REGION'S CONSUMER ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY HITS US$1.415 BLN

KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 (Bernama) -- Southeast Asia''s consumer electronics

industry totalled US$1.415 billion in the first quarter of 2011, driven by the

continual growth of value segments with consumers'' increasing adoption of new

technologies, according to global market research company GfK Asia.

It said that television, further segmented into CRT, LCD and plasma, formed

the core demand within the consumer electronics sector, which also included DVD

player/recorder, audio home system, portable media player and camcorder.

In a statement, GfK Asia said first quarter revenue from the LCD market took

up 58 per cent of the overall consumer electronics sales pie, compared to 50 per

cent in the previous year.

Its regional account director for consumer electronics, Jasmine Lim, said

that GfK findings reported an average price increase of 8.7 per cent in the

consumer electronics category in Southeast Asian countries.

"And this is indicative of the heightened pace in market switchover to newer

technology, such as from CRT to flat panel TV, and basic DVD players to blu-ray

players and so on," she said.

The Southeast Asian markets surveyed were Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,

Vietnam and Indonesia.

-- BERNAMA

MAM JR