Skip to main content

iSuppli: Over 25 Pct of All TVs Sold in January are Online

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Market metrics firm iSuppli says U.S. consumers are increasingly turning into online video in their living rooms: according to a survey of some 800 American consumers, 27.5 percent of televisions sold in the United States in January are connected to the Internet—and, furthermore, more than 40 percent of those televisions are Internet-enabled TVs, rather than TVs that can display content from the Internet by way of a home theater PC or gaming console.

“From video-sharing sites like YouTube, to online services like Hulu, consumers increasingly are turning to the Internet for video entertainment,” said iSuppli television systems analyst Tina Tseng, in a statement. “And these consumers want to view Internet content on their primary displays in their homes—their televisions—rather than being relegated the small screens of their desktop and notebook PCs.”

The numbers represent a substantial jump over results from a similar survey in December 2009, where 24.30 percent of respondents indicated their new televisions were connected to the Internet. Aside from Internet-enabled TVs—which, for this survey, were defined as TVs with integrated Internet capabilities like Yahoo Widgets and other lightweight client applications—game consoles were the most popular way to connect TVs to the Internet, with 20.3 percent of respondents who had hooked their new TVs to the Internet saying they did it through the likes of an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3. the next most-popular connection method was by way of a Blu-ray player (13.2 percent), then home PCs and digital video boxes (like Roku or Vudo devices) tied with 12.3 percent.

Of course, put another way, 72.5 percent of TVs purchased by U.S. consumers in January 2010 aren’t tapping into Internet-based content at all.

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
The Beats Pill is back, baby!
A pair of Beats Pill speakers.

In what's been one of the worst-kept secrets of the year -- mostly because subtly putting a product into the hands of some of the biggest stars on the planet is no way to keep a secret -- the Beats Pill has returned. Just a couple of years after Apple and Beats unceremoniously killed off the stylish Bluetooth speaker, a new one has arrived.

Available for preorder today in either black, red, or gold, the $150 speaker (and speakerphone, for that matter) rounds out a 2024 release cycle for beats that includes the Solo Buds and Solo 4 headphones, and comes nearly a year after the Beats Studio Pro.

Read more
Ifi’s latest DAC is the first to add lossless Bluetooth audio
Ifi Audio Zen Blue 3 DAC (front).

Ifi Audio's new Zen Blue 3 wireless digital-to-analog converter (DAC) will officially be available to buy for $299 on July 9. When it is, it will be the first device of its kind to support a wide variety of Bluetooth codecs, including Qualcomm's aptX Lossless, the only codec that claims to deliver bit-perfect CD quality audio over a Bluetooth connection.

Admittedly, there are very few devices on the market that can receive aptX Lossless (and fewer that can transmit it), so it's a good thing that the Zen Blue 3 also works with the more widely supported aptX Adaptive, LDAC, and LDHC/HWA codecs (all of which are hi-res audio-capable), plus the three most common codecs: AAC, SBC, and aptX.

Read more
The new Beats Pill might replace Sonos on my back porch
The 2024 Beats Pill and an aging Sonos Play:1.

If I were to build an outdoor stereo in 2024, I'd do it with a pair of portable Beats Pills instead of Sonos speakers. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

In 2017, after more than a decade in our home, my wife and I added a pool. With it came a covered deck, making what basically was a new outdoor room. Not uncommon at all in Florida, but new to us.

Read more