International trade of consumer electrogoods and consumer electronics. The largest producers and exporters of consumer electronics

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 496.

Un-sought consumer goods

Un-sought goods are such goods which neither belong to the necessity group of consumer goods list nor to specialty goods. These are the kind of goods which are available in the market all the time but are purchased by very few consumers, either based on their interest or their need for some specific reasons. The general public does not purchase such goods often.

Examples are snowshoes, fire extinguishers, etc.

Consumer electronics (abbreviated CE) are electronic equipment intended for everyday use, most often in entertainment, communications and officeproductivity. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver. Later products includepersonal computers, telephones, MP3 players, audio equipment, televisions, calculators, GPS automotive electronics,digital sphygmomanometers, digital Glucose meters, digital cameras and players and recorders using video media such as DVDs, VCRs or camcorders. Increasingly these products have become based on digital technologies, and have largely merged with the computer industry in what is increasingly referred to as theconsumerization of information technology such as those invented by Apple Inc. and MIT Media Lab.

The latest consumer electronics are previewed yearly at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, at which many industry pioneers speak.

One overriding characteristic of consumer electronic products is the trend of ever-falling prices. This is driven by gains in manufacturing efficiency and automation, lower labor costs as manufacturing has moved to lower-wage countries, and improvements in semiconductor design. Semiconductor components benefit from Moore's Law, an observed principle which states that, for a given price, semiconductor functionality doubles every two years.

While consumer electronics continues in its trend of convergence, combining elements of many products, consumers face different decisions when purchasing. There is an ever increasing need to keep product information updated and comparable, for the consumer to make an informed choice. Style, price, specification and performance are all relevant. There is a gradual shift towards e-commerce web-storefronts.

Many products include Internet connectivity using technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Ethernet. Products not traditionally associated with computer use (such as TVs or Hi-Fi equipment) now provide options to connect to the Internet or to a computer using a home network to provide access to digital content. The desire for High definition (HD) content has led the industry to develop a number of technologies, such as WirelessHD or ITU-T G.hn, which are optimized for distribution of HD content between CE devices in a home.

In 2001, 125 million personal computers were shipped in comparison to 48 thousand in 1977. More than 500 million personal computers were in use in 2002 and one billion personal computers had been sold worldwide from the mid-1970s up to this time. Of the latter figure, 75 percent were professional or work related, while the rest were sold for personal or home use. About 81.5 percent of personal computers shipped had been desktop computers, 16.4 percent laptops and 2.1 percent servers. The United States had received 38.8 percent (394 million) of the computers shipped, Europe 25 percent and 11.7 percent had gone to the Asia-Pacific region, the fastest-growing market as of 2002. The second billion was expected to be sold by 2008. Almost half of all the households in Western Europe had a personal computer and a computer could be found in 40 percent of homes in United Kingdom, compared with only 13 percent in 1985.

The global personal computer shipments were 350.9 million units in 2010, 308.3 million units in 2009 and 302.2 million units in 2008. The shipments were 264 million units in the year 2007, according to iSuppli, up 11.2 percent from 239 million in 2006. In 2004, the global shipments were 183 million units, an 11.6 percent increase over 2003. In 2003, 152.6 million computers were shipped, at an estimated value of $175 billion. In 2002, 136.7 million PCs were shipped, at an estimated value of $175 billion. In 2000, 140.2 million personal computers were shipped, at an estimated value of $226 billion. Worldwide shipments of personal computers surpassed the 100-million mark in 1999, growing to 113.5 million units from 93.3 million units in 1998. In 1999, Asia had 14.1 million units shipped.

For 2011, global PC shipments are expected to reach 364 million units, a 3.8% growth comparing to 2010.

As of June 2008, the number of personal computers in use worldwide hit one billion, while another billion is expected to be reached by 2014. Mature markets like the United States, Western Europe and Japan accounted for 58 percent of the worldwide installed PCs. The emerging markets were expected to double their installed PCs by 2012 and to take 70 percent of the second billion PCs. About 180 million computers (16 percent of the existing installed base) were expected to be replaced and 35 million to be dumped into landfill in 2008. The whole installed base grew 12 percent annually.

Based on IDC data for Q2 2011, for the first time China surpassed US in PC shipments by 18.5 million and 17.7 million respectively. It is reflects the rising of emerging markets as well as the relative stagnation of mature regions.

In the developed world, there has been a vendor tradition to keep adding functions to maintain high prices of personal computers. However, since the introduction of the One Laptop per Child foundation and its low-cost XO-1 laptop, the computing industry started to pursue the price too. Although introduced only one year earlier, there were 14 million netbooks sold in 2008. Besides the regular computer manufacturers, companies making especially rugged versions of computers have sprung up, offering alternatives for people operating their machines in extreme weather or environments.

Deloitte consulting firm predicted that in 2011, smartphones and tablet computers as computing devices would surpass the PCs sales. As of 2013 worldwide sales of PCs had begun to fall slightly as many consumers moved to tablets and smartphones for gifts and personal use. Sales of 90.3 million units in the 4th quarter of 2012 represented a 4.9% decline from sales in the 4th quarter of 2011.

Selling prices of personal computers, unlike other consumer commodities, steadily declined due to lower costs of production and manufacture. Capabilities of the computers also increased. In 1975, an Altair kit sold for only around US $400, but required customers to solder components into circuit boards; peripherals required to interact with the system in alphanumeric form instead of blinking lights would add another $2000, and the resultant system was only of use to hobbyists.

At their introduction in 1981, the US $1,795 price of the Osborne 1 and its competitor Kaypro was considered an attractive price point; these systems had text-only displays and only floppy disks for storage. By 1982, Michael Dell observed that a personal computer system selling at retail for about $3,000 US was made of components that cost the dealer about $600; typical gross margin on a computer unit was around $1,000. The total value of personal computer purchases in the US in 1983 was about $4 billion, comparable to total sales of pet food. By late 1998, the average selling price of personal computer systems in the United States had dropped below $1000.

For Microsoft Windows systems, the average selling price (ASP) showed a decline in 2008/2009, possibly due to low-cost netbooks, drawing $569 for desktop computers and $689 for laptops at U.S. retail in August 2008. In 2009, ASP had further fallen to $533 for desktops and to $602 for notebooks by January and to $540 and $560 in February. According to research firm NPD, the average selling price of all Windows portable PCs has fallen from $659 in October 2008 to $519 in October 2009

Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome (black-and-white) or colored, with or without accompanying sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming, or television transmission.

The etymology of the word has a mixed Latin and Greek origin, meaning "far sight": Greek tele (τῆλε), far, and Latin visio, sight (from video, vis- to see, or to view in the first person).

North American consumers purchase a new television every seven years, and the average household owns 2.8 televisions. As of 2011, 48 million are sold each year, at an average price of $460 and size of 38 inches.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Korean: 삼성전자) is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Suwon, South Korea. It is the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group and has been the world's largest information technology company by revenues since 2009. Samsung Electronics has assembly plants and sales networks in 61 countries and employs around 221,000 people.

Samsung Electronics is the world's largest mobile phone maker by 2011 unit sales and world's second-largest semiconductor chip maker by 2011 revenues (after Intel Corporation). It has been the world's largest television manufacturer since 2006 and the world's largest maker of LCD panels for eight consecutive years. It has the largest marketshare worldwide in memory chips. The company is the world's largest vendor of smartphonessince 2011. Samsung has also established a prominent position in the tablet computer market, with the release of the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab.