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Americans are not backing up their digital photos, music, documents or other types of files, according to a new study by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). Results of the study, Amassing Digital Fortunes: A Digital Storage Study, show that nearly one in three consumers don’t see the need to back up their files, while nearly a quarter (22%) say they aren’t backing up files because it’s too time consuming. “The issue appears to be a combination of lack of awareness of storage options and ease of use,” says CEA’s Director of Market Research, Tim Herbert. “Generally, consumers don’t know how to back up their data and if they do, they’re failing to back up data because they claim it takes too much time.”
The average American adult has 1,800 digital files, totaling 310 billion digital files nationwide. With another 1,060 being added per user in 2008, the total number is expected to hit just under 500 billion by the end of the year.
“The sheer amount of data being amassed every day creates tremendous opportunities for the digital storage market,” says Herbert.
Photos (85%) and music (67%) comprise the largest percentage of stored files, making them more common than productivity files, like home office documents (59%), which ranked third.
Research results show that consumers are satisfied with their storage options. Eight out of 10 respondents reported using their home computer as their primary long-term storage option. For back-up, over three quarters of people surveyed (77%) burn their files onto a CD or DVD. Over a quarter (29%) of those surveyed copy their files onto more than one device, such as having a file on a computer and a portable device.
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