Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Introduction Beyond email, this survey examined a variety of common internet activities that people engage in at home and work—including those with no obvious work-related purpose. While recent studies have shown that email can be a distraction from getting other work done, employers continue to express concern over workplace use of the internet for other […]
Introduction Cell phones have become a staple for many Americans, with 78% of adults now having one, up from 21% in 1996. With many cell phone allowing users to have free or low-cost upgrades of phones every 24 months, decisions on new cell phone purchases periodically face users. In this survey, 39% of adults said […]
In the midst of rapidly evolving global economic conditions – notably including a U.S. economic slowdown – people around the world are largely dissatisfied with the way things are going in their country and with their nation’s economic conditions: Majorities in most countries rate their national economic situation as bad and believe things will either […]
Introduction Few industries have been disrupted by the digital revolution to the extent music has. In the not-too-distant past, people bought music by going to a store and buying a compact disc. With the advent of the internet and peer-to-peer file sharing, change has been sharp. Shipments of CDs peaked at 942.5 million units in […]
The role of online information in how people buy products is not always consistent with expectations. This concluding section discusses how online resources fit, or don’t fit, into people’s shopping patterns. The internet plays a central role for enjoying music after purchase, but it plays a lesser role in the music people choose and how […]
Buying goods and services is at once simpler and more demanding in the digital age. A few years ago, the act of buying something usually meant going to a store and seeing whether what you wanted was available or whether a close substitute would suffice. Perhaps a customer came to the store armed with information […]