Forrester's recently released "State of Consumers And Technology" declared 2010 the "year of the personal device."
Despite the hype around the iPad's launch this year, tablets didn't warrant much attention in the report, probably because competitors to the Apple device are just starting to roll out, with Samsung's Android-based Galaxy Tab launching next month and several others by year's end and in the first quarter of 2011.
Cell phones were identified as the most widely used device, with 73% of U.S. adults regularly using handsets, followed by PCs (58%), printers (56%), DVD player (55%) and digital cameras (53%).
The report also indicated 7% have downloaded mobile applications. That proportion is significantly smaller than the finding in a recent Pew Internet Project report that 29% of adult mobile users have downloaded a mobile app. One possible reason for the difference is survey size: Forrester's data was based on a nationwide sample of 30,452 adult mobile phone owners, while Pew's was drawn from a sample of 2,252.
One thing that's clear is the gap between smartphone and regular phone uses. A separate study from Nielsen this month said that as of June, 59% of smartphone owners and nearly 9% of feature phone owners report having downloaded a mobile app in the last 30 days. The recent spate of research reports on mobile apps also agree, not surprisingly, that younger users are the most avid mobile content fans.
Read more
