How consumers are juggling their portfolio of mobile devices

This paper describes evolving consumer trends in mobile device markets and relevant results from consumer surveys.

This is an age when consumers use different devices at different times for different purposes, or both work and play, and the majority of those devices are continuously connected to the Internet. Consumers pick and choose what they consider the best device for the task being performed – horses for courses, as the idiom goes.

New devices don’t necessarily replace old ones; they are used in addition to the others as consumers embrace new technology. Smartphones, for example, have changed the way the world thinks about computing. Mobile technologies have given people unprecedented freedom, not just to roam away from their desks, but to move beyond their homes and offices altogether.

In emerging markets, smartphones have been the first, and for many the only, computing device a person owns. In mature markets, smartphones have become the go-to computing device, especially for the Y generation. Applications have helped accelerate this transition by enabling new ways to engage in social media, report expenses, read, draw, and complete the many other activities of modern life.

This paper describes evolving consumer trends and preferences in mobile device markets, including the emerging wearables sector, and highlights some relevant key results from recent consumer surveys.

Main contents

• Device Portfolios Are Growing in Size
• New Devices Challenge Conventional Expectations
• 2015 is the Make it or Break it Year for Smartwatches
• Selling Multiple Devices vs Cannibalizing Existing Products
• Vendor Mandate: Design, Use Case, Price