The economy may be in the tank, but that's not stopping us from buying HDTVs, video games, smartphones and other electronic products, according to a survey of nearly 48,000 consumers in North America conducted by Forrester Research.
The study also found that the Internet is fast becoming the backbone for the electronic devices consumers in the U.S. and Canada are increasingly using outside their homes and offices.
"The Internet pervades all aspects of Americans' lives, from how we shop and buy, how we communicate, how we entertain ourselves, and how we seek out information to how we manage our personal relationships," said principal analyst Charles Golvin in a statement.
HDTVs and home networks were two of the fastest-growing consumer technologies in 2008, according to the survey. Ten million HDTV units were sold last year and Forrester predicts that nearly 39 million U.S. households will buy their first high-definition television during the next five years. Thirty million households will install home networks over that same time period, according to Forrester.
Four out of every five U.S. households now have a mobile phone and 8 percent of all consumers own a smartphone, according to the survey. Families with older children have nearly three mobile phones per household.
