Consumer Electronic Sales to Hit $1 Trillion in 2012

Sales of consumer electronics (CE) are forecast surpass $200 billion in overall revenues in the U.S. during 2012, up 3.7% over last year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). Worldwide this figure is expected to top $1 trillion.


Tablet computers are the fastest growing category in CE history and will continue to see strong growth in 2012 with a projected 37.6 million units being shipped, an increase of 28 percent, resulting in $18.3 billion in revenue.


Smartphones will continue to be the primary revenue driver for the industry. Smartphone unit sales will increase 24 percent in 2012 with 108.8 million units projected to ship, resulting in $33.7 billion in revenue.


Laptop sales continue to rise as unit sales will increase to 23.5 million units accounting for $15.2 billion in revenue in 2012.


"Sales of mobile connected devices continue to drive the overall industry to historic highs," said Steve Koenig, CEA’s director of industry analysis. "A raft of innovative products hit the market late in 2011, and, as we’re seeing here at the 2012 International CES, many more devices will be introduced in the months ahead. Technologies that may have seemed cutting-edge in the past are now an integral part of consumers’ everyday lives."http://www.cesweb.org