New Products of the 1980s and 1990s: The Diffusion of Household Technology in the Decade 1985-1995

Abstract

The management of our households and the way we spend our leisure time has been greatly influenced by the introduction of various household technologies in the 1980s and 1990s. This paper compares the extent and rate of adoption of selected household products in Australian households. The diffusion of colour television sets, video cassette recorders, compact disc players, microwave ovens and personal computers into various types of households during the 1980s and 1990s was examined. This study found that different types of Australian households adopted new technology at different rates. The levels of ownership of various household technologies were highest for households with children. In general, one-adult households were slower to adopt new household technology when compared to other types of households. This paper speculates as to why one-person households are slower to purchase the latest in cooking and entertainment technology.Diffusion Rates, Household Technology, Logistic Curves, Household Types,

Class Struggle on the Homefront

“…23. Ironmonger et al (2000) study the rates of diffusion for five appliances: television, VCRs, microwaves, computers, and compact disc players, from 1985 to 1995. 24.…”

“…Ironmonger et al (2000) study the diffusion of household technologies in Australia and find that rates of technology diffusion, and more importantly for our purposes, the resulting changes in household labor, varied between single adults, couples, and adults with children. 23 In some cases, a new household appliance can lead to a small reduction in labor time; in other cases, the acquisition of a new household appliance can lead to an increase, or no net quantitative change in household labor performed.…”

‘What a funny looking video’: Using allegorical representations of technological change to reflect on future digital communication and design challenges

“…It is a hybrid technological period that is further hinted at when the son presents the VHS video to his mother who quips ‘naughty videos’ in a mock risqué tone suggestive of a familiarity, yet not complete comfort, with the technology. For context, by the end of 1985 only 28% of US households had a VCR (Takiff, 1986), and in a similar period in Australia, only 32.7% of households (Ironmonger et al, 2000). Home video remained largely an analogue process until DVDs eventually overtook it by the early 2000s (Silicon Valley Business Journal, 2002), finally completing the transition to digital.…”

Adopting and consuming innovations

“…Dickerson and Gentry, 1983). Others look at the effect of demographic attributes, such as age, marital status, occupation, income, home-ownership, household composition and geographic region on innovation adoption behaviour (Manning et al, 1995;Steenkamp et al, 1999;Ironmonger et al, 2000;Im et al, 2003). These analyses presume that consumers' lifestyles are ahistorical and relatively stable, treating them as behavioural expressions of personality (Holt, 1997).…”