Will Santa remember the batteries? If the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is to be believed, more than three-quarters of all U.S. households are likely to purchase at least one consumer electronics product for the Christmas holiday.
The year’s top gifts: DVD players, digital cameras and camcorders, big screen TVs, and home theater and audio systems.
The year’s top gifts: DVD players, digital cameras and camcorders, big screen TVs, and home theater and audio systems. These predictions are based on the findings of the CEA’s 9th Annual Holiday Purchase Patterns survey.
The big winner for a second year in a row is the DVD player, now the fastest selling consumer product in history. Overall interest in purchasing DVD players rose 19 percent from last year.
Next in popularity are digital cameras, the still photo variety, with one quarter of all U.S. households at least thinking of purchasing one. That’s up 14 percent from a year ago. Taking third place are personal portable tape and CD products.
Following the boom in video game systems from last year’s holiday season, video game peripherals top the computer wish list this year.
Even with the uncertain economy, the CEA found that 68 percent will likely spend more or the same amount of gadgets this year. That’s down slightly from 74 percent in 2001.
The CEA survey also found that desktop computers might get a sales boost this Christmas. Consumer interest in purchasing a PC as a holiday gift rose 27 percent over last year, and computers ranked as the number two item for those likely to make an online purchase.
For more information visit www.ce.org.
