LAS VEGAS — Digital technology not only just dominated the TV market last year, it literally ran away with it, according to the final units sale-to-dealers totals released here at International CES by the marketing services department of CEA.
The figures show that sales of digital TVs soared more than five-fold last year to nearly 21.6 million from the 4.2 million of 2005, while sales of analog TVs fell by almost half to 8.76 million. Digital models represented 71.1 percent of the record 30.4 million color TVs sold in 2006, up markedly from the 19.7 percent share held a year earlier.
In 2006 sales of other video products, analog VCR decks were the big loser, with volume off 44.4 percent to 758,800, the first time sales failed to top the million mark in more than 20 years; camcorder sales edged up 1.5 percent to 5.32 million, and shipments of DVD players rose 22.5 percent to 19.8 million. Sales of TV combinations (DVD and/or VCR) came in at just over 2 million. There is no comparable 2005 total.
