Demand for Digital Skyrockets: US Census Bureau
Americans are going digital in more ways than one. In a release, the U.S. Census Bureau's Statistical said that not only are people purchasing consumer electronics transitioning from analog to digital format, they're also buying products digitally.
According to the Bureau, Factory sales of MP3 players will rise from $424 million in 2003 to nearly $6 billion in 2007. Additionally, sales of digital television sets and monitors for the same period are estimated to increase from $8.7 billion to $26.3 billion.
Products are not the only things going digital -- the process for acquiring them is as well. Of the $3.7 trillion in retail sales in 2005, $93 billion, or 2.5 percent, were recorded as e-commerce sales.
In 2005, electronic shopping and mail-order houses accounted for 70 percent ($65 billion) of e-commerce sales, most notably from computer hardware (14 percent), clothing (12 percent), and drugs and beauty aids (10 percent). Motor vehicle and parts dealers made up another 18 percent of e-commerce sales.
Between 2004 and 2005, Internet publishing and broadcasting operating revenue increased by 19 percent. Revenue from online advertising space increased by 29 percent. Meanwhile, the number of daily newspapers continued to decline, from 1,611 in 1990 to 1,437 in 2006. Circulation fell from 62.3 million subscribers to 52.3 million.
