Consumer Tech Added $14B in Revenue Due to Pandemic: NPD

Pandemic lifestyles enabled consumer tech to generate $14 billion in “additional revenue” in 2020 compared with 2019, said Stephen Baker, NPD vice president-industry adviser, technology, told the virtual Techfluence conference. Big 2020 winners were do-it-yourself PCs, monitors, gaming, PC headsets and home networking equipment, he said Wednesday. Smart home, headphones and wireless power underperformed, he said. “Tech was in the right place at the right time” for lockdown orders, said Baker. It's “a mostly recessionary-proof business.” NPD thinks the consumer tech industry “will continue to see strong volumes for the next three years, regardless of the economic conditions,” he said. NPD estimates the industry finished Q4 with a 14% increase over the 2019 quarter, somewhat of a “slowdown” from Q2 and Q3, when stay-at-home restrictions peaked, said Baker: But the $14 billion in additional industry revenue in 2020 meant “certainly a historic year.”