Dominant tech device brands [MetaFAQs]

Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, September 2, 2021

Apple dominates with most of the world’s users

Brand footprint is a measure of market penetration that explains much, while also painting a picture about the future. For companies like Apple with a broad product portfolio, a high number reflects the many ways that users can be included within Apple’s brand footprint – with any smartphone, PC, or tablet. Other tech brands are focused on specific category, and so best compared with their direct category competitors.

Apple dominates US device brands

Among online Americans, Apple’s brand footprint has grown slightly over the last two years, rising from 53% to 55%. During that same period, Samsung experienced a slight expansion from 31% to 33%, only to return to the 31% level. Dell, and HP have seen their brand footprint contract, each dropping by a full five percentage points. Some of this reduction has come from pandemic-related chaos: supply issues, channel challenges, shifts for some to work from home, and buyer’s economic struggles. Combined, these factors make buyers more likely to change their habits as well as their loyalties.

Looking ahead

To maintain its dominance, Apple needs to continue to provide enough value to its customers to stay within the fold. Apple has sought to walk the tightrope of high integration within its ecosystem while also balancing customer demands for openness and interoperability. There’s another side to captive stickiness. Brands that are seen as being too closed face the other side of a double-edged sword. Once customers move out of ecosystems or brand loyalty, they move quickly and fully. Meanwhile, other brands have mostly focused on competing within a specific product category. They have sought to build their perceived value through other means – availability, pricing, and the richness of their offerings.

About this TUPdate

TUPdates feature analysis of current or essential technology topics. The research results showcase the TUP/Technology User Profile study, MetaFacts’ survey of a representative sample of online adults profiling the full market’s use of technology products and services. The current wave of TUP is TUP/Technology User Profile 2021, which is TUP’s 39th annual. TUPdates may also include results from previous waves of TUP.

Current subscribers may use the comprehensive TUP datasets to obtain even more results or tailor these results to fit their chosen segments, services, or products. As subscribers choose, they may use the TUP inquiry service, online interactive tools, or analysis previously published by MetaFacts.

On request, interested research professionals can receive complimentary updates through our periodic newsletter. These include MetaFAQs – brief answers to frequently asked questions about technology users – or TUPdates – analysis of current and essential technology industry topics. To subscribe, contact MetaFacts.

Indexing

Lenses: Devices, Mobile Phones, PCs, Tablets

Tables: DEV1xCOUNTRY through DEV7xCOUNTRY

Tags: Apple, Samsung, Dell, HP, Sony, Lenovo, Acer, ASUS, Huawei, Brands, Pandemic, COVID, Brand footprint, Market penetration

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Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. It may not be used in a generative AI system without express written permission and licensing. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.

Lawyer Cat and Windows 11 – home PC demand to rise [TUPdate]

Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, July 16, 2021

What do lawyer cat and Windows 11 have in common?

Embarrassment or fear of humiliation may boost home PC sales. If that doesn’t do it, staying connected and current will encourage home PC users to upgrade.

If you missed it, the “lawyer cat” viral meme recently had its day of fame. A tech-challenged lawyer compelled to participate in a mid-pandemic judicial hearing over Zoom got confused and embarrassed by having his face appear as a cat’s. Webcam software bundled with an older Dell PC featured a filter that changed a person’s image before being displayed through Zoom.

The lawyer cat meme has a connection to the upcoming launch of Microsoft Windows 11. There could be the fear of something going wrong using older PCs, especially those with older bundled software.

The newest version of the venerable operating system will reportedly require more robust hardware than is present in much of the installed base. The final requirements are still in flux. However, Windows 11 is likely to need users to have newer home PCs than what they’re actively using today.

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Apple iMacs lead all-in-one desktop PCs [MetaFAQs]

Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, April 20, 2021

Are desktop AIOs (all-in-one desktop PCs) being widely used? Who is the installed base share leader? This MetaFAQs details the percentage of adults using any of the major brands of AIOs (All-in-one desktop PCs) in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan. The specific leading brands are Apple, HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Fujitsu.

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All-in-one desktop PCs by country [MetaFAQs]

Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, April 20, 2021

Are desktop AIOs (all-in-one desktop PCs) being widely used? Who is the installed base share leader? This MetaFAQs details the percentage of adults using any of the major brands of AIOs (All-in-one desktop PCs) in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan. The specific leading brands are Apple, HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Fujitsu.

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The persistent PC – with a perennial core [TUPdate]

Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, June 7, 2019

Americans continue to hang on to PCs as they expand their collection of actively connected devices. Instead of Tablets and Smartphones fully replacing PCs, they have added to the mix. Even so, the most-dedicated core of PC has settled to a stable size following the shift.

This is based on the MetaFacts TUP/Technology User Profile study waves from 2009 through 2018, collectively based on research results from 77,847 respondents.

The PC-intensive have shrunk in numbers over the years, establishing a solid minority. The most intensive – Adults with more PCs than people in their household – has coalesced into a core 10% of American adults. Moderate-intensity users – those with as many PCs in use as persons in their household – have been stable over the last decade in representing around one in four adults. In 2018, 22% of online Americans had as many PCs as people in their household.

The drive to mobility has finished making its impact. The transition to notebooks over desktops peaked in 2012, while smartphones, and tablets to some extent, diminished the need for many adults to be using more than one PC. As the lines continue to be blurred between tablets and PCs, and in other ways smartphones and tablets, users will increasingly focus on their activities. Rather than looking at devices first, users will make choices based on what it will take for them to get done that which they want to do.

Profile of the many-PC users

Adults with many PCs are generally younger than average and with a higher socioeconomic status. Almost two-thirds (65%) of adults actively using 3 or more PCs are college graduates, in contrast to 44% of online adults nationwide. Most (86%) are employed or self-employed, versus 61% nationwide. Over half (52%) are millennials (age 22-37/born 1981-1996) versus making up 34% of online adults nationwide. Also, 59% have annual household incomes of $75,000 or more (versus 38% nationwide) and over half (56%) have children in the households (versus 37% nationwide).

More adults who rely on a single PC choose HP. HP’s home PC share of the installed base among those adults using only one PC is 31%, followed by Dell’s share of 25%.

Looking Ahead

PCs are a present and vital part of the online user’s experience. This is likely to continue well into the future, although the definition of a PC is continuing to evolve. Users have expanded their activities across their many and multiple devices, broadly accepting multi-platform software supported by cloud storage. From tablets adding capabilities traditionally the province of PCs and notebooks adding abilities previously limited to smartphones or tablets, the definitions of device types is shifting. However, users continue to embrace change, shifting their device usage patterns more slowly than they discontinue their older devices. HP and Dell have strong brand share and inertia, and yet face strong challenges ahead as users shift from doing what they’ve done with PCs, and increasingly embrace multiple devices and platforms.

About TUPdates

TUPdates feature analysis of current or essential technology topics. The research results showcase the TUP/Technology User Profile study, MetaFacts’ survey of a representative sample of online adults profiling the full market’s use of technology products and services. The current wave of TUP is TUP/Technology User Profile 2020, which is TUP’s 38th annual. TUPdates may also include results from previous waves of TUP.

Current subscribers may use the comprehensive TUP datasets to obtain even more results or tailor these results to fit their chosen segments, services, or products. As subscribers choose, they may use the TUP inquiry service, online interactive tools, or analysis previously published by MetaFacts.

On request, interested research professionals can receive complimentary updates through our periodic newsletter. These include MetaFAQs – brief answers to frequently asked questions about technology users – or TUPdates – analysis of current and essential technology industry topics. To subscribe, contact MetaFacts.

Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. It may not be used in a generative AI system without express written permission and licensing. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.

Apple & Samsung lead in multi-device loyalty [TUPdate]

Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, November 29, 2018

Apple and Samsung have the highest share of their users actively using two or more of their devices.

This is based on the MetaFacts TUP/Technology User Profile 2018 survey results. Among online adults in the US, more of Apple’s and Samsung’s users have two or more of the brand’s devices than only use one of their devices.

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In home mobile devices, it’s Apple and Google outnumbering Microsoft [TUPdate]

Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, November 7, 2018

While pundits puzzle and debate, consumers lead the way. Is an iPad a computer, have smartphones replaced other mobile devices, and are PCs dead? Consumers continue to find their own ways and use what they choose, defying definitions, headlines, and experts. From among three dominant operating system ecosystems and three main types of mobile devices, home consumers have found their favorites.

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How do (they) love thee? Follow their brand footprints [TUPdate]

Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, March 17, 2017


“How Do I Love Thee? Let me count the ways.” So begins the 43rd of Elizabeth Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. After more than 160 years, this poetry still inspires.

This classic poem seems fitting for a research-based understanding of customer loyalty and, well, mutual loyalty and love. One might hope that love and loyalty would flow in both directions – between customers and company – and in turn would result in more delighted customers, better products and services, and more customers actively using more of a brand’s offerings. In addition to brand footprint measures such as market size and intensity, MetaFacts measures the shape, loyalty, and quality of technology users.

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Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. It may not be used in a generative AI system without express written permission and licensing. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.