If your output was like this

$VAR1 = {
          'ryan' => [
                      'ipad',
                      '2005',
                      'cell',
                      '2009'
                    ],
          'Brian' => [
                       'ipad',
                       '2001',
                       'ipad',
                       '2001',
                       'ipad',
                       '2001'
                     ],
          'Andrew' => [
                        'ipad',
                        '2009'
                      ]
        };
[download]

that is not a HashOfHashes, it is a HashOfArrays. push @{$hash{$name}},$col2,$col3 is creating 2 array element for each line of data

push @{$hash{$name}},"$col2,$col3" creates only 1 array element for each line. see push

A HashOfHashes (HoH) would be used if you wanted to replace multiple records the same with 1 record and a count, like this

while (<IN>){
  s/^\s+|\s+$//g; # trim leading/trailing spaces
  my ($col1,$col2,$col3) = split /\s+/,$_,4;
  if ($col1 eq 'name'){
    $name = $col2;   
  } elsif ($col1 eq 'device') {
    #push @{$hash{$name}},"$col2\t$col3";
    ++$hash{$name}{$col2}{$col3}; #HoH
  } else {
    # skip line
  }
}
close IN;

foreach my $name (keys %hash){
  print "$name\n";
  foreach my $col2 (keys %{$hash{$name}}){
    foreach my $col3 (keys %{$hash{$name}{$col2}}){
      my $count = $hash{$name}{$col2}{$col3};
      print "\t$col2\t$col3\t$count\n";
    }
  }
}
[download]

I am guessing you made a typo, you meant push @{$hash{$name}},$col2,$col3 is creating 2 array element for each line of data and push @{$hash{$name}},"$col2\t$col3" creates only 1 array element for each line

right?

Both push @{$hash{$name}},"$col2,$col3" and push @{$hash{$name}},"$col2\t$col3" create only 1 array element for each line because of the double quotes enclosing the 2 variables. Using a comma or tab only changes the print output format.
poj