According to a report by NPD, Apple accounted for 19.9 % of all consumer technology items sold in the US in 2012. Apple was also the third largest consumer technology seller in the US for 2012. Sales figures were at 17.3 % for 2011, and the company has had an increase of 2.6 %. It seems that Apple has been doing great with the sales of its iPhone and iPads.
Apple’s competitor Samsung came at 9.3 % in the same report. Samsung has done better from 2011 as it is up from 7 %. Sony and Dell unfortunately have gone down to 4.4 and 3 % respectively. Together with Samsung, Apple added $6.5 billion in new revenues. However, due to a 2 % decline in overall technology sales, the total sale figure came out to $143 billion. Stephan Baker, vice president of NPD said “While sales fell in consumer technology for the second consecutive year, there was an uptick in Q4 which is cause for optimism, after struggles with declining categories, and increasingly saturated markets over the last few years, fourth quarter’s results may be the first sign that even as a mature industry consumer technology can grow again, albeit with a very different dynamic than in previous growth spurts.”
Desktop computer sales have declined as well as HDTV sales, while tablets and smartphone sales have increased, according to the same report. With Samsung and Sony both coming out with new smartphones and LG pumping money into OLED TV designs, we wait to see if the consumer market’s trend changes.