Crazy: Seven products account for 80% of consumer tech revenues

Seven product categories account for 80 percent of consumer tech revenues — and the concentration of revenues in those seven categories is increasing, according to a talk at the opening of the big tech trade show in Las Vegas this week.

Those categories include smartphones, tablets, TVs, desktop PCs, laptops, digital cameras, and feature phones. In 2011, those same categories accounted for 72 percent of tech sales.

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The big tension in the tech industry right now is whether new product categories — such as smartwatches, car electronics, health and fitness tech, and smart home technology — can to break into the top seven categories.

Overall, the tension between the mature and the new products is good, as global consumer electronics revenue is expected to grow to $1.024 trillion in 2014, up 1 percent from $1.017 trillion in 2013.

“We have a host of new innovations that will reshape the global tech spending landscape,” said Steve Koenig, analyst at the Consumer Electronics Association.

Koenig, who spoke in a press briefing ahead of the start of the 2015 International CES (the big tech trade show in Las Vegas this week), said smartphone sales will hit 1.5 billion units this year, compared to 1.2 billion units sold in 2014.

“These days, 75 percent of sales will be in developing markets, and nearly a third in China alone,” he said.

Revenues for global smartphone sales will be $406 billion, up 9 percent from $373 billion in 2013.

But Koenig noted that the growth rates are slowing. In 2011, for instance, the growth rate in revenues for smartphones was 54 percent.

Those are reasons why the smartphone is the dominant product of our age. Together with tablets, smartphones account for 46 percent of all consumer tech product revenues in the world, Koenig said.

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Tablet unit sales are still strong, but tablet revenues hit a peak in 2013 at $68 billion. In 2015, the number is expected to be $62 billion. Part of the reason is low-cost products, but the market is getting mature.

The average selling price for smartphones will like slip below $300 this year, he said.