Consumer electronics spending projected at $22 billion for holidays
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Oct 15, 2007 at 2:40pm
Consumer electronics products dominate the holiday wish lists of adults and teens and will generate $48.1 billion in fourth quarter sales, according to research from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).
“Consumer electronics will be the shining star of holiday retail sales, accounting for 22 percent of all gifts given,” says CEA Economist Shawn DuBravac. “Two of the top 5 items on adults’ holiday wish lists are consumer electronics, and four of the top five items on the teen list are CE devices, so today’s hottest technologies will be on every holiday shopper’s mind. Holiday sales will be particularly jolly for the video game category (hardware and software), laptop computers and the endless array of accessories available for your favorite product.”
The top five wish list items for all adult survey respondents: computers, peace and happiness, big screen TV, clothes and money. Notably, the big screen TV moved up in the 2007 survey to number three from 11th in 2006. The teen list remained unchanged: clothes, MP3 player, video games, computer and cell phone.
“While overall holiday spending will increase, we found consumers are cutting back on decorations, home purchases and travel, but not gifts, especially electronics,” DuBarvac says. “The average CE gift giver will spend US$358 on those gifts this season.”
CEA forecasts $22.1 billion will be spent on holiday CE gifts this year, which represents 46 percent of total fourth quarter revenue for consumer electronics. Total fourth quarter sales will reach $48.1 billion—a seven percent increase from $44.8 billion in 2006.
The survey also tracked specific consumer electronics consumers hope to receive. The top five CE gifts adults wish for are MP3 players, notebook/laptops, video game systems, digital cameras and any type of TV. For teens, MP3 players, digital cameras, notebook/laptops, computers and any type of TV round out the top five items on their wish list.
Leading the “planned gift” list this year—a list of the CE products respondents intend to purchase for someone else—are video game systems, additional memory for cameras, MP3 players, DVD players and digital cameras.
“Both lists demonstrate strong industry trends; consumers want to connect with others, create additional content, be more flexible and enhance the products they already have,” says DuBravac. “Many households today desire greater portability and are replacing desktops with laptops. These laptops can do more than they could a few years ago, facilitating content creation. Video games and other devices are incorporating social networking applications and user interfaces, connecting like-minded consumers around the world. And accessories are enenhancing all of these products, making the user experience better than ever.”
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
