicated music devices. I'm a bit surprised by the fact that many people only consider smartphones to be essential. That they can do the main non-core-work activities (email, texting, browsing, etc) helps, but I thought I'd see more combinations of smartphones and laptops/netbooks.

I was really surprised by the None group. None? Really? They said they have dumbphones and have a computer at home in case work needs to get done. But I just think they are closeted luddites.