They’re killing off more than just digital cameras
It’s easy to see the growing demand for smartphones and tablets. It will come as no surprise that they are killing off other specialist consumer electronics (CE) products such as such as digital still cameras; camcorders; GPS (satnav) ;and media players. But figures put together by IHS show that global factory revenues for smartphones and tablets this year [2013] will become larger than revenues for the entire CE market. Obviously this is the first time this has ever occurred.
According to the Application Market Forecast Tool AMFT from IHS, OEM factory revenues for media and PC tablets and for 3G/4G mobile phones (a category dominated by smartphones) will amount to $354.3 billion in 2013.
This will be 3 per cent higher than the $344.4 billion for OEM factory revenue for the CE market.
CE is a broad category that includes hundreds of product types, including televisions, audio equipment, cameras and camcorders, video game consoles and home appliances.
To put this into perspective, the CE market historically has dwarfed the tablet and smartphone segment with CE 30 per cent larger just last year [2012].
“The fact that these two product categories are on their own able to generate more OEM factory revenue than the entire CE market illustrates the overwhelming popularity of smartphones and tablets,” observed Randy Lawson, senior principal analyst for semiconductors at IHS.
“Meanwhile, the CE market has gone flat, with many of the major product types experiencing either low growth or declines in revenue during the past six years,” he added.
Tablets and smartphones now serve as the ‘go-to’ devices for photography; navigation; MP3 playback; and now even fitness tracking.
The rise of the smartphone and tablet markets has been remarkable. OEM factory revenue expanded by a factor of nearly nine to $354.3 billion in 2013, up from $41.2 billion in 2007. Revenues this year will rise by a robust 31 percent.
Of the 20 distinct CE product segments tracked by IHS, 14 will suffer a decline in their compound annual growth rates (CAGR) from 2007 through 2013.
With LCD TV revenues starting to decline in 2014, the overall CE market is set for a long-term contraction as well. By the end of 2017, CE OEM factory revenue will slide to $327 billion, down 5 percent from the total in 2013.
Hans Cett is an established freelance author and consultant specialising in the mobile communications industry. He also writes for Countdown2MWC - http://countdown2mwc.wordpress.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment