Consumers moving away from buying single-purpose devices

Thanks to devices like the smartphone, which can do the work of many other gadgets like a video recorder, still camera, music player, game player, a telephone and more, sales of single-use gadgets are dropping and are being replaced by multi-purpose products like... the smartphone. 41% of the people responding to a survey by consulting firm Accenture, said that they plan on buying a smartphone in 2013 with 36% planning to purchase a PC. Another multiple-use gadget on consumers' radar for 2013 is the tablet which is on the shopping list of 23% of those surveyed. In total, spending on gadgets is expected to reach $1.1 trillion this year.

The survey, conducted in September, shows the rise of the smartphone and the tablet. Owned by 29% of those surveyed in 2009, by last year 58% of the respondents sported a smartphone. The first year that the tablet was on the survey, 2010, only 8% owned one. By last September, 25% of those surveyed had a tablet. The data shows how versatile a device the tablet is. After purchasing one, 43% of those with an eBook reader used it less and 40% used their DVD player less after a tablet purchase. On the other hand, only 24% of smartphone owners used their handset less after adding a tablet to the household.

In a very telling response, it seems that 100% of smartphone users know the name of the OS on the phone they use. 93% of tablet owners knew the OS on their slate, and most of the computer owners answering the survey could name the OS that powers their device. This is important to software developers because about half of the survey's respondents say that they would like to have all of their devices running on one OS.

It should be noted that not all single-use devices are becoming extinct, GPS players, Blu-Ray video players and eBook readers continue to show gains in ownership. But those devices are the exceptions, not the rule.

source: Accenture via TechCrunch