Thanks to LeAnne Baird and Gerry Pareja for prodding me to post this word. I was reluctant because this is not only an old word, but also a very slippery one. The second sense of the term -- the producer consumer -- was invented by Alvin Toffler back in 1979 in his book The Third Wave. The "professional consumer" sense of the word first emerged around 1987, and is now the most common sense.
Checking the citations for all senses on the complete Lexis-Nexis database of newspaper and magazine articles, an interesting pattern emerges:
1990 - 3 citations
1991 - 11
1992 - 10
1993 - 6
1994 - 24
1995 - 24
1996 - 61
1997 - 110
1998 - 146
1999 - 169
2000 - 186
2001 - 205
As you can see, the use of this word has increased quite steadily, particularly since 1995, which would be around the time when it became associated with the video equipment market. ("Prosumer" is a well-accepted category for camcorders, VCRs, and other video playthings.)
