Product and Service
Companies included in headset sector in personal items industry primarily design, manufacture, and sell stereo headphones for listening to music and communication/education.
Demand for Product and Service
As indicated by typical sales data, the demand for headphone products in US market has been solid while the growth may slow down due to shrinking profitability of companies. The demand for gaming headset has been weak due to poor performance in sale of new-gen gaming console.
The Sector
Sector’s Current, Trend, Causes behind trend, and Future
Current and Trend
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The demand, from gaming users, for headset products seems to have been weak and declining in the past three years.
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The demand, from US market, for headphone products of major manufacturers has been solid and growing gradually in the past three years primarily attributable to increase in sales to mass merchandise retail customers.
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The demand, from international market, for headphone products of major US manufacturers has been weak in the past three years.
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Increasing pressure on price resulted from slowing down growth in demand is hurting companies’ profitability.
Causes behind the trend
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The better performance of headphone products in US market has been supported by the strong demand from US consumers for listening to music and as well for education system. However, it is also related to changes in the whole climate of retail industry as indicated by those companies’ performance in different retail channels.
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The performance of gaming headset has been directly related to gaming console market, especially the sales of new-gen console.
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Competition, especially products from manufacturers in emerging market, may play an important role in determining situation of whole industry.
Industry Future
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Demand is supposed to be solid and grow for headset products. However, developing new products and market and controlling cost may be the keys for companies in this sector to deal with increasingly intensive competition.
