Smartphone sales took business away from standalone devices during the holiday

Thanks to the popularity of smartphones, sales of electronics like standalone cameras, camcorders and GPS devices dropped 5.9% in the U.S. during the holiday season. That comes from research firm NPD Group whose report also noted that Stateside sales of all electronics hit $9.5 billion in the 5 weeks to December 24th. That is a slightly better performance than last year when sales dropped 6.2% from the prior year.

As far as smartphone sales are concerned, Canadian financial firm Canaccord Genuity is predicting that sales of 30.1 million Apple iPhone units took place during the holiday quarter. a 31% rise sequentially from the calendar third quarter. The prediction for Android devices is that 68.9 million will have been sold in the same period, a sequential rise of 17.3%.

Because smartphones generally have a camera (or two), camcorder functions, a music player, and GPS features, it wouldn't be such a surprise to see standalone sales of cameras, camcorders, MP3 players and GPS devices drop as smartphone sales rise. During those 5 weeks up to Xmas Eve, sales of camcorders dropped 43%, digital picture frames by 38% and GPS devices by 33%. Down 21% in sales were both MP3 players and "point and shoot" cameras.

Sales of two other electronic devices that don't have features that directly compete with a smartphone held up better with PC and TV sales off just 4% during the 2011 holiday season. Desktop PC sales were off 2% with laptops down 5%. The average price of PCs rose to $575 for a $9 increase as retailers have continued a new trend to raise computer prices during the holiday season.

source: NPDGroup via AppleInsider