According to a report from ABI Research, Best Buy is planning to set up displays in store to showcase devices connected to the Internet (TV’s, Set-top boxes and blue ray players). The hope is that with a bit of education, consumer adoption will get a push, lighting sales in all areas of Internet driven electronics. According to ABI, Internet connected living room devices are expected to become a mainstream feature in 2013, with 19% of all flat panels shipping this year to showcase Ethernet. Of course, we’ve all been to Best Buy displays where they don’t work or the sales staff knows less about the features then today’s educated consumer, but what will all this mean to marketers?
As the hardware evolves, so will the software and the business models that push content through those new applications. You can imagine a world in the near future where televisions last longer because the renewed focus on hardware and CPU capabilities pushes for an improvement on overall system performance.  In these scenarios, you really will be asking, what’s the chip inside? And an entire generation of people will grow up with never experiencing the separation of broadband from broadcast. Continue reading “Connected devices get some Best Buy love”
