A new study by ABI Research found that a large amount of digital content is consumed by a small but influential group of digital media users, while the average user is looking for new ways to manage content.
As consumers become more comfortable with new digital media, hardware manufactures that can best balance traditional use-cases with new ones will be most able to profit from the growing class of digital media users.
“Today we see a growing class of consumers that are just beginning to watch Internet video or are getting their first PVR,” says research director Michael Wolf.
“This transition has them in search of better ways to manage this content cohesively. We believe that those device vendors and service providers that emphasize consumer experience while seamlessly integrating the worlds of old and new media will see the most success over time.”
Generational differences will impact the transition to new media consumption. Those generations that consume both old and new media will continue to use traditional formats while sampling more new ones. People who are between the ages of 30 to 34 are possibly the most prolific in their use of both old and new formats, ahead of other groups when it comes to the size of their DVD collections (53% have more than 40DVDs), the likelihood they use a DVR (43% own one), and if they purchase music online (24%).
“One of the trickle-down effects of these generational changes to new media consumption is the impact on storage requirements,” adds Wolf. “Hardware vendors will benefit from growing libraries of digital media as the average amount of storage required for digital photos doubles to 1.5 GB in 2012, while the average number of digital music tracks the average consumer has in his or her library will grow from 221 to 372 by 2012.”
