Smart Phones Displacing Several "Dedicated" Devices

It will come as no surprise to long-term observers of technology, but multi-purpose consumer devices are cannibalizing use of single-purpose or dedicated purpose devices such as cameras, watches and music or game players, according to the Accenture Consumer Media Survey 2013.

Purists will continue to note that such decisions typically involve a trade off. Few would argue that a multi-purpose device such as a smart phone always performs as well as a dedicated device for one specific application.

The point seems to be that "good enough" performance is key. Consumers would rather use a device that does many things, and means fewer devices to carry or purchase, compared to many discrete devices. 


From 2011 to 2012, ownership of tablets doubled, while ownership of digital cameras, DVD players, DVRs, portable music devices, portable game devices, and health and fitness devices
remained flat or declined. 

One might argue that another statistic--:"owned but rarely used"--might show even sharper contrasts. 

Devices with decreasing ownership are single-use products, including portable music players,
DVD players and digital photo cameras.

On the other hand, smart phone ownership increased from 26 percent in 2009 to 58 percent in 2012 while ownership of digital photo cameras decreased from 77 percent in 2009 to 68
percent in 2012, Accenture notes.