Laptops Move to the Head of the Class Among College Students, According to AMD Back-to-School Survey

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 10, 2014) - In time for back-to-school season, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced the results of its national Back-to-School Technology Usage Survey¹ of college-bound students about their technology preferences and purchase habits. The poll revealed that while more than half of today's students carry at least two devices with them at all times, their laptop is their most cherished piece of technology and is used in almost every aspect of their collegiate life. And, based on the research, AMD processors address the array of experiences today's students say matter most to them.

The survey, conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of AMD in May among college students based in the U.S. aged 18 to 26, reveals laptops as their device of choice with 85 percent owning one, outnumbering smartphone owners and more than double the reported number of tablet owners. When asked to rank various items in order of importance, 41 percent of students surveyed consider their laptop their most important possession followed by their car, tablet, bicycle, and television. In fact, only one percent prioritize their television, likely a sign of the times as 73 percent report that they use other devices more than a TV, including laptops, to watch television shows and videos.

More than half of students surveyed plan to buy new technology before heading back to college in the fall and one third put a new laptop at the top of their list, beating out tablets and 2-in-1s as their computing form factor of choice. Main considerations when choosing a laptop include fast performance (40 percent), price (26 percent), and battery life (25 percent) with college students also ranking mobility, security, entertainment features, and gaming capabilities as very important when selecting new technology.

"Students expect more from their computers than ever before -- they want them to be equally as good at streaming their favorite TV show as they are at crunching numbers in a math class," said Gabe Gravning, director of product marketing, Client Business Unit, AMD. "The processor is a pivotal part of enabling these experiences and AMD APUs are a versatile solution that offer an ideal combination of productivity and entertainment performance to handle virtually all the things today's students need and want from their technology -- including long battery life, industry-leading AMD Radeon™ graphics, and a smooth, sharp streaming video experience."

Given that the oldest survey respondents were born in the late 1980s, they largely don't remember a time without home computers or the Internet, and their technology use habits underscore its importance in their life. In fact, 81 percent of students can't imagine doing school work without their technology and 70 percent can't imagine a life without technology. Other results reinforcing the importance of tech devices to these students include:

• 67 percent say one of their biggest fears is having their technology stop working;
• 25 percent would choose a computer over a family member or beer if they were stranded on a deserted island;
• 27 percent of students identified a new computer as their first purchase if they won $1000.

Enabling experiences to help students get the most from their technology in and out of the classroom, AMD processors are available today in laptop, desktop, 2-in-1 and convertible PCs at a variety of prices. Visit shop.amd.com for more information.

Supporting Resources

• Read AMD's Best Laptops for Back-to-School Blog Post
• Discover AMD technologies that enhance the computing experience
• See what Lenovo has to say about the AMD-based Lenovo FLEX 2 convertible PC
• Learn about choosing the right processor

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) designs and integrates technology that powers millions of intelligent devices, including personal computers, tablets, game consoles and cloud servers that define the new era of surround computing. AMD solutions enable people everywhere to realize the full potential of their favorite devices and applications to push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information, visit www.amd.com.

¹ Survey Methodology: This survey was conducted online within the United States between May 20 and 28, 2014 among 511 adults aged 18-26 who will be attending a 2- or a 4-year college, not necessarily in the United States, in the fall by Harris Poll on behalf of Edelman for AMD. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.
All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Poll avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.
Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Poll surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.