Four signs we are now in a post PC World
Steve Smith, head of thought leadership at Starcom MediaVest London, highlights the evolving technological landsape…
We are living in a post PC world, a world in which people no longer give PCs and laptops dominant roles for accessing the internet in terms of routine, frequency and what they do.
There are four recent pieces of news that attest to this.
Only 7% of Apple’s sales are Macs
Apple released its third quarter 2012 results on Tuesday. It showed that during the quarter it sold only 2% more desktops and laptops than it did during the same quarter in 2011. Sales of iPhones on the other hand climbed 28%, and sales of iPads climbed a massive 84%. What’s more, for every one desktop or laptop Apple sold, it sold over four iPads and over six iPhones.
Smartphone processor shipments climb
ARM processors are used in 90% of the world’s smartphones. It too released its most recent quarter figures this week. They show that it shipped two billion chips during the quarter, a rise of 9% year-on-year compared with chip shipments across the whole industry being down 4%. Sterling revenues were up 15%, and profits climbed 23%.
Smartphone data usage doubles
Three has just released a couple of findings from a study of its smartphone customers. Last summer, the average monthly data of its smartphone customers was 450MB. In less than a year, this has almost doubled to 1.1GB. Secondly, 95% of Three’s smartphone customers access the internet on their smartphones on a daily basis. It shows just how much people have integrated internet access via smartphones into their everyday lives.
People substituting PCs and laptops for smartphones and tablets
Ofcom released its annual Communications Market Report last week. It shows that smartphone ownership in the UK rose to 39% of UK adults during the first quarter of this year, up 44% over 2011.
It also shows that tablet ownership rose nearly six fold, to reach 11% of UK households. 74% of tablet owners say they go online on their tablet every day, or most days, while 44% of smartphone owners say access the internet regularly.
The activities that smartphone users claim their handset is substituting for most are: watching video clips on a PC or laptop (51%), instant messaging from a PC or laptop (47%), taking photos with a camera (43%), accessing general news from a PC or laptop (39%) and social networking from a PC or laptop (37%).
In terms of tablets, around four in 10 (37%) say they browse the internet more since owning a tablet, while around one quarter (23%) say they do more social networking.
People are also using tablets to replace some laptop and desktop behaviours. 37% use their laptop less since owning a tablet, and one third (33%) use their desktop PC less.
Smartphone processor profits and shipments climb
ARM processors are used in 90% of the world’s smartphones. It too released its most recent quarter figures this week. They show that it shipped two billion chips during the quarter; revenues were up 15% and profits climbed 23%.
In terms of the whole smartphone market, a phenomenal 153.9 million smartphones were shipped worldwide in Q2 2012 compared to 108.3 million units in Q2 2011. This was an astonishing climb of 42% year over year, according to IDC.