The Conference Board will update the methodology of its monthly consumer confidence survey to an online canvass, effective with May 25's release of preliminary May results, said the think tank Tuesday. Questions dating to 1967, including gauging consumer intentions on buying new TV sets, will remain unchanged, but the monthly sample of 5,000 U.S. respondents previously was canvassed by mail, it said.

U.S. cloud infrastructure spending rose 29% in Q1 to a record $18.6 billion on “digital transformation” spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Canalys Tuesday: Increases were also fueled by economic recovery and restarting delayed projects. The U.S. had 44% of global spending; China was 15%. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud accounted for 69% of total spending. The relevance of digital services is increasing due to remote working and learning, content streaming, gaming and e-commerce, it said, and enterprise digital transformation is returning “with renewed economic confidence.” There's a proposed $1 billion Technology Modernization Fund (see 2104090041), it noted.

TV set discounting fell significantly during the peak of the pandemic shopping activity in 2020, Stephen Baker, NPD vice president-industry adviser, told the virtual Display Week business conference in a prerecorded presentation streamed Monday. The “levels of promotion dropped precipitously in 2020 and have fallen further in 2021,” said Baker. NPD’s point-of-sale tracking data found that 21% of TVs were sold at discount in 2020's Q2 and 22% in Q3, he said. Though the proportion of discounted TVs rose to 39% during the Q4 holiday selling season, it returned to 19% in Q1 this year, he said. NPD estimates 64% of TVs in 2019's Q2 were sold at discount, and 59% and 57% of sets sold were discounted in 2019's Q3 and Q4, respectively. In 2020 and into 2021, “there was plenty of demand, and we didn’t have to cut prices,” said Baker. “One of the reasons that average selling prices are going up is that we’re not promoting televisions quite as much.”

Citing consumers’ increased willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine, increased spending intentions and comfort with resuming pre-pandemic behaviors, National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz forecast Monday the U.S. economy’s “fastest growth in more than three decades.” There’s still “a great deal of uncertainty” about the market’s trajectory in 2021, but a “feel-better situation” will likely lead to higher household spending around holidays including the Fourth of July and back-to-work and back-to-school seasons, said Kleinhenz. NRF expects the economy to grow 6.6% this year, the highest level since 7.2% in 1984, he said. Outstanding credit surged in February to its highest level since late 2017, reflecting “a consumer who is growing more confident as the economy accelerates, job growth picks up and more states lift burdensome restrictions.”

U.S. consumer spending on videogaming reached $14.92 billion in Q1, rising 30% from the 2020 quarter, reported NPD Thursday. It had gains across the board, from digital console and PC content to mobile and subscription services, plus hardware and accessories categories. Content spending jumped 25%, and hardware and accessories gained 81% and 42%, respectively. Videogaming engagement and spending continue to thrive from changes in consumer behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but “we are also seeing cyclical gains from the November launches of both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles,” said analyst Mat Piscatella.

First-quarter Chromebook and tablet shipments remained “on fire,” rising 364.3% and 55.2%, respectively, reported IDC Thursday. “While vaccine rollouts and businesses returning to offices may slow down the work-from-home trend, we are still far from returning to 'normal' working conditions and hence the demand for tablets, especially detachables, is expected to continue for a while," said analyst Anuroopa Nataraj. But as buyers turn increasingly toward “competing products,” such as thin and light notebooks for work or entertainment and Chromebooks for education, “the future of tablets will remain under constant competition, leaving the heavy lifting to larger brands” like Apple, Samsung, Amazon and Microsoft, she said. Apple maintained top Q1 global share in tablets, but its advantage over Samsung shrunk to 4.7 points from 10.7 points in the 2020 quarter, said IDC. HP roared to market leadership in Chromebooks in the quarter, up from the No. 3 position a year earlier, with its 633.9% growth in shipments to 4.4 million, said IDC. Lenovo and Acer rounded out the top three.

Consumer intentions on buying new TV sets plunged in April from March, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes through April 16, finding 10% planned to buy a new TV in the next six months, down from 11.4% in March and 13.2% in April 2020, said the board. Lower TV-buying intentions in April were possibly a telltale residue of the historic pull-in demand for consumer tech goods during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns last year. Consumer confidence across the board climbed sharply for the second straight month to its highest level since February 2020. "Consumers' assessment of current conditions improved significantly in April, suggesting the economic recovery strengthened further in early Q2,” said the board. “Consumers were more upbeat about their income prospects, perhaps due to the improving job market and the recent round of stimulus checks.”

Electronics (28%) are projected to be a leading driver of $28.1 billion in Mother’s Day 2021 spending, said the National Retail Federation Thursday, citing results from a Prosper survey of 7,818 U.S. adults April 1-9. That’s $1.4 billion more than last year, when most Americans were under lockdown. Consumers plan to spend an average of $220.48, a $16 increase; 34% plan to shop online. Though people indicate growing comfort with activities such as traveling and dining out, “there is still a lot of uncertainty,” said Prosper Executive Vice President-Strategy Phil Rist.

NPD’s retail tracking service is showing surprising consumer demand for camcorders and mirrorless cameras, reported the company Thursday. “New needs and new features” were responsible for the 13% unit sales growth in camcorders and 9% increase in mirrorless cameras in 2020's second half, and that growth reached 24% and 18%, respectively, during the first two months of 2021, said NPD. The growth in camcorders is attributable partly to consumers buying them as webcam replacements, “as product shortages became a challenge during the pandemic,” said analyst Ben Arnold. “Sales likely also saw a boost from consumers looking to stream gaming sessions.” Mirrorless cameras “saw a boost from new product introductions from leading brands in the industry, as well as new features, such as enhanced resolution for recording video,” said Arnold. “As U.S. consumers anxiously await a return to travel and experiences, there is opportunity for these categories to maintain their positive momentum.”

Unit shipments of “traditional” PCs, including desktops, notebooks and workstations, reached 84 million in Q1, down 8% sequentially from Q4 but up 55.2% year over year, reported IDC Friday. Though PCs remain in extremely high demand, the growth rate benefited from the shortages faced in the first quarter of 2020, when the global pandemic began, resulting in an unusually favorable year-over-year comparison, it said. Though sequential declines are typical for the first quarter, a drop as small as 8% hasn't been seen in nine years, said IDC. "Unfulfilled demand from the past year has carried forward into the first quarter and additional demand brought on by the pandemic has also continued to drive volume," said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. “The market continues to struggle with setbacks, including component shortages and logistics issues, each of which has contributed to an increase in average selling prices." IDC ranked Lenovo tops in global PC market share with 24.3%; HP was a close second (22.9%) and Dell a distant third (15.4%).