Internet Tipping Point*: In 2006, the number of Netflix subscribers to its DVDs-by-mail service surpassed, for the first time, the number of TiVo subscribers. At the end of 2005, both had about the same number of subscribers (over 4 million), but by the end of 2006, Netflix had 6.3 million subscribers vs. TiVo’s 4.4 million.

In 2010, the number of Netflix subscribers to its new streaming video service surpassed the number of TiVo subscribers. Netflix had 7.7 million new subscribers in 2010 with more than a third opting for pure streaming subscription (introduced in November 2009) vs. TiVo’s 2.2 million subscribers at the end of 2010. At current growth rates, the number of subscribers to Netflix pure streaming service will surpass in 2012 (and possibly by the end of this year) the number of subscribers to its DVD-by-mail service, marking the shift to online video, away from physical devices and distribution.

*Note the new category of Internet Tipping Point which is different from Digital Tipping Point of which I wrote before, for example, here and here.  The former is about online (over the Internet and the Web) vs. digital, the latter about digital vs. analog.