In the past five years, Accenture’s Consumer Electronics Study has researched consumers’ preferences for technologies and services. As innovations in technology continue, it doesn’t appear that consumers’ affection for technology will fade anytime soon. With mobility as the latest trend in consumer technology, hardware and content providers enjoy a booming market that shows no signs of slowing down, at least in the foreseeable future.

Accenture’s 2012 survey of more than 10,000 consumers across 10 countries shows consumers are making their networked lives more robust. They are connecting in more than one way and on multiple devices, consuming more content, and doing it all on the go. Specifically, this research has identified 5 trends for manufacturers and service providers to consider as consumers strive to be always connected. Below I will discuss three trends of these trends in more detail.

Smart and Mobile
Consumers are adopting mobile technology so rapidly that the mobility trend is in hyperdrive. While consumers still have strong ownership and usage of desktop or laptop computers (90 percent own them), purchase intentions for computers are slowly declining. At the same time, smartphone and tablet PC ownership are rising steeply. In fact, in the past 12 months, the percentage point increase in smartphone and tablet PC purchases almost equals the purchase decrease of computers and mobile feature phones.