Analysts predict that US consumer electronics revenue in 2011 will increase to 5.6% posting a record high of $190 billion.
US consumer electronics revenue is expected to rise to record levels as smartphone and tablet sales gain significant numbers. According to a forecast from the US trade group Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the revenue will rise up 5.6% with a total of $190 billion.
The increase in sales has been due to products such as the iPad – which alone had sales near to 8 million worldwide in the past 3 months, and 4.7 million in the three months before that. Other competitors such as Samsung sold 26.5 million together – reaching $14 billion in total. Smartphone sales are expected to rise by 45% to $23 billion, $9 billion more than tablets. A small segment of the market has also been recently created by devices such as e-readers, which will amount to almost $1.8 billion.
“One year ago, tablets were a new and unproven market. Now they, along with other mobile connected devices including smartphones and e-readers, are leading the entire industry to positive growth,” commented Steve Koenig, group director of Industry Analysis.
However, not all is well; growth has been slowing down in the consumer electronics market. The revenue growth had been at 5.6% – more than twice as much as the US GDP growth – and is now expected to slow down to 2.4% for 2011. The growth peaked at 6% in 2010 and has been slowing down ever since. Analysts believe that this is due to the falling prices of these devices.
Koenig added that while sales in smartphones and tablets have been rising, other consumer electronics such as televisions have been decreasing. A study found out that 88% of the American households own at least one digital TV, so television sales are expected to decrease due to this high rate. TV sets are expected to generate $18 billion revenue this year.
Digital TVs are growing in number as more people watch channels through the internet; analysts estimate sales to reach 10.4 million this year. 3D TVs are expected to gain popularity, despite slow adoption this year, with 3.6 million sales in 2011 from 1.9 last year.
As Apple has released its quarterly results with numbers surpassing expectations, one can judge that the industry is still growing by leaps and bounds and will continue to expand in the coming year.
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