Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Americans Are Now 'Early Adopters' as High Tech Hits Mainstream

by Leila Brillson on September 6, 2009 at 03:17 PM


Anyone who has even walked passed a 'Marketing 101' class would know the term 'early adopter.' Whether wealthy or just hungry for the new, those in this segment of the market pushed ahead for new technology while other consumers were happy with what they had, until they were forced to change.

Yet, that game itself is changing, says market analyst group Forrester Research. According to the New York Times, the firm released a study Wednesday suggesting that early adopter technology, like high-speed Internet or HDTV, has infiltrated the majority of U.S. households. The study reports that, out of the 53,668 families surveyed, half of all Americans are gamers, three-quarters of the population have cell phones and PCs, and over half have a broadband connection. "There's really no group out of the tech loop," analyst and co-author of the study Jacqueline Anderson told the Times.

The digitization of America is increasing, as people turn to phones and external devices to surf the Web, use gadgetry to record, and drift away from home phones. The New York Times cites these trends as evidence that Americans have become gadget geeks, but there may be another answer: These technologies -- from HDTV to MP3 players -- have now become the norm, or the mainstream. The cutting-edge set might still exist on the periphery -- leading high-speed, fully integrated lives thanks to technology that regular folks haven't yet encountered (but upon which they will eventually rely). Who knows... are there any early adopters around here who can tell us what's next? [From: NYTimes.com]

Tags: consumer, cutting-edge, early adopter, EarlyAdopter, progress, research, technology, top

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular