More than half of the American household or 56% have High Definition television sets. Unit sales and profitability of HD business has seen to thrive well in the entertainment technology industry. This was brought about by the quick consumer adoptability and it has becoming standard for product inclusion. However, true HD viewing still is lagging versus the olden and standard definition television.

Nielsen has recently released statistics from their extensive study showing that the “true” HD viewing is just at 13% of total cable day viewing and 19% on broadcast television. “True” HD, according to the market research company is defined as HD viewing in an HD television with HD tuner and tuned into an HD channel. To cut the chase short, despite the growing sales and billions of dollars spent by the Americans in HD television purchase, 80% are still relying on standard television viewing.

Nielsen tallied the reason behind this lag in consumption and here are the reasons they have gathered:

• The remaining 44% has not purchased any HD sets or an HD service
• The co-existence of HD television sets and standard television sets in one household is common. Those with HD television would still turn to standard viewing 1/3 of the time.

Not mentioned in the study, but has been very prevalent nowadays is the fact that the mobile phone industry has adopting the HD features. This is evident in several Smartphone that are already HD. Moreover, mobile applications in both gaming and entertainment are releasing HD versions consistently.

So while the behavior around HD isn’t telling a complete story, it’s certainly showing its face.  Ongoing inclusion in various devices will undoubtedly have an effect on overall HD content consumption, but it’s always interesting to see things from the manufacturer’s perspective, compared to actual consumer behavior.  Now, what to do with those 3D television sets?