Home Theater and HiFi demand hits a new 20 year Low !!

[mav]

Hello Folks,

Came across this article on whathifi. The way cost of AVRs and speakers is going up with each day its no surprise that demand is going down like never before. guess its somewhat like the real estate scenario in Mumbai

Headphones thrive while consumer electronics sales slump | whathifi.com

 

[sidvee]

This article pertains only to the UK market, hardly, iMO a reflection of what is happening in the rest of world, unless the British still think that the sun does not set on their empire:lol:
Cheers,
Sid

 

[haisaikat]

In my opinion as costs are going up so is the income of the people. But what may be affecting the sales is most probably the mobile nature of life. Nowadays many people keep changing their work locations frequently and hence to them a laptop is more preferable than a desktop and so a mobile entertainment center to them is more useful than a bulky home theater. Many from the working class stay in rented apartments away from home and hence do not indulge in setting up a dedicated HT which will only add to their migration burden in future.

With the advent of personal all in one devices like mobile phones or tablets users are more likely to invest in headphones or at most speaker docks with loads of downloaded / shareable media to watch / listen at their leisure. This has taken away the market share from walkmans or portable disc players.

Again correct me if I am wrong the majority of the HT market (low end to high end) are sold in big cities only where people have more idea of this from demos they see in malls or friends / relatives place and that too I believe is limited to natives / permanent residents mostly.

 

[Kannan]

Home Theater concept has taken a differene dimension. A so called home theater setup is available for as low as Rs. 2500 excluding the display.

A decent HT costs under 10K which more than satisfies the average user.

Further the younger generation is happy with their mp3's via their mobile phones or portable mo3 players.

It is only for the discerning person that the quality of music/movie matters and who hunts around for quality.

So the generalisation that the demand has come down is not very accurate.

Also the global economic meldown has defenitely touched some portions of the family budgets and has indeed contributed to slowdown in every business.

 

[BLASTO]

^^^ Adding to the above, for the population in tier 2 cities, it is easier to go to movie theatres than to get the HT right without demo.
Unless maintaining HT is a hobby, its a costly affair than to go watch a movie in the theatres.