Home Networking Helps CE Growth

The average American adult spends $1,200 on consumer electronics in a year.

That's the finding of the Consumer Electronics Association, which also says the typical U.S. household owns 25 consumer electronics products.

The top growth sectors are digital video recorders, network routers or hubs, MP3 players, cable modems and digital cameras.

DVR ownership and network/routers grew eight percentage points in the past year 2006 to 25 and 30 percent respectively.

Thirty-two percent of households own an MP3 player, up seven percentage points. Cable modem ownership grew six percentage points and digital camera ownership rose to 62 percent of U.S. households.

"It's interesting to note here that two of the fastest movers and shakers in the CE industry are devices that enable home networking," stated CEA Senior Research Analyst Elena Caudle. "The other three products enable consumers to create, shift or transport digital content."

CEA said HDTV also is growing significantly, now reaching a quarter of U.S. homes. More than three-quarters of U.S homes have at least one cell phone. DVD players have reached 84 percent household penetration and have surpassed VCRs, "partially because of the availability of portable DVD players."

The five most owned products are the television (92 percent), DVD player or recorder, VCR (82 percent), cordless phone (82 percent) and the cellular phone (76 percent).

(Radio World)