CEA: Shawn DuBravac Offers Consumer Electronics Forecast for 2012

By Rob Scott
December 28, 2011

Shawn DuBravac, chief economist and director of research for the Consumer Electronics Association, discusses the popularity of phones and tablets in 2011 and offers some predictions for 2012.
“The driving theme for 2012 will be ubiquitous connectivity,” he writes. “This will influence every consumer tech category.”
“2011 marked an important inflection point for consumer technologies: purchases of smartphones and tablets together surpassed the sales of all traditional computing devices combined, including netbooks, notebooks, desktops and all-in-ones,” points out DuBravac. “Worldwide in 2012, smartphones will outsell all computer categories combined.”
DuBravac suggests 2011 saw improvements in the consumer tech sector, despite the overall economic landscape. “It will be a long time (read: potentially never) before we return to high double-digit year-over-year growth, but the industry has become well positioned to succeed with solid mid-single digit growth. I would argue the industry — inclusive of retailers and OEMs — is as efficient as it has ever been.”

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