According to a study released Wednesday by Forrester Research, that which used to be the pursuit of a few on the lunatic fringe has become mainstream. As Jenna Wortham puts in her her New York Times article, “We’re all gadget geeks now. ”

The study found that  half of all American adults are gamers now, and 63% of U.S. households have a broadband connection. Plus 3/4 of American households have cellphones and PCs.

A few other interesting general insights cited in the report:

• Young singles and couples are the most connected to the Internet. They are more likely to goonline in places other than home or work, these consumers tend to carry the Net with them. About half has send a picture from a cell phone in the past month, and a quarter has accessed the mobile Internet.
• Young families are heavy tech adopters. This group owns the most devices overall, but they especially lead the adoption of family-friendly devices like Blu-ray players, DVRs and game consoles. A high 93% owns a DVD player, 76% has some type of game console at home, and 39% has a home theatre system.
• Older families have the most digitally connected homes. As already shows from the graphic, families with older children live in a ‘wired’ home. Their average spend on connectivity is highest across Internet, TV, and phone. They have on average 3 mobile phones at home, and more than 2 PCs.
• Older consumers spend most money online. While lagging on the adoption of many technologies, these consumers are the leaders when it comes to online spending. They spend on average $560 dollar online in the past three months, and about one in five spent more than $1,000 online.

Read Forrester’s blog about the report.

Steve Schuster Uncategorized consumer, innovation, technology