BRIC Consumers Plan to Spend Big on Consumer Electronics

As adoption of many consumer technologies reaches maturity in traditional markets such as the United States and Europe, emerging markets are becoming increasingly important to the consumer electronics industry.

It is in the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, where the latest edition of Accenture’s annual consumer electronics report finds reason to be optimistic about the industry’s future growth prospects.

Accenture’s report is based on a quantitative online survey among more than 11,000 consumers across 11 countries including the United States, Germany and the BRIC nations among others. The results show that, in terms of personal electronics, consumers from China, Brazil, Russia and India significantly outspent their counterparts from the United States and other traditional markets in 2012. Moreover, BRIC consumers reported very optimistic purchase plans for 2013 as well. While the American respondents on average expect to spend $970 on consumer electronics this year, Chinese respondents plan to spend $1,489.

It should be noted though, that the results are probably biased, as China’s rural population is very unlikely to complete an online survey, much less spend $1,489 on consumer electronics. The trend is clear though: consumers from emerging markets are hungry for technology and willing to shell out a lot of money for personal gadgets.