Web-Based Email Usage Heads South (p. 9)
According to this compilation of 2010’s technological trends, “the usage of web-based email has begun to decline, particularly among younger segments of consumers who are increasingly shifting towards instant messaging, social media, and mobile communications.” I found this surprising considering how many times a day I check my own e-mail accounts – I check my SU mail at least twice a day. Emails are where I can get the information that is most important to my daily life, for example, messages concerning purchase invoices, updates about packages or classes, and assignments or other notifications from professors. While I’m not shocked about the rise in user activity in social media and mobile communications, there are some things that these two channels cannot contain. Many of my fellow students and I rely on email as our only means of communicating with Seattle University participants and if they are anything like me, school is pretty much the extent of how I spend my time. I guess the only explanation here that I can think of is that many companies are adding the feature of sending out reports to their consumers via MMS.
Women Extend Lead on Men in Social Networking Usage (p. 10)
Another development I found intriguing: “One demographic trend that has continued in 2010 is women extending their lead over men in the share of their online time spent on social networking sites… So women not only spend more their time on these sites that men, but they are also accelerating their usage at a faster rate.” When I think about tech users – for example, in the IT category – I tend to regard it as male dominated. Every time I’ve visited the IT room at SU it has only been filled with male workers. But women are really very social by nature – we just love talking. Social networking is definitely an easier channel to gossip through – not that all women do is gossip. These social networks can act as a sort of meeting grounds for us talkers’ conversations to take place in a quick way with many participants. Women also are naturally multi-taskers and having Facebook and a paper on the desktop simultaneously is definitely something I’ve noticed my friends frequently partake in. Another thing I’ve noticed that the female portion of my Facebook “friends” seem to constantly do is update pictures to their profile. It’s sort of like a new age kind of scrapbooking. So, I guess in the end this does add up through a bit of reasoning even if it didn’t originally.
A Game-Changing Year for Mobile (p. 25)
I found it shocking that in 2010 “smartphones reached 1 in 4 Americans…” because most of these phones are pretty expensive. I’m not aware of the costs of current carrier plans but I know that when I asked my Dad how much the iPhone (which to my knowledge is the most popular of the smartphones) was that I was a little surprised he wanted to spend so much. How are Americans affording the newest technology when the economy is still recovering? I’m not sure of the exact breakdown of classes pertaining to income in the U.S. but I would’ve thought that smartphones would fall under the category of an item of leisure that fewer could afford.
Local/Group-Buying and Flash Sales Sites Take Off (p. 6 – 7)
“One of the hottest trends in e-commerce in 2010 was the emergence and ascendance of local/group buying and flash sales sites…Groupon.com attracted 10.7 million unique visitors in December, up 712 percent versus a year ago…” Mostly I found this section extremely interesting because prior to a few weeks ago I had no idea that this type of e-commerce even existed and I shop online more than almost everyone I know. I feel like I’m definitely going to have to check out what these sites have to offer…
No comments:
Post a Comment