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: PCs
PCs continue to hold a central role among online adults, especially as a substantial number work from home or find ways to stay connected. However, PC users are not all the same in the type of PC they use nor how they use them. This TUP Highlights report details the shifting market penetration of PCs, how ownership has changed, and which brands are leading. It details how often PCs are being used as well as how they are being used for everything from remote work to communication, shopping, and entertainment.
Tablets – Highlights
Tablets continue to seek a solid home, major use cases, and most vital segments. Currently, the largest groups of users are passive, older, or entrenched in the Apple or Google ecosystem. While Apple continues to lead and increase its share, other makers like Samsung are seeing withering penetration. Incidental and passive activities from web browsing, shopping, movie-watching, and checking email haven’t been unique enough on tablets to entice users away from their smartphones or computers.
This TUP Highlights report includes the following sections: the profile of tablet users, trends in tablets, top tablet brands, top tablet activities, unique tablet activities, and trends in technology ecosystems.
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.
Used and refurbished smartphones among disadvantaged and advantaged Americans
Are used/refurbished smartphones only for poorer people? This MetaFAQs report details the percentage of online Americans using a used/refurbished smartphone by socioeconomically advantaged/disadvantaged groups, each composed of household income, employment status, employment type, educational attainment, age group, ethnicity, household size, and other demographic characteristics.
Used and refurbished home PCs among disadvantaged and advantaged Americans
Are used/refurbished home PCs only for disadvantaged people? This MetaFAQs report details the percentage of online Americans using a used/refurbished home PC by socioeconomically advantaged/disadvantaged groups, each composed of household income, employment status, employment type, educational attainment, age group, ethnicity, household size, and other demographic characteristics.
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.