While
tablets are must-have technology for some people, the devices haven’t yet
reached that status with college students. A new survey shows 93.9% of students
own a laptop but only 48.4% possess a tablet and 9.3% have a tablet/laptop
combo.
With the
holiday season approaching, does that mean tablets are high on the wish lists
for the 42% of students who don’t have one? Not necessarily. The October 2015
campus survey from OnCampus Research reveals only 16.3% of all respondents said
they expect to purchase a tablet in the next 12 months, while 11.6% will be seeking
out a new laptop and 12.2% will buy a tablet/laptop hybrid. Those numbers,
though, include students who intend to swap their current device for a
brand-new model, not just first-timers.
However,
the largest slice of students—20.8%—are looking to buy fitness technology in
the next year while 14.9% want other types of wearable technology, such as a
GoPro. About 16.7% of students already own some kind of fitness gadget, but
just 6.5% have a nonfitness-related wearable.
Even though
many people deem desktop computers and e-readers to be “old-school” tech and predict
they’ll disappear from the market shortly, some college students don’t agree.
About 33.6% of students still own a desktop and 12.3% even plan to buy a new one
in the coming months. More than a quarter of students have an e-reader, with
11.4% expecting to purchase a new device this year.
OnCampus
Research, part of indiCo, a division of NACS, fields surveys on different
topics every month to a panel of more than 14,000 college and university
students.
