Australians Spend Big on Consumer IT

Canon has reported that Australians spent more on consumer technology in 2009 than in any other year in the past.

Canon has reported that Australians spent more on consumer technology in 2009 than in any other year in the past.

While factors such as repeated interest rate rises, flagging consumer sentiment and continued unemployment tightened purse strings, the total of consumer products covered in the Canon CDLI increased by 3.1% to $5.90 billion in 2009.

According to the latest Canon Consumer Digital Lifestyle Index report (Canon CDLI) show that average selling prices in 8 of the 11 product categories covered by the Canon CDLI rose by around 11% on average from 2H 2008 to 2H 2009.

The report notes that the growing penetration of flat screen televisions into Australian homes represents an irreversible shift in the digital lifestyle in terms of consumers’ image-quality expectations and the growing demand for the Full HD 1080p format in particular has highly positive future growth implications for several CDLI sub categories, including Blu-ray hardware, Full HD camcorders and cameras equipped to capture Full HD movies.

The largest growth in the second half of 2009 came from flat screen televisions, with Australian consumers purchasing over 1,381,000 units – the majority being LCD TVs.

The number of LCD TVs purchased leapt by 37.5% from 787,000 in 2H 2008 to more than 1,081,000 units in 2H 2009.