31.08.2017

Consumer Electronics: Still under pressure

With a value of €185m and 870,000 units sold, the CE market did not manage to exceed last year’s performance.

The positive result of the television market in 2016, thanks to UEFA EURO 2016 in France, could not be continued, ending this quarter with a 30% drop in value. 

Even though the PTV market is decreasing at the speed of light, the average price is steady thanks to growing sales of bigger screens. The further development of the Oled market, which has managed to pass the introduction phase and almost doubled in value, also contributes to these stabilised prices. 

One of the few categories that grew, is the Audio Home System category, which has managed to end this quarter by +4% increase in value. The Smart Audio products, which are very popular with the Belgian consumers, drive this positive evolution (+13% in value). For the future, we are having even bigger expectations for this product group with the upcoming Smart Audio Systems such as Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple Homepod. Those are Smart Audio Systems with an integrated assistant who will not only play your favorite music by voice command, but will also control your lights, get weather information, assist you in the kitchen… Unfortunately, they are (still) not able to predict the future…. 

The loose elements are keeping it together and manage to keep their market share, thanks to the excellent performance of the tuners (+30% in value). The approaching FM switch off is playing a big role here, boosting the sales of DAB+ tuners. Let’s get digital!

Chris Renders – Consultant Consumer Electronics & Telecom 

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