Electronics consumers: Open minds, open wallets

It's time to say hello to the good times for consumer electronics sellers. The Consumer Electronics Association projects consumers will spend nearly $1 trillion this year on computers, smart phones, high-end televisions, cameras and other gadgets.

Steve Koenig, industry-analysis director for the CEA, the nonprofit trade group that stages the International Consumer Electronics Show, said he thinks the trillion-dollar mark can be hit. The CEA’s official forecast calls for $964 billion in global electronics sales in 2011, a 10 percent increase from 2010.

Koenig shared industry statistics and forecasts Tuesday at a press-only event preceding the 2011 version of CES. The show starts Thursday at the Las Vegas Convention Center and other locations.

Smart phones and portable computers (including tablet computers), digital cameras and liquid-crystal display televisions will be the top-selling consumer electronics worldwide, Koenig said. He added that sales of mobile phones that don't fall into the smart-phone category will be strong outside the United States, but sales of these "feature phones" are declining in the United States.

Other gizmos projected to have slipping sales globally are plasma-screen and old-style cathode-ray-tube TV displays. It seems the world is going flat, as in flat-screen, and LCDs are leading the way. A CEA forecast projects that nearly 75 percent of all monitors sold in 2011 will be LCDs.

The Blu-ray craze hasn't yet conquered the world, data suggest. The association projects that just 36 percent of videodisc players sold in 2011 will be Blu-ray. Koenig said Blu-ray is not available in all markets and there is still a lot of confusion about the technology.

I'll have more about the CEA’s forecasts and consumer electronics trends to watch in my Sunday column.

Don't forget, there's still time to get into the 2011 CES as a member of the public. You can sign up as a Technology Enthusiast and pay an annual fee of $49. This will get you a Sunday pass for the show floor. It's the last day of CES, but a great chance to get a glimpse of the future.

You can start by signing up here:
http://www.ceatechenthusiast.com/