Traditional Home Speaker Market Declines, Rising ASPs Help Offset Drop

The home speaker market is on track to end 2019 down 1.6 percent in value, 10 percent in units, reported Futuresource Monday. Home theater and computer speakers continued a “steep decline” due to the rise of sound bars and laptops, it said. In 2018, home speaker shipments fell 12 percent to 45 million, with a trade value 5 percent lower to $2.8 billion, it said. Streaming services have changed the mix of devices consumers own for music listening, and trends toward convenience are challenging the traditional speaker market, said analyst Guy Hammett. Despite the falloff in bookshelf, floor-standing, in-wall and ceiling models, the speaker market is showing some resilience, even amid consumer preference for headphones and smart devices. “There is life left in loudspeakers,” Hammett said, led by in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, which grew 7 percent year on year in 2018. The U.S. leads the market for architectural speakers, but the China market grew 15 percent last year, it said. “In addition to in-wall, floor standing speakers are also doing their bit to stave off the decline,” said Hammett, saying rising average selling prices are offsetting lower volumes. North America will generate more than 40 percent of worldwide speaker value this year, followed by Europe; next year, the Asia Pacific region will overtake Europe.