A report from Knotice on email open rates across phones, tablets, and desktop/laptops for 2013 was released that finds that as of the second half of 2013, about 52% of emails were being opened via traditional platforms—desktops and laptops—with the remainder being opened on phones (31%) and tablets (17%).

While I think many of us open work emails on our smartphones only to reply to them later when we’ve got a full-fledged typing apparatus at hand, apparently this behavior isn’t common relative to total email opens. Knotice specifically addressed this “myth.”  Per their report only 2.5% of emails are being cross-opened or shared between devices.  Check it out (highlighting mine):

Mind that the above is for retail (the only category they broke out for this data).  I wonder:

• How would the cross-device open rates change for work emails?
• What is the engagement when emails are cross-opened between devices?

I’d theorize that while cross-device emails are uncommon, the engagement on those emails is likely huge—for retail it’d be the need to spend some time clicking through, shopping, etc., or for work, sending off a reply that is more than a couple sentences long.

Related, further reading: Mobile Share of Email Opens and Clicks Varies Widely by Industry (data via Experian)