How Many Devices in the Home Connect to the Internet in the US?

Earlier today, The NPD Group released bits of a new report that suggests there are a lot more devices that connect to the Internet in homes in the United States right now than some may think.

How many such devices are out there? According to the Connected Intelligence Connected Home Report from NPD, just over half a billion such devices, thanks in large part to the addition of a large parcel of smartphones and tablets.

Thanks to the sudden influx of new smartphones and tablets – over 26 million units' worth in 2012, reportedly – the total number has cleared the half-billion milestone and looks to carry on from there.

The average number of devices is now 5.7 per household, which is up from 5.3 just three months ago. With nine million new smartphone users showing up in that same three months, and an additional number of tablet users measuring almost 18 million strong, a lot of new devices that connect to the Internet are suddenly in American hands.

Interestingly, despite the big spike in the total number and the total number of devices that connect to the Internet, the primary Internet-connected device in homes isn't smartphones, nor is it tablets: it's the old PC. According to John Buffone, director of devices for NPD Connected Intelligence, "PCs are still the most prevalent connected device in U.S. Internet households and this is a fact that won't be changing any time soon."

However, Buffone was quick to qualify the statement, saying that, "when you look at the combined number of smartphones and tablets consumers own, for the first time ever it exceeded the installed base of computers."

It's a critical distinction; while the number of PCs in American households is clearly top of the food chain at 93 percent, that number hasn't actually changed much in the last three months. Smartphones and tablets, meanwhile, are gaining ground in rapid fashion.

Smartphones, meanwhile, gained 5 percent, from 52 percent to 57 percent, and tablets rose from 35 percent to 53 percent.

The question, of course, is how this will impact the overall environment. It's interesting to note that PCs retained their status at the top of the food chain despite the gains from the mobile device market. It's entirely possible, in fact, that we're not really seeing a "post-PC era" so much as we're seeing a "post-PC only era." Mobile devices have had big gains. There's no two ways about that. But those gains are not coming at the expense of the PC. It's still very much in play, as it has been for years.

Thus, what we're seeing from these numbers is an environment where PCs are being used, but alongside tablets and smartphones, in many cases likely for different reasons at different times, and possibly even sometimes at the same time.

Consider someone playing "Words With Friends" on a smartphone or tablet while keeping his or her laptop open to Anagrammer.com the whole time. Possible, and easier than some might think, this is the kind of application that would make these numbers make sense.

It will be worth watching, in the months to come, if PC shares start declining in the face of gaining smartphone and tablet numbers, or if we're truly advancing to a point where we have all the devices available on hand.

The next few such surveys ought to make for very interesting reading.