I think there is a substantial portion of the population (okay, it's older people) who are still going to want HD quality video on their massive family room TVs. Where all of the ABR stuff comes into play is in delivering video to mobile devices and PCs, which is where the younger crowd of consumers is headed, whether we like it or not.  ISPs  and mobile wireless companies need a way to keep those video streams from swamping their networks, and this is one part of a solution.

Strange trends: (1) Consumers have been convinced to purchase HD TVs to be able to watch their beloved content in full HD experiences. (2) Content delivery is increasingly moving towards HTTP, with Netlfix consuming 20%+ of peak traffic, and catch-up/time-shifted TV viewing becoming increasingly prevalent.

Outcome? Adaptive bit-rate streaming technology to optimize all this growing HTTP traffic will be delivering "near HD" quality and "acceptable" experiences to consumers.  But not true HD quality for which their sets are built.

So why purchase all these HD TV sets?  At any rate, many consumers have not subscribed to HD services despite having the HD TV, and are "trimming" their HD cords.

 But this begs the question of why TV manufacturers should see ABR technology as an enabler of HD screen sales.