by | December 16, 2011

Renegade Distracted Drivers

By Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts

Will “the land of the free and the home of the brave” refer to driving? Who are the defiant drivers who insist on their right to drive while texting or sending an email?

Almost any driver in the US has noticed other drivers driving erratically. Many are distracted by one thing or another. Asked whether they feel that they themselves should be able to use tech products while driving, most adults agree they should not. However, some maintain they have that right.

There are 15.3 million Americans, or 9% of online adults, who agree or strongly agree that they “should be allowed to text or email while I am driving a car.” Many U.S. states have enacted laws against this activity, yet this attitude of entitlement persists. One year ago, our survey found the same level of self-justification – 9%. Understanding these defiant communicators can help marketers, tech developers, and other interested parties seeking to help their safety and those driving near them.

A picture of pirate renegades emerges – a segment which may be tough to reach. Lawless defiance is not limited to using phones where they please. These righteous independents intend to abandon their wireless carrier (index 541), are using the Internet less because of advertising (index 451), seek privacy by turning off mobile phone location services and avoiding certain apps (index 262), and find it acceptable to use unlicensed software at home (index 247).

Of dozens of demographics characteristics, one unique aspect: they are four times as likely to be male age 25-34. Demographics alone don’t define this group.

They’re ahead of the pack in using cloud services, indexing 300 or higher in Internet file/folder synchronization, remote PC access, and sharing music playlists. The same goes for sharing their videos online and making international VoIP calls, both with an index of 349.

Texting and emailing are the only things they do with their mobile phones. Those with smartphones are well above average in using them to watch television, make video calls, buy something, make status updates, save voice memos, and redeem coupons.

Although they are ahead of the pack in using their smartphones, they were the last in their class to adopt technology. They are mobile phone laggards and PC laggards, which means they were in the last 16% of their age group to buy their first PC or mobile phone.

Looking ahead

I expect that there will be a lot of resistance from wireless operators, handset makers, app developers, and most of the tech industry. Consumers, too, will resist laws and any challenges to their sense of freedom. Most want to be able to use what tech products they have anywhere and anytime, regardless of the consequences.  Having watched people adopt tech product for over 30 years, I’m optimistic there will be technological solutions. These will be supported by the majority who acknowledge that the specific combination of driving and communicating is over the line.

It took untold years to reach smokers, even after the relationships between smoking and adverse health effects were widely known. Will the fast-moving tech industry set a record in protecting its customers? I hope so, and evidently most of us agree as well.

Source

The information in this TUPdate is available in the Renegade Distracted Drivers Consumer Tech Index, a data-rich guide indexing over 900 factors to clearly and statistically describe what makes this segment unique. Current TUP customers may submit an inquiry or use the TUP Interactive Access tool to drill further down into the TUP datasets.

To see other research coverage of Internet products and activities – from smartphones to feature phones, desktops to notebooks, social networking, demographics, and attitudes – see the many other questions TUP answers on www.technologyuser.com. Tech market research professionals can license direct access to TUP.

Methodological note

There is a well-known factor in survey research called social desirability bias. Respondents are known to answer some types of questions differently depending on the setting and who is asking them. To minimize this affect, we included attitudinal questions in a battery of other unrelated questions. Also, we allowed respondents to complete the survey online and anonymously, since this effect is lessened in self-administered surveys over answering by telephone or face to face with what they may see as authority figures.

About TUPdates

MetaFacts releases ongoing syndicated original research on the market shifts, trends and consumer profiles for Smartphones, Netbooks, Mobile PCs, Workplace PCs, Home PCs, Web Creators, Broadband, and many other technology products and services. These TUPdates are short analytical articles in a series of specific topics utilizing the Technology User Profile Annual Edition study, which reveals the changing patterns of technology adoption around the world. Interested technology professionals can sign up at www.metafacts.com for complimentary TUPdates – periodic snapshots of technology markets.

About MetaFacts

MetaFacts helps technology marketers find and measure their best and future customers. MetaFacts’ Technology User Profile (TUP) survey is the longest-running, large-scale comprehensive study of its kind, conducted continuously since 1983, the year before Apple released the Apple Macintosh. The detailed results are a primary market sizing and segmentation resource for leading companies providing consumer-oriented technology products and services, such as PCs, printers, Smartphones, consumer electronics, mobile computing, and related services and products. TUP analyzes key trends and the data-rich source can be dived into more deeply for custom analysis. For more information about the syndicated research service, analysis tools, publications and datasets, contact MetaFacts at 1-760-635-4300.

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by | November 16, 2011

eReader Market Demand and Forecast

By Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts

The newest eReaders from Amazon and Barnes & Noble have received many rave reviews, with some focused on the power button placement, others on the logo’s gleam. While these articles are interesting and timely, do they help an understanding of whether or not people will want to buy them; which ones they will buy; and then having them, whether they will they fully use them? Will they help anyone know if readers will instead choose a generic Tablet PC, Apple iPad, their Smartphone or Notebook, or some personal combination of devices?

To offer the customer’s own views to the dialog, I’m analyzing the survey results in the latest wave of the MetaFacts Technology User Profile (TUP). I’m reviewing current eReader customers, non-users, and those who read eBooks and ePeriodicals on other platforms for their behavior, attitudes, buying patterns, and other defining characteristics. My full analysis will be released later this month in the MefaFacts eReaders Profile Report. This TUPdate gives a preview of the findings during this week of announcements.

MetaFacts predicts that one in six American adults will have an eReader by the middle of 2015, up from almost one in ten today.

Why does eReader adoption matter? eReaders are at the center of changing consumer behavior that spans traditional publishing, retail distribution, paid content, media, new devices, and shifting payment models. Depending on consumer acceptance in the coming year, eReaders may go the way of historical flashes such as the GridPad or Apple Newton, be relegated to niche status, or spur further changes in the combination of tech products that consumers use and how they use them.

eReader Market Segments in MetaFacts

Key eReader Market Segments

To develop a detailed profile and forecast of eReader users, I’ve focused on several pivotal questions.

Will consumers adopt the entire package offered by Amazon and Barnes & Noble? Will they see the newest Nook or Kindle eReader for what it looks like and its customized software, as a well-integrated and subsidized experience, or as a toll booth leading to a proprietary “media service”? Fickle consumers continue to dance between the desire for openness and flexibility vs. smoothness and vertical integration.

What mix of products will readers use to enjoy written content? Many people have already invested in a combination of devices which they enjoy for other activities. They may choose to simply add a reader app than juggle one more device. Right now, 20% of Smartphone users read a book on it and 25% read a magazine, newspaper, or other ePeriodical.

Will readers want their eBooks on one device and their ePeriodicals on another device? Or, will they demand that their content be synched everywhere? In that case, are they willing to pay for the service or the bandwidth, and willing to accept a different reading experience across different platforms? This raises questions about the consumer’s center of attention – the content, the experience, or the device?

When consumers choose between Nook or Kindle, will their shopping preferences and habits have a strong effect? To reach the many Americans who still prefer retail shopping over online, Barnes & Noble has recently expanded its Nook distribution with announced outlets widely spanning techie-havens Radio Shack and Fry’s Electronics, office supply retailer Office Max, electronics giant Best Buy, regionals Fred Meyer and hhgregg, to mass marketers Target, Sears, and Kmart. This will at least reach adults otherwise offline.

Furthermore, there are questions about whether there will be a net readership increase across all platforms. Will more readers leave print for eBooks or ePeriodicals, or will readers find their experience too disjointed, the paywalls too steep, or will inertia continue?

TUP survey respondents have addressed these questions through what they own and perceive, forming the foundation for a nuanced profile and market adoption forecast.

While there are many forecasting models and methodologies, one effective approach for tech products and services begins with the assumption that each potential buyer is an independent agent – making choices based on their individual conditions and perceptions. Arguments abound that buyers either follow a stochastic or a deterministic path; that they act randomly in response to stimulus or that their mindful behavior can be predicted given the correct explanatory factors.

Demographics may seem like a convenient forecast foundation, but in this case don’t provide enough statistical explanation. After multiple correlation and clustering analyses of eReader adoption using demographics – both personal and household-level socioeconomic profiling – the statistical relationship is low for most factors. It’s tempting to use one of the various geodemographic modeling systems. However, for many new tech products, these factors simply don’t deliver definitive results. Convenient information may actually be counterproductive, or at best useless.

Instead, I’ve started with a simplified agent prediction model. I’ve clustered the adult population into multiple subsegments across five broad segments using discrete combinations of behavioral and attitudinal factors.

  • Current eReader users – The first adopters in line will be current eReader owners. Many like what they have and want more of the same done better. As Amazon and Barnes & Noble continue to innovate, a large share of current eReaders will want to upgrade to the newest offering. Others will switch between Nook & Kindle or stay with what they have. Yet others will drop away, shifting to another platform, and then donate their eReader, pile it in their personal tech landfill closet, give it to the kids, or recycle responsibly.
  • Stated eReader purchase intention – Another segment reported they had plans to purchase an eReader. From experience, I’ve seen many purchase plans turn out differently than consumers anticipate, as they see competitive offerings (such as a software reader on another platform), balk at the offering, or simply change their minds.
  • Readers on other platforms – With truly disruptive technology offerings, one of the historically richest adoption segments are current users of substitutes. People who are already reading eBooks or ePeriodicals on PCs, Smartphones, Tablets, or other platforms have already demonstrated that they like electronic content. Of these, those that already read across multiple platforms are likely to consider and adopt eReaders.
  • Tablet PC users, Mobile PC planners, Early Adopters, Active shoppers/fun lovers – This broad segment has several subsegments not included in the other segments. Those already using Tablet PCs have relevant experience. This has been a quickly-growing group and one likely to include buyers who will consider an eReader as a substitute or compliment to their Tablet PC. Similarly, some percentage of those planning to purchase a notebook or netbook may also consider an eReader. Also, this broad segment includes the early adopters of PCs and Mobile Phones who don’t already have an eReader. Also in this segment are subsegments of people who use their PC online for the widest range of entertainment and shopping activities.
  • GUM (Great Unwashed Masses) – Not meant to be a derogatory term, this broad segment includes all other adults, some of whom are not even using a PC online. With somewhat limited, but stabilizing, web and email capability on newer eReaders, some percentage of this group may consider an eReader as their portal to the Internet, just as they may alternatively consider Tablet PCs with specialized reader-oriented apps or general purpose browsers.

Based on the research results we have today, MetaFacts forecasts 31 million eReaders to be in the hands of U.S. adults by the end of 2012. Of those, 23% will be in the hands of first-time users. This spells a healthy market, yet expanding relatively slowly. With the resulting 13% of American adults using an eReader, the market will be larger than a niche, yet hardly as widespread as Smartphones.

Source & Methodology

The information in this MetaFacts TUPdate is based on the Technology User Profile service. The preliminary forecast included here is based on analysis of MetaFacts surveys and assumptions based on adoption patterns within each subsegment.  The analysis is based on what survey respondents have, what they do, where they shop, and how they adopt technology based on patterns tracked in Technology User Profile for the last 29 years.

The MetaFacts eReaders Profile Report is scheduled for release on November 30, 2011 and can be pre-ordered. The research offering has several deliverables: an Executive Summary, Cross-Tabulations and Charts, an actionable Consumer Tech Index with the highest-indexed characteristics, as well as a web-based interactive analysis tool.  Several bundles are available for analysts/researchers, advertisers/agencies, marketers, business planners, authors/publishers, and lean advertisers/agencies.

To see other research coverage of Internet products and activities  – from smartphones to feature phones, desktops to notebooks, social networking, demographics, and attitudes – see the many other questions TUP answers on www.technologyuser.com. Tech market research professionals can license direct access to TUP.

About TUPdates

MetaFacts releases ongoing syndicated original research on the market shifts, trends and consumer profiles for eReaders, Smartphones, Mobile PCs, Home PCs, Web Creators, and many other technology products and services. These TUPdates are short analytical articles in a series of specific topics utilizing the Technology User Profile Annual Edition study, which reveals the changing patterns of technology adoption. Interested technology professionals can sign up at www.metafacts.com for complimentary TUPdates – periodic snapshots of technology markets.

About MetaFacts

MetaFacts helps technology marketers find and measure their best and future customers. MetaFacts’ Technology User Profile (TUP) survey is the longest-running, large-scale comprehensive study of its kind, conducted continuously since 1983, the year before Apple released the Apple Macintosh. The detailed results are a primary market sizing and segmentation resource for leading companies providing consumer-oriented technology products and services, such as PCs, printers, Smartphones, consumer electronics, mobile computing, and related services and products. TUP analyzes key trends and the data-rich source can be dived into more deeply for custom analysis. For more information about the syndicated research service, analysis tools, publications and datasets, contact MetaFacts at 1-760-635-4300.

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by | October 28, 2011

What Social Networkers Do With Their Time

A MetaFacts TUPdate by Dan Ness, Principal Analyst

Social networking is about fun and keeping connected – hardly referred to as a time-saver. Our latest research confirms that adults busiest with their PCs use social networking the most. Three out of four (77%) of adults who spend 80 or more per week with their PC use a social network, versus only 45% of those who use their PCs less than five hours per week.

It’s not as if Cityville is capturing all the hours among those busiest. Game-playing is ranked 7th across all usage levels save one. There is no single type of activity that the least-busy do that the most-busy don’t. It’s more that the least-busy simply scratch the surface of social networking activities while the busy, well, get busy. The rank order of social networking activities is not significantly different between the least-busy and busiest.

Simply put, the busiest computer users use the widest range of social networking activities.

So, what’s the attraction for these busiest PC users that hasn’t lured the less-busy?

Four activities stand out to separate the busiest from the least-busy. One is rather passive, one bodes well for social media marketing, and the other two show a heightened level of user involvement and concern.

Social Networking Activities and Online Hours

Watching a video, such as following a link to YouTube or Video, is done by the busiest at nearly triple the rate of the least-busy. Similarly, 31% of social networkers who use their PCs for 80 or more hours per month say they have recently clicked a social network ad, triple the 10% rate among those using their PCs for less than five hours a week.

Removing content, such as deleting photos or posts, and adjusting privacy settings, is done by the most-active PC users at triple the rate of the least-busy. These two activities are related, as social networkers seek to control their public footprint.

Social networking relies on a delicate alchemy of trust, encouraging user-generated content and attracting participation by preserving privacy, and helping networkers feel they are discovering things rather than being sold to.

In our Technology User Profile survey, we also asked those who don’t use a social network why they disconnected. Of those who use their primary PCs 80 or more hours per week, 26% said they stopped using a social network because they were wasting their time. From the least-busy to the busiest, agreement was the same, ranging between 20% and 28% of online adults.

Looking ahead, the near-term future for social networks will still include turmoil. There are a substantial number of online adults who aren’t finding a compelling reason to spend as much of their time networking online. Furthermore, trust issues continue, with 19% to 28% of the unnetworked having stopped citing privacy concerns. Still, it’s a bullish sign that the top activities for the busiest users are to expand their network and add content. To the extent the social network can continue to bring value and interest to the busiest users, this may encourage more use among current users, and possibly open the door for the return of former social networkers.

Source

The information in this MetaFacts TUPdate is based on the Technology User Profile service.

For this TUPdate, MetaFacts reviewed its surveys of online adults and how they use their primary PC. This is the PC they use the most often, whether it is owned by them, their employer, a friend, or in a public place.

To see other research coverage of Internet products and activities – from smartphones to feature phones, desktops to notebooks, social networking, demographics, and attitudes – see the many other questions TUP answers on www.technologyuser.com. Tech market research professionals can license direct access to TUP.

Direct marketers may be interested in certain specific Consumer Tech Index issues: Top Home PC Socializers, Top Home PC Communicators, and Top Home PC Funlovers. These identify what makes these active consumers different from the general market, in an actionable and useful way.

For strategic planners and marketers, the MetaFacts Technology User Profile Overview Report is available immediately on www.metafactsstore.com, which covers the broader range of key trends. View findings in 25 pages of executive summary analysis, 200+ pages of charts and graphs, all supported by 95+ pages of detailed tables. The complete, 300+ page report is delivered to you electronically.

About TUPdates

MetaFacts releases ongoing syndicated original research on the market shifts, trends and consumer profiles for Smartphones, Netbooks, Mobile PCs, Workplace PCs, Home PCs, Web Creators, Broadband, and many other technology products and services. These TUPdates are short analytical articles in a series of specific topics utilizing the Technology User Profile Annual Edition study, which reveals the changing patterns of technology adoption around the world. Interested technology professionals can sign up at www.metafacts.com for complimentary TUPdates – periodic snapshots of technology markets.

About MetaFacts

MetaFacts helps technology marketers find and measure their best and future customers. MetaFacts’ Technology User Profile (TUP) survey is the longest-running, large-scale comprehensive study of its kind, conducted continuously since 1983, the year before Apple released the Apple Macintosh. The detailed results are a primary market sizing and segmentation resource for leading companies providing consumer-oriented technology products and services, such as PCs, printers, Smartphones, consumer electronics, mobile computing, and related services and products. TUP analyzes key trends and the data-rich source can be dived into more deeply for custom analysis. For more information about the syndicated research service, analysis tools, publications and datasets, contact MetaFacts at 1-760-635-4300.

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by | October 6, 2011

For Early Adopters, Age Matters More Than Youth

For Early Adopters, Age Matters More Than Youth

A MetaFacts TUPdate by Dan Ness, Principal Analyst

There always has to be someone who’s first, and a first time for everything. Early Adopters are a substantial force in technology adoption, and the starting point continues to get younger.

Think back to the first time you used a Personal Computer or a Mobile Phone. Were you the first on your block, in your class, or where you work? If so, then maybe you are in that earliest 2.5% called Innovators. That’s one step ahead of Early Adopters, who are in the first one-sixth of users of any given product.

If you’re Generation X, age 31-46, and you first used a PC when you were 11 or younger, you were ahead of 84% of others your age. Yes, you’re a PC Early Adopter in your age group. On the other hand, if you only started using a PC at age 29 or older, then you’re in the adoption segment named PC Laggards. (Don’t take it personally; it’s a widely used term and someone has to be last.)

Chart: Early Adopters, Innovators, and Laggards - Age First Used a PC

Early Adopters, Innovators, and Laggards - Age First Used a PC

For both PCs and Mobile Phones, market adoption is happening faster and earlier than before. Among Mobile Phone users age 35-44 today, the first 2.5% in their age group to use a Mobile Phone – Mobile Phone Innovators – started at age 14. The Mobile Phone Laggards – the last 16% – started at age 33, a 19 year span. Among the 25-34 group, there are only 14 years between Innovators and Laggards.

Why does this matter?

Simply put, Early Adopters behave and think differently than the Early Majority, as with the Late Majority compared with Laggards.

PC Early Adopters crave details and innovation while PC Laggards feel overwhelmed. Laggards generally have lower socioeconomic status. PC Early Adopters use more PCs and other devices, and are also earlier adopters of Mobile Phones, eReaders, MP3 Players, and a host of other devices and services. Laggards have a simpler technology footprint.

Early Adopters also choose different brands than the majority or Laggards. PC Clones, shunned by Laggards, rank relatively highest among Early Adopters, as do Apple and IBM/Lenovo brands. PC Laggards, on the other hand, have a higher rate of choosing Acer and e-Machines PCs.

PC Laggards shop for home PCs at Wal-Mart, Target, or eBay, while the Early Adopters who aren’t assembling their own PCs shop more often at company stores such as Sony Universe or Apple retail.

Mobile Phone adoption corresponds highly with PC adoption, although differs in several respects. Particularly, Mobile Phone Laggards strongly overlap with PC Laggards, while Early Adopters do less so.

Like PC Laggards, Mobile Phone Laggards are similarly overwhelmed and ad-averse. Mobile Phone Early Adopters are more strongly adopters of home entertainment consumer electronics from Roku boxes to mobile wireless broadband, and network attached storage (NAS) to wireless keyboards.

Mobile Phone Early Adopters have a higher share of subscribers who frequent LinkedIn, MySpace, and Google+ than Laggards do. Communication is big; more Early Adopters tend to use VoIP services like Skype for domestic and international calls than Mobile Phone Laggards.

This is not to say that Early Adopters are good and Laggards are bad; simply that they are different. This has implications for forecasters and marketers alike, as it provides a fuller understanding of the adoption potential of other technology products and services.

Chart: Early Adopters, Innovators, and Laggards - Age First Used a Mobile Phone

Early Adopters, Innovators, and Laggards - Age First Used a Mobile Phone

Using Technology User Profile, both the current wave and its previous 28 years, MetaFacts analyzes market adoption in many different ways. The age-banded approach analyzed here gives a high degree of explanatory power to how some market segments adopt technology much differently than others. We find that age alone does not predict market acceptance. In other words, it’s being young doesn’t mean you’re automatically an Early Adopter.

While there is a certain trickle-down folklore which favors the “latest and greatest” products and features as driving adoption across all tech products, realistically, this technocentrism has not been borne out. In fact, focusing what people feel and do, and not on technology alone, gives a more solid foundation towards understanding, predicting, and creating the future. After all, people adopt technology, not the other way around.

Source

The information in this MetaFacts TUPdate is based on the Technology User Profile service.

For this TUPdate, MetaFacts used two factors defining Adoption Stage: PC Adoption and Mobile Phone Adoption. In both cases, this is a straightforward measure of adoption based on the year they first used the product. Adoption stage was determined based on the respondent’s adoption age within each respondent’s discrete age relative to all other respondents of the same age.

To see other research coverage of Internet products and activities  – from smartphones to feature phones, desktops to notebooks, social networking, demographics, and attitudes – see the many other questions TUP answers on www.technologyuser.com. Tech market research professionals can license direct access to TUP.

The MetaFacts Technology User Profile Overview Edition report is available immediately on www.metafactsstore.com, which covers the broader range of key trends. View findings in 25 pages of executive summary analysis, 200+ pages of charts and graphs, all supported by 95+ pages of detailed tables. The complete, 300+ page report is delivered to you electronically.

About TUPdates

MetaFacts releases ongoing syndicated original research on the market shifts, trends and consumer profiles for Smartphones, Netbooks, Mobile PCs, Workplace PCs, Home PCs, Web Creators, Broadband, and many other technology products and services. These TUPdates are short analytical articles in a series of specific topics utilizing the Technology User Profile Annual Edition study, which reveals the changing patterns of technology adoption around the world. Interested technology professionals can sign up at www.metafacts.com for complimentary TUPdates – periodic snapshots of technology markets.

About MetaFacts

MetaFacts helps technology marketers find and measure their best and future customers. MetaFacts’ Technology User Profile (TUP) survey is
the longest-running, large-scale comprehensive study of its kind, conducted continuously since 1983, the year before Apple released the Apple Macintosh. The detailed results are a primary market sizing and segmentation resource for leading companies providing consumer-oriented technology products and services, such as PCs, printers, Smartphones, consumer electronics, mobile computing, and related services and products. TUP analyzes key trends and the data-rich source can be dived into more deeply for custom analysis. For more information about the syndicated research service, analysis tools, publications and datasets, contact MetaFacts at 1-760-635-4300.

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by | September 1, 2011

Smartphone boa swallowing mobile phone market

A MetaFacts TUPdate by Dan Ness, Principal Analyst

Reading the popular press, it might seem that Smartphones have consumed the entire mobile phone market. In fact, the Smartphone boa has only swallowed a portion of the American calling public. Also, much of the smartphone market is a replacement market as these busy adopters hanker for newer models or churn to competitive carriers.

Furthermore, some Smartphone callers have even returned to Basic Feature Phones. This brings into question assumptions around how soon Smartphones will dominate.

In Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic book “The Little Prince”, he draws a boa constrictor eating an elephant, which many adults mistake for a drawing of a hat. I was reminded of that image while looking at the size of mobile phone transition segments from recent Technology User Profile survey results.

Why is this important?

When you’re deep in the belly of the beast, it’s easy to imagine that the whole world is inside with you.

Realistically, Basic Feature Phone callers outnumber Smartphone users three to two. Smartphone makers and carriers have multiple challenges ahead in trying to convince the rest of the market to adopt Smartphones. Each segment of customers along the mobile phone adoption path has its own unique characteristics and needs.

While many Smartphone shipments are replacing existing Smartphones, with many eager to get the newest iPhone, Android or RIM Smartphone, these replacement markets are very different than conversions into the Smartphone world.

We found that 8% of online adults are in the “Basic Switchers” segment, which means they’re using a Basic Feature Phone after having previously tried a Smartphone. This segment is dominated by both male and female adults age 18-24. This group uses the broadest number of activities, in effect using so much of their Basic Feature phone as to rival many simple-usage Smartphone owners.

Avid mobile phone fans may be surprised that anyone would be in a segment called “Tried & Quit” – online adults who have used a Smartphone or Basic Feature Phone within the last year and not now using one. This is a small, yet measurable segment, dominated by retired or unemployed single adults who treasure simplicity. Evidently, Smartphones outsmarted them and even Basic phones were just not compelling enough.

At the other end of the curve, there’s a very interesting segment labeled “Just Smart”. These are people who have never used a Basic Feature Phone and instead have a Smartphone as their first mobile phone. These callers tend to be parents, active Best Buy shoppers, and employed full-time in larger companies. As might be expected, this group is relatively young, with over half being age 25-44. What might not be expected; this segment has a relatively low share of age 18-24 users.

In the coming year, MetaFacts expects a continued and turbulent replacement environment as carriers and mobile operating systems compete with each other for the most active Smartphone users. The majority of the market is likely to continue its relatively slower migration to Smartphones. Each segment is likely to be further splintered by user’s varied attention on other devices than “traditional” for their calls, music, ebook reading, communication, and images.

Source

The findings in this TUPdate are drawn from the MetaFacts Technology User Profile Survey. In each wave of Technology User Profile, we survey a representative sample of respondents about their use of mobile phones, computers, technology attitudes, and many other consumer electronics products and services, behavioral and socioeconomic factors. Current TUP subscribers can access and drill down more deeply into this phenomenon using TUP Interactive Access or with their datasets.

We began the above analysis by first looking at the answers from over 8,100 respondents in the Technology User Profile service and then drilled down further into their profiles to get a more complete picture.

To see other research coverage of Internet products and activities – from smartphones to feature phones, desktops to notebooks, social networking, demographics, and attitudes – see the many other questions TUP answers on www.technologyuser.com. Tech market research professionals can license direct access to TUP.

The MetaFacts Technology User Profile Overview Edition report is available immediately on www.metafactsstore.com, which covers the broader range of key trends. View findings in 25 pages of executive summary analysis, 200+ pages of charts and graphs, all supported by 95+ pages of detailed tables. The complete, 300+ page report is delivered to you electronically.

About TUPdates

MetaFacts releases ongoing syndicated original research on the market shifts, trends and consumer profiles for Smartphones, Netbooks, Mobile PCs, Workplace PCs, Home PCs, Web Creators, Broadband, and many other technology products and services. These TUPdates are short analytical articles in a series of specific topics utilizing the Technology User Profile Annual Edition study, which reveals the changing patterns of technology adoption around the world. Interested technology professionals can sign up at www.metafacts.com for complimentary TUPdates – periodic snapshots of technology markets.

About MetaFacts

MetaFacts helps technology marketers find and measure their best and future customers. MetaFacts’ Technology User Profile (TUP) survey is the longest-running, large-scale comprehensive study of its kind, conducted continuously since 1983, the year before Apple released the Apple Macintosh. The detailed results are a primary market sizing and segmentation resource for leading companies providing consumer-oriented technology products and services, such as PCs, printers, software applications, peripherals, consumer electronics, mobile computing, and related services and products. TUP analyzes key trends and the data-rich source can be dived into more deeply for custom analysis. For more information about the syndicated research service, analysis tools, publications and datasets, contact MetaFacts at 1-760-635-4300.

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