by | July 15, 2011

Early Independent Research on Google+ Users

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.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Consumer research, Households, Market Research, Market Segmentation, Statistics, Technology, TUPdate

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | June 3, 2011

The Busiest PC Users Are Busy Juggling Devices Not Focusing

Busiest PC Users Are Single Young Males

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.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Consumer research, Market Research, Market Segmentation, Mobile Phones, Multiple-PC Household, Technology User Overview Report, Trends, TUP 2010, TUPdate

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | May 25, 2011

Early Adopters Don’t Always Act Their Age in the U.S. or Elsewhere

A MetaFacts TUPdate by Dan Ness, Principal Analyst

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.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Tech Market, Trends, TUP 2009, TUPdate

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | May 6, 2011

Are Rental PCs a Clue to the Next Big Thing in Technology?

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.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Consumer research, Households, Market Research, Market Segmentation, Technology User Overview Report, Trends, TUP 2010, TUPdate

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 28, 2011

Are Smartphones really for fun, not communicating?

Are Smartphones really for fun, not communicating?

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.

1 Comment

Filed under Market Research, MetaFAQs, Mobile Phones, Technology, Technology User Overview Report, TUP 2010, TUPdate

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,