The report, based on a survey of 6,000 smartphone users in the US, the UK, China, Japan, India, and Germany is intended to provide insight into the evolving demands of global audio consumers, as well as highlighting the trends that are driving the audio technology industry.
“Consumer audio is an exciting and rapidly evolving space and our report highlights that great sound quality remains vitally important to consumers, and that the majority now believe they can get ‘as good as wired’ sound with Bluetooth connectivity,” said James Chapman, vice president and general manager, voice, music & wearables business unit, Qualcomm.
According to Chapman, the report highlighted the rapid adoption of truly wireless earbuds and smart speakers.
“These are categories that are underpinned by the innovations our customers are bringing to market using Qualcomm’s technologies, such as Qualcomm aptX audio, active noise cancellation and superior connectivity,” he said.
The report found that consumers are keen that their audio devices do much more than simply play music and want to see the integration of new features like voice assistance, cellular, and low-latency audio streaming.
“All of these are seen as priorities,” explained Chapman, “but at the same time consumers want to see battery life of their devices extended and sound quality improved.”
According to the report, many consumers said that they would be willing to pay for next generation audio products that support a smarter and more immersive listening experience. It also suggested that the industry was at a tipping point with the shift from wired to wireless overall accelerating.
“The audio world is undergoing an accelerated evolution toward the ultimate freedom offered by truly wireless earbuds, with greater convenience, personalisation and choice,” said the report.
Among the ‘State of Play’ report’s key findings were that sound quality was a top-ranking purchase driver for 65% of global consumers, with 63% of headphone shoppers saying high-resolution audio quality was important.
In addition, 64% of smart speaker shoppers said sound quality was most important to their purchase decision and 78% of soundbar and home theatre shoppers said superior sound quality really mattered to them.
The report also found that extended battery life was a top-ranking purchase driver for 61% of consumers surveyed in 2019, up from 47% in 2018. The report highlighted this sharp increase and said that it reflected a shift in preference towards wireless and the freedom that it offered users.
The survey found that 52% of respondents said they would prefer to receive Bluetooth wireless headphones bundled with their next phone.
Thirty five percent of consumers surveyed said they already owned a smart speaker or smart soundbar, and an additional 23% plan to buy one in the next 12 months.
In addition, 78% of consumers said that they’d be willing to pay more for a smart or wireless speaker that supports their desired features.
Both context aware smart headphones and augmented hearing features i.e. language translation, were identified as interesting features by the survey.
However, the report also found that attitudes towards security and privacy were proving a barrier to smart speaker purchases, having overtaken poor sound quality in last year’s report.
The report found that 60% of wireless headphone use takes place in noisy environments, and 63% of users said that they cared about Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) as a feature.
Other findings included: 53% of consumers rated Voice UI as a feature of interest for wireless headphones, while 73% of users expected their portable/wireless speaker to be able to play music at a very loud volume without distortion or loss of audio quality.
While brand loyalty was a major factor in their buying decisions, consumers said that they would be willing to shop around to get the features they most wanted.
