Gurgaon: 63 percent of U.S. household spends 35 percent more on technology bills than utility bills, reveals a new report by iYogi Insight titled, Consumer Research on Growing Spends on Technology Services 2012. Mobile phone tops the chart on monthly technology spends.

The rising cost of energy has become a topic of hot debate, with U.S. Department of Energy reporting that consumers spend 6 to 12 percent of their income on utilities. iYogi, a leading remote tech support company, put its hypothesis, “is technology now the real utility” to the test through this research. The research shows that with the ever-increasing role played by technology in every sphere of life, consumer spending on connecting to the Internet, subscribing to online services, mobile communication and multimedia entertainment has also risen.

Vishal Dhar, President Marketing and Co-Founder of iYogi, says, “iYogi Insights is a new initiative that reviews emerging and disruptive technologies and trends impacting our lives. Our large panel of customers, across multiple geographies, contributes to these insights. Technology is now the real utility as increasingly households spend more on a combination of technology bills to stay connected than their utility bills. The results of the survey also cite that technology continues to be the key enabler for empowering people in today’s fast-paced interconnected world, driven by demand for newer and smarter devices that connect to the internet and to each other”.

iYogi is a global on-demand services company that provides personalized computer support for consumers and small businesses in U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. iYogi Insights is a research initiative launched by the company to help understand the issues that people face with technology and how they adapt tech solutions to enhance their lives. Frequent interaction with the wide database of subscribers gives a privileged peek into how people are forging a partnership with technology, sorting out the occasional issue, and on the whole, positively embracing technology to empower themselves.

The research states that the number of technology devices in households with more than two members goes up to 10-11. The highest expenditure is on mobile services with an average of $94 a month and an additional $19 on downloading games, music, movies, and others, and the voice and data services are the most popular with 60 percent respondents among 1100, saying that they subscribe to such packages.

About 50 percent of the respondents opt for triple play package for Internet, TV and Phone, and around $20-$180 is been spent by the households on their ISP bills. The new concept of online back-up services has already reached 30 percent adoption with a spend of about $10 per month, which shows that the cloud services have immense potential as new types of services are launched. Nearly 30 percent of the respondents use instant messaging applications and app downloads topped the chart followed by music, movies, videos and games.