Home Electronics

Home electronics is the non-specific term when talking about everyday household electronics products. It can refer to communications, entertainment, labour saving appliances and business equipment.

The home electronics market is dominated by companies from Japan, Korea and USA and is a global industry worth USD$150 billion in 2007 (CEA Consumer Electronics Association). Some examples of home electronics products are video games, entertainment systems, PCs, mobile telephones, kitchen equipment, audio products, gps satnav and photography equipment.

The market enjoys a rapid rate of innovation and growth due to the massive investment and interest from business and consumers. Home electronics technology has been keeping up with developments in the business world as users are always looking for ways to improve their way of life or automate menial tasks. Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on a semiconductor double every two years, this has led to falling prices and improvements in manufacturing processes that enable much faster production speeds and lower costs.

The marketplace has always demanded the miniaturisation of products to improve usability; in more recent years this has even led to the possibility of converging several related products into one device. An example of this is the mobile phone market, which started as purely a means to make voice calls on the move, it is not unusual to find a wealth of previously separate products e.g. mp3 players, email messaging, internet etc. integrated into your phone.

This trend is set to continue as handsets become more powerful and has led to the availability of movies, games and even pc based productivity software to be available in a small handheld device. The mass-market appeal has also helped reduce prices, making these items available to all budgets.

The entertainment industry, once the home to movies and television broadcasting has been surpassed in recent years by the games industry. The computer and video game industry has grown exponentially since the 1970s and is now worth USD$9.5 billion in the US alone in 2007 (ESA annual report).

The growth of gaming came from the original personal computer market but as demand for games grew the console market took place of the more technical pc gaming market and made home gaming accessible to all. Home electronics giants such as Sony and Microsoft are the current leaders in this market providing console based products the XBOX and Playstation ranges. The games consoles themselves also following the home electronics trend of converging products such as movie and audio players to create a bigger market share for the manufacturers.

Visual technology has moved on in the last few years with the now-obsolete CRT televisions (Cathode Ray Tube) being replaced by low energy plasma or lcd models. It is now possible to enjoy the visible and audio quality of the big screen within your home with high definition and home cinema systems. Coupled with high definition high capacity discs and even streaming over the internet this is still a very innovative market.

The personal computer has become a prerequisite for being a functional human being in the 21st century. The internet has revolutionised communication enabling us to work and socialise with anybody in any place at any time. The processing power growth has enabled us to have a small box of home electronics in a corner that can perform the same tasks as supercomputer could only a decade ago. Working from home is now a real option for millions of people, changing the family dynamic forever.

Capturing memories through photographs or moving pictures was once a very cumbersome experience, developing film or playing back miles of analogue tape was difficult with degradation over quality over time. With the advent of digital technology photography you can record real-time vents and share them with the world with the click of a button. The connection with the pc has revolutionised the ways we can produce video and photographs.

The home electronics market is certainly an exciting area, it never sleeps, the only question is can you keep up with it?