The gist of it: German’s entrenched sales channels, and regulations may be driving out smartphone vendors like Oppo, but it may be that the country is facing a possible recessionary period as well. And who are all the people still buying CDs and Blu-Ray discs?
The German market for consumer electronics was down 4.9% in the Q1’23 compared to the same period in the previous year. Sales reached almost 11.4 billion Euros ($12.48 billion) in the months from January to March 2023. This is according the most recent data from Germany’s GfK.
| Home Electronic Market (in thousands of units) | Q1’22 | Q1’23 | +/- % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audio/Video Accessories | 374 | 408 | 9.1% |
| – Headphones + Stereo Mobile Headsets | 3,937 | 3,745 | -4.9% |
| – Bluetooth Speakers | 587 | 606 | 3.2% |
| Auto Multimedia (excluding OEMs) | 196 | 165 | -15.8% |
| Video Game Consoles | 344 | 566 | 64.2% |
| Total Consumer Electronics | 2,009 | 2,056 | 2.4% |
| Total Telecommunication | 3,507 | 3,444 | -1.8% |
| – Mobile Phones | 309 | 233 | -24.5% |
| – Smartphones | 4,995 | 4,298 | -13.9% |
| – Telephones | 870 | 744 | -14.5% |
| – Core Wearables | 1,618 | 1,402 | -13.4% |
With sales of almost 7.3 billion Euros ($7.9 billion), the consumer electronics (CE) sector recorded a decrease of 4.3% in Q1’23 YoY. Sales of television sets in the first quarter amounted to 795 million Euros ($720 million), down 12.0%, the number of units sold decreasing by 12.6% to around 1.1 million TV sets. By contrast, the average price of TV sets rose slightly by 0.7% to 715 Euros ($782). The largest increase in sales was in video game consoles with an increase of 133% to 264 million Euros ($289 million).
Wearables, which include, for example, fitness trackers and smartwatches, saw a sales increase of 4.6% to 333 million Euros ($364 million), but with a smaller number of units shipped, 1.4 million, a decrease of 13.4%. This means a significant increase in the average price by 20.7 percent to 237 Euros ($259). All other product groups were negatively impacted. The largest product group in this segment, smartphones, fell in unit volume by 13.9% to just under 4.3 million, with sales showing a decrease of 2.3% to just over three billion Euros ($3.28 billion). However, a significantly increased average price of 710 Euros ($777), an increase of13.5%, was also observed.
Desktop PCs, notebooks, tablet PCs, and monitors all showed a drop in sales and unit numbers. Slightly increased average prices were recorded for notebooks, a drop of 2.4%, and for tablets prices went down by 1.7%.
| IT Products (in thousands of units) | Q1 2022 | Q1 2023 | +/- % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total PCs | 1,552 | 1,310 | -15.5% |
| – Desktop PCs | 223 | 171 | -23.4% |
| – Notebooks | 995 | 819 | -17.7% |
| – Tablet PCs | 1,097 | 956 | -12.9% |
| Total IT Peripherals | 388 | 329 | -15.0% |
| – Monitors | 929 | 763 | -17.9% |
| – Projectors | 26 | 25 | -3.9% |
| – MFD / Printers / Scanners | 774 | 758 | -2.1% |
| Total Recording Media | 148 | 134 | -9.5% |
| – CD/DVD/Blu-ray Discs | 7,555 | 6,756 | -10.6% |
| – Memory Cards | 2,771 | 2,516 | -9.2% |
| – USB Sticks | 2,859 | 2,745 | -4.0% |
| – Hard Drives | 639 | 471 | -26.2% |
