At 6:32 PM -0500 1/25/09, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
Secondly, you are comparing the STB to two "fashion accessories." Cell phones and iPods are throw-away devices. You have to expect a large turn-over every year, as people replace the older not-so-cool model. For instance, now you need touch screen and, preferably, virtual keyboards on the touch screen. So you have to expect people who already have perfectly good cell phones to be itching for a new one.
Fashion accessories have a way of evolving over time, as is also the case for the ways in which we consume entertainment.
While we have not worn or carried TVs historically, broadcast TV was more than a "fashion statement" in its heyday. Families sat down in the evening to be entertained, and folks talked about what they watched the night before around the water cooler at work.
In the 80s TVs became a different kind of fashion statement, as they proliferated throughout the home, when the prices dropped to levels cheaper than the cell-phones and iPods of today.
According to Nielsen Research: http://www.nielsenmedia.com/nc/portal/site/Public/menuitem.55dc65b4a7d5adff3f65936147a062a0/?vgnextoid=e6db9c9ba2ecd110VgnVCM100000ac0a260aRCRDNew York, NY, November 24, 2008 -The Nielsen Company announced today in its second "A2/M2 Three Screen Report" that U.S. usage of TV, Internet and Mobile - the Three Screens - continues to increase. As of third quarter 2008, the average person in the U.S. watched approximately 142 hours of TV in one month. In addition, people who used the Internet were online 27 hours a month, and people who used a mobile phone spent 3 hours a month watching mobile video (See Tables 1 and 2 below).
Furthermore, the average time a U.S. home used a TV set during the 2007-08 television season was up to 8 hours and 18 minutes per day, a record high since Nielsen started measuring television in the 1950's (See Table 3 below).
What is NOT FASHIONABLE is limiting ones' view of the world to that provided by OTA TV.
Hence the relatively low level of interest in upgrading most of those old "round-tube" TVs that are only connected to antennas.
Regards Craig
And sure, I totally agree that the coupon box market is short duration. I've always said it would be. And I also predicted that as the ATSC standard is updated, a good example now being M/H, there will be more opportunities for similar short-term STB sales, because people will more readily buy an STB than a whole new TV set. If priced right, of course!When viewed as a percentage of the market, the UK has sold a far higher percentage of Freevew boxes.No question about that. I think the UK has 62 percent of households using OTA (I'll bet Freesat will change that number quickly, though). Australia and Italy come in at about 75 percent. Not sure where France is, but I'll bet it's in that 75 percent neighborhood too. So obviously, as a percentage of households, they will sell more STBs. But to the CE vendor, what counts is his actual sales, and 24M is a very good number for any TV APPLIANCE, if not for a fashion accessory. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
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