Smartphones, Tablets Behind Shift in Device Ownership Trends, CEA Says

With smartphones the third-most-owned consumer electronics product in the U.S., ownership of digital content is poised to surpass traditional content within the next few years, a CEA study said Monday. “A strong consumer appetite for mobile connected devices is causing some very interesting changes in the CE ownership landscape,” said Steve Koenig, CEA senior director-market research. Smartphones are owned by 72 percent of U.S. households -- an increase of 8 percentage points over 2014, he said. Tablets are in more than half of U.S. households and showed the largest increase in ownership growth over 2014, rising 9 percentage points, Koenig said. Laptops experienced the second-largest gain in household penetration, residing in 67 percent of households, he said. Basic cellphones saw the steepest category drop, to under 50 percent penetration, and fell out of the top 10 list for owned tech products, he said. Household penetration of digital media streaming devices rose 5 percentage points to 29 percent ownership and in-vehicle communication devices rose 4 percent to 34 percent ownership, CEA said. Digital content ownership grew 10 percentage points to 63 percent ownership, it said.