The study, the first of its kind, entitled “New Tech Adoption Index” (NTAI), highlights Asia’s prominence in driving global new technology advancement, with the region’s high demand fuelling growth of overall product category in a majority of the region’s market by at least 35 per cent in both volume and value terms in the past year.

The NTAI leverages GfK’s proprietary point-of-sales data to specifically analyse new consumer technology take-up across over 250,000 products in the consumer durables and technology industry across nine Asian and six key European markets.

New consumer technology products categorised into four main baskets — fun, comfort, freedom and essential — are analysed accordingly, including hardware items and those with software-led features such as Ultra HD/4K and Gaming (fun), Smart Appliances (comfort), True Wireless, Wearables and AI Speaker (freedom) and screen size larger than 5.5” for smart + mobile phones (essential).

“To be competitive, more and more brands are introducing products with innovative features or functionality. In order to succeed in their innovation efforts, it is important for brands to understand where they can find their greatest potential of early adopters, who can then create a network effect for their products,” said Vishal Bali, Managing Director for Client Solutions and Innovation, APAC.

GfK reported a wide ranging spectrum of NTAI between 46 and 146 for the nine Asian markets, highlighting the vast differing levels of new technology adoption in the region. While showcasing the rise of key markets in new tech adoption, it also reveals the fact that the region is home to some of the laggards in this area. The top three markets with the highest overall NTAIs are China (146), Singapore (134) and South Korea (128), while India (46) and Indonesia (67) took their positions at the opposite end of the scale.

A deeper dive into the Asia’s NTAI reveals that 24 of the total 70 cities evaluated in the study showed above average readings, with the EIGHT top cities all hailing from China (NTAI range:161-196) — led by Beijing (196) and Shanghai (193). Eight of South Korea’s key cities followed next (NTAI range: 147-156) with Seoul (156), Chungcheong (156) and Inchon (153) showing the highest new tech adoption propensity within this market. The most diverse market within Asia is Indonesia, ranging from 33 to 118 with Botabek being the city with the highest level of new tech adoption.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Economy/30367877