Awesome and shiny new technology is not enough to gain rapid, active, or sustained market acceptance. Even widely touted technological phenoms are not guaranteed to be as widely accepted, as we’ve seen with smart homes, smart speakers, 3D printers, IoT, and others. Also, even broad initial acceptance does not translate into engaged or sustained use. Gauging consumer sentiment is one measure of generative AI’s challenges and opportunities ahead, especially by comparing the views of those with hands-on experience to those waiting or avoiding.
Approach: This TUPdate is based on the attitudes of 12,032 online adults in the US, Germany, the UK, and Japan, selected and weighted to be representative of the online population. As part of the TUP/Technology User Profile 2024 wave, MetaFacts included questions about consumers’ attitudes and expectations of generative AI tools. The survey measured attitudes around the benefits active AI users are enjoying, hopes for the future, privacy concerns, usefulness, and hardware limits. We defined active AI use as a combination of regular activities involving AI tools, specific services like ChatGPT and Copilot, or a Copilot+ PC.
Home PC pricing trends by generation
Background: Starting before the pandemic and subsequent economic shifts, online adults worldwide were adjusting which devices they use, with fewer using home computers. However, many employees working remotely were not provided a computer by their employer and sought to acquire one for their home. Also during this time period, adults were transitioning many of their regular activities from home computers to smartphones. This causes erratic effects to home PC prices, interrupting historical trends.
Approach: MetaFacts surveyed 60,872 online adults in the US, Germany, UK, and Japan from 2020 through 2024 as part of its annual TUP/Technology User Profile study. Within the survey, as part of detailing the home computers that respondents actively use, we gathered the price paid for any acquired as new in the previous 18 months. All prices were converted to US dollars for comparison, grouped into price ranges, and then reported by country and age generation.
The continued decline of widespread personal computer use
Market penetration is one of the core overall measures affecting all manner of technology companies: hardware, software, services, and support. The key device types measured in this analysis are the active use of a home computer, an employer-provided “work” computer, or any other computer, such as one supplied by a university or in a library, cybercafé, or owned by a friend or neighbor. The primary measure reported in this TUPdate is the percentage of online adults in the US, Germany, the UK, Japan, or China actively using any of these computers.
Approach: This TUPdate is based on the surveys of 82,101 respondents in the US, Germany, the UK, Japan, and China from 2019 through 2024. In the TUP/Technology User Profile questionnaire, we asked respondents to identify the active installed base of connected devices they use – smartphones, feature phones, computers, tablets, and game consoles. In addition, we had them specify the source of funds for the computers they use – home, work (employer-provided), or other (public, school, library, cybercafe, friend, etc.)