Last week, Sony showed us what to expect from consumer electronics users. The price of the manufacturer’s video game console Playstation 5 suddenly increased by ten percent.
“We are observing high inflation rates and unfavorable currency trends worldwide, which are affecting consumers and putting many industries under pressure,” the company writes in a blog post, increasing the recommended price in Europe for the standard version of the console from 500 to 550 euros. And the reality is even bleaker.
The console is not available commercially at this price either. Because the supply is faltering, interested parties have to pay more than 700 euros.
Gaming enthusiasts may still get involved. However, Germans seem to have less and less desire to spend money on devices in general.
According to the forecast by the digital association Bitkom, sales of classic entertainment electronics and so-called consumer technology will decline this year.
Because after consumers bought many new devices for their home office, home schooling and entertainment in the first Corona year, there is currently little demand.
And even the existing demand cannot be adequately served due to the worldwide delivery bottlenecks and the shortage of semiconductors.
“The extraordinary effects from 2021 and 2020 are ebbing away,” says Bitkom CEO Bernhard Rohleder.
The end of the special boom is also reflected in the figures from the Society for the Promotion of Entertainment Electronics (GFU), which is the organizer of the International Consumer Electronics Fair (IFA) in Berlin, which runs until Tuesday.
Together with the market researchers of GfK, the GFU determines the sales of home electronic devices in Germany, which include smartphones and household appliances in addition to classic consumer electronics.
In the first half of the year, sales here increased by 2.2 percent, also thanks to the privately used telecommunications devices.
But in the same period last year, it was still more than seven percent. Sara Warneke, Managing Director of the GFU, speaks of a clouded buying mood. In fact, consumer sentiment is at an all-time low.
Nevertheless, there is hope in the industry that the decline by the end of the year could be less massive, according to the GFU. On the one hand, consumers could increasingly turn to energy-efficient devices due to the increase in energy prices.
On the other hand, the World Cup will take place in winter this year. Because of the cold, spectators are more likely to follow the games at home and less in public viewing.
It is quite possible that the effect can be seen in the television sets sold, even if the households are well equipped with televisions according to figures from the Statista data portal. The majority of people therefore live in households in which there is already more than one television.
In any case, manufacturers are trying to sell increasingly expensive television sets to their customers. The average selling price in Germany is currently 688 euros. Televisions are also becoming more expensive because they are getting bigger and bigger.
At the Ifa, the companies are showing an extensive selection of TV sets with the particularly high 8K resolution. However, there is very little content for this so far.
