What tech consumers are actually doing with technology – current MetaFacts TUP/Technology User Profile research results
Tablets are made to be mobile, but are they being used that way? Have tablets made inroads into the workplace or schools? This MetaFAQs reports on the locations that tablets are being used among online adults in three countries and over five years.
Continue reading “The mobility of tablets [MetaFAQs]”Notebooks have continued their long march into widespread use, fueled by the desire to get things done regardless of location. The years-long drive towards mobility continues. However, users have shown that notebooks are not their only choice to support their mobility fix. Even while notebooks have continued to be made thinner, lighter, faster, and less expensive, users have adopted other mobile devices. Smartphones have reached around 85% of online adults in the US, Germany, and the UK, surpassing notebook penetration.
Users have not embraced smartphones as a full substitute for notebooks, preferring certain activities using their notebooks or desktops. However, over the last five years, users have migrated many of their regular PC activities to smartphones, one by one and unceasingly.
Nor have users adopted tablets as notebook substitutes. Several years ago, tablets posed a growing challenge, although they have since seen reduced active market penetration. Part of this decline has been due to users choosing to use fewer devices to simplify their lives. Another dampening factor has been by carriers giving less attention to tablets. Since most users choose tablets connected through Wi-Fi over built-in cellular connections (with additional subscriptions), carriers are less interested in promoting them.
Continue reading “Notebooks midmost in mobility [TUPdate]”Smartphones, tablets, and notebooks are all mobile devices, and yet a desire for mobility alone does not mean that online adults will actively use all three. This MetaFAQs looks at the penetration of at least one actively-used smartphone, notebook, or tablet among online adults in the US, Germany, the UK, and Japan.
Continue reading “More mobility does not mean more mobile devices [MetaFAQs]”Mobile computing means much more than being able to work or play while traveling. Despite travel restrictions and worldwide stay-at-home orders during the pandemic, mobile computers reign as the most popular home computer. Well over half (57%) of online adults use a home notebook, compared to 46% using at least one home desktop. MetaFacts surveyed online adults in six countries for the 2020 wave of TUP/Technology User Profile: the US, UK, Germany, China, Japan, and India. Notebook use is strongest in Japan (72% of online adults) and Germany (67%), and the lightest in the US (50%).
Continue reading “Home notebooks – stuck at home and getting things done [TUPdate]”
Inexorable Device Trends – Beyond the Niche, Fad, and Fizzle – a TUPdate by Dan Ness, March 10, 2017
It can be exciting to see the hockey-stick charts, with everything up and to the right. It’s important to put the numbers into context, though, through a more grounded analysis of the active installed base. Yes, Apple’s long-climb into broader use of their triumvirate is substantial, Smartphones are quickly replacing basic cell phones, and PCs and Printers persist. Their market size confirms their importance.
We humans are wired to notice change. Our very eyes send more information about motion than background. While life-saving should tigers head our way, this capability can be our undoing if we miss gradual changes, like the slithering snake in the grass creeping towards us. Watching an installed base of technology has some parallels. For some, it can seem as if nothing is really changing even while important shifts are taking place.
For over 35 years, I have tracked technology usage trends and profiles, all calibrated by watching customers through surveys such as our Metafacts Technology User Profile. Among other truisms, I’ve seen that true technology trends aren’t sudden. Solid trends are the summation of the habits, preferences, and activities of millions of technology users. They’re inescapable, inexorable, and years in the making. Trends become truly important when they’ve spread beyond being a niche, fad, or fizzle, and reached beyond those first few early adopters.
In this analysis, I’m diving into several key broad dominant trends in technology device usage across American adults. In separate analyses, I’ll drill deeper into the next level of TUP data, revealing which market segments are making the most decisive changes. Continue reading “Inexorable Device Trends – Beyond the Niche, Fad, and Fizzle”
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