Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, March 17, 2023
Summary
Microsoft announced an upcoming service for its Microsoft 365 service that integrates the user’s data using generative AI. Called Microsoft CoPilot, the service will first be offered to enterprises. This TUPdate measures the potential market of those most likely to adopt and benefit from the service.
The Microsoft CoPilot announcement
This week, Microsoft gave one of the most down-to-earth non-announcements among the many major companies exuberantly touting generative AI in some form. The announcement of Microsoft 365 CoPilot demonstrated how artificial intelligence capabilities might be deeply integrated into everyday Office 365 applications, especially those involving some creativity.
Microsoft has many challenges ahead to fulfill what was shown in the demo, including whether consumers, employees, or enterprises will be willing to share their words to be analyzed deeply. Also important will be whether the service adds enough value to counter the risk of getting the results wrong. After all, none of the generative AI tools to date have delivered on the promise of discernment.
Size of the market for creative activities
What we can do today is begin at the beginning – consider the size of the potential market. How many people are regularly doing any creative activities such as those illustrated in the demo? By starting with that assumption, the market size will be conservative. It’s more likely that people who need to get certain jobs done will look for the tool to assist them with what they are already doing. It’s less likely that a new tool will inspire many people to begin giving presentations or crafting videos. Just as buying a shiny new hammer doesn’t turn someone into a capable carpenter, nor does spicing up a spreadsheet make someone into a data analyst or executive decision-maker.
There are fewer potential users than Microsoft may hope, since just under half (46%) of all online American adults regularly do any of several major creative activities:
Use professional creative software
Create graphics/presentations
Create videos
An even smaller share of online Americans regularly uses their connected devices for work-related creative activities. As of TUP/Technology User Profile 2022, 28% of online American adults actively use any of their devices for any of the creative activities identified.
Regular creative activities among online Americans
TUP/Technology User Profile 2022-US Table: CREATACTS
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.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, April 14, 2021
Tablets – executive summary
Over the last five years, tablets have been fading from widespread use despite their increasing power and usefulness. Ten years earlier, surviving a direct attack by heavily subsidized media tablets (Amazon’s Kindles), the product category continues to be under threat. Current threats feature substitutes. As larger smartphones reach broader market acceptance, any benefit from having a larger screen is relatively weakened. As lighter instant-on laptops, convertibles, and 2-in-1s grow into favor, any perception of tablets being less-than PCs becomes a roadblock.
Tablets are being used similarly to home PCs, typically enjoyed for passive personal activities, such as watching movies or browsing the Internet. Tablet users, however, have not fully embraced tablets as often as home PCs, still using them for many activities such as creating personal graphics or collaborating on personal files. There are very few activities unique to tablets that aren’t being used on home PCs – reading a book or taking pictures – each of which are themselves not widespread activities. In fact, many people taking photos with a tablet are mocked or derided.
Apple continues to reign as the champion of tablets, dominating most markets in tandem with its iPhone market share. iPads don’t require an iPhone to function, although there is a strong association. Apple iPhone users have a higher percentage of iPad use, and simultaneously, Android smartphone users have a lower iPad share.
Samsung, the non-Apple smartphone market leader, has managed to claim and defend the number two share of the installed base in many countries. Samsung’s tablets have fared best among Android smartphone users looking to enjoy any ecosystem benefits.
Apple has continued to bolster its services to encourage the iPad as a mainstay of any Apple fan’s collection. Fitness+ and Arcade gaming work much better with an iPad than on an iPhone, if for no other reason than having a larger display. Designating an iPad as a home automation hub helps with HomeKit and HomePods. So far, market reception of these specific services has not been mainstream. Collectively, however, each incremental offering helps build reasons for Apple’s customers to stay within the fold. The Google Android ecosystem has similar dynamics, also striving to keep its users within its family.
Cellular tablets have not fared well, although neither have laptops integrated with cellular wireless. Carrier support has not helped iPads as much as they helped with smartphones. Although Apple offers iPads with integrated LTE/4G cellular connections, carriers have primarily promoted cellular tablets as loss leaders to retain postpaid smartphone subscriptions.
Looking ahead, the opportunities for tablets are four-fold: a replacement market and three market segments: vertical markets, tablet-first users, and device collectors.
The average age of the active tablet installed base is younger than ever, reflecting the market’s willingness to replace their older tablets. Coupled with a shrinking penetration rate, this indicates a replacement market.
Vertical markets such as education are a longtime favorite for Apple and teachers alike. However, in education, Apple iPads are experiencing strong competition against Google Chromebooks.
Tablet-first means using a tablet as your primary connected device. Tablet-first has represented less than 10% of the market and is likely to remain that small. However, this segment is best seen as an onramp for newly-connected adults. As market entrants look for their first connected device for basic activities such as email, schoolwork, and online banking, tablets are an excellent entre.
Device collectors – those that actively use many connected devices of varied types – are a small and persistent segment.
Purchase plans for tablets are moderately vigorous, although at only half the rates of plans for PCs and smartphones.
Tablets – size of the market
Primacy of tablets
Between tablet’s increasing functionality and more widely available wireless connections, it’s plausible to consider that users would choose tablets as their primary device – the one they use most of the time. However, that has not happened. Online adults using a tablet as their primary device range between 1% in India to 9% in the UK. Even use as either a primary or secondary device is insubstantial. Among online adults in India, Japan, and China, the rate is less than 10%. It’s conceivable that primary tablet use could increase with some combination of usage that involves a 4G/5G/LTE cellular tablet being used instead of a smartphone as one’s primary device. However, this seems unlikely any time soon since users rely so strongly on their smartphones.
Chart: TUP_doc_2021_0406_devi Tablets as primary or secondary device
Tablets squeezed by other devices
Other devices have pressured tablets. While the penetration of mobile PCs has increased or remained flat, tablet penetration has declined. Meanwhile, the penetration of smartphones has continued to rise.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0404_form Shifting choice of connected devices
Age of the active installed base of tablets
The current mean age of tablets in the US is just over two years. At 2.3 years, tablet age is slightly down from 2017 when it was 2.4. Users in Germany and the UK have been keeping their tablets longer than Americans while also using never tablets than three years earlier.
From: TUP_doc_2020_1017_age_ Age of actively used tablets
Profile of tablet users
Tablets skew towards larger households
Households with three people have a higher tablet use rate than those with only one or two persons. Those with four or more people have even higher rates. This size-associated penetration is positive and accurate in the US, Germany, and the UK. During the last five year’s decline in tablet penetration, it is not as if more broadly penetrated large households have remained a mainstay.
From: TUP_doc_2021_1107_tabl Tablet use by household size
Tablets among game-players
Game-playing with tablets
Game-playing is notable, although incidental, among the passive activities popular with tablets. Tablets aren’t competing with or comparable to the highest-performance gaming PCs and instead are used for casual gaming.
From: TUP_doc_2020_1124_tabl Tablet game playing by household size
Tablets in and for education
There have been many widely publicized volume sales of tablets into schools and other educational organizations. However, among the general population that is TUP’s study universe, we do not find broad use of tablets for educational activities. Although a direct survey of K-12 teachers and students would show different results, if educational use were more substantial, we would expect at least broader use of tablets for education than around one in ten tablets.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0402_educ Tablets used for educational activities
Tablets in the installed base
Tablets are not the only devices being used – by a long shot. From the active collection of PCs, mobile phones, tablets, and game consoles, tablets only make up 10% of devices. Around half of tablets are being used by adults actively using five or more devices, a similar share using devices of any type. However, tablets are hardly being used by any adults using only one or two connected devices.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0330_devi Connected Devices by Type
Tablet activities
How tablet usage has changed
People are using tablets more intensively, even while fewer people are using them. Among those using tablets, activity levels have increased, as shown by the average number of hours they use tablets.
From: TUP_doc_2020_1024_aver Average hours using a tablet
How tablets are used
Tablet activities by country
Tablets are well enjoyed for a wide variety of activities. Many of the top activities are passive – such as browsing the Internet, shopping, watching videos or movies, checking sports scores, or reading news.
From: TUP_doc_2021_1017_top Top tablet activities by country
How users choose between tablets and home PCs – or don’t choose
Fluency and congruency between home PCs and tablets – top activities for both
To see how tablets compare to home PCs, we looked into users that have both. We then compared the activities which have the highest use on each platform. Among users with both home PCs and tablets, several top activities are similar across each type of device: Internet browsing, checking/sending personal email, and watching videos/movies. There’s a separate group of more home PC-centric activities and little-used on tablets: creating personal graphics/presentations, collaborating on personal files, and searching on personal finance. Conversely, only two activities stand out for being more tablet-centric: reading a book and taking pictures.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0405_acti Preference for tablet or home PC for activities
Creative activities with tablets
Looking specifically into activities that involve creativity shows that tablets are only being used marginally for creative activities. Among eight creativity activities included on the TUP questionnaire, only the general activity “personal creativity” stands out from the others. Collectively, around one in four tablet users regularly do any of the selected activities.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0403_crea Broad creativity with tablets
Tablets crowded out by other devices for communication
Tablets are only nominally used as a singular device for communication – whether voice or written, personal or work-related. Only personal group meetings – such as having group Facetime or Zoom calls – capture over 5% of online adults across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan. While Smartphones are the device of choice for most users, users juggle multiple devices: smartphones, PCs, or tablets for most types of communication.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0312_comm Device type used most often for communication
Tablet mobility
Locations for tablet use
As mobile as tablets are, they’re mostly used at home. This has been increasingly the case well before the pandemic. Five years ago, tablets were in measurable use in workplaces at public locations such as cybercafés. However, usage has steadily declined since then such that homes are effectively the last remaining location for regular tablet use.
From: TUP_doc_2020_1129_the_ The mobility of tablets
Tablets – Competition and substitution
Apple iPads dominate the tablet market. Non-Apple tablets are lead by Samsung and hardly any other brand.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0406_bran Tablet installed base by brand and country
Apple iPad penetration trend
Apple’s iPads have declined in use in the US, just as overall tablet penetration has waned. Currently, one in five online American adults use an Apple iPad, down from 28% in 2016. Apple has managed to retain a relatively steady share of Germany and British online adults.
From: TUP_doc_2020_1121_acti Active iPad use by country and year
Tablets as part of the user’s device combination
Tablets are most commonly the third type of device in user’s mobile device collections – being used by users of both notebooks and smartphones. The most widely-used two-device combination is a smartphone and tablet. However, it is not a large segment, being used by just over one in five online American adults. Instead, tablets are found chiefly among users actively using three types of mobile devices.
From: TUP_doc_2020_1212_mobi Mobility for all ages
Tablets and the technology ecosystem
Apple’s iPad has its highest share among Apple’s existing customers – those using either an iPhone or Mac. Around two-thirds of iPad users use an iPhone across the US, Germany, UK, and Japan. This share is substantially higher than among the general online population. Similarly, nearly twice the percentage of iPad users use a Mac than among the general online population.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0329_appl Mac and iPhone market penetration among iPad users
Tablet use by operating system and user age
Apple’s iPad share is not substantially different by age group in the US. It is somewhat skewed towards younger adults in the UK, Germany, and Japan.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0328_tabl Tablet OS by age generation
Association between iPhone/Android smartphones and iPad/non-Apple tablets
There is a positive association between the use of an iPad and an iPhone, just as there is between a non-Apple tablet and an Android smartphone. Online adults that use an Android smartphone are twice as likely to be using a non-Apple tablet than using an Apple iPad. Even more powerfully, users of an iPhone are around four times as likely to be using an iPad than a non-Apple tablet.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0108_tabl Tablets dissolving into a split market
Tablet purchase plans vis-à-vis PCs and smartphones
Tablets are on tech buyer’s minds, especially employees working from home. However, tablets are not at the top of their list. Looking ahead, purchase plans are stronger for laptop PCs and smartphones than for tablets.
From: TUP_doc_2021_0211_purc Purchase plans among employees working only from home
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.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, April 6, 2021
Tablet users express their preferences by which brands they choose to use. This MetaFAQs details the brand of the active installed base of tablets in the US, UK, Germany, Japan, China, and India.
About MetaFAQs
MetaFAQs are answers to frequently asked questions about technology users. 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.
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
TUP Lenses: Tablets, Devices
Tags: Tablets, Brands, Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, ASUS, Google
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.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, March 29, 2021
Are Apple’s Macs and iPhones more deeply penetrated among users of iPads? This MetaFAQs details the market penetration of Apple Macs and iPhones among Apple iPad users and all online adults in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan.
About MetaFAQs
MetaFAQs are answers to frequently asked questions about technology users. 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.
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.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, March 28, 2021
Are iPads more deeply penetrated among younger or older adults? How have Android tablets fared among older versus younger adults? This MetaFAQs details the market penetration of Apple iPads and Android tablets by generational age groups of online adults in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan.
About MetaFAQs
MetaFAQs are answers to frequently asked questions about technology users. 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.
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.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, December 7, 2020
Are smart displays making any headway?
With videoconferencing entering the mainstream and getting a recent boost during pandemic stay-at-home orders, there was a possibility that smart displays would get broad market acceptance. Based on our most recent research results in TUP/Technology User Profile 2020, market penetration is still quite small.
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.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, November 19, 2020
The smartphone-smartwatch Connection
Smartwatches offer the promise to extend the user’s experiences. Most are tightly coupled with a smartphone and its ecosystem. We looked into whether smartwatch users’ behaviors are any different, whether they have an iPhone or Android smartphone. Drilling into the MetaFacts TUP/Technology User Profile 2020 results showed there is a gap between OS and between countries.
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.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, October 28, 2020
Every Android smartphone in the active installed base is not in the hands of its first user. Using used/refurbished Android smartphones varies by age group and country. This MetaFAQs reports on the use of used/refurbished Android smartphones by generational age group and country.
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.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, December 19, 2019
Smartwatch and fitness band penetration tapers to 2016 levels
The race for the wrist has settled into a larger-than-niche and less-than-majority position. Over the last three years, the share of online Americans using at least one smartwatch has grown from one in six to one in five, only to settle back to the one in six level. This is based on TUP/Technology User Profile 2019 survey of 8,060 online adults in the US, and from the prior three annual waves.
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.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, May 22, 2019
Most Americans value their privacy, although many have resigned themselves to having less, while others are taking steps to better safeguard theirs. Are privacy concerns a factor affecting the behavior or everyday Americans? Do attitudes and beliefs around privacy affect technology usage? Do Americans trust some brands more than others? How widely held is a need for online privacy?
To address these questions, we conducted a short survey among online Americans in May 2019 as part of the preparation for TUP/Technology User Profile 2019.
Our research results show that many online Americans are willing to live with inner conflict, finding a balance between their fears and their quest for convenience. Even those feeling strongly are still using systems they distrust.
The Innocent Need Not Worry – Agree?
An idea that’s been mentioned around privacy debates for more than 100 years goes something like: “why do you need privacy if you’ve done nothing wrong?” We asked respondents how strongly they agree or disagree. Their responses reveal a strong split among online Americans – more than any other question we asked in this survey. Nearly half (55%) disagreed or strongly disagreed that “Anyone who has done nothing wrong not worry about their privacy”. A smaller yet substantial number (37%) disagreed. There’s widespread and growing concern about online privacy, along with acceptance that online, nothing is really private.
Worry-Free Innocents are Bigger Tech Adopters
The strength of belief in “nothing to hide” exposes a wide split among online Americans in usage rates of certain technology: namely home security cameras and voice assistants. Among the “Innocent need not worry”, the use of home security cameras (such as from Arlo) are being used at more than three times the rate than among the “Innocent should worry.” There have been many widely reported breaches of cloud-stored images, especially among some of the earliest cloud camera implementations.
The use of or avoidance of voice assistants is also split by attitude, with usage rates being roughly twice as high among the “Innocent need not worry” versus the “Innocent should worry”. As with breached cameras, there have been mainstream reports about voice recordings or listening devices being compromised.
Usage rates of iPhones and Android smartphones is not markedly different between these groups, nor is the use of social networks Nextdoor or Facebook. However, iPad usage is higher among the “Innocent need not worry”.
Facebook Least Trusted
A bigger issue facing Facebook is that of trust, or more accurately, lack of trust. Americans trust Facebook least of all among Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. Within the last several years, everyday consumers have been alerted to a series of privacy breaches in news reports in mainstream news. Although tech-oriented users have been cognizant of the inherent threats to privacy from their online activities, these concerns have broadened into the general public. Just over one-fourth (27%) of online Americans distrust Facebook while 23% similarly distrust Google, saying they trust them “Not at all” or “To little extent”. And, only slightly more than one-third (36%) say they do trust Facebook, in strong contrast to the majority who report trust of Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.
Cognitive Dissonance, Denial, or Cluelessness?
There are many in technology and marketing circles who dismiss privacy concerns, pointing out that although many people express concerns, they then paradoxically go ahead to use or buy that which they distrust, despite their awareness and fears. That display of cognitive dissonance is clearest among users of Facebook’s properties. Of those who use Facebook, Instagram or, WhatsApp, only 39% say they trust Facebook. That’s half the trust rate among Apple’s users, where over three-fourths (77%) express trust.
Distrust is also strong among Facebook’s users, with 20% saying they trust Facebook “Not at all” or “To little extent”. Google isn’t much better off, with nearly a quarter (23%) of their users expressing distrust of Google. Apple, on the other hand, has only 8% of its users expressing distrust.
Apple’s Head Start on Perception of Privacy
Within the last year, Apple has increased its marketing around privacy. Apple’s current customers are already more privacy-oriented than the average online American. A higher share describe themselves as being more careful about their privacy than most people, and noting that they’ve been taken advantage of often. This predisposes them to be more receptive to privacy as a reason to choose Apple’s products and services over others.
Looking ahead
As a marketing issue, online privacy is likely to continue getting stronger and more widespread. Most likely the word privacy will be defined and redefined in many different ways by each entity, leading to further market confusion. Apple’s privacy-oriented and aware customers are likely to continue as such, solidifying their reliance on Apple. In contrast, non-Apple customers will be less and less likely to switch to Apple as they’re mollified by promises of privacy from Google, Facebook, and others. The perceptual gap around privacy issues will be further eroded by claims. Meanwhile, as adoption of voice assistant and smart home devices expands, we can expect continued reports of data breaches and privacy failures. Realistically, these privacy events are unlikely to discourage users from using their existing services to any large degree. Convenience, habit, denial, and acceptance (aka resignation) are strong forces among online Americans. In other words, we can expect more of the same.
We’re going to see a rising challenge to offer convenience while truly managing privacy. Makers of products with capabilities that everyday users may associate with privacy risks – such as those with integrated voice assistants or cloud cameras – will need to be aware of the market’s needs for privacy, and likely offer alternate versions without these capabilities. Or, makers of these products will need to offer settings that will assure privacy, such as ways for nontechnical users to confirm sensors such as microphones or cameras are inoperable. Even products that track personal information in ways less obvious to regular consumers – such as tracking multiple factors such as location, device ID (such as MAC address), viewing habits, or other behaviors – will need to address privacy beyond the usual license agreement. I expect we’ll see alternate “privacy” versions of smart home products from wireless speakers to TVs and thermostats that are designed to have limited or no tracking.
At the end of the day, privacy will continue as an important product feature, added to the list of speeds, feeds, and checklists that consumers will use as they choose what they buy or avoid.
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.