Many more bought televisions, a little less than smartphones, significantly fewer cameras: the French and consumer electronic products in 2016 has been under scrutiny by the GfK institute.
It is a record that electronics manufacturers expect every year to firm up: the sales techniques in France. Delivered as usual by the institute GfK, its 2016 vintage has just fallen. And as usual, it will make happy … and disappointed.
The happier for 2016 will TV manufacturers. The transition to DTT HD on April 6, the Euro football and even the “Black Friday” the end of 2016 largely contributed to boost sales of flat screens according to the Gfk.
TV and telephony sales lead
Result: they jumped by 30% last year to 6.5 million TVs sold. Also supported by a dynamic sales development of UHD TVs. On their own, these new TVs (with a resolution four times that of Full HD) represent 30% of sales.
However, this thinning on the LED or OLED TV market after four years of decline should not last. The GfK institute estimates that the French will buy 5.3 million jobs in 2017, a figure that can be considered more normal.
For mobile phone manufacturers, although sales have moderated slightly last year (23 million devices sold in 2016, against 24.6 million in 2015), the figures still show a dynamic market. And now 9 of 10 phones sold are smartphones. 2 and 3 on smartphones sold have a screen of 5 ” / 12.7 cm, which seems to stand out as the norm.
interesting figure: in addition to the 23 million units, 2 million reconditioned phones. A trend that should be monitored in the coming months …
Sales of its sound bars (+ 4%), multiroom speakers (27%), and Bluetooth speakers (14%) are enough, too, to smile.
Cameras, tablets: the alarm sounded
Much less fortunate are – unsurprisingly one might indiquer- manufacturers of digital cameras. After long denied competition from smartphones to shoot, manufacturers can only note that the French now prefer to carry out their daily photos with their smartphones.
Thus, sales of compact cameras have fallen by 22% in 2016 according to GfK, 1.2 million units sold. SLRs that were doing well there are still 3 years and hybrid cameras (with interchangeable lenses) fail to compensate this hemorrhaging. Their sales reached 360,000 pieces, down 16%). And it is too early to know if the new video cameras and 360 degree filming and photographing are promised a bright future.
Printers, memory sticks and PC fixed at half mast
Also “unhappy”, digital tablets manufacturers. With 4.1 million digital slates sold, the business sector to figure loses 23% in one year. Explanation: “This decline is particularly noticeable on small tablets (less than 7 ” / 17.78 cm) in direct competition with PHABLET (smartphones 5.3 ” / 13.46 cm and more, Ed) ” , said the Gfk.
The turnover of sales of inkjet printers (-3%), USB drives (-5%) or desktop PCs (-8%), have something provoke grimaces.
With revenues of € 15.5 billion in 2016 in France, the market for technical goods resumed colors with a 2% increase in one year. He thus returned to the level of 2013, after five years of continuous decline. The boom of connected objects, a sector which recorded 500 million euros in revenue last year, could allow it to maintain its momentum restored.
