UK Technology News- November 2011

CE drops -22% October 2011 on October 2010     Dear Ms. Voisdie,     The bare facts about Technology markets in October make grim reading:   - Consumer Electronics for the last 12 months is down in value more than 15% on the 12 months before. The October drop on the previous October was -22%. This is all despite a 2.5% higher level of VAT. Effectively one quarter of the market value has been lost. Total Market size is below £5 billion for CE hardware (exc. Games consoles). Just two years ago the market exceeded £6 billion. In addition we see a strong increase in price promotion across the key categories such as TV.   - Imaging is down “just” -6% for October and around -4% on a moving annual total basis. The more premium changeable lens segment continues to grow however.   - IT still has growth at plus 7% across the last 12 months, though no growth for October at retail. The usual IT staples are down but the market is held up by strong demand for storage, web books and e assistants. Storage figures seem likely to come under pressure in the next few weeks because of flood induced production losses in Thailand.   Elsewhere, if we looking at a typical barometer of consumer sentiment in white goods, we see a further strong indication of what has been happening. The last 12 months up at +2.5%, October close to -4% down. This is in part because last year the consumer was minded to invest in white goods as the prospect of a VAT increase loomed.   Smartphones continue to grow and overtake sales of the standard mobile phone. An impressive level of 16 million smartphones are likely to be sold in 2011. This, of course, is a double edged sword, in that the drop in sales of portable media players (-40%+) and low end cameras must be in part a result of the success of the smart phone dominating the consumer’s pocket. It also results in a money shift from traditional CE/Photo retail to Telco retail. It’s clear that this Christmas season is going to be very tough indeed.   Nigel Catlow Business Group Director GfK Retail and Technology UK Click here to see what events GfK RT UK are involved in over the next few months. Want up to date global market information on your market? Then sign up to GfK Retail and Technology News alerts now! Follow us on Twitter!       Contract handset market returns to growth     The total Mobile Handset market grew in October to take the largest sales since January 2011, however still showing over 10% declines on last year. The drive behind this increase in sales was the contract market where sales grew by over 400k units on September, and has shown a year on year increase of between 5% and 10%. Sim Free has also seen a significant increase since September with sales trebling in October. In contrast, prepay sales are down over 30% on last year, driven by the decline of mobile phones.  more...       Key category difficulties for Consumer Electronics     You only need to turn on the television or pick up a newspaper to see that the retail sector is struggling, and Consumer Electronics is no exception. Since the world cup in 2010, the market has seen only one period of month on month value growth (January), and even that was by less than one percent. If you exclude April to June 2011's month on month figures (which are compared to the bumper sales experienced in the build-up to last year's world cup), October 2011 is the worst value decline that Consumer Electronics has seen for more than a decade.  more...       IT grows despite economic woes     As we move into the final quarter of 2011, things definitely seem to be picking up for the IT industry. Despite the earthquake in Japan, revolutions throughout the Middle East, floods in South East Asia and the continuing economic turmoil in Europe, the sector as a whole showed year-on-year growth rates of 17.3% in terms of sales volume and 5.2% in terms of value for the month of October 2011. While Web-books have played an instrumental role in boosting the IT market, without which the sector would have been down -5.9% in value, growth was actually seen in a varied mix of product groups which is always a very positive sign for the industry.  more...       Contact  |  Unsubscribe  |  GfK Retail and Technology UK Copyright © 2011 GfK Retail and Technology UK   Published by GfK Retail and Technology UK, Sheer House, Station Approach, West Byfleet, Surrey KT14. Managing Director GfK UK: Ian McCann GfK Retail and Technology UK, Editor in Chief: Ami Brooks, Sheer House, Station Approach, West Byfleet, Surrey, KT14 6NL, Tel. +44 (0) 870 603 8247, Fax +44 (0) 870 603 8200, ami.brooks@gfk.com Reproduction or any other form of duplication only with the written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. Newsletter powered by GfK SE Integrated Software Services.