GfK Charts UK's Wireless Explosion
July 4 2006
GfK has published its twice-yearly report on UK IT trends. As well as highlighting the winners and losers, the report headlines increasing convergence, the continuing move towards notebooks and wireless connections, and the ongoing fall in prices in the sector.
The UK Technology Barometer report values the UK IT market at £3.9 billion in the first half of this year, a fall of 3% despite a 14% increase in volume of goods shipped. The report splits the market into seven main sectors:
- PCs (£1,443m)
- Printing devices, including multifunctional devices, (£303m)
- Monitors (£343m)
- Consumables (£813m)
- HDD and NAS (£130m)
- Communication devices (£122m)
- Software (£239m).
Sales are down most significantly in three sectors:
- A4 Inkjet Printers - down 17% despite an average reduction in price of £10 / 14%
- CRT Monitors - sales down 71.4% despite a price fall of an average £16
- Desktop PCs - down 20% despite average prices falling by £45.
GfK IT Business Group Director Jean Littolff points to convergence as a major feature of the market: 'Not only are we looking at convergence within IT sectors, but also a blurring of lines between IT, consumer electronics, telecoms and photo areas. This long-standing trend is being realised in the marketplace in a substantial fashion in 2006.' The two key examples of this at present are print-related multifunctional devices and smartphones. Sales of photo-printing multifunctional devices (MFDs) now outstrip sales of stand-alone printers aimed at consumers, according to GfK. The firm says smartphone sales are up 17.9%, while single-function PDAs have declined by a massive 38.3%.
The report says sales of devices allowing wireless usage have 'exploded' during the first half of 2006: 'wireless networks are increasingly likely to be found in a domestic setting' says Littolff. 'A wireless home network is no longer a novelty of the early adopter, but rather has become a typical feature of a connected household.'
The lower price of laptops, 85% of which are now said to be wifi-enabled, has pushed them from 42% of all retail channel PC sales in the first half of 2005 to 59% in the first half of 2006.
GfK is online at
www.gfk.com .
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
