Trends on Tuesday: Smartphone and Tablet Adoption Grows While Other Digital Devices Slump
Pew released a recent report tracking trends in digital device ownership and found smartphones and tablets have continued to grow in recent years, while other devices have stalled.
![Mobile devices](https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/03/600-x-400-Mobile-devices-scanrail-iStock-Thinkstock-ThinkstockPhotos-507329083.jpg)
The big headlines from the report are:
- Cell phones are now in the hands of more than 92% of U.S. adults, although this trend started to flatten over the past 3 years. That elusive final 8% of U.S. adults might take a while to adopt (or die off, as adults over 65 were the smallest percentage of smartphone users at just 30% of that population, while 78% of them have a cell phone of some sort).
- Smartphones are owned by 68% of the population and that percentage continues to grow at a high rate.
- Desktop and laptop computer ownership over the past decade has remained pretty flat, with little to no growth.
- Tablet computers have grown to 45% adoption, although in the past year that growth has slowed substantially. Tablet ownership is greater among those who have high incomes (51% of people with an income of $50,000 – $74,999 own tablets, and that rate is 67% for people who earn $75,000+) as well as those who have completed higher education (62%).
- After surging in the 00’s, MP3 player growth has gone flat of the past 6 years.
- While games remain wildly popular on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, the home gaming console market and portable gaming market has remained flat or lost a few percentage points of users.
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E-book readers, after growing since 2009, hit their peak in 2013 and have since declined.
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<p>
Most of these trends can be attributed to smartphones and tablets becoming more powerful, with more varied and high-quality app experiences, which are able to serve many uses without compromising on quality native device experiences. This affects everything from e-books to MP3 players to gaming consoles. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">With the <a href="https://digital.gov/2014/11/04/trends-on-tuesday-phablets-to-top-tablets-in-2015/">growth of phablets too</a>, smartphones are continuing to grow</span><span style="font-weight: 400"> and are likely cannibalizing some of the potential tablet growth. </p>