2010 Accenture Consumer Electronics Products and Services Usage Report

'In 2009, to provide even greater insight into consumer purchasing patterns and behavior with technology, we expanded our research to include 16,000 consumers across eight countries; China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.

The research featured an online survey administered to a sample of 2,000 adults in each country—balanced across basic demographic factors, including geographic regions within countries, age and gender. The primary objectives for the research were to develop a greater awareness of preferences for consumer technologies and services and to analyze trends in US consumer preferences over the past three years.

The intention was to better understand the purchase and use of consumer technologies among key generations and, for the first time this year, gain deeper insights into global differences.

Finally, the research was intended to help project future technology trends based on current behavior and potentially identify trends emerging from behavioral changes in the use of technology

Read the 2010 Accenture Consumer Electronics Products and Services country specific research findings:

• France [PDF, 409KB]
• Germany [PDF, 294KB]
• India [PDF, 189KB]
• Malaysia [PDF, 151KB]
• Singapore [PDF, 293KB]
  
  

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• Global demand for and spending on consumer electronics remains strong
  In the past 12 months, 85 percent of respondents globally spent money on consumer technologies, with most of that money going toward the two most common (and, in consumers’ minds, most important) devices: mobile phones (both standard and smartphones) and computers (laptops and desktops). When making such technology purchases, price is considered the most important factor in the purchase decision, followed closely by personal research.
  
  While not a primary purchase decision criteria for most consumers, innovation is also extremely important. A full 88 percent of respondents said it was very or somewhat important that the electronics brands they own are perceived as the most innovative technologies. Surprisingly, despite consumers’ emphasis on price, a majority (67 percent) of consumers globally said they were willing to pay a premium for products that are environmentally friendly—indicating that sustainability is rapidly becoming more important to consumers worldwide.
  
  Across the many technologies consumers could own, our survey showed three tiers of technology adoption: technologies pervasively owned, those becoming more pervasive and those still selectively used.
  
  The vast majority of respondents own the “basics” or “must haves” in technology: computer, mobile phone, digital camera, DVD player and regular TV.
  
  Approximately half of the respondents own the next wave of “must haves” in technology: high-definition TVs and portable music players (MP3s).
  
  And, one-third or less of respondents own more specialized-use or older technologies: game console, VCR, digital video camera, portable gaming device, DVR for TV and GPS device.
  
  Adoption of the newest consumer technologies such as netbooks, BluRay players, eBooks and 3-D TVs remains low.
  
  Our research also found that consumers tend to be more dissatisfied with technology services than the technologies themselves, yet both returns of products and “drop and switch” rates for services remain low.

   

• Emerging markets are the engine for consumer technology adoption
  This study revealed striking differences in many aspects of the attitudes toward and behavior with consumer technologies between consumers in emerging markets and those in mature ones. At a high level, the former are much more likely to have spent money on consumer technology products in the past year, to have spent more money on those products and to report they engage in a broader range of activities with those products.
  
  Emerging-market consumers are especially interested in mobile technologies—far more than their mature-market counterparts.
  
  
• US consumers continue their adoption of mobility and social networking technologies
  Despite the recession, US respondents spent more money on consumer electronics in the past year than in prior years. While computers and mobile phones held steady as being owned by the greatest number of US respondents, Web-enabled mobile phone ownership more than tripled in two years. In fact, among the Baby Boomer generation, Web-enabled mobile phone ownership grew 75 percent between 2008 and 2009 in the United States.
  
  Given the preceding statistics, it is perhaps not surprising that while both mobile phones and computers remain the most valued technologies for US consumers, the former has surpassed the latter in importance: when combined as a group, Web-enabled mobile phones and regular mobile phones are the most important consumer technology product for 47 percent of US consumers (versus 36 percent for computers).
  
  Home Internet access is the most important service to US consumers but, reflecting the rise of mobile phones themselves, mobile phone service also has increased in importance. Cable/satellite TV saw the greatest decline in the percentage of US consumers choosing it as one of their most important services.
  
  In addition, US consumer participation in technology-based activities increased at a far greater rate in the past year than in prior years. For instance, the percentage of US consumers in 2009 spending at least 15 hours a week searching for news on the Internet doubled from 2008.
  
  The percentage of consumers using social networking sites almost doubled in the past year—a much more dramatic rate of growth than in the prior year. In fact, use of social networking sites among the US Baby Boomer generation grew 164 percent in one year—from 22 percent using social networking to 58 percent participating at least occasionally.

The results of our most recent study are clear: consumers’ appetite for technology that enriches—and, in many ways, simplifies—their lives remains strong. That certainly is good news for companies that provide such technologies and services, especially at a time when enterprises around the world are working to reignite demand and growth as the economy stabilizes. For consumer technology manufacturers and retailers, the results of our study have several key implications:

• Innovation is key, regardless of the market being served.
  Although innovation is not the primary driver of the purchase decisions, consumers clearly conveyed their desire for innovative technologies. Thus, companies should view innovation as a core business discipline and ensure their innovation capabilities remain strong and able to move quickly to satisfy burgeoning demand.
  
  To that end, consumer technology companies should consider beginning to embrace a consumer-engagement-driven model of innovation—and master-key innovation capabilities that allow them to exercise increasing control of the ecosystem to deliver consumer-focused innovations.
  
  
• The ability to gain deep insights into customers’ needs and preferences is a competitive necessity.
  As our research showed, consumers have dramatically different views of the technology world, depending on age, country or other demographic characteristics. Companies with superior analytical and segmentation capabilities that enable them to deeply understand the needs and preferences of specific customer segments—and subsequently tailor offers to meet those segments’ requirements—may be the winners in the post-recession world.
  
  
• Emerging markets will remain the locus of the strongest demand for consumer technologies.
  As countries such as China and India continue to develop middle classes with substantial disposable income, the growth potential of those countries will outpace that of more mature markets. Fulfilling that demand will require robust, highly adaptable supply chains, innovative sales channel strategies and flexible global operations that can get products in the hands of consumers anywhere in the world—and do so profitably.
  
  
• Sustainability is not a fad and is not going away.
  Consumers, especially those in emerging markets, clearly indicated their interest in products that have a less-harmful impact on the environment—and are willing to pay more for such products. Therefore, manufacturers need to redouble their own sustainability efforts to increase the “green” quotient of their products.
  
  
• Consumers need help learning how to use their new products.
  So many consumers reporting they returned products (especially mobile phones) because they “didn’t work properly” suggests a sizable proportion of those returns could be because consumers simply did not understand how to set up and use the devices. Companies could increase customer satisfaction and reduce the time and cost associated with handling and processing returns of non-defective items if they not only provided greater initial support and training to customers as a standard service but also more accurately determined the reasons for product returns.