Sales of nearly every category of consumer electronics drop

This article was originally published by Canadian Business.

It’s a really bad time to be a gadget maker, if the steady raft of poor sales reports is anything to go by.

The latest comes from analysis firm IDC, which found that tablet shipments declined 12.3% year-over-year in the April-to-June quarter. Apple increased its market share to 25.8% from 24.9%, but overall shipments declined to 10 million units from 11 million.

Read: Apple’s EU tax bill? More like 19B euros

The report comes just days after figures from Deloitte showing that so-called internet-of-things gadgets have flatlined in the United Kingdom. Just three per cent of British households own a smart thermostat, up from two per cent last year, while a similar two per cent own phone-controlled lights – the same amount as a year earlier.

Smartwatches are also on the decline, again according to IDC. Vendors shipped just 3.5 million units in the second quarter of 2016, down from 5.1 million.

And smartphones – the quintessentially important gadget of our age – are also on the downward swing. The market declined for the first time ever in the first quarter of 2016, according to IDC.

Put it all together and there are just about no markets that are growing for electronics makers. So what’s a big multinational company to do?

Apple is expected to refresh its iPhone line next week, and quite possibly its Watch as well, but that’s not likely going to do it. The gadget-buying public is clearly unenthused after more than a decade of conspicuous consumption that started in earnest with the iPod.

Read the full story at Canadian Business.

Also read: Blast from the past: first websites of 25 major businesses