Gartner: Compulsory connectivity is the trend in consumer electronics

Gartner has predicted that global mobile devices — other than smartphones with a mobile data plan — per household will increase by more than eight percent annually through 2016 while 60 million Wi-Fi-only devices (mostly tablets) per year will be added to the household around the world. Gartner says the take rates of other video-specific Internet-connectible devices, such as TVs, set-top boxes, digital video recorders (DVRs), video players, game consoles and cameras, will also grow as manufacturers progressively make connectivity a default feature in most devices. “Until three or four years ago, consumers primarily accessed the Internet through PCs and laptops but at the beginning of 2013, the picture is very different,” said Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Consumers use multiple screens to perform various activities that require both fixed and mobile Internet connectivity, from watching and sharing videos and photos, to playing games, to accessing social networks, to banking and paying bills online. Consumers are screen-agnostic — they will use whichever screen is convenient, as long as it is ‘connected.’” “There are almost 10 potentially Internet-enabled devices in the home today and while consumers primarily use the home network to share and view video content, the home network also enables other applications, such as home protection, monitoring a...