CTA finds 25 percent of Canadian households will buy a new smartphone within the next year

To the surprise of no one, Canadians absolutely love their gadgets.

In its second annual Consumer Technology Ownership and Market Potential Study, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) looked at the various adoption rates of consumer technologies like smartphones and fitness trackers.

The organization compiled its results by interviewing 1,000 individuals between July 13th and July 20th (so caveats about small sample sizes apply).

Starting with its observations directly related to mobile, the CTA found that 80 percent of Canadian households own at least one smartphone.

Additionally, the organization says that one in four of the households it surveyed plans to buy a new smartphone sometime in the next 12 months. For the majority of those households, their next smartphone won’t be their first; 93 percent of the respondents that said they plan to buy a new smartphone over the next year said they either already own one or have owned one in the past.

For the first time in the survey’s admittedly short history, a greater number of respondents said they exclusively use a cellphone (34 percent) for all their calling needs as opposed to a landline (30 percent). Another third of respondents — 34 percent, to be exact — said they use both a landline and cellular phone.

The CTA also compiled data on regional consumer tech trends. For instance, Ontario households lead in adoption of tablets with 64 percent of respondents from the province saying they own at least one tablet. Portable gaming consoles like the Nintendo Switch are popular in Manitoba and Saskatchewan where one in three households own such devices. According to the CTA, that’s the highest rate in the country.

In Quebec, meanwhile, Bluetooth hands-free devices are popular, as are dash cams.

Lastly, in Atlantic Canada 37 percent of respondents said they own a fitness tracker like the Fitbit Charge 2.

“Building on the insights from our first study in 2016, we found Canadians increasingly see connectivity as an essential part of their daily lives, whether at home, in the office or on the go,” said Steve Koenig, the CTA’s senior director of research, in a press statement.

[source]Consumer Technology Association[/source]