Comscore has been tracking in-home data usage by platform. It has been most interesting to see these trends during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the home became the office and school for families, it was inevitable shifts would occur.
The Home PC (or Mac) is Back
Home computer (PC or Mac) data usage increased year over year every month since April. That was after seeing declines pre-COVID 19 lockdown in January and February. The first full month of lockdowns showed a 29% increase year over year in PC/Mac data usage at home.
The year ended strong, with a 34% increase in home data usage from PCs and Macs compared to the prior year.
Gartner announced earlier this week that:
- PC shipments reached 275 million units in 2020, a 4.8% increase from 2019 and the highest growth in ten years.
- In 2020, Chromebook shipments increased over 80% to total nearly 30 million units, largely due to demand from the North American education market.
“Prior to 2020, consumers had been shifting to a phone-first focus, yet the pandemic reversed this trend. PCs have resurfaced as an essential device as consumers, including younger children, are relying on them to for work, school, socializing and be entertained from their homes.”
Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner
Smart Speakers
Smart Speakers, such as Google Nest and Amazon Alexa, saw dramatic increases in data usage at year end. November data usage spiked 195% for these devices; December was strong as well with a 148% increase compared to the prior year.
Google introduced Family Notes and Family Bell last year. Family Bell was “quickly adopted to help families stay on track throughout the day,” according to Google.
The top five bells set during the school year were:
- Time for bed
- Time for breakfast
- Lunch time
- Dinner time
- Class is starting
Google said the number of text messages sent with their Assistant more than doubled in 2020. Recipes searched with Assistant grew over eight times in 2020. Banana bread was the most requested recipe.
Device Share of Total Data Consumed In-Home
Looking at percentages of total gigabytes consumed in the home, numbers were similar in 2020 compared to the prior year.
Streaming video boxes/sticks led the way with almost a third of total data consumed in-home.
