Even though Australians have purchased these marquee tech devices as a result of the pandemic, overall ownership has remained relatively stable, fluctuating by less than 1% over the past 3 years – indicating that these purchases are upgrades or replacements, rather than new purchasers entering the market. Due to the pandemic, many of these upgrades are likely to have happened earlier than the lengthening upgrade cycles we have seen in our previous editions of this report. The spike in purchasing has a potential flow-on impact to the uptake of new technologies such as 8K televisions and 5G smartphones. Consumers who purchased a 4K TV or 4G enabled smartphone in the last 12 months will likely wait a number of years before their next refresh, potentially impacting the mass adoption of the latest and greatest technologies.

Which, if any, of the following devices do you own or have ready access to

Base: All adults 18-75

Wearable devices such as smart watches and fitness bands have continued to see a rise in ownership. Twenty three percent of respondents now have access to a smart watch, up from 17% in 2020 and 12% in 2019. This is likely to coincide with the spike in tech device purchasing as consumers look to fill out their companion devices to the smartphone and laptop. However, it is entirely possible that a more digitally conscious, and health focussed Australian community will continue to see the broad applicability of these devices and adoption will continue to accelerate.

In global comparisons of wearable adoption, Australia is on par with some nations like the UK (23%)¹ and Italy (25%)², and higher than in other nations such as Japan (7%)³. That said adoption rates appear to be mixed. For example, smart watch adoption has grown faster in the UK, with 13% of respondents having access in 2020¹ compared to 17% in Australia. With lock-downs subsiding, post-pandemic it will be interesting to observe whether wearable adoption continues at the same rate given the return to mobility.

Expanding entertainment options has been a theme for consumers, with 40% of Australians reporting they have spent more time watching TV and films since the start of the pandemic. Smart TVs have led the charge, with adoption increasing to 64%, up from 58% in 2020. Access to other connected devices also saw more modest improvements, with both voice-assisted (18% to 19%) and non-voice-assisted speakers (27% to 30%), and streaming devices (33% to 34%) all increasing. Gaming has also seen a boost with access to gaming consoles increasing to 39% from the 35% recorded in 2020, aided by the launch of next gen consoles from the major players. It is likely that access to gaming consoles will continue to increase into next year once supply is stabilised4. Stock availability issues have not been limited to gaming devices, with 27% of respondents having to wait more than a week to purchase an electronic device. This is expected to continue into 2022, with shipping delays and chip availability both contributing.

Beyond entertainment and recreation, Australian’s have turned to smart home tech for a further wave of improvements to their lockdown lives. Devices such as smart appliances (6% to 11%), smart lighting (4% to 10%), and smart hubs (6% to 9%) have all almost doubled in ownership since 2018. The increase in smart appliances is even more interesting when the adoption is considered in terms of age demographics, with 26% of respondents aged 18 to 24, and 16% of those aged 25 to 34 reporting to have ready access to one of these devices - a marked improvement from 2020, where these demographics reported 14% and 10% respectively.

One of the lasting implications from this pandemic induced connected device purchasing is the potential for hardware providers to bundle services to support them moving forward (e.g. home security, energy monitoring). Customers have demonstrated they are increasingly comfortable with ongoing subscription business models (1 in 4 respondents subscribed to a paid SVOD service and 1 in 10 resubscribed in the last 12 months), which presents an opportunity for traditional hardware vendors to tap into ongoing revenue.

Finally, we have seen the 65-75 demographic start to ‘ditch the desktop’ as the preferred device in favour of prioritising portability. Whilst laptops have now replaced desktops as the preferred device for all activities aside from checking bank balances, there has only been a relatively small growth in their popularity. Instead, this transition has been driven by a sharp decline in the popularity of the desktops, offset by a dramatic increase in the popularity of mobile phones within this demographic – for instance, the number of respondents aged 65-75 who preferred using their mobile phone for online searches increased to 23% in 2021, from 9% in 2020.

Below is a list of activities that you may do on your smartphone. Which, if any, of these do you do at least once a day?

Base: All adults 18-75 who have a smartphone and do any activity on their devices at least once a day 

Despite the increase in popularity of mobile phones across most activities, 2021 did see a decrease in the frequency respondents used mobile phones for several mainstay activities. Fifty five percent and 47% of respondents reported using their smartphones at least once per day for using social media and IM (Instant Messaging) apps respectively – down from the 61% and 55% reported in 2020. This drop marks a return to pre-pandemic usage levels, rather than a decrease in popularity overall, with 58% and 47% of respondents reporting undertaking these activities daily in 2019. When considering duration of use as well as frequency, 25% of respondents reported to have used social networks more because of the pandemic.

Interestingly, this trend of favouring convenience and portability has gone in the opposite direction for gaming, with preferences trending towards consoles. The popularity of consoles has increased roughly equally for men and women over the past year, with preference growing by 6 percentage points (from 21% to 27%) for men, and by 7 percentage points (from 12% to 20%) for women. Similar levels of device preference growth can be seen across age brackets with most groupings growing by 7-8 percentage points. This growth is likely due in part to the increased accessibility of next generation consoles, however it may also indicate that, for gaming at least, the pandemic has pushed us towards quality over convenience. Despite this increase in preference for consoles, more Australians are using mobiles to game than ever before, with 28% using mobile phones for gaming at least once per day, up from 21% in 2020. This may indicate that people are turning more and more to gaming across all devices as a means of escapism, something that will likely continue as technologies such as virtual reality become increasingly mainstream.