Four of 10 TVs Sold Black Friday Weekend Were 32-Inch, NPD Says

An unexpected 5.6 percent falloff in CE retail sales revenue for the Black Friday period was due largely to declining categories such as point-and-shoot cameras, MP3 players, GPS devices and camcorders, said NPD’s weekly tracking service report released Tuesday. Revenue for GPS units and camcorders -- once “high-gifting” categories -- fell 40 percent each for the Black Friday 2012 period of Nov. 18-24 compared with last year’s Black Friday run, NPD said. MP3 players plummeted 24 percent in units and 23 percent in revenue, while ASP’s slipped from $124 to $121, NPD said.

The slow start to the holiday season is a continuation of the “challenges seen in the consumer electronics business throughout 2012,” said Stephen Baker, vice president-industry analysis at NPD. The “unbalanced market,” where only a few categories deliver significant dollars and fewer segments offer growth, will make it difficult for companies exposed to the entire consumer electronics marketplace to deliver positive results, he said. NPD’s consumer electronics data excludes Kindle, iPad and Surface tablets, mobile phones and video games.

TVs also contributed to the revenue downturn for the period, NPD said, as dropping average selling prices (ASPs) for Black Friday 2012 followed a falloff of 4 percent for the comparable period in 2011, NPD said. While flat-panel TV unit sales grew by 4 percent during the Black Friday 2012 period, revenue tumbled 6 percent on an ASP decline from $367 to $333, NPD said.

Forty percent of all flat-panel unit volume during the Black Friday period came from the 32-inch segment, due to an all-time-low ASP of $194, which dragged overall category revenue down, NPD said. Flat-panel models 50-inches and above had a unit surge of 65 percent, it said, and the 60-inch and above category swelled 10 times compared to two years ago, accounting for 6 percent of all TV unit volume versus 1 percent in 2010.

PCs, Android tablets, and TVs accounted for 58 percent of all sales dollars for the Black Friday period, up from 51 percent of sales in 2009, NPD said. But notebook PCs continued their year-long slide, as units fell 10 percent, with sales of Apple notebooks flat and Windows notebooks down 10 percent, it said. Windows 8-based PCs made up 89 percent of notebook sales during the Black Friday period, with an ASP of $368, and touchscreen PCs were 3 percent of sales, with a $668 ASP, it said. Overall PC ASPs improved to $460 this year from $437 in 2011, NPD said, while revenue was off 5 percent for the period.

With notebook sales continuing to shrink, Android tablets soared 177 percent in unit sales and 91 percent in dollars, as they became more affordable. Android tablet ASPs fell from $219 last year to $151 in 2012, NPD said.

Detachable-lens cameras continued to buoy the overall camera category during the early holiday season, according to NPD data. Revenue for the higher end camera segment grew 16 percent over 2011 as lower end point-and-shoot cameras plunged 36 percent in units and 33 percent in dollars. Point-and-shoot cameras posted a modest ASP increase of $5 to $106 in 2012, NPD said.

The outlook for the rest of the holiday season “remains tentative at best,” Baker said, but the prospects for next year, when many of the declining categories will represent a smaller share of the market, are “much more promising."

CEA, meanwhile, stuck to its Black Friday estimates Tuesday. Steve Koenig, director-industry analysis, told us spending on consumer electronics products was up 57 percent over last year’s five-day Black Friday period, with consumers spending on average $151. For the rest of the holiday season, Koenig predicted more promotions closer to Christmas and a bump in online sales, driven largely by tablets, PCs and TVs. The Wii U is expected to be a bright spot in the waning game console business, he said, which was “down sharply” over Black Friday weekend.