Tuesday, February 5, 2013

The Screens of Our Lives


Google’s Think Insights recently released a report on the changing connected consumer, with an in depth look at Internet connections, device usage and subsequent behavior drivers.

Most of the findings are not unexpected, of which a few key takeouts are below:

Worldwide, 2012 was another big year for the tablet with a 60% YOY increase. Smartphones aren’t slouching either, notching a 33% jump. This trajectory isn’t anticipated to change much, with intent to use tablets in the next 12 months higher than that of smartphones in all but one of the six global regions.

That sole region is the African continent, where the importance of a mobile data connection and the fixed-connection ‘leapfrog’ is clearly shaping these device trends. This leads to another outtake on the correlation between national GDP and device usage. Unsurprisingly, among those nations with lower national GDP’s, there is less impact on overall Smartphone usage by comparison to the Tablet.

On average, across the globe households use 1.5 connected devices. New Zealand and Australia were near the top of those studied at 2.1 per household.


Lastly, there is less decline than some may expect among PC and Laptop usage within developed countries, the majority of those studied showing only fractional dips in usage and some such as Sweden and USA still displaying growth. Taiwan stands out with the biggest change - a decrease of around 10%.

The report, along with some other recent studies, can be found here.