i3 - July/August 2019 - 50

Business

By Steve Koenig

M A R K E T B E AT

Consumers Embrace the
Intelligence of Things

Personal audio is another category
with a lot of enthusiasm among consumers - particularly for wireless
solutions. Already, nearly half (48%) of
U.S. households own either a pair of
wireless headphones or earbuds. But
more interesting, one third (33%) of
household's plan to buy at least one of
these solutions in the next year. CTA
forecasts combined annual shipments
of wireless headphones and earbuds
will grow 31% in 2019 to more than
26 million units.
For wearables, smartwatch adoption
grew by five percentage points to reach
23% household ownership in 2019,
narrowing the gap with fitness trackers, which grew four percentage points
and are now owned by 29% of U.S.
households. We can expect adoption to
continue to rise as first-time buyers
make up the majority of households
planning to make a purchase over the
next 12 months.
Overall, the study reveals how
innovation is spurring demand for
emerging technologies and driving
consumers to upgrade existing devices.
Check out the complete study at
CTA.tech/research.

oday's consumer technology industry has brought a new
meaning to the acronym IoT. Once known as the
"Internet of Things," devices that are part of the
"Intelligence of Things" are becoming just as popular. We know
this from the innovations seen at CES, where entrepreneurs
combined connectivity and data with artificial intelligence to elevate consumer experiences and offer new levels of functionality.

Breaking it Down

JULY/AUGUST 2019

The Big Advances

Smart home devices will likely see the
largest gains in household adoption in
the next year. First-time purchasers
make up the largest proportion of prospective buyers, led by households planning to buy smart door locks, smart
doorbells and smart home hubs for the
first time. The correlation between soaring ownership of smart speakers with
voice-activated digital assistants and
budding purchase intent for smart
home products cannot be ignored.

LARGEST GROWTH IN
OWNERSHIP FROM 2018 TO 2019
2018

2019

16%

Smart speaker (with/without display)
Pet technology
Rearview or dashboard camera
Smart thermostat
VR headset

31%

+67

10
10
9

+44
15

+36
23

Soundbar

Smartwatch
Portable gaming device

Portable device for hands-free calling
Drones

+60

13
11

+94%

+30

% CHANGE FROM 2018

CTA's 21st Annual Consumer
Technology Ownership and Market
Potential study found household ownership of smart speakers nearly doubled
over the past year, jumping to 31% from
16% in 2018. Underscoring consumers'
embrace of voice-activated digital assistants, the growth in smart speaker
ownership was the largest gain in
household ownership across the nearly
60 products surveyed.
The analysis also shows how three
screens (TVs, smartphones and laptop
PCs) dominate tech ownership and
anchor consumer technology experiences. TVs narrowly remain the most
commonly owned consumer tech product, with 95% of households owning at
least one. Some 91% of households
own a smartphone followed by laptops
at 75%.
Tablets, meanwhile, are owned by
nearly two-thirds (65%) of U.S. households, likely near the peak for these
devices. CTA's forecast data shows tablet shipments peaked in 2014 at 71 million units after a meteoric rise from

their introduction in 2011. However,
the percentage of first-time buyers has
decelerated rapidly in recent years.

+30
+30

23
21

+28
26

Getty Images

New CTA research provides evidence of
this paradigm shift by examining tech
ownership and purchase intent data
among U.S. households. The findings
demonstrate consumers want the benefits of data, sensors, AI and other
advanced technologies through the
products they own and are looking to
buy over the next year.

+24

Source: CTA Market Research
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

https://cta.tech/Research-Standards.aspx

i3 - July/August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - July/August 2019