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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

Google+ Adoption - preliminary results from MetaFacts

Early Independent Research on Google+ Users

By Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts

The earliest adopters of Google+ are a unique slice of highly-active socially-networked users.

Early results are showing a good-news/bad-news combination for Google+:

• Bad news: Early Google+ users are above average among social networkers who have recently unfriended someone, removed content, and adjusted their privacy settings. They are well below average in friending someone, not a very bullish sign.
• Good news: Early Google+ users are also above average among social networkers in clicking ads, RSVP’ing events, playing games, sharing photos, and watching videos

Unlike the launch of Google Buzz, which brought privacy concerns to the fore, Google+, even privacy-adjusters to be trying out Google+, at least so far.

Evidently, Google+ controlled its “field trial” launch, inviting and allowing in a carefully selected audience. Over half are highly experienced tech users, with 16 or more years under their belt since they used their first PC, and 12 or more years using a mobile phone (smartphone or basic feature phone).

In the coming year, it’s unlikely to see an either/or scenario between Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. Instead, the most-active social networkers will simply expand their experience, influence, and content across an ever-wider network. The privacy-conscious and ad-averse are likely to remain in the shadows or with minimal involvement. Up for grabs is the largest middle segment, and this group is most likely to wait and watch for a simple and safe experience which piques their interest. This will come in the form of competitive apps on Facebook, extensions to Twitter, or further innovation from Google.

Background and Methodology

Google+ came live shortly before the fielding of the 29th year of the MetaFacts Technology Survey, so we expanded the comprehensive user survey to include Google+ along with other social networks.

The Technology User Profile survey is independently conducted by MetaFacts. The syndicated research original service provides solid sizing and segmentation information about technology use, uniquely allowing for deep dives into use of competitive and substitute products as well as interactive segmentation and profiling.

Based on surveys with thousands of representative respondents reached by telephone and online, the MetaFacts Technology User Profile Service survey the entire range of information technology users. The full market is surveyed, from those with the richest collection of products such as Smartphones to Tablets and Netbooks, to those who don’t even use a mobile phone or PC.

Soon we will be releasing key takeways about the earliest adopters for the new service. Watch this site – technologyuser.com – for brief, complimentary updates. For full details, a special Google+ Flash Report will also be available at a special rate. Send a request to be notified of availability. Subscribers to the 2011 Technology User Profile services will receive updates directly.

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.

Are Americans really a nation of early adopters? Are early adopters mostly age 18-24 in the U.S. and other countries? While Americans pride themselves on many forward-thinking attributes, it is not ranked first for early PC adopters compared with many developed and developing countries.

Think back to how old you were the first time you used a personal computer. If you are American and were 17 or younger, then you’re in the youngest 21% of American early adopters and ranked 10th among 16 major countries. As an under-18 adopter in Brazil, you’re less unique, being in the same group as 31% of today’s Brazilian online adults, and ranked 1st for youthful PC adoption. If you were 26 and Italian, Australian, or Saudi Arabian, then you were younger than average in your country.

There are many reasons that some countries have a higher share of young first-time PC users than other countries. One element is how evenly income is distributed, as shown by measures such as the Gini coefficient. Countries such as Brazil and Mexico have a similar distribution of income today as they had when PCs were becoming widely available there in the 1980’s, so today’s wealthier adults were most often in wealthy families which had better access to technology. There are also cultural differences, some of which encourage younger people to use technology for their education or economic future. Other cultures may discourage youngsters from using technology, such as for their safety and privacy. Saudi Arabia is affected by this cultural preference, even though its wealthiest citizens are still the strongest adopters.

South Korea is at the latest end of the age-adoption spectrum. On first glance, this may seem counterintuitive to Korea-watchers, since South Korea has enacted and maintained national policy to narrow its digital divide and to get its population online and connected to the Internet. In fact, in doing so, South Korea leapfrogged many other countries in the speed and breadth of its citizens’ connectivity. However, since this was enacted relatively recently, it accelerated the adoption rate among adults in the workplace, and to some degree less among younger children in homes.

Why is this important?

Assuming that early adopters are all young Millennial Gen Y or Gen Z oversimplifies the market and misses the mark. Experience matters, since tech-savvy users make different decisions than relative newbies, particularly when correcting for age.

The age of first PC use as well as the years of usage tell a lot about the person’s experience, with the past pointing the way toward their likeliest future choices. After all, someone who has gone through 10 versions of Microsoft Windows (including Millennium Edition) will have a different perspective than a similarly-aged first-time PC user.

In conducting factor analysis with the Technology User Profile datasets, MetaFacts finds that both earliest age of adoption and length of experience are strong additional factors to explain the variance when predicting the heaviest and lightest consumers of new information technology and consumer electronics products and services. These factors are in addition to other other more standard demographics. In other words, likelihood to adopt new technology is not only about youth; early adopters are more likely to act like early adopters even as they age.

This has implications for any tech marketers seeking a more effective path than the simplified approach of focusing marketing primarily to certain younger age groups. The first implication is to lower the risk of wasting resources with misdirected energy. Another implication is that new & stronger markets may emerge beyond the stereotypical young adopter as early adopter, leading to even more effective results.

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 30,889 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.

Rent to Own-Storefront look familiar?

A MetaFacts TUPdate by Dan Ness, Principal Analyst

Consumers continue to shape the future of technology with their pocketbooks, whether by outright purchase or payment plans. PC renting is not currently widespread among most U.S. consumers, with only 1% of American online adults using a rented home PC. If considered much at all by the digerati, it is considered passé or fringe.

However, looking ahead, consumer usage patterns are trending towards the pay-as-you-go or the ad-supported model, and with a new definition of PCs and devices as the preferred platform(s): whether called Smartphone, Laptop, Tablet, Netbook, Mobile, or otherwise.

Today’s PC rental business might be called opportunistic, socially beneficial, or predatory, depending on your perspective. Americans renting PCs skew towards younger adults – particularly those PC Newbies who have used a PC less than a quarter of their life – as well as skewing towards adults not employed full-time. Also, evidently, PC renting is biased towards people of color: with rental rates higher among adults who identify with a racial/ethnic group other than White/Non-Hispanic.

Interestingly, these same segments are stronger than average in their use of Smartphones or Basic Mobile Phones as their primary or only browsing, email, and Twitter platforms, as well as the broadening use of prepaid cellular plans. This signals that these consumer segments are likely the earliest adopters of new financial models – not the mythical early adopters stereotypically portrayed as affluent, highly-educated youngsters.

Recently, attention on the rental PC business has increased due to the controversial practices of some rental retailers. The major furniture rental chain Aaron’s was named in a federal lawsuit. Some rental companies, allegedly including some Aaron’s outlets or franchisees, have protected their equipment through the use of remotely activated webcams or tracking software, to the consternation of unwitting renters. Privacy and security issues are looming as important factors following large breaches spanning credit cards, health records, Sony PlayStations, passwords and WikiLeaks documents, only to name a few.

The pay-as-you-go approach has done well for the cable TV and wireless phone businesses, if not for PC manufacturers or PDA makers. Wireless carrier subsidies are increasingly driving the decisions of consumer technology manufacturers, a factor arguably contributing to Palm being driven from their business model prior to being acquired by Hewlett Packard.

In addition to this pay-now/pay-later balance, consumers also position platforms along the BOB-Integrated spectrum. The BOB – Best Of Breed – end of the spectrum features products which do one or few functions very well. One example is a standalone GPS device which gives directions extremely well. The other end of the spectrum: Integrated or Swiss Army Knife – features broadly functional devices which do many things adequately. An example is a Smartphone navigation app, which may not have a full function set or may be compromised due to simultaneous use for incoming messages and music or as a timepiece. Most interestingly, consumers find ways to adapt their behavior in ways that are out of synch with the intentions of the product designers, in some cases using on a fraction of a product’s capability while at other times finding new uses for products beyond their expected design.

Looking ahead, MetaFacts expects continued turmoil and changes as each segment of consumers decide their own favorite device or platform striking a balance of BOB vs. integrated, with choices being affected in part by heightened security and privacy concerns and in part by the underlying payment model.

Source

The results in this TUPdate are drawn from the MetaFacts Technology User Profile Survey. In our most recent wave of Technology User Profile, we surveyed American adults about their use of mobile phones, technology attitudes, and many other 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 started this analysis by first looking at the answers from 8,175 U.S. respondents in the Technology User Profile service and then drilled down further into their profiles to get a more complete picture.

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.

These editions are for the U.S. based on the 2010 wave of Technology User Profile gathered among a scrupulously selected set of representative respondents, surveyed both online and offline.

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 who want a solid resource they can use immediately after industry events such as mergers, or even use prior to anticipated events, can license direct access to TUP.

About TUPdates

MetaFacts releases ongoing research on the market shifts and profiles for Smartphones, Netbooks, Mobile PCs, Workplace PCs, Home PCs, Web Creators, Broadband, and many other technology industry trends and facts. 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.

A MetaFacts TUPdate by Dan Ness, Principal Analyst

Are Smartphone subscribers more about fun than communication? Is entertainment that much stronger for Smartphone subscribers than for users of Basic Mobile Phones? Is the lack of a boss key because mobile phone users feel freer to have fun with their handsets than their PCs?

For Smartphone users, it’s not only playing games like Angry Birds that is widespread. Activities such as listening to music, watching movies, and checking sports and weather also are prevalent.

These fun activities are much more popular on Smartphones than on Basic Mobile Phones. For most key entertainment activities, more than three times the rate of Smartphone users find ways to play than the percentage of Basic Mobile Phone users.

Entertainment Activities by Mobile Phone Type-MetaFacts

Playing Games and Listening to Music are activities for more than half of Smartphone users, and for only one-fifth or less of Basic Mobile Phone users.

High-end app developers may be amazed that any Basic Mobile Phone users find ways to use their simpler phones to have any fun at all. That might be considered a glass half-full view, with the prospect that someone eager enough to struggle with the limited games and web access on most Basic Mobile Phones may be a great candidate to switch to a smartphone. The half-empty types may see this as a reality that for many consumers, good enough is good enough. They may be satisfied with simple games for casual play, and may be less prone to upgrade their platform. In either case, this highlights that app developers, handset makers and carriers need to look at the demand across multiple platforms so they don’t miss out on market opportunity or dissatisfy important customers.

Diving a little deeper into the Technology User Profile survey responses, fun is also age-linked. The game-playing rate among age 18-34 mobile phone users is 42% versus half that (21%) among those aged 35+. Although to a great extent, Smartphones have been more strongly adopted among younger than older adults, taking age into account; Smartphone users are simply more fun-oriented than users of Basic Mobile Phones.

Fun isn’t the only driver for Smartphones; communication does rate more highly for Smartphones than for Basic Mobile Phones, with usage broadly spanning phone calls, text messages, voicemail, and email for two-thirds or more of Smartphone users. For Basic Mobile Phone users, only phone calls and text messaging are used by over half of the users.

Looking ahead, bandwidth-hogs such as multi-player games and video calls are likely to drive demand for Smartphones as well as underlying wireless networks. However, as carriers seek to optimize their spectrum and profits, data caps or throttled apps may discourage the most active subscribers. Then, these users will either revert to other devices, or app makers and service providers will find ways to further optimize precious bandwidth, likely increasing supply to satisfy the demand driven by so many consumers.

Source

The results in this TUPdate are drawn from the MetaFacts Technology User Profile Survey. In our most recent wave of Technology User Profile, we surveyed American adults about their use of mobile phones, technology attitudes, and many other 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 started this analysis by first looking at the answers from 8,175 U.S. respondents in the Technology User Profile service and then drilled down further into their profiles to get a more complete picture.

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.

These editions are for the U.S. based on the 2010 wave of Technology User Profile gathered among a scrupulously selected set of representative respondents, surveyed both online and offline.

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 who want a solid resource they can use immediately after industry events such as mergers, or even use prior to anticipated events, can license direct access to TUP.

About TUPdates

MetaFacts releases ongoing research on the market shifts and profiles for Smartphones, Netbooks, Mobile PCs, Workplace PCs, Home PCs, Web Creators, Broadband, and many other technology industry trends and facts. 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.