| In
1984, |
for
the 1st time,
|
MRCA
Information Service's consumer purchase tracking service first
published the fact that, for the first time, more U.S. households owned
cats than dogs. This was a sign of greater urbanism and trends
toward
apartment and condominium living. It was a sign to marketers that
the
future lay more in miniature and under-the-cabinet kitchen appliances,
and less in tractor mowers. |
In
1991,
|
for
the 1st time, |
U.S.
investment in the tools of the information trade - computers and
communications gear - outpaced capital spending in the industrial
sector. By 1992, only one year after the two trend lines had crossed
for the first time, capital investment in information technology was
nearly $25 billion higher than traditional industrial capital
investment, and pulling ahead quickly. (David Kline, ”Market
Forces” HotWired 12/11/95, http://vip.hotwired.com/market/)
|
In
1990,
|
for
the 1st time, |
Americans
first made more visits to “alternative health providers” than
to conventional M.D.s. The next half-decade saw explosive growth
in
herbs, vitamins, and natural food stores. |
In
1995,
|
for
the 1st time, |
more
PCs were sold than television sets. This implied at the time that
the
“set-top box” for home delivery of interactive multimedia would be a
dead-end technology. However, the post-2004 growth of HDTV sets
may uncross this crossover. |
Around
2000,
|
for
the 1st time, |
more
salsa was sold in the
U.S. than ketchup.
|
In
the 2001 holiday period,
|
for
the 1st time, |
more
women than men shopped online. Women made up 58% of the 29 million
online shoppers in the Thanksgiving-Christmas weeks of the year,
according to the Pew Trust, making the mix of online shoppers nearly
identical to the mix of bricks&mortar shoppers. As most early
adopters of anything - including online shopping - are young males,
this crossover indicated a new maturity of the World Wide Web.
|
| In
2003, |
for
the 1st time, |
more
digital cameras were sold than film cameras. This was about five
years sooner than forecasters expected. Thus Kodak was described in the
press as "the troubled imaging company." |
In
May, 2003,
|
for
the 1st time, |
the
NPD Group reported that more laptop computers were sold in stores than
desktop computers. (Obviously this excludes online and b2b sales.) NPD
also told us that in the same month, for the first time, Liquid Crystal
Display monitors accounted for a majority of monitor sales in stores,
displacing cathode-ray tubes.
|
In
2004,
|
for
the 1st time, |
the
number of U.S. households with broadband access equals those using
dialup Internet access. |
In
2004,
|
for
the 1st time, |
the
opening weekend gross of a new video game exceeded the expected opening
weekend gross of a new major movie.
|
In
2004,
|
for
the 1st time, |
Amazon.com’s
home electronic sales volume exceeded its book sales (December).
|
In
2004,
|
for
the 1st time, |
sales
of servers based on Intel and AMD chips exceeded sales of UNIX servers
(Business Week, 2/14/05, p.81).
|
In
2006,
|
for
the 1st time, |
video
game sales will exceed music sales (PricewaterhouseCoopers prediction).
|
| In
2006, |
for
the 1st time, |
Exports
of Japanese pop culture items - video games, comic books, etc. -
exceeded Japanese automobile exports, according to National Public
Radio. So much for American dominance of worldwide pop
culture. Watch out Hollywood!
|
| In
2007, |
for
the 1st time, |
Chat,
discussion, and social networking web sites enjoyed more hits than
pornography sites, according to The
Economist.
|
| In
2007, |
for
the 1st time, |
Toyota
sold more cars than General Motors. This makes Toyota the world's
top auto maker by unit sales, a spot GM had held since 1931.
|
In
2007,
|
for
the 1st time, |
According
to Bill Gates, speaking at COMDEX, "Young people" are spending more
hours in front of their PCs than in front of their television sets.
|
| In
2007, |
for
the 1st time, |
According
to Wired, the majority of
human beings live in cities. |
In
2007
|
for
the 1st time, |
According
to Pew Research, the values and purchasing behavior of middle- and
upper middle-class African-Americans was more similar to those of white
Americans than to those of low-income Blacks.
|
| In
2008, |
for
the 1st time, |
the
U.S. overtook France as the world's leading wine-drinking
nation. Growth in U.S. consumption is driven by Australian
wines. (Business Week
prediction, Feb. 28, 2005, p.14) |
In
2009,
|
for
the 1st time, |
"debit
and prepaid-card spending in America on Visa is expected to overtake
purchases on its credit cards." (The
Economist, 5/23/09, p.79)
|
| In
2009, |
for
the 1st time, |
more
people worldwide used the Internet for social networking than for
email. Of course, the primary use of Internet continued to be "search." |
| In
2009, |
for
the 1st time, |
in
Brazil, more ethanol than
gasoline is used to fuel vehicles. (National Public Radio, USA)
|
In
2009,
|
presumably
not for the 1st time,
|
The
number of Americans agreeing with "Economic growth has priority even if
the environment suffers to some extent" surpassed the number agreeing
with "Protection of the environment should be given priority even at
the risk of curbing economic growth" (Gallup poll). The numbers came
close to crossing in late 2002, in the wake of the earlier economic
crash, indicating that citizens back away from environmental commitment
when the economy is difficult.
|
In
2010,
|
for
the 1st time, |
The
number of women holding jobs in the US workforce equals the number of
men employed. (Time, 10/26/09,
p.25)
|
In
2014,
|
for
the 1st time, |
the
amount of money invested in
defined-contribution pension plans will exceed the amount invested in
defined-benefit schemes. (The number of people enrolled in
defined-contribution schemes surpassed the number in traditional
defined-benefit plans in 1988.) The Economist, June 12, 2008, http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11529345.
|
In
2035,
|
for
the 1st time, |
the
number of Muslims in Great
Britain will exceed the number of Christians, according to a British
religious think-tank. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-564722/More-practising-Muslims-Christians-Britain-2035.html
|