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The Consumer Electronics Post-Pandemic Boom

July 24, 2024

The rapidly growing consumer electronics market has overcome the COVID doldrums and is rebounding nicely.

Thinking back to the early days of COVID, I don’t recall being drawn toward more use of consumer electronics because of self-imposed isolation. Sure, my family and I watched the news and doom-scrolled on social media a little more, but being trapped at home didn’t make us want to gear up for other electronic diversions. Indeed, broad economic uncertainty and health concerns depressed the consumer-electronics market in largely the same way it did the economy overall.

Fast forward to 2024, and we find a consumer-electronics market that’s reawakened and poised for strong growth. According to a newly published whitepaper from ABI Research, global appetites for everything from gaming consoles to smart-home devices and augmented-reality/virtual-reality (AR/VR) smart glasses is on the upswing.

For example, let’s consider smartphones. We’ve seen back-to-back years of contraction, but ABI forecasts 3.7% year-over-year growth for smartphone sales in 2024. By 2029, more than 50% of smartphones will be ready for mmWave 5G. On the way there, phones will increasingly incorporate edge-AI chipsets, and their on-device generative AI capabilities will help automate a lot of drudgery like scheduling, itineraries, managing home HVAC, and more.

Likewise, Bluetooth- and Wi-Fi-enabled devices are expected to resume their market-growth trends. With supply chains mostly back to normal, consumer demand for the convenience of wireless connectivity is on the rise. ABI sees annual shipments of Bluetooth-enabled devices growing by 40% in 2028 compared with 2023. For Wi-Fi-enabled devices, market research indicates 38% growth over the same timeframe.

On the AR/VR glasses front, while ABI cites the enterprise market as today’s sweet spot, it foresees more practical and compelling consumer devices emerging in two to three years. With big names like Apple, Google, Meta, and Samsung driving that push, along with maturing software support, AR/VR smart glasses stand a chance of enjoying a huge market of 67.5 million units by 2030 compared with less than 2 million units shipped in 2023.

The consumer-electronics market promises to be a fun one to watch during the remainder of this decade and beyond. You can count on Microwaves & RF to cover it thoroughly to keep you up to speed—forewarned, even—on emerging technologies and trends.

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.