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June 10, 2008

U.S. Households Spend $1,400 Per Year on Consumer Electronics and Computers

According to Consumer Electronics Association the average U. S. household spent over $1400 on consumer electronics in the last twelve months. This included:
- televisions,
- MP3 players,
- computers,
- DVD players,
- cell phones,
For more information go to CE Daily News.

When I first read this, I thought the number was high. I know that I spend more than this amount each year, but electronics, particularly audio-video equipment are both a hobby and how I make my living.

But when I think about my friends that are not in the electronics business, many of them haven't purchased a new television in years, they don't have the latest cell phone or MP3 players. Most of them make a comfortable living, they could easily afford to buy more electronics stuff, but they don't. A few have bought new LCD or plasma televisions, but often these purchases were made because an old set broke.

This won't be scientific, but how much did you spend in the last twelve months on consumer electronics? I am curious. Don't include money spent for content or services, such as:
- cell or land line phone bills,
- cable or satellite bills,
- DVDs, video games.

Posted by Bob Gatton at June 10, 2008 6:12 AM

Comments

$3600 on a brand new apple laptop (pro) and the backup system that goes with it and and a new apple iphone a few months ago.

Posted by: maria starkey at June 11, 2008 7:46 AM

In the last year (from June 07 to June 08), our family of 7 (5 sons) has purchased one desktop computer over $1500 for the highest speed we could afford...trying to avoid another purchase in the near future as our kids get into using it more. We've also purchased a Nintendo DS, 2 Sony PSP's, an iPod nano and an iPod Classic. I suppose we are what you'd consider early adopters, and my middle school kids save everything they get from babysitting and grandma, etc. for their electronics, but that's a lot of dough. I wouldn't even try to tally up all the games they've bought and sold new and used. And they sold the DS and another older technology for the PSP's, so there you go. There are 7 of us, we make slightly more than average, but we love our electronics...so we spend more than average too. Maybe we've spent $2500? (We've talked before that if we had to, we'd give up cable before internet.) It wasn't a normal year for us though either. Our old computer died.

Posted by: FindInfo at June 11, 2008 8:46 AM

We have sepent at least $5,000 in the last 12 months! Probably more. With two teenage sons, one entering college Electronics seem to be key.
2 laptops, Xbox 360's, a 20"and a 22" monitor. 42" Lcd TV, Surround sound system. surround sound for desktop. New desktops X2. New cellphones. Mp3 vdeo players. The list goes on and on. More like $6-7000 if I did ALL the math. I stopped at $5000! Too depressing!

Posted by: Mark P. at June 11, 2008 11:37 AM

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