Headphones boom thanks to Bluetooth

As documented by the Gesellschaft für Unterhaltungselektronik in its "HEMIX" figures, the headphone market was able to grow significantly, primarily due to the increase in average prices (+40 % compared to 2018). The reason for this is the increasingly popular Bluetooth headphones, especially the "True Wireless In-ears". The exact opposite is true of the "Connected Audio" category, in which GfK summarizes all complete systems suitable for streaming, from network-compatible mini systems to smart speakers à la Amazon Echo. The latter are likely to be responsible for the drastic fall in prices in this category (average price 47% down on the prior year). On the other hand, sales in this secotr also rose by 32 %. The numbers and prices of simple Bluetooth speakers remained fairly constant – a genre that has been one of the shooting stars in recent years. Classic loudspeakers, to which GfK also includes soundbars, increased by 9 % in terms of unit sales, while sales of individual hi-fi components fell by a good 6 %. Smartphones have long since passed their zenith, but were still sold an incredible 22 million times in one year in Germany. With Smart Watches, Fitness Trackers & Co., the industry sold a proud 38 % more than in the previous year. In 2019, desktop PCs apparently benefited from the approaching end of support for Windows 7 and were sold about one million times (+9 %). Sales of notebooks and tablets remained largely constant.

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