A recent Twitter survey conducted by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, a global research expert in the telecoms field, unearthed some interesting observations.
Kantar queried consumers in the U.S. and Great Britain about mobile use, tablet purchases, and more. What did the company discover?
“We know that tablet sales are stagnant and that 79 percent of American (respondents) without a tablet have said that the reason they are not planning to buy a tablet in the next 12 month is because their PC is ‘good enough’ for them,” noted Kantar. “When we asked consumers who own a PC if they are planning to replace that PC in 2015, 85 percent of the panelists interviewed said they are not.”
Interestingly, only 1.7 percent indicated they would replace their PCs with a tablet; 11.3 percent said they planned to replace their current PC with another.
What demographic grooves on tablets? Mostly the young.
“Consumers in the 25 to 34 year bracket are the most favorable to tablets, with 2.9 percent planning to purchase one as a replacement for their PC,” explained Kantar. “Consumers 16 to 24 are the most open to convertibles (3.5 percent), most likely because they’re still in their school years.”
Virtual reality has heated up, with companies including Oculus, Samsung, Microsoft — and just last week at Mobile World Congress, HTC — launching new devices and options.
“We asked consumers in both the UK and U.S. about their level of interest in VR,” said Kantar researchers. “30 percent of American panelists and 24 percent of those in Britain said they do not see the point in virtual reality devices.”
It could be a case of skimpy marketing. The Kantar survey revealed that only 51 percent of Americans and 54 percent of Brits had ever heard of these devices.
The showdown between Android and iOS was one more topic discussed.
“Over the past few weeks Great Britain has witnessed a reinvigorated battle between iOS and Android,” said Kantar. “With that in mind, we asked consumers there if it mattered to them whether their mobile phone can interact with other devices. On a scale of 0 – 10 (from “Not Important At All” to “Very Important”), 40.5 percent of smartphone owners scored 7 or higher while only 13.6 percent of feature phone owners did. Understandably, the percentage of those scoring 7 or higher grows to 45 percent for users who own both a smartphone and a tablet.”