Consumer electronics

Consumer electronics is a category of equipment intended for use by everyday people. Consumer electronics usually find applications in entertainment, communications and office productivity.

Some categories of consumer electronics include telephones, audio equipment, televisions, calculators, playback and recording devices such as VCRs, and digital clocks.

Consumer electronics are manufactured in throughout the world, although there is a particularly high concentration of manufacturing activity in the Far East. Recently, Mexico has also emerged as an electronics hub, as American companies take advantage of low labor costs, combined with the easy access afforded to them by the passage of NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement).

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, coupled with 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.