Most Popular Electronics Worldwide
Be it laptops, smartphones, tablets, or even smart speakers, there are many devices with which consumers today can keep entertained and do their shopping. As an ecommerce business owner, knowing what the most popular electronics used by shoppers today are can help you customize your online marketing strategy and grow your business.
This begs the question: What is the most popular device consumers use these days?
According to recent data, mobile phones top the list of the most popular electronics, worldwide. In 2023, pretty much all (97.6%) consumers own a mobile phone.
Of the different types of mobile phones, smartphones are the most popular. They’re owned by 97.4% of global consumers. In comparison, just 7.3% of consumers own feature phones. These are mobile phones that are equipped with basic functions, such as the ability to make calls, send texts, and access the internet but lack the advanced features of a smartphone, like a quality camera.
Next on the list of the most popular electronics worldwide are laptops and desktop computers. Together, they’re owned by 58.6% of global consumers.
Despite being the two most popular electronics worldwide, there’s a 38.8 percentage-point difference separating the number of people owning smartphones and laptops or desktops. In other words, many more consumers own smartphones than laptops or desktops. According to industry analysts, this is because smartphones are outperforming laptops in terms of features and have become consumers’ main computing devices.
The third-most popular electronic device is tablets—just under one-third (32.1%) of people worldwide own at least one. This is followed by smart watches or smart wristbands, at 30.1%. The number of consumers owning these electronics has risen slightly over the past year, increasing 4.9% year-over-year.
After smart watches or smart wristbands, games consoles and smart home devices are the fifth- and sixth-most popular electronics worldwide. They’re owned by 19.3% and 16.7% of global consumers, respectively. TV streaming devices, which 16.3% of people own, rank next.
Rounding out the list of the most popular electronics worldwide are the previously mentioned feature phones and virtual reality devices, which are owned by 7.3% and 4.7% of consumers, respectively. The number of people owning feature phones has dipped by 13% in the past 12 months—the biggest annual decrease across all electronic devices.
