The US consumer electronics devices market, defined as the addressable market for computing devices, mobile handsets and AV products, is projected to be worth around US$239.4 billion in 2011, according to new data from Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com). And that's good news for Apple.

What's more, the market is expected to increase to US$276.6 billion by 2015 at a CAGR of 3.0%, driven by premium TV sets, smartphones and notebooks. And that's even better news for Apple.

The research group forecasts US computer hardware sales of US$144.8 billion in 2011. CAGR [compound annual growth rate] for the 2011-2015 period will be about 2.5%, but multimedia and entertainment notebooks are growth areas. Computer sales grew strongly in 2010, boosted by a revival of the business market. And the Mac is outgrowing the computer industry as a whole. By more than six times, per the latest data from the IDC research group (http://www.idc.com).

Research and Markets projects the market is on course for total computer sales of around 90 million in 2011. Notebooks remain the largest product category but face competition from the smartphones of Apple, HTC, RIM and other vendors as well as tablet notebooks, spearheaded by Apple's iPad.
Total US market handset sales are expected to grow to around 160 million units in 2015, according to Research and Markets. With an increasingly saturated US market, handset revenues will be driven by emerging product areas such as smartphones, touchscreen phones and HD camera phones.

Smartphones will be a key growth area and are forecast to account for more than 50% of the US market handset sales for the first time in 2011, with Android models the fastest growing handset market segment. But the iPhone won't be far behind.

-- Dennis Sellers