Australians now have 21.6 million smartphones as internet usage on gadgets skyrockets

Australians now have more than 21 million smartphones, and our love affair with gadgets will only continue to grow. Here are the tech items we’re flocking to.

Australia has adopted almost as many smartphones as the country has adults and the number of internet connected devices in our homes has multiplied by six times in the past decade, according to a breakthrough report to be released this week.

Telsyte’s Digital Consumer Study also reveals the pace of technology adoption is accelerating, with the number of Aussies using dinner deliveries, online grocery orders, digital payments and streaming TV services spiking during 2020.

And consumers are expected to invest in faster internet plans, more smart speakers, and connected vehicles over the next decade.

Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi said the comprehensive study, which surveyed more than 1000 Australian consumers for two hours each, showed our love affair with gadgets, computers, streaming services and apps skyrocketed between 2010 and 2020.

“If the adoption of current technologies is anything to go by, the next 10 to 20 years will see rapid changes,” Mr Fadaghi said.

Sarah Liberty, who is a technology advocate and Just Sociale CEO, says she spends a lot more time looking at screens than a decade ago. Picture: supplied

“At the start of the decade, people were telling us they thought technology was speeding up and they weren’t adapting as fast as they’d like. The same research is showing people are more comfortable with it now and we’re seeing more people who have never experienced anything but the digital environment.

“The digitisation of society should be complete within the next 10 years.”

Telsyte’s annual study found Australians were now using 21.6 million smartphones — almost five times as many smartphones as in 2010 — and the number of internet-connected devices in each household had grown by almost six times to reach 193 million smart devices.

Australians also embraced new services over the past decade that did not exist earlier, the report found, including streaming entertainment services now used by 16 million people, digital wallets now used by six million Aussies, and online meal and grocery shopping deliveries, which surged by 22 per cent and 35 per cent last year respectively to reach more than seven million users each.

Streaming services have emerged and won over 16 million subscribers in the past decade.

Sydney executive Sarah Liberty said, like most Australians, she was spending a lot more time in front of screens than she did in 2010, making friends on Instagram, creating and listening to podcasts, and using her laptop as a TV.

“A decade ago, I had a PC at work and I did have a laptop at home but being logged on to a screen for numerous hours a day was just not something that was part of my routine,” she said. “I had no idea about screen time and apps and the impact on our health.”

Ms Liberty, who heads online human rights organisation Just Sociale, said she was looking forward to seeing more Aussies strike a “mindful” balance about their technology use in future over the next decade as it changed again, becoming more diverse and potentially more wearable.

Mr Fadaghi said Australia’s passion for gadgets was unlikely to slow down over the next 10 years as even though we may have reached smartphone “saturation,” we were unlikely to put them down.

“Our reliance on technology will only increase,” he said. “The pandemic accelerated our adoption of apps, services and e-commerce and that won’t go away. Habits and lifestyles have changed and technology facilitated that.”

Globally, Gartner predicts the fascination with gadgets will continue to rise in 2021, with consumers splashing out on more than 2.1 billion smartphones, tablets, and other computers — a rise of more than eight per cent.

More than 6.2 billion devices will be in use by the end of the year, it predicts, almost as many gadgets as there are people.