Consumer Electronics

One overriding characteristic of all consumer electronic products is the trend of ever-falling prices. This is driven by gains in manufacturing efficiency and automation, lower labor costs as manufacturing has moved to lower-wage countries, and improvements in semiconductor design. Semiconductor components benefit from Moore's Law, an observed principle which states that, for a given price, semiconductor functionality doubles every 18 months.
While consumer electronics continues in its trend of convergence, combining elements of many consumer electronic items, the consumer faces different decisions when purchasing their items. There is an ever increasing need to keep the product information updated and most comparable, for the consumer to be able to make an informed buying decision. The variables are becoming more about 'style and price' rather than 'specification and performance'. This convergence of technologies promises a shrinking of choice of retailer to the consumer and the rise of manufacturer status within the home. There is a gradual shift towards e-commerce web-storefronts.
A recent trend in many types of consumer electronics is connectivity. It's usual for many products to include Internet connectivity using technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Ethernet. Many products not traditionally associated with computer use (such as TVs or Hi-Fi equipment) now provide options to connect to the Internet or to a computer using a home network to provide access to digital content.
The desire to connect CE products capable of displaying (HD) content has lead the industry to develop a number of technologies, such as WirelessHD or ITU-T G.hn, which are optimized for distribution of HD content between CE devices in a home.