NPD estimates a 4% reduction in the number of Americans and Canadians who played mobile games in 2021, compared with 2020, but the 228.7 million active mobile gamers across the two countries was a 6% increase from 2019, reported the company Tuesday. Despite the year-over-year reduction, active players were more engaged in mobile gaming “than ever before,” with overall average weekly play time increasing 27%, and players contributing 16% more revenue than in 2020, said NPD. “COVID-19 drove explosive growth in 2020 as U.S. and Canadian consumers sought more options to entertain themselves at home,” it said. “The overall reduction in the total number of active gamers in 2021 was primarily driven by those who had previously not been active players reverting to their pre-pandemic habits."

Wireless customers are returning to brick-and-mortar stores in larger numbers than earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic to buy smartphones, reported J.D. Power Thursday. The company canvassed nearly 9,900 U.S. consumers July through December on their purchase behavior through any one of four channels -- visiting carriers’ stores, contacting them by phone, buying through their websites or buying through their apps, it said. It found 35% shopped through physical stores, a 6-point increase from the July-December period of 2020, it said.

Mobile in-app revenue will be 56% of the global digital advertising spend by 2026, when the market is projected to grow to $753 billion globally from $407 billion in 2022, reported Juniper Research Monday. It anticipates desktop PC advertising spend will increase $142 billion in 2026 from $97 billion this year, “despite a diversion of spend towards handheld devices and the implementation of data protection regulation impacting cookie policies.” Video ad spend is expected to grow 63% over the next four years, “as the success of popular distribution channels, such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts, continues to drive demand for video advertising and justify premium charges,” said Juniper.

Tech industry hiring got off to a “hot start” in January, adding 24,300 workers and 178,000 “occupations,” reported CompTIA Friday. January was the 14th straight month with tech employment growth “at the industry level,” it said. “By all accounts this was an exceptionally strong start to the year for tech employment,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA chief research officer.

Spider-Man was 2021's “best-performing superhero license” in the U.S., fueled by enthusiasm for the feature film Spider-Man: No Way Home, which shattered box office records, reported NPD Monday. Total consumer spending on Spider-Man-licensed products via the industries NPD tracks increased 43% over 2020, it said. Sales of Spider-Man-licensed toys increased 39% from 2020, led by products in the building sets and action figures categories, and sales of juvenile products increased 61%, said NPD. In video games, the most recent title for the license, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, released in 2020, ranked as the sixth best-selling title overall in 2021, it said. NPD’s subscription-video tracking service found nearly 20 million hours of Spider-Man content was streamed in 2021 across Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu, with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home at nearly 40% of hours streamed.

Retail competition is benefiting consumers with more choices, competitive pricing and innovation, a Deloitte survey commissioned by the Computer & Communications Industry Association found. Nearly three-fourths of consumers said they shopped more than one retailer on a recent shopping trip, 42% shopped two and 30% shopped three or more, said the survey. Two-thirds of shoppers used a digital device in a store to compare prices and products online; 55% started a shopping journey online before buying in store, it said. More than four in 10 shoppers said they prefer multiple fulfillment options when buying online rather than defaulting to home delivery; 46% will pay more to pick up an item in store five minutes from home rather than wait for two-day delivery, said the study. About 27% of online sales were fulfilled at a physical store last year, up from 21.7% the prior year, said the report. Small-to-medium businesses (SMB) are using omnichannel fulfillment: 61% offer buy online, pick up in store, and 50% offer same-day curbside pickup for e-commerce customers, it said. Some 99% of SMB retailers use at least one digital tool or marketplace, including retailers selling only via physical stores. “Consumers should not be viewed as purely online or offline shoppers but rather a mix of both, as they are often using both channels throughout their shopping journey,” said CCIA Director-Research and Economics Trevor Wagener.

Q4 tablet shipments declined 11.9% year over year to 46 million units globally but jumped 3.2% for the full year to 168.8 million, the market’s highest volume since 2016, reported IDC Monday. Chromebook shipments plunged 63.6% in Q4 but grew 13.5% for the full year, it said. Tablet shipments have begun to slow as the market “has moved past peak demand across many geographies," said IDC. But shipments in the near future are expected to remain above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, “as virtual learning, remote work, and media consumption remain priorities for users," it said. IDC blamed the Q4 decline in Chromebook shipments on “satiated” demand in the U.S. and Europe, though adoption in emerging markets “has seen continued growth in the past year." Chromebook supply has been “unusually tight,” and component shortages have led notebook vendors “to prioritize Windows machines due to their higher price tags, further suppressing Chromebook shipments on a global scale," said IDC. Apple led the tablet market with 17.5 million shipments for 38% market share, an 8.6% drop-off, the company’s only category to post negative sales in the December quarter, it said in its December earnings report (see 2201280023). Samsung was second, with 7.3 million shipments, down 21.6%; Lenovo was third at 4.6 million shipments, down 25.4%. Amazon eked out a 1.3% gain in tablet shipments to 3.6 million, IDC said.

U.S. consumer spending on PC gaming hardware and accessories reached $5.74 billion in 2021, an increase of 25% over 2020, after a 62% revenue increase in 2020 from 2019, reported NPD Friday. Year-over-year revenue growth in PC gaming hardware and accessories categories was led by desktop computers (up 38%), notebook computers (up 29%) and PC mics (up 25%), said NPD. PC mics (27%), monitors (17%) and notebooks (16%) had the highest unit growth, it said. NPD forecasts a 4% decline in 2022 PC gaming hardware and accessories revenue, “a result of tremendously high volumes for the previous two years,” it said. PC gaming “continues to offer a wide variety of content, across numerous genres, coming from developers around the world,” said analyst Mat Piscatella. “In 2021, the PC platform generated record consumer spending and engagement, further proving that the oldest game platform may indeed still be the industry’s best.”

German TV unit sales plunged 20% to 5.9 million sets in 2021 due to tough comparisons with 2020's COVID-19 pandemic-induced consumer demand surge, reported Gfu Thursday, according to an unofficial English translation. TV average selling prices rose 16% year over year to 694 euros ($775), enabling the market to escape 2021 with only a 7% revenue decline to 4.1 billion euros ($4.6 billion), it said. That was still nearly 11% higher than in pre-pandemic 2019, said Gfu. “The past two years, which were significantly influenced by the pandemic, differ from the previous years in many respects and have led to a change in consumer behavior, some of which has been significant,” said Gfu Managing Director Sara Warneke. “Fewer units were bought overall, but at a higher price,” she said. “This can be explained by price increases caused by interrupted supply chains and a lack of chips, but also by the constantly growing consumer trend towards premium products.”

The global 3D printed electronics market will expand at a 31% compound annual growth rate to $6 billion by 2031, said a TMR study Thursday. The prototyping of printed circuit boards and other electronic components enables businesses to have “design freedom” and shift to in-house production, it said. Consumer demand for flexible electronics and wearables is driving miniaturization of components, bolstering prospects for the category, it said.