Digital Lifescapes

User demand for wearable devices has distinct demographic segments. Age, income, and gender vary greatly among fitness tracker and smartwatch owners, according to the latest American market study by NPD Group. Purpose-built fitness trackers, which have a strong presence in the wearables market, have gained a large mainstream following. According to their study, 36 percent of fitness tracker owners in the U.S. market are 35-54 years old, 41 percent had an average income of more than $100,000, and 54 percent were women. Moreover, one-in-ten U.S. adults now own a fitness tracker. Smartwatches haven’t caught on as quickly, with only two percent penetration, and appeal to a much different segment of the market. More than two-thirds (69 percent) of smartwatch owners are 18-34 years old, skew mostly towards the male population (71 percent) and nearly half (48 percent) had an income below $45,000. "There is no average consumer for the wearables market; the fitness tracker a...

comScore released the results from the latest market study of U.S. mobile smartphone user shopping behavior, which found that 4 in every 5 people -- 85.9 million in total -- accessed retailer related content on their device in July, 2012. Amazon Sites led as the top retailer with an audience of 49.6 million visitors, while multi-channel retailers including Apple (17.7 million visitors), Wal-Mart (16.3 million visitors), Target (10 million visitors) and Best Buy (7.2 million visitors) also attracted significant mobile audiences. "With nearly 86 million Americans now shopping on their smartphones, this pronounced shift in consumer behavior is simply too large for retailers to ignore, with the future of their business depending on how well they adapt to the new environment," said Mark Donovan, comScore SVP of mobile research. comScore says that adapting to today's online retail environment requires optimizing the experience across multiple platforms -- for both mobile...

According to the latest market study by comScore , demographic analysis of media tablet users by platform revealed distinct differences across iPad, Android and Kindle Fire. Apple iPad owners skewed male (52.9 percent), slightly younger (44.5 percent under the age of 35) and wealthier (46.3 percent residing in households with income of $100k or greater) compared to an average tablet user. In comparison, Amazon Kindle Fire owners saw their audience skew female with 56.6 percent of its audience base represented by females. Both Google Android and Kindle Fire users saw household income below that of iPad owners, aligning more closely with the mainstream household income reported by smartphone owners. In the fast-evolving and highly competitive tablet market, understanding the factors that are driving consumers’ purchase decisions is critical for both providers of operating systems and OEMs. Analysis of the top purchase consideration factors for an average tablet owner found that ...

Perhaps you've noticed the latest trend -- tech market researchers and pollsters are now asking consumers questions about their attachment to various devices and gadgets. Is this insight really useful or actionable? I'll let you decide... A majority (65%) of global citizens in 25 countries would choose to give up their mobile phone over one third (35%) who would give up their computer -- if forced to choose between the two -- according to the latest market study by Ipsos for Reuters News. Between television and social networking, most (58%) would give up social networking while four in ten (42%) would give up TV. Between mobile phones and sex, global citizens choose intimacy: eight in ten (78%) would give up their phones while two in ten (22%) would give up sex if they had to choose between it or their mobiles. In the battle between phones and computers, women in 25 countries would rather give up their computers (39%) more than men (31%) and those under the age of 35 ...

In the U.S.market during 2010, media tablet and eReader device owners tended to be male and on the younger side. But according to the latest market study by Nielsen , a quarterly survey of mobile connected device owners, this is no longer the case. Back in Q3 2010, for example, 62 percent of media tablet owners were under the age of 34 and only 10 percent were over the age of 55. By Q2 2011, only 46 percent of media tablet owners were under the age of 34 and the percentage of those over 55 had increased to 19 percent. Looking at the data by gender underlines key changes in the eReader category. Sixty-one percent of all eReader owners are now female, compared to a mere 46 percent in Q3 2010. By contrast, smartphone owners are now evenly split between male and female and media tablets remain primarily male.

Introduced last year, the Apple iPad quickly established a new market for media tablets. eMarketer estimates that 9.7 million U.S. consumers owned a tablet device by the end of 2010, and that 24 million will have one by the end of 2011. In a May 2011 survey on device ownership -- the first one taken by a research team at least a year after the iPad’s release -- the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that overall tablet penetration increased from 5 percent of American consumers in November 2010 to 8 percent in May 2011. According to an eMarketer report, device ownership increased the fastest among young adults ages 18 to 29, Hispanics, those with the highest incomes, and people who had attended some college -- all groups that now have the highest levels of tablet penetration. In addition, men are more likely than women to own a media tablet. By contrast, overall eReader penetration is higher -- at 12 percent of American consumers -- and has doubled since November...