Tablets and the emerging countries will save electronics industry

Image of Panasonic TVs

Consumer electronics, affected by the economic downturn experienced by developed countries will grow in 2012 thanks to the success of the tablets and the appetite for emerging markets.

So believes the analyst Steve Koenig, who commented just before the official opening of  CES 2012   in Las Vegas (USA) sales of electronic products will reach1.038 million dollars this year, an increase of around 5% compared 2011 the worst year for the sector since the global recession was declared in 2009.

"Most products operations are declining or contract," said Steve Bambridge,research firm GfK. "Actually there are two exceptions, which are tablets and smartphones," he said.

And there is a clarification, the tablet market, opened in 2010 with the Apple iPad, seems to begin to deflate in those countries came first.

Steve Koenig, who is also head of research at the Association CEA (ConsumerElectronics Association)-organizer of CES itself, 'said he expected  an increase of 26%  in the tablet market in North America for 2012, well below the 55 % is expected for the entire world, and the 161% expected in areas such as South America. "It seems theNorth American market is almost touching roof," he said.

The 'ultrabook', a hope

Despite the slow growth of global electronics market, which also suffers the reluctance of consumers to acquire new TV, the real drivers of this industry-CES2012 should be an opportunity for some 2,700 exhibitors, who have more 20,000 new products.

In the most promising categories are ultralight laptops and very fine, the 'ultrabooks', developed by Apple's competitors to try to fight against the MacBook Air.

The Taiwanese company Acer has introduced its new portable as 'the thinnest on the market'. Toshiba, meanwhile, presented an overview of computers also very fine, with emphasis on the comparison with Apple.

Shaun DuBravac, CEA economist, expects to launch a total of between 30 and 50 'ultrabooks' this week and a half hundred tablets, despite the commercial failure ofmost of them against the all-powerful to date, iPad of Apple.

Related articles

• Consumers of electronic gadgets - worldwide - this year will spent $1 trillion (mercurynews.com)
• Smartphones and Tablets Are Eating Other Gadgets Alive, Say CES Organizers [CES 2012] (cultofmac.com)
• Smartphone and tablet growth to slow in 2012 (techradar.com)
• Join us for Panasonic's CES 2012 press conference (Monday, 3 p.m. PT) (ces.cnet.com)