M+E Connections

U.S. ownership of 4K Ultra High-Def (UHD) TVs, virtual reality (VR) headsets and smart speakers — including the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven Amazon Echo and Google Home — have all grown significantly over the past year, according to findings of the 20th annual Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Consumer Technology Ownership and Market Potential Study.

But TVs, smartphones and laptop computers “continue to dominate U.S. household ownership” across all devices, CTA said June 25 while releasing the report.
 
4K UHD TVs experienced the largest growth in household ownership, rising 15 percentage points to reach 31% of U.S. households, according to CTA. “Next-gen screen technologies and the availability of larger screen sizes drove more U.S. consumers to buy technology in and around the TV,” CTA said in a news release.
One in five (19%) of households own a TV with a screen size of 60 inches or larger, CTA also found.

Smartphones, owned by 87% of U.S. homes, are rapidly catching up to TVs (96%) as the most popular tech device, and may “catch up” over the next five years, according to CTA. Laptop ownership grew to 72%.

Digital media streaming devices had the largest percentage increase in installed base among all total product categories, jumping 9% from 77 million in 2017 to 107 million in 2018, according to CTA. Forty-five percent of U.S. households now own these devices, it said.
 
 
But there was also a lot of growth for smart speakers and VR headsets. Smart speaker sales almost tripled in ownership to reach 22% of American households, making it one of the fastest adopted technologies since tablets, CTA said.

VR headset ownership doubled since 2017 as “self-reported” U.S. household ownership increased to about 10%, it said in the report. That “likely includes lower-end devices, which are not included in CTA’s estimates of installed base (7.2 million) and U.S. household penetration (6%), it said.

“It’s no surprise that emerging categories such as smart speakers and VR are among the products consumers anticipate buying the most” Ben Arnold, CTA senior director of innovation and trends, said in the news release. He added: “Many of these devices incorporate new technologies and features — artificial intelligence, voice recognition, faster processing — and at the same time provide a smarter way to communicate or experience content.”

Smartwatch adoption, meanwhile, continues to grow, with 18% of U.S. households now owning at least one of those devices — an increase of six percentage points over 2017, CTA said. In another emerging tech category, 10% of U.S. households now own drones, it said.

In stark contrast to 2018, in 1998, the top five-owned tech products were color TVs, video cassette recorders, cordless phones, telephone answering devices and home CD players, CTA noted.
 
With the study, CTA ascertains ownership and purchase intent of consumer technology products among U.S. households across various categories. The report was administered via a dual-frame telephone interview of 2,016 U.S. adults Feb. 22-March 5, it said.