NEW YORK – In recent years, the ownership, use and importance of personal computers and laptops around the world have declined significantly, largely being replaced by smartphones. The downsizing trend continued in 2022, with both PCs and laptops seeing a decline in ownership rates among internet users.
According to CasinosEnLigne, 58 percent of internet users owned a PC or laptop last year, down 8.1 percent from 2021.
Ownership rate and share of web traffic have both declined
The recent decline in PC and laptop ownership comes as inflation continues to erode consumer spending power. At the same time, PCs and laptops are losing the race to mobile phones, which are undoubtedly the number one device for using the internet for all generations.
Although half of all devices used to browse the web saw ownership rates drop in 2022, PCs and laptops saw some of the biggest year-over-year drops.
According to the Digital 2023 Global Overview Report, an impressive 95.9 percent of internet users owned a mobile phone last year, down 0.3 percent from 2021. Tablets saw a much larger decline, with their user share falling by 3.2 percent year-on-year. year to 33.7 percent worldwide.
Feature phones were owned by 7.9 percent of internet users, or 10.2 percent down from 2021. Statistics show that the gaming console segment’s ownership rate has remained flat, while smart home devices and virtual reality devices have seen the greatest growth . Last year, 16.4 percent of internet users owned a smart home device, or 16.3 percent more than a year earlier. VR devices saw a tremendous annual growth of 16.7 percent and were owned by 5.6 percent of internet users.
But along with a significant drop in ownership, PCs and laptops also lost their share of web traffic. According to the survey, mobile phones accounted for 59 percent of all web traffic last year, a 10 percent increase from the previous year. On the other hand, laptops and PCs accounted for 38.9 percent of all web traffic in 2022, or 10.4 percent less than a year earlier. Tablets experienced an even worse downturn, their share plummeting 19.8 percent year-on-year to 1.98 percent.
Global spending on PCs, tablets and mobile phones will fall by US$36.5 billion in 2023
While mobile phones remain the most-obsessed device among Internet users and the number one device for surfing the Internet, they will also see a significant drop in global demand this year.
According to a Garter survey, consumers will spend $685.6 billion globally on PCs, tablets and mobile phones in 2023, down 5% from the previous year. The latest downturn comes after a 10% drop in 2022, when global spending on IT equipment hit $722.1 billion.
According to Gartner, the decline in global consumer spending on PCs, tablets and mobile phones over two years is expected to reach a whopping $150 billion this year.
