The consumer electronics industry in the US is suffering from a time of transition, at least according to a new study that was released today on the eve of CES 2012. USA Today reports that according to the study by the NPD Group, reveneus from electronic product sales totaled $9.5 billion for the five weeks that ended on December 24.
That number is a 5.9 percent decline compared to holiday sales in the US in 2010. The silver lining is that those numbers are slightly better than the 6.2 percent decline that the sector suffered in 2010.
What happened? Products that use older technology such as DVD players, stand alone GPS devices and MP3 media players saw a big drop in sales during the holiday season. NPD's Steven Baker said the decline in sales of those products "put a ceiling on how well the industry could perform during the holiday." The Washington Post reports that camcorder sales also dropped 43 percent.
The good news? AllThingsD.com reports that the NPD Group's study didn't include sales of items such as cell phones, tablets, video games and eReaders. It's more that possible that increased sales of smartphones have helped to cut down on sales of things like stand alone camcorders, MP3 players and more.
3 Comments - Add comment