Why Americans are buying more TVs

Even as Americans settle into the idea of parting with clunky cathode-ray tube televisions in favor of something with a crisper, more rectangular picture, new technology may prompt that next TV purchase sooner than they expect.

All Things D recently unveiled some data from Frank N. Magid Associates indicating that American consumers are more likely to buy a new television than they've been since 2002.

It also not only says they're buying more sets, but implies that the time it takes them to replace an old set is decreasing. Quartz asserts that set-top boxes like Apple (AAPL) TV, Roku, Boxee and even game consoles like Sony's (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox 360 should provide quick updates for aging televisions, but that hasn't made viewers hang on to their sets any longer. (Microsoft owns and publishes moneyNOW, an MSN Money site.)

Market research firm NPD DisplaySearch discovered that, in the last year, the average replacement cycle for a television has fallen from 8.4 years to 6.9 years. While much of that turnover still comes from households around the world replacing tube televisions with flatscreens, there's been a recent desire to upsize and upgrade current flatscreens as well.

"We are also observing mature markets, such as the U.S., the UK, and others, replacing their first-generation flat panel TVs," said Riddhi Patel, NPD DisplaySearch research director, in a release. "Overall, LCD TVs in the range of 32-44 inches are the most popular for planned purchases."

While 31% of households worldwide are planning to replace an existing TV, 22% are planning to add a new TV. The reasons why are as clear as the screens at the latest Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. NPD DisplaySearch is estimating that global television sales were down 6% last year from 2011 thanks largely to economic conditions. However, a march away from plasma television technology dropped sales of those TVs by an estimated 24% as buyers drifted toward newer offerings.

The problem is that for each new advance, there's a new television. LCD screens suddenly got "smart" and connected to the Internet without any help from peripheral boxes. Then they displayed three dimensions, but reduced 3D TV from the main event to just another feature. Then LCD screens were supposed to give way to screens using organic light emitting diodes (OLED). Now LCD screens are getting super high-definition with 4,000 horizontal pixels and four times the resolution of 1080p screens (All Things D has a great idiot's guide to these technological advancements here).

So while U.S. buyers may take the bait, the rest of the world seems willing to wait. NPD DisplaySearch projects that global TV sales to go flat in 2013. The world may be in a big hurry to ditch its squared-tube televisions, but it's less inclined to pay for more pixels.

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