MetaFacts TUP/Technology User Profile analysis results for subscribers
Home PCs are very much alive and being well-used. Home PC usage rates are stable, both in overall penetration and in the number being used. Nearly all online American adults regularly use a home PC, yet they see them differently. Younger Americans see them as adding to their entertainment, while for older adults it helps…
Users vote with their fingers, demonstrating what they like by what they use. The top combination includes two devices – a notebook and smartphone and no desktop or tablet – and is actively used by nearly one in seven (14%) online adults in the US.
This is based on the four most recent waves of TUP/Technology User Profile, 2016 through 2019 waves. These were based on 7,336, 7,521, 7,886, and 8,060 US online adult representative responses, respectively.
The top five combinations are used by well over half (59%) of online Americans. All the top combinations include a smartphone, three include a desktop, three include a notebook, and two include a tablet. Four of these major combinations have remained the most widely used for the last four years.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, June 7, 2019 Americans continue to hang on to PCs as they expand their collection of actively connected devices. Instead of Tablets and Smartphones fully replacing PCs, they have added to the mix. Even so, the most-dedicated core of PC has settled to a stable size following the shift. This…
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, April 26, 2019 Users vote with their fingers, demonstrating what they like by what they actually use. The top combination includes four devices – a desktop, notebook, tablet, or smartphone – and actively used by one in six (16%) of online adults in the US. This is based on the…
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, April 19, 2019 Do customers act on ecosystems, choosing to focus within a brand’s family for their products and services? How many technology users are exclusive, or at least favor one over another? Only one in eight (12%) of online adults around the world are truly exclusive, using products and…
People love their Smartphones and find more to do with them than PCs or Tablets. Around the world, there are few activities done with PCs as regularly as are done with Smartphones. Furthermore, there are no activities done more so on Tablets than on either Smartphones or PCs. Usage profiles vary somewhat by country. Online adults in the U.S. use their connected devices differently than users in many other countries.
The number of connected adults continues to rise in the US. Based on our TUP/Technology User Profile 2017 wave, there are 212.6 million adults who regularly connect to the Internet using a PC, mobile phone, tablet, or game console. This number is up 18.9 million from the 193.8 million adults we reported in our TUP 2013 wave.
While some of the increase has come from a growing adult population, the share of adults actively connected has also grown, due in large part to the increasing use of smartphones.
The use of tablets such as Apple’s iPad has also expanded since 2013, although declined somewhat in 2017.
“How Do I Love Thee? Let me count the ways.” So begins the 43rd of Elizabeth Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. After more than 160 years, this poetry still inspires.
This classic poem seems fitting for a research-based understanding of customer loyalty and, well, mutual loyalty and love. One might hope that love and loyalty would flow in both directions – between customers and company – and in turn would result in more delighted customers, better products and services, and more customers actively using more of a brand’s offerings. In addition to brand footprint measures such as market size and intensity, MetaFacts measures the shape, loyalty, and quality of technology users.
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 a change. Our very eyes send more information about motion than the 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.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, February 22, 2017 Mobile phones dominate home-owned connected devices like the ones used by the greatest number of U.S. adults. As of our MetaFacts TUP 2016 US survey, 87% of U.S. adults used a smartphone or basic cell phone that was home-owned. Slightly trailing mobile phones, 81% of adults use…