Consumer Spending on the Rise: Benchmarking The Digital Lifestyle

Are consumers hesitant to break out their wallets?
Not according to our latest consumer spending findings from the ChangeWave Alliance. For the second survey in a row, we’re picking up a surprising rise in consumer spending going forward.

In contrast to the slowdown chatter on Wall Street, our latest survey has 41% of respondents reporting they’ll spend more over the next 90 days compared to a year ago, and only 21% saying they’ll spend less. That’s a net 6-point upswing since March 2007 – with the most positive changes occurred in households earning more than $100,000 per year.

Notably, we’ve picked up a solid uptick in spending on travel/vacation, with 45% saying they’ll spend more and just 20% less – up a full 8-points since our previous survey and considerably higher than a year ago.

The current survey was conducted April 25 – May 1, 2007, and a total of 2,010 members of the ChangeWave Alliance participated.

Benchmarking The Digital Lifestyle

With digital products dominating the consumer landscape, we queried respondents on their overall “digital lifestyle” spending habits – i.e. TV viewing, Internet, PCs, cell phones, etc.
A total of 6% estimate they’re spending more than $400 per month on their digital lifestyle habit, including services and subscription fees. And a whopping 37% say they spend from $200-$400 per month.

Currently, one of the biggest digital lifestyle spending waves is on Media Center devices for the home.

Home Media Center Devices

We define a Media Center as any high powered device capable of managing a variety of digital content in the living room and/or around the home – such as video, pictures, music, etc.
More than one-in-five respondents (22%) say they currently have a media center device in their home, and 5% plan to get one in the next 90 days. Nearly half of all owners (45%) say they now have a “Cable/Satellite Box with Media Center Functionality.” But looking at planned purchases for the next 90 days, it is PC-linked devices that are showing real momentum.

In terms of market share growth, the two leading media center categories of the future are:

• A PC with Media Center Software Connected to a TV (31%)
• A Dedicated Set-Top Box Linking a PC and a TV (18%)

Respondents also seem particularly interested in Microsoft’s (MSFT) new Windows Home Server software, with 4% saying they are Very Likely and 25% Somewhat Likely to buy the software (either by itself or pre-installed on a PC) when it becomes available later this year.

The new Apple (AAPL) TV set-top box also appears to have momentum – with 2% saying they are Very Likely and 8% Somewhat Likely to purchase one of these units in the next 90 days.

HD Television: A Super Bright Future for LCDs

Nearly nine-in-ten respondents (86%) say their next television is Likely to be an HD TV set – a 10-point jump since November 2006. But our biggest finding was the huge growth curve for LCD TVs.

Currently, one-in-three (35%) owners say their primary HD set is an LCD TV; however, LCDs have huge momentum going forward. Astonishingly, nearly two-thirds (65%) of those who plan to buy an HD TV set in the next year say they’ll get an LCD TV.

Plasma TV remains a distant second among both current owners and future buyers.

While the trends and devices of today’s digital lifestyle continue to hit our radar screen, we’re directly measuring their appeal by going to the 10,000 tech-savvy members of the ChangeWave Alliance. That’s the ChangeWave difference.

Stay tuned.

Note: This article was co-written by Jim Woods.

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This article summarizes the results of a recent ChangeWave Alliance survey. The Alliance is a research network of 10,000 business, technology and medical professionals who spend their everyday lives working on the front line of technological change. For more info on the ChangeWave Alliance, or if you are interested in joining, please click here.