European researcher EITO says that consumer electronics will grow 3.1% in the EU in 2010 on the back of strong TV sales, the world cup and digital switch over, to become a $64.5 billion market. All European markets are meant to switch off analog TV services by or during 2012.
The forecast came from the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO) based on data from the market research firm GfK and it sees strength regionally in Italy and Germany, while France and Spain have just stopped growing and the UK is in free fall.
‘The reason for the strong growth is the surprisingly strong increase in the sales of flat screen televisions before the Football World Cup’, said EITO President Bruno Lamborghini. Half of consumer electronics sales Europe-wide can be traced back to LCD devices and plasma televisions. In the EU, more flat screen televisions are being sold than ever before, with around 61.5 million devices up 25% in 2010 bringing in revenue up 13% to €32 billion.
‘In order to receive broadcasts digitally and in high resolution, customers require a set-top box’, said Lamborghini. In France, Italy and Great Britain, sales for these devices are seeing growth rates of up to 85%. Blu-ray players, digital cameras and hi-fi systems are also seeing an increase in sales. However, sales for games consoles, MP3 players and navigation devices are all declining.
According to EITO forecasts, the strongest growth in sales among the major EU countries is in Italy where sales are up 4.8% to €6.5 billion and in Germany up 3% to €13.4 billion. The consumer electronics markets in Spain and France are slightly negative with declines of 0.5% to €5 billion and down 1.3% to €9.6 billion respectively. Europe’s second-largest CE market in the UK is being severely hit with sales dropping by over 10% for the third time in a row in 2010, to around €10 billion.