According to a new Leichtman Research study, one-third of all Americans now own an HDTV, putting market penetration at an all-time high. The number has doubled from 2006’s figures.
Just over 22 percent of all US homes purchased a new HDTV in the last 12 months, and about 48 percent spent over $1000 USD for their new TV.
“About 40 million U.S. households now have at least one HDTV set, and LRG forecasts that this number will double over the next four years,” noted Bruce Leichtman, President and principal analyst of Leichtman Research. “While more people than ever before have HDTV sets, educating consumers on HD programming remains an issue.
HDTV prices, whether they be for DLP, LCD or plasma screens, have been dropping exponentially over the past two years and 42 inch screens with full 1080p HD resolution can be found for under $1000 depending on the brand.
The study also says that 33 percent of current HDTV owners own more than one HDTV and that of the 67 percent that don’t, 30 percent are planning to purchase a second TV in the next year.
Result for: principal analyst
The results of a study from ABI Research on the affects of age on technology use show an interesting, and perhaps somewhat unexpected trend. It’s no shock to find that people age 65 and older are less likely to use things like Video on Demand (VOD) or game consoles than those between 18 and 25. What may surprise you is that people in the older demographic may be just as likely to adopt new technology once they try it out.
For example, the study found that although only 35% of people age 65 or higher have used VOD, compared to double that number between the ages of 25 and 29, in both cases those who use it once typically continue to use it at least once a month afterward.
The results for console use were even more surprising. While market penetration in the 18-25 demographic saw no growth over the last year, for those 65 and older there was a 200% increase. This may explain the trend toward increased gaming related sales offsetting falling home video revenue.
But there are still some technologies that don’t show any signs of appealing to the older crowd. Video downloads, while popular with very young people, isn’t showing any signs of popularity with even middle aged consumers.
According to ABI Research principal analyst Steve Wilson that’s likely a result of inherent flaws with the process. He says “The lack of wide video download popularity in all but the youngest group can very likely be attributed to inconsistencies in the process, a result of the industry’s immaturity.”
Result for: principal analyst
According to ABI Research, prices for older model Blu-ray players should drop to $150 USD for the holiday season, a steep price drop over their current average $200-250 USD price tags.
The analyst group says the price drops will be necessary to fight off pressures from emerging HD movie download services. The group also believes the studios will need strong Blu-ray sales for the holiday following the current economic downturn.
The sales prices will most likely be on older Profile 1.0 and 1.1 players that lack BD-Live Internet capabilities.
“Blu-ray vendors and dealers are starting to realize that for Blu-ray to become the next DVD, they need to lower player prices in order to generate interest and build volumes,” notes ABI Research’s principal analyst Steve Wilson.
HD download services, especially those rolled out recently by Netflix, TiVo and Amazon, will be Blu-ray’s biggest competition for the time being, noted ABI.
