IHS: Consumer Electronics Market Awaiting Innovative Products to Take Off

EL SEGUNDO: IHS is forecasting that the worldwide consumer electronics (CE) market will contract this year, as it waits for new innovative products, such as ultra-high-definition TVs, to catch on.

IHS predicts that worldwide CE manufacturing revenue will fall to $250 billion in 2014, down 2 percent from 2013's $255.7 billion. This is based on data from the IHS Internet-Enabled Consumer Electronics Market Tracker. 2014 would mark the fourth consecutive year of decline for the CE market.

The firm says that the CE market is under increasing pressure from wireless devices (smartphones and tablets, namely), which consumers are purchasing instead of traditional CE devices.

However, there are new products on the horizon, including UHD televisions and wearable technology devices, that are bound to catch fire with consumers. IHS predicts 38.5 million UHD LCD TV sets will ship in 2018, up from 1.5 million in 2015. Shipments will surge more than 500 percent to reach 10 million in 2014. However, UHD sets will still have a ways to go before they get a major share of the overall market. By 2014, UHD will still only account for about 16 percent of all LCD TV shipments.

The global market shipments for wearable devices for infotainment applications is forecast to grow from 51.2 million units in 2013 to 130.7 million in 2018.

“While exciting new technologies such as UHD and wearable devices are being shown at CES, it will take a few years until these products attain enough of a volume to drive the growth of the overall CE market,” said Jordan Selburn, senior principal analyst for consumer devices at IHS. “Until these products enter the mainstream, traditional CE revenue will continue to dwindle.”