Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts – December 17, 2020
During the pandemic and with many employees working from home, much of communicating with coworkers and managers has shifted online. Employees have many options and are using most of them.
Video and online chats by employer size
Employees working for all company sizes are actively using a range of video calling, video conferencing, and group chats. Employees working for larger employers have a higher share who regularly communicate online than among employees with smaller employers.
These communication methods are more entrenched in the US, with most online employees regularly doing at least one of these activities.
Online employees in the UK are almost as actively communicating as Americans are. In Japan, however, the shares among both larger and smaller employers are lower than in the US, UK, or Germany.
Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts – December 10, 2020
Wireless Bluetooth headsets get a booster
Wireless Bluetooth headsets have been in the news lately, widely promoted as a year-end gift accessory. As a category, they have been available for decades, so why the latest emphasis, and is there enough demand for them?
Market demand has gotten stronger during 2020 in large part due to changed playing and working conditions. With the pandemic and stay-at-home restrictions worldwide, many people are now nearby a distinct set of people than they might interact with at their workplace or school. While quarantines can be a bonding experience, there can be added pressure when the sounds we make or listen to impinge on others.
Listening widespread, although differs by device type
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or perhaps the ear. The music some may consider beautiful may seem like noise to others. Similarly, the phone call we may think thoughtful may sound to others like distracting chatter.
Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, December 7, 2020
Are smart displays making any headway?
With videoconferencing entering the mainstream and getting a recent boost during pandemic stay-at-home orders, there was a possibility that smart displays would get broad market acceptance. Based on our most recent research results in TUP/Technology User Profile 2020, market penetration is still quite small.
Meanwhile, our other survey results show video calls and group meetings have wide acceptance using smartphones and PCs and platforms such as Zoom and Webex.
Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, December 3, 2020
Employees are busy having video calls, meetings, and group chats and are using a wide range of devices. While smartphones are a top platform, home PCs, work PCs, and even tablets are regularly used. There are some differences by employer size and country. This MetaFAQs reports on the devices used for video calls/conferences by employer organization size and device type.
Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, November 30, 2020
Meetings! They don’t stop because of video conferencing, video calls, or group chats. This MetaFAQs details the share of employees who regularly connect online using smartphones, PCs, tablets, or even game consoles. The results are split out by employer size to show whether there is a difference between smaller or larger employers.
Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, November 28, 2020
How do employees communicate for work-related matters? Do they make video calls or group video conferences, such as those over Zoom or Webex? Is there a difference for employees of smaller as compared to larger organizations? This MetaFAQs reports on how many online employees communicate for work by type, country, and employer organization size.
Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, November 9, 2020
Are notebooks really that different from each other? Do users use a Windows notebook differently than users of Apple MacBook? This MetaFAQs looks at the regular activities being done with both types to address this question.
Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.
Progress toward work-life separation, until sudden integration
I will admit to having recently used more than one cliché about these being “unprecedented times” or even that we’re headed towards a “new normal”.
When it comes to work-life balance, what was “normal” is all-too “precedented”. For years, PCs have enabled American employees to bring work home. Enabling is not always a positive characteristic, depending on one’s perspective. No sooner had employees scaled down their work at home, minimizing their commingled work and personal activities, then along came COVID-19.
Employees using Home PCs for work – a recent history
For decades, employees have slowly separating their personal and work lives. Step by step, application by application, employees had been using their home PCs for fewer and fewer work-related tasks. In the MetaFacts 2015 wave of TUP/Technology User Profile, we found that one in three US employees regularly used their home PCs for work email, one in five to search for work-related financial or other information, and one in six to manage work appointments or share files. By our 2019 wave, we found that home PC usage levels for these work activities had dropped to around two-thirds of these levels.
Now that six in ten US employees are working from home, and with almost half (49%) using a home-owned PC, their home PC is getting a lot of work-related use.
In addition to the work activities employees had been avoiding on their home PC, the home or work PC employees are using at home to work is being utilized for an even wider range of activities than before. Well beyond checking work emails, employee communications have broadened well beyond emails to include video calls, group video meetings, and group chats.
Also, more than ever before, there is currently deeper collaboration through shared cloud storage systems and platforms.
The work-life balance challenge made more visible
With so many working from home, the work-life balance challenge is more visible. Six out of ten US employees are working from home and not going to a workplace, a rate we found remained effectively stable in each of our May 7th (61%), April 15th (59%) and earlier April 8th (61%) and MetaFacts Pulse survey waves that included this question.
Interestingly, how employees use their work-from-home PC is different from how they recently used their employer-provided work PC. Employees are spending less time in face-to-time meetings and using their PCs as a focal communicating point to get things done.
Less than a year ago, in our MetaFacts TUP/Technology User Profile 2019 wave, we found employees used their work PCs to do similar activities as we found in our May 7th MetaFacts Pulse survey, although to a greater extent. Employees are using their work-at-home PCs more intensively than they had been using their work PCs. For every type of work-related or personal activities, a higher share of employees is doing the activity than before.
The active life of the work-at-home PC
Among employees working from home in May, 84% are using a PC, whether owned by their employer (35%) or themselves (49%). Their work-related activities are strongly intermixed with their personal activities, except for personal activities with a work PC. Many employers that provide PCs, especially larger employers, lock down the capabilities of the work PC to restrict its use to certain work apps or activities. Also, employees have learned to separate their personal communication activities onto other platforms, especially to use their smartphones.
American workers choose different video platforms for video calls than meetings, and for personal versus work-related matters
US employees have continued to have work meetings – essentially moving from face-to-face meetings to video platforms. With widespread stay-at-home orders in place, video platforms for calls as well as for group meetings have grown in use among employees as well as the general online public, and for personal as well as work-related matters.
However, there is no one single dominant platform for all subjects and numbers of participants. The closest thing to a dominant platform is Zoom, with Skype in the wings. Zoom and Skype are in the top-ranked platforms for both personal and work matters, as well as for calls and multi-person meetings.
Consumer-focused WhatsApp is top-ranked for personal use and among the main platforms being used for work video conferences, likely a surprise to many company’s IT/IS managers.
Corporate-oriented Microsoft Teams and WebEx are ranked within work-related calls and conferences.
Fewer video conferencing platforms for work than for personal
There appear to be more standards in place for work-related videoconferences. While the mean number of platforms in use is close to 3 for personal calls and conferences, as well as for work-related video calls, the mean is closer to 2 platforms for work video conferencing platforms.
Today’s long tail for work video conferencing platforms
The largest number of American workers (37%) use only one video conferencing platform for work-related issues. The rest (63%) are juggling many. This reflects the current state of confusion following the rapid move to working at home. Employers are likely to reduce the number of platforms used, at least within their companies. Standardization helps employees to be more efficient, and can also help employers to strike more favorable pricing with platform providers. However, many outward-facing employees have the same challenge as consumers – finding a common platform when communicating with others who have their own different standards.
About TUPdates
TUPdates feature analysis of current or essential technology topics. The research results showcase the TUP/Technology User Profile study, MetaFacts’ survey of a representative sample of online adults profiling the full market’s use of technology products and services. The current wave of TUP is TUP/Technology User Profile 2020, which is TUP’s 38th annual. TUPdates may also include results from previous waves of TUP.
Current subscribers may use the comprehensive TUP datasets to obtain even more results or tailor these results to fit their chosen segments, services, or products. As subscribers choose, they may use the TUP inquiry service, online interactive tools, or analysis previously published by MetaFacts.
On request, interested research professionals can receive complimentary updates through our periodic newsletter. These include MetaFAQs – brief answers to frequently asked questions about technology users – or TUPdates – analysis of current and essential technology industry topics. To subscribe, contact MetaFacts.
Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.
Ageism is widespread in the tech industry. Many younger computer experts had a good laugh when a recent call went out for COBOL programmers. That was, until these relative newbies realized how many citizens would be left waiting for financial support after the recent surge in demand for unemployment checks. Computer experts were even more chagrined then they heard about the hiring bonuses being offered and realized they did not have relevant skills.
As seniors “invaded” Facebook over the last decade, raising the average age bar to its present heights, (age 45 in the US and Germany), younger adults expanded their social networking to additional sites and apps that let them still keep some distance.
Meanwhile, parents and grandparents alike still crave connection, and increasingly find it online. Consequently, we’re seeing rapid adoption Zoom and FaceTime, as well as broader adoption of home delivery services.
Tech-savvy seniors
Seniors are more tech-savvy than they may want to reveal. 95% have used a personal computer (PC or Mac). Their average (mean) experience is 27 years, with 75% or seniors having first started using one 22 or more years ago, half 30 or more years ago, and 25% starting 37 or more years ago. Over half of seniors 60+ have been using one type of personal computer or another for 30 years.
Seniors grew up with computers. A senior today would likely have been a working adult as PCs grew into widespread use. A 60-year old today would have been 24 when Apple released its first Macintosh and 21 when IBM released its first PC.
Personal computing device
Nearly three-fourths (73%) of seniors 60 or older are using a Windows PC as their primary computing device. An Apple iPad accounts for 10%, and 6% an Apple Mac or MacBook. Only 8% use an Android tablet or Chromebook.
Seniors embracing video calls
Many seniors adopt technology quickly when they choose to. And, they are even more likely to when it involves connecting with family members like grandchildren or distant children. Group video calls, such as with Zoom, have grown quickly among seniors. Less than a year ago, we found only 3% of American seniors 65+ doing any regular multi-person video calls or meetings. In our research today (May 1, 2020), we found that 36% have made group video calls since February 1st, 2020.
We have also found that one-to-one video calls have increased, although not as rapidly. Currently, more than a third of seniors are regularly or have recently made video calls. Based on our TUP/Technology User Profile 2019 wave, 23% were making personal video calls. That is now up to 39%.
Video calling less often for alone seniors
Only one in four seniors living alone are staying connected with others through video calls and meetings. The highest use of video calls or meetings is among senior households with 2 or more people. Among households with 2 persons, the rate is effectively half – 50% for one-to-one video calls and 47% for multi-person video calls. For homes with 3 or more persons, the rate is nearly as high. With new things such as technology services, it can help to have someone nearby to show how to use it.
Video calling favorites
Zoom is the most-widely used platform for video calls with multiple people. One in four (24%) of seniors age 60 and higher use Zoom, which is far above the penetration of other platforms. Microsoft’s tools, when combined, make up 8%. Skype makes up most of this set, with 5% of seniors using it. A small percentage of seniors are using Microsoft’s Teams service, primarily those employed full-time or part-time.
For one-to-one video calls, there are a host of choices seniors use. These include FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, and Skype. It is not surprising to see FaceTime, as it is already integrated with nearly all Apple iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Facebook is cross-platform, allowing users to more easily connect with friends who may be using a Windows PC or an Android smartphone. Skype is part of Microsoft Office, and since seniors have a high share of Windows PC, it is likely a choice that is near to hand. Zoom only ranks 4th for one-to-one calls, so it has not fully taken over as a communication platform among seniors.
Working from home
Of the 26% of seniors age 60 or older who are employed full-time or part-time, over half (55%) are working from home. Three weeks ago, we found in our April 8th survey that 61% of age 55+ adults were working from home, an effectively similar rate.
Delivery services
Many seniors are using delivery services for groceries, takeout, or medicine. Use of these convenience services are not among the majority, however. Although current stay-at-home orders vary by region, grocery and medicinal shopping is considered an essential task and these delivery substitutes aren’t available everywhere.
Looking ahead
As long-experienced techies continue aging, they will join the corps of elders bringing along many of their present expectations and demand. Their years of tech exposure along with their predominantly higher generational wealth make them an increasingly important market segment to understand.
However, intergenerational squabbles, distrust, and misunderstanding have persisted for eons. In the US, many advertisers and marketers direct their messages and attention towards youth, or at least towards youthfully aspiring images. While younger adults of means are often the earliest adopters of technology products or services, technology adoption does not suddenly stop at some fixed age.
As the saying goes, old dogs can learn new tricks.
About TUPdates
TUPdates feature analysis of current or essential technology topics. The research results showcase the TUP/Technology User Profile study, MetaFacts’ survey of a representative sample of online adults profiling the full market’s use of technology products and services. The current wave of TUP is TUP/Technology User Profile 2020, which is TUP’s 38th annual. TUPdates may also include results from previous waves of TUP.
Current subscribers may use the comprehensive TUP datasets to obtain even more results or tailor these results to fit their chosen segments, services, or products. As subscribers choose, they may use the TUP inquiry service, online interactive tools, or analysis previously published by MetaFacts.
On request, interested research professionals can receive complimentary updates through our periodic newsletter. These include MetaFAQs – brief answers to frequently asked questions about technology users – or TUPdates – analysis of current and essential technology industry topics. To subscribe, contact MetaFacts.
Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.
Dan Ness, Principal Analyst, MetaFacts, April 8, 2020
Employees working at home have many options when it comes to staying in touch with coworkers and clients while working from home. With the sudden move to working from home, there was a sudden shift in market share. This MetaFAQs draws on the April 2020 MetaFacts Pulse Survey to identify which platforms employees have been using for their work-related and personal video communications, further split by video conferences versus video calls.
Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.