Impact of COVID-19 on the Consumer Electronics Market

Abstract

It is argued that without communication and modern digital electronics, many people would not be able to work during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Likewise, modern consumer technology is extremely dependent upon connectivity, processing, and memory/storage. With the general economic impact on many consumers,1 overall consumer technology sales will be down in 2020, but people are more dependent than ever before on their consumer devices to connect with others and continue (when they can) working at home. The reliance on web-based meetings, online education, and cloud-based services, in general, will increase as time goes on. After the pandemic ends, people will be more likely to participate in a virtual event and to look for virtual experiences to replace some physical experiences. This should drive increasing demand for bandwidth to support telepresence and virtual and augmented reality. This will also drive the consumer application and cloud-services industry.