Electronic Equipment Market to Stay on Track

Following a rise of 6.6 percent in 2006, global revenue for all electronic equipment will grow by 6.7 percent to reach $1.47 trillion in 2007, up from $1.37 trillion the year before. “The electronic equipment market will hit on all six cylinders for the year, with all major segments of the industry—data processing, wired communications, wireless communications, consumer, automotive and industrial—expanding in 2007," said Gary Grandbois, principal analyst with iSuppli. “This will underpin the broad-based growth in the market." The fastest-growing segment of the market in 2007 will be data processing, which is also the largest single part of the industry, representing 28.8 percent of total electronic equipment revenue for the year. Data processing revenue will rise to $421.7 billion in 2007, up 9.1 percent from $386.6 billion in 2006. The second-fastest growing segment will be wired communications, which will expand to $101.4 billion in 2007, up 7.2 percent from $94.6 billion in 2006. Consumer electronics will come in third, with its revenue increasing to $327.2 billion, up 6.4 percent from $307.6 billion in 2006. The primary factor behind the accelerated growth of the data processing market will be a rise in unit shipments and Average Selling Prices (ASPs) for the segment's primary product: PCs. PC shipments will increase to 262.9 million units in 2007, up 10.2 percent from 238.5 million in 2006. iSuppli believes 2007 will see a higher growth rate than 2006 due to the increased penetration of dual-core microprocessors and the availability of a Microsoft Corp.'s new Vista operating system. Of all electronic equipment segments, the biggest positive swing in growth between 2006 and 2007 will come in the wired communications segment. Revenue growth will amount to 7.2 percent in 2007, a 3.4 percentage point swing from the 3.7 percent rise in 2006, when accounting for rounding. A significant contributor to the accelerated expansion of the wired communications gear market is the continued strong growth of broadband and broadband services, driven by spending on wired communications infrastructure equipment by service providers that want to offer triple-play services, i.e. suites of multimedia offerings consisting of video, voice communications and broadband Internet access. Growth in the consumer-electronics market will accelerate in 2007 due to the arrival of compelling products, including Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii video-game consoles and Apple Computer Inc.'s Internet Television (iTV). The introduction of the two next-generation products will drive video-game console unit shipments up by 20.6 percent in 2007 to reach 35.4 million units for the year. This compares to 10.7 percent growth in 2006. Meanwhile, the other three segments will suffer decelerated growth compared to 2006. The wireless communications segment will cool considerably, growing by only 4.9 percent in 2007, after the 8.7 percent expansion of 2006. Automotive and industrial will grow by 4.5 and 5.7 percent respectively, down slightly from 4.8 and 7.5 percent in 2006. The figure below and attached presents iSuppli's forecast of global electronic equipment revenue by major application. Source: iSuppli Corp. January 2007