Although the holiday season has turned into a sales spree for some very specific consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablets, it hasn’t been faring well for other products; those include laptops. According to statistics revealed by NPD Group, laptop sales by nearly all vendors have gone down during last year’s holiday season.
Holiday season spans quite a few weeks. But over the years, the sales have increasingly concentrated in the earlier part of the season, peaking during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Last year too, 46% of the overall consumer electronics’ sales took place during the first two weeks, and the last three weeks accounted for the rest of the 54% of sales.
Laptop sales have been on a decline. Compared to 2011, last year’s sales have dipped by 7%. In terms of revenue, laptop retailers took home 10.5% lower than their previous year’s revenue.
And the brunt has been borne by nearly all vendors, including Apple. Despite the much-revered MacBook, Apple’s laptop sales suffered by 6%. On the other hand, Windows laptops fared no better, despite the fact that multiple vendors had recently launched Windows 8 notebooks. Microsoft’s laptop sales were down by 11%.
However, higher-priced Windows laptops, possibly carrying Windows 8, performed somewhat better. A 4% growth was seen in the overall sales of Windows laptops priced above $500. At large, the laptop sales have been slow through the holiday season and the trend may be the same during the next year.
According to the vice president of industry analysis at NPD, Stephen Baker, “Consumer electronics remain trapped in a weak product cycle. Despite undeniable success in segments like soundbars, headphones with microphones, interchangeable lens cameras, cellular accessories and tablets, the inability of the CE market to find substantial new pockets of revenue looms menacingly over the industry’s future.”
Source: NPD
Courtesy: BGR
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