According to the latest data from AMI, 31% of small businesses in the United States are using smartphones to access e-mail, contact, and calendaring information regularly. Trends indicate that SBs already are looking into location-based services and other functions such as CRM, field force automation, and sales force automation to power their businesses.

All the numbers come from Access Markets International (AMI) Partners. It says a small business is any with 99 or fewer employees. Of the companies this size that AMI spoke with, 31% are using smartphones for basic e-mail services, 20% already are looking to buy new ones, and 11% of those who don't have smartphones are going to be buying one soon.

Why all the fuss about smartphones? "Small business owners are realizing the necessity to stay connected," said New York-based AMI-Partners Research Analyst Yedda Chew in a prepared statement. "And with the ease of smartphones like Palm Centro or the BlackBerry Pearl/Curve, these low-cost solutions are providing [small businesses] a seamless connection between business owners and their customers and employees anytime and from anywhere. What's more, with 13% of the SB workforce being mobile, staying connected is crucial for the owner to stay abreast of his/her everyday work activities."

Simple access is one thing, but the real power comes from enabling businesses with applications that keep mobile work forces in touch with inventory data, customer relationship information, and other enterprise data. While AMI says 84% of BlackBerry owners and 68% of Palm owners use their smartphone to access e-mail, these are viewed as "basic" services. Small businesses really are interested in the meatier stuff. AMI noted, "Business applications such as location-based (field service/delivery) and CRM applications are becoming the trend. Thus, pricing plans from telecom service providers are crucial when it comes to driving adoption... Given the above, partnerships between mobile manufacturers and telecom service providers have been a key to driving adoption."

In other words, if the price is right, small businesses will bite.