ABI: HDTVs, Blu-ray Players Top Consumers’ Wish-Lists

ABI Research has released the first part of its “Technology Barometer: Connected Home & Computing,” which surveyed 2,024 consumers in the United States about the consumer electronic products in their households (device types and numbers), home networking, and purchase intent (device type, brand, and features critical to the purchase decision).

Among the significant top-line results, some 24 percent of respondents indicated their highest-priority purchases over the next six months would likely be of HDTVs (24 percent) and Blu-ray players (17 percent). About 60 percent of the households surveyed said they already have one HDTV.

According to ABI senior analyst Michael Inouye, “As consumers replace older TVs, there really isn’t much choice now but to buy an HDTV, so even if the consumer doesn’t necessarily want to view HDTV content, that’s usually what they end up with. Prices for HDTVs have fallen quite a bit, and many households are now replacing their second- and third-string televisions.”

Video game consoles rated at the top of the wish-list for 16 percent. Forty-six percent of those surveyed said they had no major purchase intentions for the next six months.

In terms of "critical/very important" factors in planned purchases, price was either the most cited or second-most for most devices.

ABI Practice director Jason Blackwell adds, “One surprising result in regard to media tablets was that Windows came in second after Apple, and ahead of Android. That probably has more to do with brand awareness than anything else, but it does give some hope to Microsoft.”