Japan Electronic and Information Technology Association (JEITA) announced that shipments of consumer electronics (CE) reached 328.0 billion yen in December 2004.

December shipments increased 15% year-on-year, for the thirteenth straight month of growth. Full-year shipments in 2004 rose 13.1% compared to 2003, to 2.3762 trillion yen.

Among consumer products surveyed by JEITA, DVD recorders with built-in hard disc drives (HDD) grew most in 2004. HDD/DVD recorder shipments skyrocketed 141.9% compared to the previous year, to 3.178 million units, accounting for 78% of overall DVD recorder shipments. Overall DVD recorder shipments also hiked 107.5% to 4.071 million units.

LCD TVs with 10-inch and larger displays posted the second largest growth next to HDD/DVD recorders, with shipments soaring 94.5% to 2.406 million units. Overall LCD TV shipments also increased 73.9% to 2.665 million units, constituting about 30% of overall color TV shipments. BS digital-compatible PDP TVs grew favorably as well, posting a 52.9% rise to 313,000 units. Overall PDP TV shipments also increased 42.3% compared to the previous year to 340,000 units. PDP TVs make up only about 4% of overall color TV shipments, though. Shipments of terrestrial digital broadcast-supporting televisions (including CRT, LCD and PDP TVs) reached 1.6 million units in 2004, approximately 18% of overall color TV shipments.

The third largest growth was marked by HDD car navigation systems. Shipments rose 73.1% compared to the preceding year to 911,000 units, providing about 26% of overall car navigation systems. Among car electronics excluding car navigation systems, automobile TV shipments increased 13.6% to 1.18 million units, although shipments decreased across car audio systems, compared to the previous year.

Unlike remarkably solid performance of video products, sluggishness continued across audio products, which lacked a powerful sales driver. CD players dropped 24.3% to 1.391 million units, while MD players also fell 8.8% to 2.957 million units.

From NE Asia Online