US Consumer Electronics Industry revenues to Hit an All-Time High of $208 Billion in 2014

The US consumer electronics industry’s revenues will rise 2.4% this year to hit an all-time high of $208 billion, according to recent projections announced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show.

What’s driving this growth? Up-and-coming products—such as 3-D printers, Bluetooth wireless speakers, convertible PCs, health and fitness devices, smart watches and Ultra HD television displays—which CEA estimated would drive 65% of total industry revenue growth, despite representing just 3% of the sector overall. Revenues for these products as a whole are expected to come in at more than $6 billion this year.

Of course, the industry can still count on large contributions from “old” mobile standbys—that is, smartphones and tablets. Revenue gains have slowed, but device shipments are projected to continue on an upward trajectory. Smartphones should remain No. 1 in industry sales this year, with 152 million US shipments and $41 billion in revenues, a 4.6% year-over-year increase.

CEA predicted that US tablet shipments would reach 89.3 million in 2014. Revenues are expected to increase 3% to hit $27.3 billion.

As the US computing products and consumer electronics industry continues to put efforts behind new technologies, smartphones and tablets, eMarketer estimates that digital ad spending in the sector will grow 12.9% this year, hitting $3.65 billion and grabbing a 7.6% share of all digital ad investments. We expect this share to remain relatively constant through 2017, when total ad investments in the sector will reach $4.77 billion.

eMarketer defines the US computing products and consumer electronics industry to include the following: hardware (computers, computer storage devices and computer peripheral equipment); consumer electronics; prepackaged software (operating, utility and applications programs); local area network systems and network systems integration; computer processing; data preparation and data processing services.

Courtesy of eMarketer