Driven by emerging markets.
According to the latest research from Euromonitor, consumer electronics sales will grow by 4.4% in the next five years, reaching $699.8 billion by 2022. Emerging markets such as China and India will lead this growth, driven by a fast-growing middle class and their growing income.
Euromonitor head of consumer electronics, Wee Teck Loo said, “As businesses move towards digitalisation, this will further boost sales of connected devices over the forecast period. Blending of online and offline shopping experiences such as unmanned retail stores, use of augmented reality and virtual reality to engage with brands and a shift towards a cashless shopping experience through mobile devices will only seek to further cement the central role of smartphones in the Internet of Things (IoT) and expand its use case with today’s digital consumers.”
Wearables represent the fastest-growing electronics category, recording 164% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) to reach US$19 billion in 2017, up from US$145 million in 2012.
“A new trend ‘chic over geek’ is shaping the wearable market and offering new opportunities to fashion companies, as wearables shift from tech to fashion driven. Within this market, activity wearables (analogue) will be the fastest growing category. Consumers will be buying activity wearables as a fashion statement, rather than to just track the number of steps walked or calories burned. Sales of activity watches (analogue) are poised to be particularly fast, at 20% CAGR in value terms over the forecast period.”
The US is the largest wearable electronics market, followed by China, the UK, Germany and Japan, with Australia in sixth position.