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Household Penetration and Average Annual Spending by Device Owners , 2010 vs . 2012

2012 Household Penetration (%)

2010 Household Penetration (%)

2012 Avg Spend ( US $)

Mobile phone 94 NA 289 173 Laptop computer 55 40 726 821 Tablet 17 3 503 624 Desktop computer 60 60 642 754 Netbook 14 7 462 493 E-book reader 14 5 185 233 Television set 96 96 685 593

2010 Avg Spend ( US $)

Digital camera / Camcorder 65 36 292 364 Personal media player or mobile Internet device player 37 33 165 139 Handheld video game device 18 16 225 200 Video game console 25 23 258 324 Printer for Mac or PC 44 42 144 157 Home networking equipment 47 32 121 81

According to the survey , legacy products such as TVs and desktop computers have the highest mean years between upgrades , at four-and-a-half years and four years , respectively , while newer product classes such as tablets and e-readers have yet to be replaced by the majority of respondents . Replacement and upgrades of fixed devices such as desktop PCs and game consoles will be deferred or abandoned as consumers find they can do most of what they want on more recently purchased portable devices anywhere they want when they want . The things they can ' t do will either get postponed to a later time or be forgotten about altogether as consumers reorganise tasks and activities to the devices and services they prefer to use .

" Where they are occurring , the lengthening of gadget replacement cycles reflects a mixture of economic pressures on the consumer ' s wallet and hardware product maturity ," said Amanda Sabia , principal research analyst at Gartner .

" Increasingly , upgrades are taking place in software , content and application ecosystems supported by cloud services , relieving the requirement for hardware upgrades ." Sabia said that PC and game console vendors can address attrition of desktop PC replacements by focusing product road maps and consumer branding initiatives on upgrade paths to portable devices or , alternatively , on home media hubs that provide storage and remote retrieval to the personal cloud .

The shift to wireless access and portable devices represents both a threat and an opportunity to technology vendors . Some static device ownership paradigms such as desktop computers and television sets remain stable while others , such as TV-related boxes and home networking equipment , increase . Consumers ' shift to more mobile devices and applications provides opportunities for equipment to deliver Internet access and content as well as to accelerate the development of mobile solutions and portable extensions to traditionally fixed products and services . The Gartner survey was conducted in July-August of 2012 and included responses from more than 8,000 consumers in the US , UK , Canada and the BRIC countries ( Brazil , Russia , India and China ).

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