Chinese spending on technical consumer equipment is set to overtake that of western Europe sometime in 2009-2010.
The phenomenal growth in China has sales on items such as mobile phones, flat screen televisions and personal computers increase 19% in 2007, with revenues expected to top $100 billion by 2009.
The report, by marketing group GfK and CEA, the consumer electronics group, shows that spending on electrical gadgets will slow down in western Europe and North America. Much of the global growth in 2008 will come from Asia, with revenues forecast to grow by 16.5%.
Global revenues are set to rise 9.4% in 2008, in spite of gloomy economic forecasts and lowering prices for many consumer electronic products.
Some of the growth is driven by replacement technologies, such as laptops outstripping revenues from desktop PCs.
The rise of multi-function devices has not stopped people buying separate devices. Claude Floch, marketing director of GfK, said: ‘Although there are products with more functions for the same price, it doesn’t mean it will kill the dedicated device. People want a specialised camera to take on holiday, rather than use their phone.’
Antony Rode of GfK also noted that an increasing number of sales are of portable devices. ‘In the past, hardware products were for your home. Now, half are for your living room, half are in your pocket.’
Source: The Financial Times, London