Consumer Electronics Trends 2017/2018

The latest trends in the consumer electronics industry are always the topic of the day prior to the start of the IFA in Berlin. Also this year, people are wondering what will be the upcoming sweet-spots in electronics and which areas will see a decline in interest. By having a close look at the industry trends, we’ll be able to get a peek at the new and upcoming features that future electronics will hold.

Throughout this article, Chinavasion will briefly take you through the trends visible in different consumer electronics industries. By doing so, we hope to get an insight into the upcoming features of the most popular electronic gadgets.

Smart Home & Smart Cars

When talking about smart electronics, today’s world has so much more to offer than smartphones and tablet computers. Consumer electronics of all kind are becoming smarter by the day and this is now becoming visible in all aspects of our lives. The two most prominent industries: smart home and smart car.

Source: TheAppSolutions

The upcoming generation of products in these sectors will be focusing on getting to know their users as close as possible. By learning about the exact habits and routines of their user’s life, these smart electronics will make your life easier and more efficient. As an example, you could think about smart coffee machines. Such an everyday electronic item could notice and remember what times its user likes to have his hot beverage. As a result, it could be programmed to brew a fresh cup of coffee at these specific times without you needing to lift a finger.

A second topic that is expected to play a major role in the future of these industry sectors is voice recognition. Thanks to the latest smart technology, recognition rates are increasing significantly. This technology can already be used to secure/access locked files or to command/activate an electronic device. It is, however, still not used that frequently by the everyday consumer. This is expected to change in the future now that this technology is rapidly developing both in the smart home and smart car industry.

Smart TV & Audio, and Smartphones

In this particular sector of consumer electronics, the future trends and changes will mainly be related to design and picture quality. Especially with TVs, the main area concerns the competition between OLED and LED, and UHD and HDR. Each type of display is trying to differentiate itself by offering the sharpest, most detailed, and vivid visuals.

Source: Samsung

Besides picture quality, another trend that can be seen in the smart TV industry is related to the design of the TV itself. Displays are becoming larger yet thinner all the time. In the future, it is even expected that major electronics companies such as Samsung will deliver ultra-thin and flexible displays.

Energy efficiency and connectivity are other major topics that play an important role in each sector. Whether it’s TVs, Audio, or smartphones – all devices are searching to increase their efficiency and connectivity. For home audio appliances, streaming services and multi rooms are considered key areas of interest. Regarding the latest smartphones, we’ll see an increased interest in increasing processing power. Along with that come secondary phone features such as Dual-Lens cameras and bezel less displays. Last but not least, with respect to our smartphones, we also expect to see major developments in the fields of VR and AR.

Drones

Drones have been, and still are, an up and coming electronic gizmo. These cool gadgets have only been around for several years yet they have managed to build a strong presence in today’s consumer electronics industry.

Source: DJI

RC drones already come in all sorts and sizes. They are light weight, extremely fast, and even come equipped with 4K cameras. Future trends of these cool gadgets are likely to focus on making the drone more powerful with a longer flight time. Also, as of late many drone manufacturers are adding better quality cameras to their drones such as 4K cams and 360-degree cameras.

Health & Fitness Gadgets

Smart health and fitness gadgets have been around for years. Although they are nothing new, the industry does expect to see a growing demand for these little gizmos. Health gadgets such as fitness tracker bracelets and Bluetooth sports watches are helping people to become healthier. Therefore, the demand for these products is rising slowly but steadily.

Source: Chinavasion

As of today, fitness trackers come packed with an abundance of different smart health features. Hereby you can think about pedometers, distance trackers, step counters, calorie counters, heart rate monitors, sleep reminders, blood pressure sensors and so much more. New devices in this industry are expected to become even more accurate and, most importantly, more affordable. This will provide easier access to these smart health and fitness gadgets to a large group of consumers that are currently not able to afford these healthy gizmos.

Retail Sector

In today’s world, the importance of e-commerce is every growing. The number of retail shops is slowly decreasing and young yet rapidly developing e-commerce shops can be found all over the web. So how should the retail sector react to the changes that we are currently going through?

Although we are seeing a major increase in online shopping, customers still attach a high value to being able to try a product before buying it. Naturally, this is something that is only possible in the traditional retail sector. Therefore, the key word for surviving today’s market for retail stores is emotion as, without emotion, it will be difficult to succeed. This is why traditional retailers should focus highly on offering and developing their core capabilities in which they can outperform online competitors – advice and service.

Source: Options-Mailorder

Naturally, offering good advice and service is not always enough and, no matter how hard they try, retail shops will encounter difficulties to compete with e-commerce channels. This is why traditional retailers are advised to focus on multi channel retailing. It is important to meet the customer’s demands of having an easy online shopping platform. At the same time, retailers should still offer their reliable services in physical stores to their loyal and trusted customers.