If there’s any doubt that the consumer electronics industry doesn’t understand the importance of content delivery via the internet, take a look at the number of connected devices shipping over the next few years. Over 111 million living room-centric connected devices (including game consoles, Blu-ray Disc players and connected TVs) will ship in 2012. The number of these devices shipping will experience a 50% increase between 2012 and 2014, and almost double between 2012 and 2016.
In addition to Blu-ray Disc players, game consoles and connected TVs, tablets and smartphones are already streaming video direct to consumers (many while sitting in their living rooms), and many pay TV suppliers are specifying Ethernet ports in the next generation of set-top boxes.
Soon your entire living room will be full of connected devices. But is it necessary to include an Internet connection in every consumer electronics device? Are consumers really going to use all of these connections? We suspect that there may be some consolidation in living-room connected devices in the near future, but for now it looks as if few consumers will be without a connection….or two, or three, or more.
