Soaring Smartphone Usage Raises Questions About PC and Tablet Demand
The revelation that smartphone usage has skyrocketed is less than surprising to anyone that has lifted their eyes up from their own smartphone when dining out. If you haven’t done that, odds are you would see less conversation (especially among teens) and more mobile data consumption. That’s the addictive nature of our Connected Society, but the go-to mentality for the portable and connected smartphone is changing demand dynamics for tablets as well as computers. Add in the eventual slimmed down VR glasses, and we’re likely to hear once again about the death of the PC. For smartphone vendors like Apple and now Alphabet, as smartphone growth continues to mature it means their smartphone revenue stream is increasingly tied to the upgrade market… and we all saw how that played out in the mobile phone market.
The last two years, in particular, have seen some interesting shifts in digital media consumption. Since December 2014, smartphones have driven all of the growth in digital media usage, as desktop and tablets have both experienced modest declines.
.So what is causing smartphones to finally begin to eat into desktop and tablet consumption? The best explanation is that the smartphone has clearly established itself as the consumer’s default device for accessing the internet. While the desktop computer held this distinction for many years, today when most people want to complete an online task they opt for their smartphone, which is more likely than not within arm’s reach.
Increasingly, tablets and desktop computers are being relegated for specific use cases, such as e-reading or making a more involved e-commerce purchase. Some key factors contributing to the smartphone’s expanding digital role have been its growing screen size, faster 4G network connections, a greater number of available services and better optimized websites and mobile apps, all of which resulted in an improved user experience from just a few years ago. Eventually the device’s convenience won over the consumer, and those daily smartphone habits have become more and more engrained into our lives.
Source: Smartphone Usage Has Doubled in the Past Three Years – comScore, Inc
