In another sign of the growing popularity of connected TVs, a new report from Informa Telecoms & Media is predicting that worldwide sales of connected TVs will surpass games consoles for the first time in 2011.
There will be about 52 million connected TV sets sold this year, more than the 37 million consoles Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are likely to sell, theVideo in the Emerging Connected Home: Connected device forecasts 2011-2016 report predicts.
The robust sale of connected TVs are part of a much larger demand for video related devices, which Informa predicts will produce sales of about 1.8 billion video devices for the home, including tablets, by 2016.
"The market for connected devices - connected TVs, connected Blu-ray players, games consoles, media-streaming devices and hybrid set-top boxes - is continuing to grow globally, as consumers seek to access services such as Netflix and iPlayer via their televisions," explained Andrew Ladbrook, analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media in a statement. "In 2016, 1.8 billion in-home video devices - including tablets - will be sold, an increase of almost 800% from today. And by this time, 70% of all in-home video devices sold will be able to connect to the Internet."
Ladbrook added that "until now, many online video services were launched primarily with the game console in mind, mainly because console users innately understand how to connect these devices and demand interactive video services from them. However, this is beginning to change as connected TVs bring these services to a mainstream audience."
