American households have embraced technology products and services in a big way for home entertainment, finances, shopping, and even working from home. This TUP Highlights report reports on important usage shifts and trends among American households: game consoles, smartwatches, printers, streaming music, video doorbells, VR headsets, and much more. Further, this report identifies the changes from 2019 to 2021 among socioeconomic groups that have been historically advantaged or disadvantaged. Included are the shifts in penetration rates for smartphones, PCs, home PCs, tablets, and home printers for the total market as well as within major market segments.
Highlights: User Profile
Sociodemographically distinct groups vary in composition, technology devices and services, and how they use what they have. Most advantaged groups have bolstered their technology collection during the pandemic and increased their usage levels. Most disadvantaged segments, meanwhile, have used what they have at hand more so than acquiring newer technology. Older millennials have the wealthiest collection of technology devices, well above that of every other age group. This TUP Highlights report includes the following sections: usage segments, segments, and trends in segments.
Highlights: Technology Ecosystems
While some device makers focus on speeds, feeds, and features, others are playing the long game to build long-term customer loyalty through ecosystems. This TUP Technology Ecosystems Highlights report reports on the size of leading technology ecosystems, which types of devices are dominating (or not), and their longer-term trends. It details the unique activities users focus on within certain ecosystems, and profiles each ecosystem’s users.
Highlights: Home Entertainment
Home is where the fun is, enhanced by VR headsets, game consoles, smart speakers, smartphones, tablets, and computers. Home entertainment using technology devices and services is dominated by younger adults and parents, although not entirely so.
This TUP Highlights report includes the following sections: the profile of home entertainment users, home entertainment devices, and home entertainment trends.
Highlights: Activities
What we do paints a richer picture than what we carry or own. All computers are not used the same and nor are smartphones or tablets. Each user has their preference about how they spend their time. Also, each user expresses their choices about which connected devices they turn to for each type of activity. While some see their tablets as passive movie screens, others rely on them as communication hubs. Some users prefer to shop on a computer, while others rely more on their smartphones.
This TUP Highlights report includes the following sections: main activities across all tech devices, major activities for each device type, activities unique to which device type, cross-device activities, the profile of activity type users, major activities for a market segment, home entertainment activities, the profile by key activities, and listening activities.
Highlights: Wearables, Hearables, Listening & Speaking
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.
Trends in voice assistant usage
Voices have the promise to enable a keyboard-free digital experience, and yet regular usage has not reached even half of the population. This MetaFAQs reports on the percentage of online adults in the US, Germany, UK, and Japan that regularly use a voice assistant or smart speaker.
Profile of Active American Siri or HomePod users
Apple’s Siri is enjoying steady progress where other voice assistants have not. A third or more of younger Americans – male and female – are active users. Working parents are also being listened to, if not by their children, then at least by Siri. This MetaFAQs report profiles active users of Apple Siri or who have HomePods by a range of distinctive characteristics: age group, employment status, life stage, technology ecosystems, and others.
Top listening activities by device type
Around the world, tech users are listening—to their devices, at least. Smartphones dominate listening activities, but many other devices, like PCs and tablets, also play a role. This MetaFAQs profiles all online adults who actively use their connected devices for specific listening & hearing activities. The report details which activities are being done by platform, showing how computers are used differently from smartphones or tablets. Active listeners number 209 million in the US (95% of online American adults), 54.6 million in Germany (94%), 44.2 million in the UK (94%), and 78.1 million in Japan (87%). Report [TUP_doc_2022_0129_list] in TUP Lenses: Consumer Electronics; Activities; Wearables, Hearables, Listening, and Speaking; Home Entertainment.