Ninety seven percent of American households say the PC is still their primary computing device and nearly half (41%) intend to upgrade their PC within the next year. Among parents and millennials, 54% intend to purchase a new PC in the next year.
This is according to a new InfoBrief from IDC and sponsored by Intel.
The research says that Americans spend more than 43 hours per week on a variety of compute devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, 2-in-1 devices), but time spent on PCs dominates more than half of their digital device time (over 21 hours per week). Dubbed “the 5 Cs” in IDC’s report, Americans would choose to give up crunches/exercise (73%), chocolate/sweets (71%), caffeine (65%), cable television (58%), and their car (33%) before giving up their PCs for one week.
Despite consumers’ love affair with technology, the report shows Americans are making compromises. The average PC owner using a machine that is four or more years old spends nearly 13 minutes a day waiting for their device to perform basic functions such as loading a Web page, booting up, or powering down – this equates to three days a year spent waiting.
PC purchase intent, according to the IDC InfoBrief, is driven by the following: a desire for the latest and greatest technology, seeing a good price or deal, wanting a speedier device, and/or having an old PC that malfunctions and does not perform well enough to get the job done. The recent report states: “performance and price are still the major drivers for PC refresh, but IDC believes consumers with older systems don’t realise how much better the experience can be with a new PC.”
“The IDC InfoBrief reaffirms our dependence on mobile technology and shines a light on the pivotal role PCs still play in our lives,” says IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell. “Thirty million consumer PCs are forecasted to ship in the US this year. I believe PC owners will be ‘wowed’ when they learn the benefits offered by new systems on the market today and realise how much more of a rewarding experience will be delivered when they choose to upgrade their PC.”