Generation Z is the one that resists the most to change mobile, since they use the terminals for more than two years

21 Feb. (Portaltic/EP) –

The Generation Zthe one that includes those born from the mid or late 1990s to the mid-2000s, is the one that is most resistant to changing their ‘smartphone’, since they use mobile phones for more than two years.

These are data from the German consultancy GfK, which it periodically collects through its panels, made up of more than 100,000 retailers in 70 countries. Thanks to this information, it is possible to know the behavior of the markets for consumer electronics, household appliances, information technology or photography, among others.

Due to the imminent start of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, ​​GfK wanted to analyze the global Telecom market to find out what its results were in 2022 and what is expected for the current year.

Firstly, the analysis indicates that there was a sharp drop in sales over the past year, as closed with 9.7 percent menos of income with respect to the previous year, although for 2023 a stabilization of sales is expected.

In this sense, the consultancy has commented that the segment of smartphones, among which are included the so-called ‘phablets’ (with sizes halfway between mobile phones and tablets), suffered a drop in demand of 9, 1 percent between January and December 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021.

This is because consumers have adjusted their budget for this type of high-end device. Buyers with higher and middle incomesinstead, have been the main drivers of the market in 2022.

The demand for premium devices also increased, among other things, due to the 1.2 percent growth in revenue in 5G models in all of 2022 compared to 2021.

Those that have configurations with capacities greater than 256GB of internal storage (and that, therefore, go up in price compared to the standard models) registered an increase in 19 percent of total sales.

Although it is true that the vast majority of users opt for high-end devices, the number of sales fell due to a trend that has marked the year 2022: they keep their phones longer.

From January to September 2018, only 48 percent of shoppers were using their devices two years or more. This quota has grown up to 57 percent in the same period of 2022.

This fact is observed mainly in Generation Z, that is, the owners of telephones with ages ranging from 15 to 25 years, who register 14 percent more purchases than the average.

This is how the German consultancy insists that “the younger generation is clearly focused on sustainability and therefore consciously extends the life cycle of its devices”, according to a press release.

The ‘wearables’ section, such as smart watches, remained stable during 2022 compared to 2021, since sales valued at 13.9 billion dollars of revenue have been registered.

Around this section, GfK comments that ‘smartwatches’ have grown in sales by 21 percent in 2022but that sports bracelets and health and physical activity monitors fell by 43 and 31 percent, respectively.

These changes are due to the fact that consumers seek services that include detailed data of their health thanks to the different intelligent functions. Hence, the ‘wearables’ with sleep monitoring or sensors to measure blood oxygen have been successful this time.

FORECASTS FOR 2023

The German consultancy also highlights in this report that, despite the fact that devices that offer augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and metaverse experiences arouse interest among users, their sales in the European market do not reflect this, since which are down 15 percent year-on-year in 2022.

“The European market seems to have succeeded in penetrating the consumer. The industry should now focus on providing more content, improving visual quality and security to boost the market from this initial insight. Convincing consumers about the diversity of possible uses will be key to boosting VR and the metaverse,” explains GfK expert for the global IT hardware market Sohjin Baek.

Therefore, for 2023, the company anticipates that the purchases of ‘smartphones’ made during the peak of the pandemic will result in the renewal of these devices. The new features integrated into the ‘wearables’ also present an encouraging future for these products, since revenue growth is expected in the ‘smartwatches’ segment.

Finally, it is estimated that virtual and augmented reality will be “more tangible” and that “it will grow in other areas beyond ‘gaming'”, according to the consultant. In this case, GfK believes that this is one of the categories with the greatest potential in the coming years.