Interest in handheld electronics is increasing, as a larger number of available devices leads to increased consumer interest, reports In-Stat/MDR. An online survey of the high-tech market research firm’s Technology Adoption Panel (TAP) reaffirms this trend, showing consumer interest in currently available products as well as new ones.

While our survey included more male respondents, higher-end consumers, and early adopters than are found in the general public, many of the results were quite notable. Interest in mobile electronics, which was the primary focus of the survey, indicated that while consumers may currently own a product or express an interest in purchasing one in the near future, they have specific ideas about the features and components the devices should have.

• Of the respondents in the survey indicating they own an MP3 player, about 90% were over 35 years of age, suggesting that these products are attractive to a broad consumer age demographic.
• About 31% of the total respondents had downloaded music from the Internet, most using a broadband Internet connection. The percentage of those who had paid for it rose nearly 20% from 2003.
• 30% of the respondents indicated they were familiar or very familiar with handheld audio/video players. This may signify that marketing and media attention does influence product awareness, especially for new product categories.
• The majority of those owning PDAs indicated they owned a Palm OS-based device. However, the percentage of respondents owning PDAs fell about 10% since last year’s survey.