14 DAY TRIAL // This year marked the popularity surge of two special kinds of TVs. One of them is the 3D TV and was driven by the making of 3D movies and the launch of 3D broadcasts. The other category is that of IETVs, short for Internet-connected TVs. Market research firm iSupply decided to look at these two in parallel and see how they will evolve as markets throughout the ongoing year. The conclusion of its study was that the latter will outperform the former by a fairly wide margin.
Around 12.3 million IETVs were sold last year, which means that the 27.7 million predicted for 2010 will equate to a rise of 124.9 percent. Needless to say, such an on-year jump is nothing to be frowned upon. 3D TVs, on the other hand, will only total 4.2 million shipments by the end of December. Granted, this market will supposedly surge over the next few years, but IETVs are still believed to have the larger potential for near-term growth. In fact, iSupply estimates that they will show double digit growth until the end of 2014, reaching 148.3 million units and accounting for 54% of all flat-panel sales.
"The arrival of Internet-enabled TV models is part of the ongoing evolution and enhancement of TV sets," Patel said. "Because innovation is a must in order to drive consumer adoption and replacement, the TV industry has embarked on a path of enhancing the consumer experience through interaction with their TV sets."
"Despite aggressive promotions from the industry and intense consumer interest generated by the blockbuster Avatar and other titles, the 3D TV market in 2010 will be limited to a small pool of enthusiastic early adopters," said Riddhi Patel, director and principal analyst for TV systems at iSupply. "In contrast, IETV is entering the mainstream in 2010. This is because 3D is still dealing with a number of barriers, including cost, content availability and interoperability, while IETV provides immediate benefits by allowing TV viewers to access a range of content readily available on the Internet."