Quarter of youths plan to spend more on apps this year, while 40% plan smartphone upgrade
Almost a third (30 per cent) of youths aged between 16 and 24 plan to spend more on digital purchases over the next year, research from Voxburner has found, while only five per cent predict that their spending will go down.
The research discovered that about 30 per cent of the group spend up to £5 a month on apps, while about seven per cent spend up to £10.
A quarter said that they anticipate spending more on apps in the coming year, while a third said they would be spending more on movie downloads, and 20 per cent said that they expect to spend more on digital magazines and newspapers.
As well as digital downloads, it seems that a lot of youths are planning to update the technology they own, with 40 per cent saying that they expect to buy a new smartphone in the next year, while 24 per cent plan to buy a tablet.
Luke Mitchell, head of insight at Voxburner said: “For some 16-24s technology is a status symbol, and when there is a ‘wow factor’ product they will spend their money and upgrade their current model. But this generation don’t want ‘throwaway technology’, and they do want value in return for their money.
“They don’t want to have to feel forced into upgrading a device 12 months later because a manufacturer has made a slight feature change and our research shows reliability and longevity is hugely important. The challenge for brands is innovating quickly to produce those ‘wow factor’ products or else get left behind, as we have seen with BlackBerry and Nokia.”
Items that have seen a reduction in popularity include blu-ray players, scanners, digital radios and e-readers, with less than five per cent of young people intending to purchase these types of devices in the next 12 months.