Cellphone, PC purchase to decline this year

NEW YORK, USA: Even as more and more gadgets are entering the market, a new survey by Accenture predicts that consumer purchase rates for personal computers and mobile phones (excluding smartphones) will decline by 39 per cent and 56 per cent respectively this year compared with last year.

By contrast, buying rates of 3DTVs (three-dimensional TVs) are expected to rise 500 per cent; tablet computers 160 per cent; ebook readers 133 per cent; and smartphones 26 per cent, the survey added.

Accenture said the annual survey focused on usage and spending on 19 different consumer electronics technologies among more than 8,000 consumers in eight countries in both emerging markets and developed economies: Brazil, China, India, Russia, France, Germany, Japan and the United States.

Survey respondents in emerging countries represent key urban markets rather than the population as a whole.

The survey found that only 17 per cent of respondents plan to buy a desktop or laptop computer in 2011 — a 39 per cent drop from 2010. Tracking with this trend, the survey revealed that 75 per cent of respondents from the U.S. emailed each week from their PCs in 2010, down from 80 per cent the year before.

The research also showed that respondents are using multiple devices such as tablet PCs for activities that used to be done on traditional PCs. For example, on at least a weekly basis, 40 per cent of the respondents email from a tablet PC. In addition to checking email, respondents are using tablet PCs for browsing the web, watching videos and reading books, newspapers and magazines.

“The research findings raise the question as to whether, in the long run, desktop and laptop PCs in the home will be increasingly replaced by a group of newer technology alternatives such as tablet computers, netbooks, smartphones and e-book readers,” said Kumu Puri, senior executive with Accenture’s Electronics & High-Tech Practice.

“If strength is measured by unit sales, the computer will remain the strong consumer technology giant for many years. Our research found that 93 per cent of survey respondents own a computer — a higher proportion than any of the other 19 technologies included in the survey. But if measured by growth rate, the PC market — at least for consumers — has reached a level of saturation and will continue to see diminished growth rates.”

The research also found that ownership of basic mobile phones dropped from 79 per cent in 2009 to 65 per cent in 2010. In the same period, ownership of smartphones quadrupled from eight per cent to 32 per cent. In the survey, mobile phones were described as having basic voice capability but not the enhanced features available on smartphones, such as surfing the Internet.