A Technology for Fun October 18, 2007
Posted by author in : Consumer Electronics , add a commentttnet.net - [2006/01/24]
Market Snapshot
In US, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), consumer electronics goods will hit a record-high of $125.7 billon in 2005, marking an 11% growth over the $113.5 billion sold in 2004. The year-end total for 2004 would exceed previous prediction and enjoy an increase of 11% over 2003 annual sales. Boosted by strong demands from flat-panel, ultra-thin displays (LCD and plasma), digital television (DTV) were the biggest winner of 2004 with total sales of DTV products reaching $10.7 billion on 7.3 million units (+ 78% in dollar sales and +63% in unit sales.) MP3 players kept popular in end-users, doubling in sales in 2004 to over 6.9 million units and dollar sales nearly tripled in revenue to $1.2 billion and are expected to reach 10 million units and $1.7 billion sales in 2005. Wireless phone kept strong sales as the ones with built-in digital cameras were hot-selling in 2004 with 15% growth to reach 79.6 million units. Benefited from robust demands of digital storage, especially from digital cameras and MP3 players, flash cards enjoyed the largest growth at over 200% with more than $3 billion in product sold.
In Japan, the demand for digital video equipment like as LCD and plasma display panel television sets and DVD recorders, was particularly strong, pushing up the sales by 11.9% from 2003 to 99.2 billion yen. Shipments of LCD TVs nearly doubled to 256,000 units, and PDP TV shipments jumped 14.7% to 20,000 units. The shipments of DVD players and DVD recorders climbed 24.% to 445,000 units, with DVD recorders with built-in hard disk drives marking an 83.1% increase to 198,000 units. In February, the domestic shipments of consumer electronics in Japan grew 7.7% compared to 2004 to 168.9 billion yen (showing sustained growth for the 15th straight month), spurred by accelerating demands for digital video devices.
Trends Watch
DCR HDTV on the Rise
According to a recent survey conducted by CEA in US, 27% of adults show purchasing interest in buying HDTV (high-definition television) set within the next year- the highest percentage of purchase interest among the seven electronic devices tested. Nearly 50% of all consumers plan to buy a high-definition (HDTV) television set to replace their old television set. CEA predicts that three million digital cable-ready (DCR) HDTVs will be sold in 2005, more than one million sold in the second half of 2004, while DCR sets were debuted. The new DCR high-definition sets offer access to digital HDTV programming and other premium channels without a set-top box and supporting “plug-and-play” feature.
Digital Cameras, the Most Welcomed Electronic Gifts
According to the CEA, digital cameras are forecasted to soar 29% to US$31 billion in 2009. In 2005, digital camera players focus on 7 megapixel and 8 megapixel models, which will be mainstream models of point-and-shoot cameras by 2009. Currently, the household penetration will reach to 52% in 2005, growing 13% on sales. However, according a survey by IDC, many consumers have already their second digital cameras, which means the market is somewhat maturing earlier than expected. IDC predicts that digital cameras tend to keep as the biggest generator of digital images although the increasing population of camera phones. Prints from digital images are expected to exceed film prints in 2006, accounting for 71% of total worldwide prints by 2008.
MP3 Infected with iPod Fever
Debuted in late 1998, MP3 players have been ever loved by consumers as more and more features coming in. Being slim, lightweight and small is not enough. Now MP3 players should be embed with large capacity of HDDs for volume music and data storage and even better with viewable displays. Memory storage capacity and LCD-embedded feature determine the ranges of HDD MP3. The most successful example must be iPod, since Apple Computer Inc. first released the portable digital audio player in October 2001. Apple has successfully transformed itself into a $10 billion company again with its hot-selling iPod, which functions to play both music and video and some versions can store over 15,000 songs. The company recently announced to adjust their fiscal 2005 revenue model to incorporate iPod sales of 13.3 million units, up from 9.5 million in previously. And the sales of iPod will soar to 23.5 million units in 2006 since the gear has become quite the fashion accessory- widely popular in campuses.
