Forrester and Harris Study US Technology Use
January 24 2006
Technology marketers should reach out to Hispanic Americans with culturally relevant, low-price products, according to the first Hispanic-American Technology Adoption Study from Forrester Research. Meanwhile, the latest Harris Interactive quarterly US Technology Report finds a nation of adventurous PC users, gearing up for a dual-core future.
Launched late last year as part of the company's series of consumer technology adoption studies, the Hispanic-American research will comprise three surveys a year, with 3,000 Hispanic Americans per study.
The surveys focus on how Hispanic consumers - who have an estimated $575m spending power - consider, buy, and use technology and technology-enabled services - from online banking and shopping to device ownership and TV and gaming activities.
The main findings of the first study are:
- Hispanic Americans are more likely to buy technology that is culturally relevant, accommodates both Spanish and English, and is affordable.
- Hispanics embrace technology, but prefer portable communication and music devices rather than PCs, home theaters, and video game systems.
- While fewer Hispanics are online compared with the rest of the population, those who do go online are more likely than other groups to listen to radio stations or download music and movies. 41% of Hispanics visit music sites compared with 18% of the rest of the population.
Tamara Barber, Researcher at Forrester Research, recommends that companies 'fine tune their marketing messages, cater to language differences, and when appropriate, offer low-price alternatives'.
Barber suggests providing web sites, salespeople, signage, and instructions in Spanish, and focusing on
entry-level products and generic versions of big-ticket items.
The company is online at
www.forrester.com The latest Harris Interactive quarterly Technology Report finds that the majority of US computer owners do more with the Internet and multimedia than just send email (which 96% do occasionally or frequently) or shop online (75%). Other common activities include:
- Editing digital photos (56%)
- Listening to music (56%)
- Creating music CDs (40%)
- Watching movies (22%)
- Editing digital videos (19%).
In addition, more than half are familiar with dual-core processors, and half of these consider this new technology useful. Among those who are aware, 12% already own a machine with a dual-core processor.
Milton Ellis, Senior Consultant at the Technology Research Practice at Harris, says the results are good news for computer manufacturers. 'With the majority of consumers multi-tasking with several applications and many of the applications being processor intensive, the research results would suggest that dual-core computers have a promising future.'
The study was conducted online from December 2 to 8, 2005 among 1,039 U.S. adults, of whom 1,012 are computer owners. The company is online at
www.harrisinteractive.com
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
