Invest in Finland

Growing demand for home electronics and appliances in Finland

21/08/2008

Finland’s love affair with electronic devices shows no sign of cooling off, judging by the latest report from Kotek, a forum producing independent analysis of the Finnish home electronics sector.

Statistics collected by Kotek for the first half of 2008 show that the sales of home electronics and domestic appliances in Finland increased by 11% compared to the same period last year, reaching a total of almost EUR 1 billion. “

The signs are still pointing to positive development for all the product groups,” says Timo Laatikainen, the chairperson of Kotek, in the upbeat report. 

Continuing strong demand for flat panel televisions and digital set top boxes maintained home entertainment as the fastest growing product group in the sector. The sales of flat panel televisions increased by an impressive 54%,  with LCD televisions dominating the market. Many households also purchased their second or third digital set-top box, which increased the number of boxes sold in the first half of the year by 46%. Other popular products were navigators which recorded a 77%  increase in sales and mpeg4 players with a 211% increase. The sales value of MPEG4 players is now almost double that of mp3 music players.

More than 940,000 mobile phones were sold during the first six months of the year, representing a 14% increase on the same period last year. Significantly, about a quarter of these were smartphones, many of which were purchased by companies for their employees. Pietikäinen believes that more and more Finns will be using smartphones in the coming years, which will also create demand for many new mobile services.

Digital cameras recorded a 12% growth, partly reflecting the huge popularity of websites like FaceBook and YouTube, where users are uploading their own images and videos. Kotek also reports that the sales volume of the large home appliances increased steadily by 5% , reaching a total sales value of EUR 220 million. The most popular items were refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers.

While there are fears that consumer purchasing power may be weakening globally, it seems that Finnish consumers are still shopping vigorously for the latest and coolest home electronics.

Source: www.kotek.fi