Psyching Out Tech Consumers in 2019

Published Jan 03, 2019

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As you consider navigating the cavernous territory of CES 2019, you might be asking yourself, “What’s hot and what’s not?” We’re all only human and everyone wants to know who the winners are going to be in the tech sector. What new tech will blow the doors off the economy in 2019? If you’re in any tech-related field, that’s obviously where you want to be spending your time, attention and budget in the months to come.

So we at Toluna are offering you a little cheat sheet to help you plan your days at CES. To do that, we used Toluna’s QuickSurveys platform, at the end of 2018 querying more than 1,000 U.S-based respondents about tech adoption, purchase intent, and reaction to developing trends, shedding light on the effectiveness of marketing approaches and new-product introductions. Technologies included facial recognition technology, VR and/or AR, smart home devices or IoT connected devices, speech recognition / voice search, wearable technology devices, smart or foldable displays, and interactive devices. Consumers were also asked about adoption and purchase intent for products under these three categories: baby tech, sports tech, and sleep tech.

Here’s what we found out:

Smarter At Home and Away

We determined that consumers are definitely intent on staying smart at home, with smart-home devices or IoT connected devices already in the homes of 22 percent of the respondents. What’s more, homes are destined to get even smarter, with 27 percent saying they are planning to purchase these products within the next six months.

And consumers aren’t leaving all that great technology at home. Twenty-two percent said they’ve purchased wearable tech, with 24 percent putting it in the budget for the next six months.

Now a Reality

Consumers are showing they’re intent on stretching reality, whether at home or work, over the coming months. While a total of just 10 to 14 percent said they had adopted virtual reality (VR) and/or augmented reality (AR), facial recognition technology, smart or foldable displays, and interactive devices, those numbers nearly doubled when noting intent. Twenty-two percent said they had plans to purchase these types of technologies in the next six months.

Trending Now

The survey also shed some light on coming trends and the effectiveness of some marketing approaches. For example, we learned that entertainment is a driving interest in new technologies, with 43 percent of consumers saying they plan to purchase new technologies for this purpose, followed by automating tasks with 26 percent, tracking and measuring behavioral data with 23 percent, then sharing on social media with 18 percent, and lastly receiving more personalized ads with 12 percent.

And we learned that sleep technology is a viable and emerging tech category, with 22 percent of respondents saying they would be interested in purchasing products under this category, compared to 17 percent who said sports tech, and 14 percent who said baby tech were priorities.

Interestingly, the survey revealed that advertising in smart speakers is not a deal-breaker for most consumers, with just 19 percent saying they would be more willing to use smart speakers without ads, while 23 percent said it wouldn’t affect their behavior, and 16 percent said they didn’t know or were unsure.

Hopefully, the info above will help you find the real hot spots at this year’s show.

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