Issue 2, vol. 1 - April 2005

Twenty nine years ago when our oldest target set were in diapers, the bleeding edge technology of the day was the Commodore 64 and Colecovision. Today, young people in Canada increasingly own the kind of technology seen on The Jetsons or their parent’s boardrooms.

Consider the rise in technology ownership over the last two years. In 2003, Youthography asked young people aged 15-29 years about the technology devices they own. This question was posed again in 2005. The chart below captures some of the most notable trends in personal ownership.

Though desktop computers are still the most commonly owned items, with 94% of our 15- to 29-year-old respondents having at least one in their current household, laptops are really where it’s at. We see household ownership of laptops is almost half (46%), consistent with our numbers from the past year.

However, what’s interesting to note is the increase in young peoples’ personal ownership of laptops. Much has been said and researched about the importance of laptops in University and college environments. We expect to see in the next few years more post-secondary institutions getting outfitted with wireless technologies that are particularly laptop-friendly. Some schools have even enforced the usage of laptops among students by building the cost into tuition.

Our most recent data reflects this trend as we have seen a 7% increase in personal laptop ownership by 15- to 29-year-olds in the past two double cohort years. At the 24 to 29 age range, ownership is at nearly one third. All that talk about the ‘portable Internet’ and WiFi hotspots’ are being driven by this age bracket.

Speaking of wireless, our latest data reveals that cell phone ownership has remained virtually unchanged in the last two years at 56%. This indicates that cell phone penetration has leveled off. Interestingly, all the cool new cell phone features and functions may be loved by current users but haven’t significantly impacted market demand with non-users.

In the PDA market, times are tough. PDA ownership increased only a modest 1.5% over the last two years to 11%. While some lower end models exist, buying a PDA now effectively means buying a phone. It will be interesting to see where PDAs go as more devices become multi-functional and claim PDA features. PDAs themselves may be obsolete or unrecognizable from what we know them as today.

When it comes to portable MP3 players, the iPod has thrown demand into fast forward. Compared to 2003, ownership has increased from 13% to 32% and is unlikely to slow down anytime soon with more Apple brand extensions and challengers entering the market.

Technology trends come and go but like most socio-cultural trends, they often begin and end with young people.