Laptops overtake PCs, kids drive IT usage

Laptops have now overtaken regular desktop personal computers (PCs) as the computer of choice in Cypriot households, according to the annual survey ‘Information and Communication Technologies Usage in Households and by Individuals 2010’ which has now entered its seventh year.
While the overall percentage of households with access to a computer remained stable at 61.0% in 2010, the percentage of households with access to a desktop computer fell to 37.0% compared with 41.6% in 2009.
By contrast, the percentage of households with access to a laptop computer increased to 48.3% compared with 40.9% in 2009.
“The laptop trend is something we noticed 2-3 years ago”, said Christos Kartsioulis,
Managing Director of Cyprus-PC.com.
“These days people are expected to stay connected while on the move.
Laptops now offer as much as a PC in terms of versatility, so they are the natural
choice for all age groups.”
He added that as people use internet applications more and more and share resources over the media it is important to be able to access those from anywhere either with the use of laptop or mobile devices like smartphones.
“The trend now is anyway to have access to anything from everywhere and the whole IT industry is developing everything with that direction.”
Children are also the driving force behind computers.
A computer is to be found in 88.3% of households with dependent children, while in households where there are no dependent children the percentage is only 46.8%.
Yet household Internet access continues to increase. In the first quarter of 2010, the Internet was accessed at least once in 53.7% of the households, compared with 52.8% in 2009.
There has also been an increase in the number of individuals that used the Internet during the first quarter of the year, from 47.9% in 2009 to 52.2% in 2010.
Individuals aged 16 – 24 (88.4%) and students (96.2%) are the more frequent Internet users.
This percentage decreases with age with only 6.9% of individuals aged 65 – 74 using the Internet.
Men use the Internet more frequently than women with percentages of 51.9% and 47.9% respectively.
The most popular Internet activities among Cypriots are finding information about goods or services, and sending or receiving e-mails (89.5% and 79.4% of Internet users respectively).
The survey found that 56.3% of Internet users download games, images, films or music.
Among individuals using the Internet, 47.4% use instant messaging for communication with others and 43.5% make telephone calls over the Internet.
The most important reason for concerns related to Internet security is about children accessing inappropriate websites or connecting with potentially dangerous persons from a computer within the household (42.3%).
The survey found that 24.5% of those who had used the Internet experienced problem with “spam” emails.
The survey found that 91.2% of the households with Internet access had a broadband connection (DSL) in 2010.
Over the last few years there has been a steady increase in broadband connections and a simultaneous decrease in narrowband connections (Modem, ISDN).
There are two main reasons for households not having an Internet connection. First, lack of skills (67.8% over non-connected households) and second, the view that the household does not need the Internet (48.7%).
The survey covered 1,522 households and 3,443 individuals aged 16 – 74. It covered all the government controlled areas of the Republic of Cyprus, urban and rural. The data were collected with personal interviews.