• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 27, 2005

Vacation For Spouse and In-Law Visits Trade-off For Plasma TV

According to a recent eMarketer summary report, The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) reports that sales of digital TVs will grow from 6.97 million units in 2004 to 27.05 million units by 2008. CEA Director of Market Research Sean Wargo comments that "sales trend will only continue in the coming year, particularly as consumers become acquainted with products like Digital Cable Ready that make the transition to HDTV seamless."

DTV Sales in the US (millions of units)

2004	6.97
2005	10.77
2006	16.77
2007	23.25
2008	27.05

Source: Consumer Electronics Association, December 2004

eMarketer estimates that the number of digital TV households in the US will total 70.3 million by 2007, up from 44.2 million in 2003. In addition, the number of HDTV households in the US will rise from 1.1 million in 2003 to 21.3 million by 2007.

Advanced Digital TV Households in the US (millions)

Year	HDTV	DVR	VOD-enabled	Digital TV
2003	1.1	3.2	12.4	44.2
2004	2.6	5.9	17.6	49.0
2005	5.5	10.4	22.9	55.
2006	12.4	16.7	26.6	62.5
2007	21.3	25.3	29.8	70.3

Source: eMarketer, August 2004

A national study, conducted by Penn Schoen & Berland for Panasonic, found that 51% of consumers are confused about the various technologies and options available among newer digital TVs. After being educated about the benefits of different TV technologies, such as plasma and LCD sets, 60% said they would choose a plasma HDTV for their new display, indicating enthusiasm about digital TV technology.

The study found that high-tech, expensive TVs can be status symbols and function as incentives to gather people at an owner's house. Panasonic finds that 62% of those surveyed said that they would host people at their house for special TV events if they had a plasma HDTV.

Men are more inclined to desire a plasma TV than women. The Report found that 57% of married men would let their significant other chose all vacation destinations for a year in order to convince their spouse to purchase a plasma TV. 50% would let their in-laws visit as often as they wanted, and 36% would do all the household chores for a year.