Entertainment, communication, and smart homes have all evolved beyond requiring typing on a keyboard or sitting near PC speakers. Wearable and hearables have extended a broad range of audible activities further towards a more personal convenience. However, active usage of any wearables or hearables has varied considerably across market segments. While Bluetooth headphones are widespread, VR headsets persist as niche products among a younger, more affluent, and tech-savvy segment. Smart speakers, in contrast, are showing signs of having peaked after rising in use among a middle market.
This TUP Highlights report includes the following sections: wearables penetration, hearables penetration, wearable devices used, trends in wearables and hearables, purchase plans for wearables, listening activities, penetration of voice assistant usage, the profile of voice assistant users, the profile of hearables users, and the profile of wearables users.
Highlights: Consumer Electronics
Hearables are having a tumultuous time during the pandemic, and users adapt to shifting situations. Webcams are a significant force, as are wireless Bluetooth headsets, both pivotal for users working or schooling from home. Meanwhile, voice-enabled speakers have reached a plateau, reaching their largest share among neither the youngest nor oldest adults. Smartwatches have made inroads across nearly all age groups, especially younger employed adults.
This TUP Highlights report includes the following sections: purchase plans for wearables, hearables penetration, wearables penetration, trends in consumer electronics, the profile of hearables users, the profile of wearables users, the profile of key consumer electronics users, and device activities compared to consumer electronics.
Digital health usage among Americans
Digital technology has empowered people worldwide to be more involved with and aware of their health, with a growing and rich collection of devices and information sources. However, has supply outpaced the demand? This TUPdate reports on the active usage of critical health devices and health-oriented activities. It details the number of online adults in the US, Germany, UK, and Germany who track their steps using a smartphone, uses a smartwatch or fitness tracker, or regularly search for health information online.
Seeking health information online
Online adults regularly use connected devices to look up information from news and sports results to health information such as COVID dashboards and remedies. Searching for health information online is a regular activity among nearly half of online adults in the US, Germany, the UK, and Japan, and it has shifted since 2017.
This MetaFAQs reports on the percentage of online adults in the countries surveyed who regularly seek health information online and further details them by age group.
Tracking steps with a smartphone
Regularly walking is a widely accepted way to improve and maintain health and tracking one’s steps is also popular. While there are many ways to track steps – from simple pedometers to fitness trackers and smartwatches, most smartphones also include the ability to track steps.
This MetaFAQs reports on the percentage of online adults in the US, Germany, the UK, and Japan that regularly track their steps with smartphones. It details the trend between 2017 and 2021. It further splits out these active walkers by age group within each country surveyed.
Profile of Americans using Windows PCs
Most online Americans use a Windows PC, although currently reaching 59% is not the same as being at everyone’s fingertips. Slightly older American adults are using Windows PCs, with market penetration somewhat higher among men than women.
This MetaFAQs details two characteristics that separate Windows PC users from the general online adult public – age within gender and the number of home PCs in active use. It also details the declining usage of Windows PCs between 2018 and 2021 by employment status and age group segments, contrasting it with the progress of Apple computers and Chromebooks.
Wearing a smartwatch or fitness tracker
Smartwatches and fitness trackers are about more than athletic pursuits and telling the time. Market penetration has grown, and adoption has expanded beyond the earliest wearables users. The US has higher market penetration than the UK or Germany, and Japan has less than the other three.
This MetaFAQs reports on the percentage of online adults in the US, Germany, UK, and Japan that regularly use a smartwatch or fitness tracker, further split by age group in each country.
The decline of Meta among younger adults
Meta’s three main properties—Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—have been waning in popularity from 2016 to 2021 among online adults. A major contributor to this is the younger generation, especially when it comes to use of Meta’s former namesake, Facebook.
This TUPdate reports on Meta’s active American users of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and any of the three (net) from 2016 to 2021. This report also considers younger online adults (aged 18-24) in the US and Germany.
Users of multiple home and work Apple devices
What people actively use defines their brand loyalty and the depth of an ecosystem’s penetration. This TUP analysis looks at how many adults use an Apple OS device (iPhone, iPad, Mac) split by those who acquired them personally for home use compared to those who also use one that is employer-provided.
Technology profile of currently unemployed Americans aged 18-49
The COVID pandemic made clear many socioeconomic inequities between Americans, as the impact of the virus was felt differently in great part depending on their educational attainment, occupation, employment status, and other factors.
This TUPdate focuses on one segment – currently unemployed Americans aged 18-49 – reporting their market size and profiling their usage of connected devices, which devices they do or don’t use, how much they use them, and the intensity of changes since before the pandemic.