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The global consumer electronics market is projected to reach US$ 2,976.1 billion by 2020, according to a latest report by Future Market Insights (FMI) titled ‘Consumer Electronics Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 – 2020’. As mentioned in this particular report, the global consumer electronics market valued at US$1,224.8 billion in 2014 is expected to reach the aforesaid billion reflecting a strong Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.4 percent during the forecast period between 2015 to 2020.
The UAE electronics market is racing with the same intensity and, in fact, the market scenario in the entire GCC region is no different. According to experts, major citable reasons for the exponential growth of electronics are increasing disposable incomes, expanding middle class population and growing internet penetration rate.
Citing Dubai Expo as a mjaor reason for this growth, Yong Geun Choi, President of LG Electronics Gulf FZE, said during the launch of LG’s latest showroom in Dubai, “The opportunities in the GCC are tremendous and this lucrative market mirrors robust potential for brands globally. Following Dubai’s successful EXPO 2020 bid, the UAE is now at the epicenter of a global retail
revolution. In the run-up to EXPO 2020, the next few years will see substantial investments in the booming retail electronics
industry.â€
FMI has segmented global consumer electronics market into — consumer electronic devices, wearable devices and smart home devices — out of which, as per the report, the smart home devices segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR over the forecast period — 2015-2020. If we go further into the segments of this huge industry, the smartphone sub-segment has been dominating the market and it accounted for over 30 percent market share in 2014, followed by personal computer with over 15 percent share of global consumer electronics market — the same segment is projected to be the fastest growing sub-segment during the mentioned period.
Furthermore, region-wise, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) enjoys the biggest pie of share in sales and profits and is
expected to remain dominant till the end of 2020. The report says that the growth rate for this particular segment will remain consistent with 17.5 percent CAGR during the forecast period between 2015 and 2020.
Business Monitor International’s research report titled ‘United Arab Emirates Consumer Electronics Report Forecast’ states that the UAE consumer electronics segment will continue to benefit from high business confidence levels in the local economy and the strong private consumption in 2015. The UAE will remain one of the leading consumer electronics market in the MENA region, with the highest rate of household consumption expenditure
per capita. Among all, the UAE’s consumer electronics devices market, that encompasses computing devices, mobile handsets and video, audio and gaming products, is estimated to reach a value of US$4.7 billion by 2016 according to BMI forecast, driven by the popularity of new electronic devices such as LED and 3G TV sets, 3G mobile handsets, smart-phones, feature-rich notebooks, MP3/MP4 players and blu-ray
players.
The same research states that the CAGR for sales of computer hardware over 2012-2016 is expected to continue at about 6 percent for which stronger demand in the notebook sector is the main driver. The sale of computers, it says which was US$2.07 billion in 2015 will reach US$2.15 billion in 2019 at a CAGR of 0.7 percent.
On additional note, the BMI research also points out that the UAE audio video (AV) device market, which was valued at US$1.3 billion in 2012, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5 percent between 2012 and 2016 to reach US$1.6 billion by the end of the forecast period. The AV segment which was US$847 million in 2015 is expected to reach US$901 million in 2019 at a CAGR of 0.5 percent.
Another segment of handset sales, as per this report, which was US$1.58 billion in 2015 will touch US$1.82 billion in 2019 at a CAGR of 2.8 percent. The report also highlights that the handset market is predicted to outperform over the medium term, with high level of premium smart-phone demand set to support the market, helping to counter the slowdown in unit sales and price loss in the mass market.
Smart-watches are other consumer electronic products that made waves in the market last year. The estimates say that more growth is expected out of this segment in 2016. The wearable market’s total shipment volume for third quarter of 2015 was amounted to 21.0 million units.
The figures are particularly interesting because they are up 197.6 percent from the 7.1 million units shipped in the same period in 2014. This is driven by a variety of devices, experiences and price points on offer. Samsung has been a champion of wearable tech, racking up the most patents in this category the world. Between 2003 and 2014, the company filed 64,502 patents.
