What tech consumers are actually doing with technology – current MetaFacts TUP/Technology User Profile research results
How many employees use their home PC for work? How is this different depending on the employer’s industry? We addressed this question with the most recent wave of MetaFacts TUP/Technology User Profile 2020.
Continue reading “Employees across industries using home PCs for work [MetaFAQs]”Where do Chromebooks and MacBooks stand in the workplace? How far have they made inroads? Do Windows notebooks dominate in every industry? How does this vary by the employee’s vertical market? This MetaFAQs reports on the active use of a Windows notebook, Apple MacBook, or a Chromebook among employed adults by the major industry group of their employer.
Continue reading “Industry notebooks – Windows dominate, MacBooks solid #2, few Chromebooks [MetaFAQs]”Chromebooks have been offered as a low-cost alternative to full-featured Windows and Apple notebooks. One often-cited segment includes students and their parents. This MetaFAQs looks into the active installed base of Chromebooks among parents in the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, and China.
Continue reading “Chromebooks make a tiny dent with parents [MetaFAQs]”
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst
Who can quantify the pride or commitment of a parent? On social networks, I often see a parent sharing their happiness about their child reaching an educational milestone.
One measure of parental pride, dedication, or support could include the investment they make in tools to help their children grow and learn. Technology spending among adults with children continues to increase, and especially so among those with younger school-age children.
As released in our most recent wave of Technology User Profile – TUP 2017 US – our research shows that spending on home technology devices and services has increased both in volume and breadth. The number of Connected Adults with school-age children has grown, and so has their average tech spending. In TUP 2015, we found that 72.5 million Connected Adults were in households with Children. That grew to 81.2 million, as ascertained in our TUP 2017 wave.
The average (mean) annual amount spent on technology devices and services is strikingly stronger for households with children than for those without children. The average annual tech spend increased from $7.4k to nearly $11k within only the last two years – from the TUP 2015 to TUP 2017 survey. During this same time, homes without children increased their tech spending, although the growth has not been as substantial. Among adults with no children, average spending rose from $5.9k to $6.7k over those three study years.
Drilling down into the TUP data just a little deeper, I noticed a more interesting difference among households with children in their tech spending. Homes with younger school-age children (age 6-11) are spending the most on home technology devices and services. Meanwhile, households with either the oldest or the youngest children have increased spending, although not by as many dollars.
While not all home technology is being bought solely for the use of kids, there’s a strong association. For example, more than one-in five (22%) adults with children in their household specifically print items for children/teen education.
Also, Connected Adults with school-age children (6-17) are 20% or more likely than the average to be using a Home All-in-One PC, Apple Home Mac, or Home Tablet.
Looking ahead
Parents have been some of the biggest tech spenders for decades, and this recent increase in investment bodes well for the tech market as well as for the next wave of children. Each successive generation has become more comfortable with and reliant on technology devices and services. I expect this momentum to continue as each new generation of new parents uses what they know to support their children’s education and future.
Source
The information in this TUPdate is based on the three most recent waves of Technology User Profile (TUP) – the TUP 2015, 2016, and 2017 waves into the US. Current TUP subscribers can tap into these and additional similar results about adults with children in the UK, Germany, China, and India. For more information about MetaFacts and subscribing to TUP, please contact MetaFacts.
Some industries tend to be the first to adopt new information technology, while others tend to be laggards. Others leapfrog over each other, coordinating massive efforts to get current and compliant with the latest technology, only to have it outpace their initiatives.
One telling measure is the version of Operating Systems on employee’s Work PC.
Nearly three-quarters (73%) of employees in Government are using PCs with Windows 8 or older. This ranks Government as last. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds (63%) of Government employee’s computers are using Windows 7 or older.
The 2nd and 3rd-ranked industries as OS Laggards are Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Higher Education.
In the decades of our research, we’ve seen that some industries perennially behave different than others, specifically Government and Education. These have their own seasons when they are are buying and when they aren’t. Also, these particular industry often have a more centralized approach to acquiring and managing tech products and services than many other industries. Also, higher educational institutions in the public eye have a fiduciary responsibility to the public that encourages transparent cost-justification and longer life cycles. Other industries often invest in the newest technology as a competitive advantage.
We don’t expect any industry to change overnight due to release of technology. Inertia itself doesn’t change quickly. Instead, we expect technology companies such as Microsoft to continue adapting their vertically-focused efforts to help guide these industries into the future.
About this MetaFAQ
In addition to profiling the operating systems and PCs of employees, many other related answers are part of the TUP service, available to paid subscribers. One section of TUP 2016 which includes extensive results about printers, printer users, and printing activities – the TUP 2016 Printers chapter. This is one of more than a dozen chapters in the entire TUP 2016 study.
These MetaFAQs are brought to you by MetaFacts, based on research results from the most-recent wave of TUP/Technology User Profile.
For more information about MetaFacts and subscribing to TUP, please contact MetaFacts.
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