Today's collegians are becoming road warriors, ditching their desktop PCs for laptops and mobile phones.
Seven out of 10 US college students surveyed in August 2008 owned a laptop, while student desktop PC ownership dropped from more than 90% to just over 50% in five years, according to an Alloy Media + Marketing-sponsored study conducted by Harris Interactive.
"Students have come to expect 24/7 connectedness and mobility," said Samantha Skey, EVP at Alloy, in a statement. "Now flexibility and ease of function to socialize, communicate and be entertained is what they're demanding."
TV ads may work differently with the university set. A full 62% of students surveyed said they watched TV online. One-quarter of respondents went to major network Websites, but more than one-third went to YouTube to get their TV. The balance used other video sites like Veoh, Hulu and Joost.
Between falling technology prices and a down economy, average back-to-school spending will dip to under $600 per consumer this year, down from more than $641 in 2007, according to a National Retail Federation-sponsored study by BIGresearch.
eMarketer's College Students Online report will be published next month. Click here to be notified when it is released.