Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Digital trends: hardware category obsolescence?





PC and tablet ownership, January 2012-August 2012
(image from Mintel Report Digital Trends 2013)

In a Mintel Report that came out last month, Senior Technology Analyst Billy Hulkower, says "Convergence has been en route to the tech market for two decades, but now that it’s fully arrived, its overriding impact is clear: hardware category obsolescence” (Hulkower, 2013). 

A couple years ago I had bought a really nice digital camera (very expensive) because I wanted to take quality pictures and videos of my son's arrival into the world as well be able to capture memories throughout his life. I stopped using that camera last year when I upgraded my phone to a really nice smartphone (even more expensive than the digital camera) because it had the same capabilities, plus more.

"The rise of smartphones and tablets has pummeled sales of cameras, personal audio, desktops, televisions, gaming consoles, PC peripherals, and the companies whose brand names were staked on them..." (Hulkower, 2013). Nowadays, there is one device that has the capabilities of multiple devices. I not only use my phone for normal communication like talk and text, but I use it for email, social media, gameplay, and so much more.

The metatrend, "Access Anything, Anywhere," is identified by Mintel to "greatly affect consumers worldwide in five to ten years" (Hulkower, 2013). I could not agree with this metatrend more. Not only do we access the Internet from the usual places for example, home or work, but we also use it while we are commuting in between the usual places.

“Devices are becoming remote controls for our lives, helping us access things we want to buy, control things we already own, and analyze things we want to better understand" (Hulkower, 2013). We are already beginning to see our smartphones becoming the remote controls of our lives. Not only are digital trends influencing us, but we are also creating the trends through the way we use digital technology.  

Hulkower, B. (2013, March). Digital trends. Retrieved from http://academic.mintel.com.flagship.luc.edu/display/637616/?highlight=true

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