Busiest PC Users Are Single Young Males

The Busiest PC Users Are Busy Juggling Devices, Not Focusing

A MetaFacts TUPdate by Dan Ness, Principal Analyst

The busiest PC users are not only busy in hours; they spend a lot of time moving from one PC to another and also between other devices.

This is important because for years, various pundits have foreseen the widespread abandonment of PCs for smartphones, tablets, or other emerging devices. In fact, just the opposite is happening.

Averaging 2.9 PCs, more of the busiest PC users use Home PCs, Work PCs, and Shared/Public PCs than less-active users. Their Desktop usage rate shows this is the main type of PCs used, similar to less-busy users. Their use of Notebook PCs is higher than among other users, although still behind Desktop use.

Almost nine out of ten (86%) of the busiest PC users use two or more PCs, and over half (54%) use three or more PCs.

For this analysis, MetaFacts identifies the busiest PC users as those who spend 60 or more hours per week across all the PCs they use within a 90 day period. This hyperactive group numbers 33.5 million adults, for almost one in five (19%) of online adults.

Why is this important?

Popular media and many recent product launches might leave the impression that PCs have been replaced by smartphones, tablets, and netbooks. However, media attention changes faster than actual usage.

It’s unlikely the busiest PC users will give up their PCs for Smartphones anytime soon. Even the busiest PC users who have Smartphones use their PCs for more activities than the busiest users with basic mobile phones.

While communication activities might seem like the most natural challenger in a one-device scenario, in fact communication PC activities are the second-highest category of activities for the busiest PC users.

The busiest PC users are also the most active with their mobile phones – both Smartphones and Basic Mobile Phones. A higher share of the busiest PC users use their phones for text messaging, email, calendars, playing games, and web browsing than other PC users.

That the busiest PC users are accumulators of multiple devices is probably helped by their physical demographic – young and male. Also, marital status is correlated, although we wouldn’t go so far as to say there is a causal link in either direction. Over four in ten (41%) of the busiest PC users are single, versus 30% of the least-busy PC users.

It’s also telling by what the busiest PC users don’t do – watch much TV. Three in four (75%) of the busiest PC users say they use their PC more than watching TV versus 41% of the least busy. Fun is a key motivation, where 72% of the busiest say they keep finding new ways to use the Internet for fun vs. 42% of the least-busy.

The above analysis is based on people who use PCs to go online, which is the majority. Looking a little more deeply into the possibility of a sizable market being missed, our 1st phase offline survey helped us determine that 14.9% of adults use a mobile phone and do not actively use a PC to go online. While this mobile-phone-only segment has grown, most growth has come from the fully-offline segment. The 5.5% of adults who do not use a mobile phone or online PC at all are slowly shrinking, particularly as handset prices drop and carriers offer prepaid plans.

For the next five years, MetaFacts expects the busiest technology accumulators to continue to use multiple PCs in addition to mobile phones and other devices, and not to fully quit PC use. Since nearly half (46%) of the busiest users have used a PC for 13 or more years, versus the one-third (34%) of the least-busy who are similarly experienced, they are likely to master cloud-based storage and synchronization services to keep their content accessible as they traverse between their various platforms. In this multi-screen world, developers and services will need to support a wide variety of platforms, many of which may not be the newest technology or operating systems.

Looking ahead, the busiest users will likely be noticed by how aptly they can juggle their various and many devices.

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 nearly 10,000 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.

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.

Extensive solid information about multi-platform usage shifts–who accesses what technology, and where and how they do it–is available in TUP – Technology User Profile.

As consumers’ options for communication, entertainment, and organization grow, one thing seems to stay the same:  change. The more choices that choosy consumers have, the more choices they want, and if they can get it all in one package–even better. But that may not mean that smartphones are replacing PCs–when you can have all the options in one place, certain consumers prefer a few devices to choose between.

Below are a few examples of questions addressed in TUP related to the multi-platform reality. The full TUP service enables drilling down beyond the answers to these questions to identify which other technologies, services and behaviors are disruptive and to profile which market segments are and aren’t adopting. TUP is much more than a one-dimensional market view or opinion piece, since it provides dynamic data to answer the following key questions, as well as many others.

• Is the smartphone killing PC shopping?
• Which segments are keeping their files, calendars, or other information synchronized or backed up online?
• How are users communicating, given all their communication options?
• Primacy – what is the center of the user’s world? Their home PC, work PC, mobile phone? Is it one device or many?
• How many screens do people view? Which market segments view more screens than other segments?
• Are PC users primarily accessing the Internet at home, in the workplace, using friends or neighbor’s computers, or in public places such as libraries or cybercafés? Which users use other’s PCs and which have many to choose from? Are smartphones or netbooks changing this?
• What is the mix of communication products and services – landline, wireless, email, IM, etc. – by segment?
• Who is videoconferencing, and using which platform?
• Which segments are the most music-intensive? What is the overlap of music-centered products and services by segment?
• To what extent does game-playing drive online usage specifically and tech usage overall?
• How many and which segments are watching and renting movies on which platforms?
• Netbooks – how soon and with which market segments?
• Multitasking – who’s using lots of devices for lots of apps, few devices many apps, etc.?
• What is the impact on privacy in use of social networking?
• Who is using mobile payments?
• How have PC/Online & Mobile Phone activities changed? How might this affect apps?
• Do game players bring their gaming with them into the workplace? To what extent? Which market segment does this the most?
• Who are the true early adopters and laggards? How does this vary by actual usage of specific products and technologies?
• Which smartphone OS is leading, and with which market segments?
• How much have PC users integrated PCs into their personal lives?
• What do most people do with their mobile phone as compared to their PC? Which align with which platforms?
• What do users sync or store in the cloud? How does this differ between mobile phones and PCs? How do users share images – social networking sites or photo-specific sites? Which users are the most active?
• When do you grow up and give up on your Apple? When do get one again, if you do?
• Who’s busiest – desktop users or notebook users? How do their profiles differ?
• Netbooks – are they replacing notebooks? Stalling smartphones? Withering?
• Which segments are using which devices & carriers? For which activities?
• Age-related market adoption – which products and services are age-skewed? Which are skewed toward older rather than younger users?
• Who is buying the highest-end PCs? Are there brand differences? What else do users buy and what else do they use?
• What other activities are just outside the box for gamers? Online dating? Social Networking? Music? Movies? Entertainment in general?
• Most-mobile customers – where do they go and what do they do?
• iPhone users – who are they really? How do they compare with Android, Windows, and Blackberry users?
• Entertainment primacy – what is the center of the user’s home entertainment world? Is it one device or many?
• Which devices and services, and among which segments?
• What types and combinations of consumer electronics are homes using and planning to use?
• In reality, how deeply has the Apple iPod penetrated the market, and into which market segments?
• How many people use calendars on their PC, their mobile phone, or both? Which types of people are these?
• How are smartphones challenging mobile PCs? Which market segments are coalescing around which platforms?
• Is email being replaced by alternatives such as social networking, texting, or IM?
• How prominent is Home PC renting versus outright purchase?
• Have game-players been the first to adopt new products such as the Apple iPhone? Or, are they generally later adopters?
• Is it really one to a customer? How often are PCs shared? Which market segments use more than one PC?
• What are the overall future trends for the Internet?
• How has the division of work vs. personal use of technology products continued to blur?
• Which tech buyers focus more on retail than shopping online and vice versa?
• Which operating systems dominate within which segments?
• How much of the game-playing population is older versus younger?
• Special printer paper? Who uses it and what for? Is it only photos, or something else?
• How are users incorporating digital images, through the use of digital cameras, scanners, downloading images, as well as how are they producing output?
• What makes a smartphone a smartphone in the consumer’s eyes? How does usage compare to basic mobile phones? What are the user segments?
• Which market segments are dating online? What else do they frequently do online?
• What about the anti-social – those that aren’t in an online social network? Who are they?
• How does the life and lifespan of a PC vary by form factor? Does it vary by brand? By user segment?
• How prominent is printing images from mobile phones?
• Tech adoption cycles may not be as fast as the tech-focused think. How many and which users still use film cameras?
• Which segments are utilizing the cloud? For which activities?
• Navigation, online maps, location-based mobile phone services, and GPS – who’s getting directions?
• Are mobile computers used longer or shorter than desktops? If so, what’s the difference, and who uses them longest?
• What are consumers planning to buy? (in consumer electronics, connected home, computers, Internet, etc.)
• How much is assisted navigation part of life – and on which platform?
• Do users find their PCs to be more useful or less useful? Which users are the most practically-oriented?
• How tech-experienced are game-players?
• Which market segments are renting movies? Are they renting DVDs at a retailer, by mail, or at a kiosk? Do they watch them online?
• What happens to old PCs? Are they dumped? Recycled? Sold? Which segments dispose in which way?
• What are the major activities that people do with their printers?
• What is the tech-owning profile of active gamers? High-bandwidth or dial-up? Many consumer electronics entertainment products or focused on gaming? Many computers or few? How does this vary by segment?
• How rich is the user’s printing experience? Do they use only one printer or more than one? For multi-printer users, which ones do they use? Who are the most-active printer users?
• Do PC users behave differently as they gain more experience? Are Newbies or Vets mostly focusing on certain activities versus a broad mixture?
• How do the market segments of mobile phone platforms vary?
• How social-network active are the various tiers of gamers?
• How central is game-playing to the general population? How about within certain key market segments?

If solid answers any of these questions would help your work in creating the future, please contact MetaFacts.

MetaFacts, Inc. helps technology marketers find and measure their best and future customers.

Current subscribers of Technology User Profile may obtain this information directly from MetaFacts, as well as additional customized drilling down into the full dataset.

For more information on the results delivered in TUP and about how to subscribe, please contact MetaFacts.

The above questions are answered with the TUP 2010 edition, and even more questions are answered in the TUP 2011 edition.

It’s been decades since Marvin Gaye “heard it through the grapevine,” and there are more “grapevines” today than you can shake a stick at.  It’s important to know which one your target audience uses–social networking, email, texting?  Do they grab their cellphone or type a text or email? How do they combine or trade off these modes of communication? TUP’s research gives you demographic and market details that might easily be overlooked, and that can be the difference between having a well-defined market or missing out.

Below are a few examples of questions addressed in TUP related to communication. The full TUP service enables drilling down beyond the answers to these questions to identify which other technologies, services and behaviors are disruptive and to profile which market segments are and aren’t adopting. TUP is much more than a one-dimensional market view or opinion piece, since it offers ready, solid answers to the following and many other key questions.

• What is the mix of communication products and services – landline, wireless, email, IM, etc. – by segment?
• Who is videoconferencing, and using which platform?
• What makes a smartphone a smartphone in the consumer’s eyes? How does usage compare to basic mobile phones? What are the user segments?
• How do the market segments of mobile phone platforms vary?
• How are users communicating, given all their communication options?
• Is email dying because of ads? Being replaced by alternatives such as social networking, texting, or IM?
• iPhone users – who are they really? How do they compare with Android, Windows and Blackberry users?
• How do ad volumes affect usage?
• How many screens do people view? Which market segments view more screens than other segments?
• How are smartphones challenging mobile PCs? Which market segments are coalescing around which platforms?
• Are PC users primarily accessing the Internet at home, in the workplace, using friends or neighbor’s computers, or in public places such as libraries or cybercafés? Which users use other’s PCs and which have many to choose from? Are smartphones or netbooks changing this?
• Netbooks – are they replacing notebooks? Stalling smartphones? Withering?
• Primacy – what is the center of the user’s world? Their home PC, work PC, mobile phone? Is it one device or many?
• Which smartphone OS is leading, and with which market segments?
• What is the impact on privacy in use of social networking?
• Which segments are using which devices & carriers? For which activities?
• What about the anti-social – those that aren’t in an online social network? Who are they?
• Most-mobile customers – where do they go and what do they do?
• How much have PC users integrated PCs into their personal lives?
• How do Verizon’s subscribers compare to AT&T’s?
• Entertainment primacy – what is the center of the user’s home entertainment world? Is it one device or many? Which devices and services, and among which segments?
• How has the division of work vs. personal use of technology products continued to blur?
• Which social networking sites are used most frequently by which segments?
• Multitasking – who’s using lots of devices for lots of apps, few devices many apps, etc.?
• Which market segments are blogging? How do they compare to social networkers?
• Is social networking only for certain age groups?
• Have game-players been the first to adopt new products such as the Apple iPhone? Or, are they generally later adopters?
• How have PC/Online & Mobile Phone activities changed? How might this affect apps?
• Age-related market adoption – which products and services are age-skewed? Which are skewed toward older rather than younger users?
• Which segments have recently paid for a downloaded mobile phone app?
• How do countries vary in demand opportunities for tech products and services?
• In reality, how deeply has the Apple iPod penetrated the market, and into which market segments?
• Which segments are keeping their files, calendars, or other information synchronized or backed up online?
• Which tech buyers focus more on retail than shopping online and vice versa?
• What are the overall future trends for the Internet?
• Do PC users behave differently as they gain more experience? Are Newbies or Vets mostly focusing on certain activities versus a broad mixture?
• Special printer paper? Who uses it and what for? Is it only photos, or something else?
• Who are the true early adopters and laggards? How does this vary by actual usage of specific products and technologies?
• How prominent is printing images from mobile phones?
• Which activities are different for dial-up than broadband? What’s driving bandwidth needs?
• Who is buying the highest-end PCs? Are there brand differences? What else do users buy and what else do they use?
• What do users sync or store in the cloud? How does this differ between mobile phones and PCs? How do users share images – social networking sites or photo-specific sites? Which users are the most active?
• How many seniors are online? How is their behavior different than younger online users?
• Tech adoption cycles may not be as fast as the tech-focused think. How many and which users still use film cameras?
• What do most people do with their mobile phone as compared to their PC? Which align with which platforms?
• Do users find their PCs to be more useful or less useful? Which users are the most practically-oriented?
• Who’s busiest – desktop users or notebook users? How do their profiles differ?
• Which market segments are dating online? What else do they frequently do online?
• How many and which segments are watching and renting movies on which platforms?
• Netbooks – how soon and with which market segments?
• What other activities are just outside the box for gamers? Online dating? Social Networking? Music? Movies? Entertainment in general?
• How rich is the user’s printing experience? Do they use only one printer or more than one? For multi-printer users, which ones do they use? Who are the most-active printer users?
• What are the most common documents (maps, spreadsheets, photos, etc.) that consumers print on their ink-jet printers? How about their laser printers?
• How social-network active are the various tiers of gamers?
• Which segments are utilizing the cloud? For which activities?
• How are users incorporating digital images, through the use of digital cameras, scanners, downloading images, as well as how are they producing output?

If solid answers any of these questions would help your work in creating the future, please contact MetaFacts.

MetaFacts, Inc. helps technology marketers find and measure their best and future customers.

Current subscribers of the Technology User Profile Global Insights Edition may obtain this information directly from MetaFacts, as well as additional customized drilling down into the full dataset.

For more information on the results delivered in TUP and about how to subscribe, please contact MetaFacts.

The above questions are answered with the TUP 2010 edition, and even more questions are answered in the TUP 2011 edition.

Attracting and serving future generations has been a persistent part of Apple’s strategy, and that might be needed in the present, although towards an even-younger audience. The almost-there untapped-market of households without Apples that are already frequenting Apple retail stores includes a disproportionately-high concentration of kids. In non-Apple households shopping at Apple retail stores, over one-fourth (28%) have kids age 7 to 12, and 29% have kids 6 and under. That’s nearly double the rate among Apple households, at 16% and 15%, respectively.

One other mildly positive sign for Apple’s future: A fair number of non-Apple households shop at the Apple website. 7% of non-Apple households have recently shopped online with Apple, compared with 24% of Apple households. Although this non-Apple number is not huge, it’s noticeable. Apple is making many efforts beyond personal computing to drive traffic to its sites, stores, and brand. Beyond personal computers, this ranges from iPhones to iPods.

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No, it’s not as if parents coming home from the hospital have an operating system bundled with the baby. Nor is it that kids are getting Vista on the schoolyard. Not exactly, that is. Computers do play an increasing role in younger student’s studies as well as game-playing. Elsewhere in this report and Technology User Profile, we’ve shared that an increasing number of households have multiple PCs, and that many are being used in children’s bedrooms.

Two out of five (42%) Vista households have children in the home. The age of the child does not seem to matter whether the household has upgraded to Vista. Whether they are teens, tots, or some combination, the presence of children appears to drive the need or desire to upgrade to Vista.

One-third (33%) of Older Window Households do not have children. A quarter (23%) of Older Window Households have retired family members.

Half (48%) of the households that have at least one Apple PC are made up of two people without children. Four out of ten (38%) are households with two people and children, while one in ten (14%) are households of one person.

Long-term and near-term, a child-divide is not great for Apple. Larger households simply mean there’s a greater opportunity for more computer-using customers and the chance for Apple to expand not only its loyalty, but also its legacy.

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Other findings in the MetaFacts Operating Systems Profile Report include:

• Operating System Landscape
  • Multi-PC and Multi-OS Households
• Home Operating Systems and Demographics
  • Having children in the household does make a difference for Vista
  • Household employment and operating system
  • Education level and operating system within the household
  • Annual household income and operating system
  • People age 18-34 are using more Apple primary home PCs than older people
• Purchase Channels
  • Apple gets a bigger share of direct sales than Windows PCs
• PC Brands & Operating Systems
  • New PC brands bought by operating system
  • Total installed base for all primary home PCs shows some movement from the big brands in the new PC market
• Changes in PC Form Factors – Laptops are coming on strong as new primary PC form factor
• How Different Operating Systems are Used Differently
  • Email is the most frequent activity of users on all primary home PCs
  • New primary home PC user activities
• Operating Systems and Other Consumer Electronics
  • Handheld device use and operating system of the household
  • Imaging behavior and household operating system
  • Television viewing habits and operating system in the household
  • Convenience is the key for households that have at least one Apple Home PC
  • Some Older Windows Households are planning to upgrade while still taking advantage of older technology
• Technology Attitudes and Operating Systems
  • Attitudes of adult PC users vary with operating system

MetaFacts releases ongoing research on the market shifts and profiles for Windows Vista, Mobile PCs, Workplace PCs, Home PCs, Broadband, Digital Imaging, and many other technology industry topics. These Profile Reports are in a series on specific topics utilizing the Technology User Profile Annual Edition study, which reveals the changing patterns of technology adoption and use in American households and businesses. Interested technology professionals can sign up at www.metafacts.com for complimentary TUPdates, periodic snapshots of technology markets.

About MetaFacts

MetaFacts, Inc. is a national market research firm focusing exclusively on the technology industries. MetaFacts’ Technology User Profile 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 widely recognized as a primary marketing resource for Fortune 1000 companies providing consumer-oriented technology products and services, such as PCs, printers, peripherals, mobile computing, and related services and products. For more information, contact MetaFacts at 1-760-635-4300 or www.metafacts.com