Global Consumer Electronics Market: An Overview

The consumer electronic market is witnessing a host of growth factors marking its landscape, promising it a positive outlook over the forecast period of 2014 to 2022, notes Transparency Market Research. Factors such as increasing disposable income, technological advancement and keen focus on innovation are some of the few noteworthy ones. 4G, 3G emergence has driven demand for smart phones, laptops and so.

It is pertinent to note here that over the past some years, notable evolution in the industry has been observed and one of the major foundations for the growth and development has been technological advancement in general and advancement in Internet of Things (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Some of the developments, growth factors that are significantly impacting the trajectory of global consumer electronics market are:

Phablets – large screen devices – are witnessing a massive surge in demand in the market and this is set to provide significant growth opportunities to market players. Internet of Things is playing a crucial role here by pushing adoption rate of smart devices across the globe. This is particularly true of wearable electronics such as fitness bracelets. This is set to contribute positively and significantly towards growth in the global consumer electronics market over the forecast period.

Mergers and acquisition form key growth strategy for a number of players aiming at a larger chunk of revenue over the period. It is quite interesting to note here that in the year 2010, Apple acquired Intrinsity. The latter is a semiconductor company. Contract manufacturing is also finding way in the market landscape with top players like HP, Dell, Apple opting for it. This allows these players to focus more on core competency and concentrate on sales and design instead of producing products. This is paving way for further innovation, promising a positive outlook to the global consumer electronics market.

Consumer electronics cover all the electronic devices most often used for entertainment communications and office work. Smartphones, personal computers, tablets, laptops, notebooks, radios, digital cameras, televisions, MP3 players, audio equipment, calculators, camcorders and personal care devices and gaming consoles are some of the major consumer electronics devices.

Consumer electronics products are evolving rapidly to meet the changing requirements of the consumers. Increasing disposable income, decreasing prices of consumer electronic devices and introduction of technological advanced devices are the primary factors driving growth of the consumer electronics market globally. Introduction of connected devices and innovative mobile technologies which enable it to interact with other devices is fuelling the adoption of recent consumer electronic devices globally.

The global consumer electronics market is classified on the basis of product type as televisions, handheld devices including mobile phones, tablet PCs, personal digital assistants, calculators personal computers including laptops and desktops, cameras and camcorders, audio/video devices including portable MP3 players, music systems, accessories, personal care products including shavers and hair dryers, and gaming consoles. The handheld device segment account for majority of share in the terms of revenue in total consumer electronics market and is expected to continue dominating the market throughout the forecast period. Smartphones with enhanced features are displacing the need for other consumer electronics products such as standstill cameras, laptops, MP3 audio players, wristwatches, alarm clocks, gaming devices, and landlines and GPS navigators among others.

Therefore, the market has observed decline in the revenue of personal computer, laptop and camera and camcorders segment. The audio/video device segment is anticipated to be the fastest growing product segment over the forecast period. Introduction of wireless audio devices and its decreasing price is cementing the growth of the market in this region. With increasing competition, the prices are further anticipated to decrease which would helped trend to continue during the forecast period. On the basis of end-use application the market for consumer electronics is categorized as residential/personal applications and commercial applications.

The residential segment is the largest end-use application segment. Increasing demand for smartphones and tablets by an individual is the key factor driving the growth of consumer electronics market in the residential end-use application segment. The commercial application segment is anticipated to driven by increasing demand for display screens, advertisements and big-sized televisions in the commercial sectors.

The consumer electronics market is highly competitive with major players witnessing cut-throat competition across most of the segments covered under the scope of the market. In order to sustain in the competitive environment, market players are offering low cost consumer electronics products in price sensitive regions such as Asia Pacific and MEA. Increasing sales of companies such as Xiaomi, Inc. and Micromax elucidates the winning strategy adopted by them in the emerging regions. The growth in the North America is mainly fueled by technological advanced products which are driving consumers to replace the old products with the latest ones.

Major players in the Consumer Electronics Market include Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, Sony Corporation, LG Corporation, Apple, Inc, Canon, Inc, Nikon Corporation, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Panasonic Corporation, Dell, Inc, and Hewlett-Packard Company. Continuous focus on research and development, short turnaround product upgrade cycles, focus on emerging economies, expansion through mergers, multichannel retailing, innovations and horizontal integration are few of the strategies adopted by leading players in the consumer electronics market.