"Crossovers"


These “crossovers” often signify important trends – in the cats/dogs case, that more households were becoming apartment-dwellers, with all that means for appliance sales and so on.

Here is a haphazard collection of crossovers.  Peruse them.  Imagine – and, if you will, exploit – the trends they imply.

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

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