Deloitte Survey: Smartphones Continue to Reign Supreme as Consumers’ Preferred Device

American consumers are now viewing their phones an average of 52 times daily, with 39 percent of consumers believing they use their smartphones too much. In fact, 60 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds admit to smartphone overuse, the highest level of any age group. However, 63 percent of the respondents reported trying to limit their smartphone usage, roughly half succeeding in cutting back. Smartphones also are helping blur the lines between work and leisure with 70 percent of respondents using personal smartphones at least occasionally for after-hours work.

Read More: Interview with Jeffrey Kofman, CEO and Founder at Trint

The survey also notes growing consumer interest in voice-assisted technologies, which are poised to be one of the next “big things” in human-computer interaction, as well as interest in certain Internet of Things (IoT) applications and devices, and the introduction of fifth-generation (5G) wireless technologies.

“This year’s survey really advances the story of smartphones as the true center of our lives, both inside and outside the home,” said Kevin Westcott, vice chairman and U.S. telecommunications, media and entertainment sector leader, Deloitte LLP. “While interest in other mobile technologies such as voice-assistance and IoT is there, the smartphone remains the go-to device for consumers, enabling them to do anything they desire: communicate, work, socialize, consume entertainment, stay fit or take care of things at home.”

Read More: The Top 5 “Recipes” That Give AI Projects a Higher Likelihood of Success

Inflection point for tablets and wearables
While smartphone penetration continued to increase this year, the same was not true for tablets. They suffered the largest year-over-year decline in market penetration of any device category, per the survey, slipping 5 percent (from 62 percent to 57 percent) and seem to now have more specific uses among different age groups.

• Smartphones are the fastest growing of 10 device categories. Their 3 percent growth rate is triple that of the one other device category with positive growth, smartwatches, now used by 14 percent of Americans.
• Trailing smartphones in consumer penetration are laptops (77 percent), desktop computers (57 percent), tablets (57 percent), fitness bands (21 percent), virtual reality (VR) headsets (8 percent) and smartwatches (14 percent).
• In daily usage, tablets (52 percent) now rank behind smartphones (94 percent), laptops (74 percent), desktop computers (71 percent), smartwatches (67 percent), and fitness bands (60 percent).
• Daily usage for wearables, however, is growing for owners of fitness bands (60 percent versus 53 percent in 2017) and smartwatches (67 percent versus 62 percent in 2017).

Read More:  Fluor Uses IBM Watson to Deliver Predictive Analytics Capability for Megaprojects

Consumers concerned about data privacy and security 
Not surprisingly, an overwhelming majority of Americans worry about keeping their personal data private.

• Eighty percent of consumers have concerns about companies using, storing and sharing their personal data with third parties.
• Eighty-five (85) percent of respondents now believe that companies with which they interact online use their personal data “all” or “most of” the time.
• Consumers are 14 percent less likely this year to share their photos and address books with companies they interact with online, marking a substantial change in behavior from last year.
• With regard to mobile in-store payments (mPayments), only 31 percent of respondents indicated they have ever used their mobile device to make an in-store payment, and only 14 percent do so on a weekly basis. While there are several reasons for the tepid adoption, security concerns (42 percent) and lack of perceived benefits (42 percent) were cited as main reasons by respondents.

Read More: The AI Gold Rush: How to Make Money off AI and Machine Learning!

Voice assistant technologies “make noise” with consumers
Voice control’s adoption curve suggests it will be the next big thing in human computer interaction, after touch.

• Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of respondents have used the voice assistant on their smartphones, up 11 percent from last year.
• Nearly half (46 percent) have used the voice assistant within the last week, if not in the last day.
• Market penetration of voice-assisted speakers has nearly doubled over the past year (growing from 12 to 20 percent).
• Sixty-nine (69) percent of respondents who own voice-assisted speakers report using their voice-assistance capabilities weekly, and 47 percent do so daily.

Read More: Calabrio Delivers Powerful Enterprise Scalability and Management Capabilities