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61-578: Highland Superstores was an American consumer electronics and home appliance chain. It was founded in 1933 as Highland Appliance by Harry Mondry in Highland Park, Michigan . By the end of the 1970s, the chain had 18 stores throughout the midwest with headquarters in Plymouth, Michigan . The chain went public in 1985 and had 84 stores, at which point it was the second-largest American electronics retailer behind Circuit City . Despite its number of locations,

122-554: A radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator , which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture and, therefore, mobile telephones are called cellular telephones or cell phones in North America. In addition to telephony , digital mobile phones ( 2G ) support

183-803: A communications protocol is a system of digital rules for data exchange within or between computers. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) trade show has taken place yearly in Las Vegas , Nevada since its foundation in 1973. The event, which grew from having 100 exhibitors in its inaugural year to more than 4,500 exhibiting companies in its 2020 edition, features the latest in consumer electronics, speeches by industry experts and innovation awards. The IFA Berlin trade show has taken place in Berlin , Germany since its foundation in 1924. The event features new consumer electronics and speeches by industry pioneers. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE),

244-423: A given price, semiconductor functionality doubles every two years. While consumer electronics continues in its trend of convergence , combining elements of many products, consumers face different purchasing decisions. There is an ever-increasing need to keep product information updated and comparable for the consumer to make an informed choice. Style, price, specification, and performance are all relevant. There are

305-490: A gradual shift towards e-commerce web-storefronts. Many products include Internet access using technologies such as Wi-Fi , Bluetooth , EDGE , or Ethernet . Products not traditionally associated with computer use (such as TVs or hi-fi equipment) now provide options to connect to the Internet or to a computer using a home network to provide access to digital content. The desire for high-definition (HD) content has led

366-407: A number of MOSFET integrated circuit (IC) chips, include various sensors that can be leveraged by pre-included and third-party software (such as a magnetometer , proximity sensors , barometer , gyroscope , accelerometer and more ), and support wireless communications protocols (such as Bluetooth , Wi-Fi , or satellite navigation ). In 2017, Greenpeace USA published a study of 17 of

427-529: A potential shift in attitudes to reuse and repair. With turnover of small household appliances high and costs relatively low, many consumers will throw unwanted electric goods in the normal dustbin, meaning that items of potentially high reuse or recycling value go to landfills. While more oversized items such as washing machines are usually collected, it has been estimated that the 160,000 tonnes of EEE in regular waste collections were worth £220   million. And 23% of EEE taken to Household Waste Recycling Centres

488-446: A result, the big players rely on global markets to achieve economies of scale. Even these companies sometimes have to cooperate with each other, for instance on standards, to reduce the risk of their investments. In supply chain management , there is much discussion on risks related to such aspects of supply chains as short product life cycles, high competition combined with cooperation, and globalization. The consumer electronics industry

549-579: A service on the software side. Consumerization has existed for many decades, as, for example, the consumerization of refrigeration occurred in the 1910s through 1950s. The consumerization of IT is believed to have been first regularly called by that term by Douglas Neal and John Taylor of the Leading Edge Forum in 2001; the first known published paper on this topic was published by the LEF in June 2004. The term

610-441: A single substrate using electrical connections between circuits within the chip itself. IC technology led to more advanced and cheaper consumer electronics, such as transistorized televisions, pocket calculators , and by the 1980s, affordable video game consoles and personal computers that regular middle-class families could buy. Starting in the 1980s with the compact disc and the introduction of personal computers, and until

671-591: A tiny fraction of disposable income , rising from 0.5   percent in the US in 1920, to about 2   percent in 1980. Yet the sequence of electrical and mechanical durables have altered the activities and experiences of households in America and Britain in the twentieth century. With the expansion of cookers, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, washing machines, radios, televisions, air conditioning, and microwave ovens, households have gained an escalating number of appliances. Despite

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732-413: A variety of other services , such as text messaging , MMS , email , Internet access , short-range wireless communications ( infrared , Bluetooth ), business applications, video games and digital photography . Mobile phones offering only those capabilities are known as feature phones ; mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones . A smartphone

793-763: A videocassette recorders (VCRs) consume more electricity during the course of a year in standby mode than when they are used to record or playback videos. Similar findings were obtained concerning satellite boxes , which consume almost the same amount of energy in "on" and "off" modes. A 2012 study in the United Kingdom, carried out by the Energy Saving Trust , found that the devices using the most power on standby mode included televisions, satellite boxes, and other video and audio equipment. The study concluded that UK households could save up to £86 per year by switching devices off instead of using standby mode. A report from

854-510: Is a portable device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems , which facilitate wider software , internet (including web navigation over mobile broadband ), and multimedia functionality (including music, video, cameras , and gaming ), alongside core phone functions such as voice calls and text messaging . Smartphones typically contain

915-605: Is a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics contributing $ 1.2   billion in revenues. Samsung Electronics has one of the highest R&D expenditure as a proportion of revenues in the industry and spent about $ 2.9   billion in 2003. Along with its competitors, Samsung Electronics is global and employs 88,000 people in 89 offices in 46 countries. Not including facilities in Korea, it has 24 manufacturing complexes, 40 distribution bases and 15 branches spread over all continents except Antarctica. Countries with manufacturing facilities include

976-441: Is argued that consumerization of IT embodies more than consumer IT diffusion, but a chance for considerable productivity gains. It "reflects how enterprises will be affected by, and can take advantage of, new technologies and models that originate and develop in the consumer space, rather than in the enterprise IT sector". The primary impact of consumerization is that it is forcing businesses, especially large enterprises, to rethink

1037-603: Is comparable across countries affects the extent of the gains from international integration. In addition, consumer preferences change over time to disturb existing patterns of behavior. A feature of some industries is that demand for variety increases as the market moves from first-time buying to replacement demand. A resource to further understand this idea of consumer preferences can be observed through Lizabeth Cohen's book titled, "A Consumers' Republic", "Only if we have large demands can we expect large production". The electronics industry, especially consumer electronics, emerged in

1098-402: Is in its 35th year. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society also have initiated a conference to research on next generation consumer electronics as Smart Electronics. The conference named IEEE Symposium on Smart Electronics Systems ( IEEE-iSES ) is on its 9th year. Electronics retailing is a significant part of the retail industry in many countries. In

1159-788: Is increasing interest in so-called Bring Your Own Device strategies, where individual employees can choose and often own the computers and/or smart phones they use at work. The Apple iPhone and iPad have been particularly important in this regard. Both products were designed for individual consumers, but their appeal in the workplace has been great. They have demonstrated that elements of choice, style and entertainment are now critical computer industry dimensions that businesses cannot ignore. Equally important, large enterprises have become increasingly dependent upon consumerized services as search, mapping, and social media. The capabilities of firms such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter are now essential components of many firm's marketing strategies. One of

1220-626: Is limited and energy intensive. Electronic waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. Many consumer electronics may contain toxic minerals and elements, and many electronic scrap components, such as CRTs , may contain contaminants such as lead , cadmium , beryllium , mercury , dioxins , or brominated flame retardants . Electronic waste recycling may involve significant risk to workers and communities and great care must be taken to avoid unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaking of materials such as heavy metals from landfills and incinerator ashes. However, large amounts of

1281-496: Is now used widely throughout the IT industry, and is the topic of numerous conferences and articles. One of the first articles was special insert in "The Economist" magazine on October 8, 2011. Later, Consumerization of IT has been used ambiguously. In an effort to structure the amorphous nature of the term, researchers suggested to take three distinct perspectives: an individual, organizational and market perspective. The technology behind

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1342-486: Is part of the wider electronics industry . In turn, the driving force behind the electronics industry is the semiconductor industry . For its first fifty years, the phonograph turntable did not use electronics; the needle and sound horn were purely mechanical technologies. However, in the 1920s, radio broadcasting became the basis of mass production of radio receivers . The vacuum tubes that had made radios practical were used with record players as well, to amplify

1403-616: Is said to support over 300 million Gmail accounts, while executing more than 1 billion searches per day. Supporting these consumer-driven volumes requires new levels of efficiency and scale, and this is transforming many traditional data center approaches and practices. Among the major changes are reliance on low cost, commodity servers , N+1 system redundancy, and largely unmanned data center operations. The associated software innovations are equally important in areas such as algorithms , artificial intelligence , and Big data . In this sense, consumerization seems likely to transform much of

1464-636: Is significant that the great success of the IBM PC in the first half of the 1980s was driven primarily by business markets. Business preeminence continued during the late 1980s and early 1990s with the rise of the Microsoft Windows PC platform. Meanwhile, other technology-based products, such as calculators , fax machines, and mobile phones , also had their origins in business markets, and only over time did they become dominated by high-volume consumer usage, as these products commoditized and prices fell. It

1525-467: Is the proliferation of personally owned IT at the workplace (in addition to, or even instead of, company-owned IT), which originates in the consumer market, to be used for professional purposes. This bring your own device trend has significantly changed corporate IT policies, as employees now often use their own laptops , netbooks , tablets , and smartphones on the hardware side, and social media , web conferencing , cloud storage , and software as

1586-620: Is the very embodiment of these aspects of supply chain management and related risks. While some of the supply and demand related risks are similar to such industries as the toy industry, the consumer electronics industry faces additional risks due to its vertically integrated supply chains. There are also numerous supply-chain-wide contextual risks that cut across the supply chain especially impacting companies with global supply chains. These include cultural differences in multinational operations, environmental risk, regulations risk, and exchange rate risk across multiple countries. Whether or not demand

1647-422: Is used to distinguish them from " white goods ", which are meant for housekeeping tasks, such as washing machines and refrigerators . In British English, they are often called brown goods by producers and sellers. In the 2010s, this distinction is absent in large big box consumer electronics stores , which sell entertainment, communication and home office devices, light fixtures and appliances, including

1708-513: Is used within some consumer electronics, such as mobile phones . This type of software may be embedded within the hardware of electronic devices. Some consumer electronics include software that is used on a personal computer in conjunction with electronic devices, such as camcorders and digital cameras , and third-party software for such devices also exists. Some consumer electronics adhere to protocols, such as connection protocols "to high speed bi-directional signals". In telecommunications ,

1769-553: The International Energy Agency in 2014 found that $ 80   billion of power is wasted globally per year due to inefficiency of electronic devices. Consumers can reduce unwanted use of standby power by unplugging their devices, using power strips with switches, or by buying devices that are standardized for better energy management, particularly Energy Star -marked products. A high number of different metals and low concentration rates in electronics means that recycling

1830-441: The ubiquity of these goods, their diffusion is not well understood. Some types of appliances diffuse more frequently than others. In particular, home entertainment appliances such as radio and television have diffused much faster than household and kitchen machines." Consumer electronics devices include those used for Increasingly consumer electronics products such as digital distribution of video games have become based on

1891-404: The 1980s and 1990s, followed by DVD players and Blu-ray players). Stores also sell smart light fixtures and appliances , digital cameras , camcorders , mobile phones , and smartphones . Some of the newer products sold include virtual reality head-mounted display goggles, smart home devices that connect home devices to the Internet , streaming devices, and wearable technology . In

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1952-520: The 2010s, most consumer electronics have become based on digital technologies. They have essentially merged with the computer industry in what is increasingly referred to as the consumerization of information technology . Some consumer electronics stores have also begun selling office and baby furniture . Consumer electronics stores may be " brick and mortar " physical retail stores, online stores, or combinations of both. Annual consumer electronics sales are expected to reach $ 2.9 trillion by 2020. It

2013-560: The 20th century and has become a global industry worth billions of dollars. Contemporary society uses all manner of electronic devices built-in automated or semi-automated factories operated by the industry. Most consumer electronics are built in China, due to maintenance cost, availability of materials, quality, and speed as opposed to other countries such as the United States. Cities such as Shenzhen have become important production centres for

2074-472: The US, Malaysia, China, India, and Hungary. The increase in popularity of such domestic appliances as ' white goods ' is a characteristic element of consumption patterns during the golden age of the Western economy. Europe's White Goods industry has evolved over the past 40 years, first by changing tariff barriers, and later by technical and demand shifts. The spending on domestic appliances has claimed only

2135-590: The United States, dedicated consumer electronics stores have mostly given way to big-box stores such as Best Buy , the largest consumer electronics retailer in the country, although smaller dedicated stores include Apple Stores , and specialist stores that serve, for example, audiophiles and exceptions, such as the single-branch B&H Photo store in New York City. Broad-based retailers, such as Walmart and Target , also sell consumer electronics in many of their stores. In April 2014, retail e-commerce sales were

2196-592: The bathroom type. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver . Later products included telephones , televisions , and calculators , then audio and video recorders and players, video game consoles , mobile phones , personal computers and MP3 players . In the 2010s, consumer electronics stores often sell GPS , automotive electronics ( vehicle audio ), video game consoles , electronic musical instruments (e.g., synthesizer keyboards), karaoke machines, digital cameras , and video players ( VCRs in

2257-1116: The chain began to experience financial troubles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1990, Highland hired an investment firm to decide the chain's future. At this point, it had also expanded into New York and Texas . Upon fierce competition in Texas , they left the area in 1991 and announced they would concentrate on keeping their remaining 50 stores in the Midwest . Highland filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 1992, and liquidated its last 30 stores in 1993. Consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital ) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment , communications and recreation . These products are usually referred to as black goods in American English, due to many products being housed in black or dark casings. This term

2318-432: The consumerization of computing can be said to have begun with the development of eight-bit, general-purpose microprocessors in the early 1970s and eventually the personal computer in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Thus, the microcomputer revolution , in which electronic computing moved from exclusively enterprise and government use to include personal computing , is the cardinal example of consumerization. However, it

2379-537: The earliest transistors at Bell led to transistor radios . This led to the emergence of the home entertainment consumer electronics industry starting in the 1950s, largely due to the efforts of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (now Sony ) in successfully commercializing transistor technology for a mass market, with affordable transistor radios and then transistorized television sets . Integrated circuits (ICs) followed when manufacturers built circuits (usually for military purposes) on

2440-426: The early 2000s, many consumer electronics devices such as televisions and stereo systems, were digitized: digital computer technology, and thus digital signals, were integrated into the operation of consumer electronics devices, drastically changing their operation but with improved results such as improved image quality in televisions. This was made possible by Moore's law . In 2004, the consumer electronics industry

2501-554: The highest in the consumer electronic and computer categories as well. Some consumer electronics retailers offer extended warranties on products with programs such as SquareTrade . An electronics district is an area of commerce with a high density of retail stores that sell consumer electronics. Consumer electronic service can refer to the maintenance of said products. When consumer electronics have malfunctions, they may sometimes be repaired. In 2013, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,

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2562-424: The increased popularity in listening to sound from analog audio devices, such as phonographs , as opposed to digital sound, has sparked a noticeable increase of business for the electronic repair industry there. A mobile phone , cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, or hand phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over

2623-523: The industry to develop a number of technologies, such as WirelessHD or ITU-T G.hn , which are optimized for distribution of HD content between consumer electronic devices in a home. The consumer electronics industry faces consumers with unpredictable tastes on the demand side, supplier-related delays or disruptions on the supply side, and production challenges occurring in the process. The high rate of technology evolution or revolution requires large investments without any guarantee of profitable returns. As

2684-548: The industry, attracting many consumer electronics companies such as Apple Inc. An electronic component is any essential discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form, and are not to be confused with electrical elements , conceptual abstractions representing idealized electronic components. Consumer electronics such as personal computers use various types of software. Embedded software

2745-526: The information assets accessed through these less trustworthy consumerized devices. In a recent CSOOnline article by Joan Goodchild she reported a survey that found "when asked what are the greatest barriers to enabling employees to use personal devices at work, 83 percent of IT respondents cited "security concerns" This shortcoming may soon be remedied by the chip manufacturers with technologies such as Intel 's "Trusted Execution Technology" and ARM 's "Trust Zone" —these technologies being designed to increase

2806-598: The internet and digital technologies. The consumer electronics industry has primarily merged with the software industry in what is increasingly referred to as the consumerization of information technology . One overriding characteristic of consumer electronic products is the trend of ever-falling prices. This is driven by gains in manufacturing efficiency and automation , lower labor costs as manufacturing has moved to lower-wage countries, and improvements in semiconductor design. Semiconductor components benefit from Moore's law , an observed principle which states that, for

2867-420: The most important consumerization questions going forward is to what extent such advertising-based services will spread into major corporate applications such as email , Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Intranets . One of the more serious negative implications of consumerization is that security controls have been slower to be adopted in the consumer space. As a result, there is an increased risk to

2928-431: The ones using electronics the most. "People who frequently use their thumbs to type text messages on cell phones can develop a painful affliction called De Quervain syndrome that affects their tendons on their hands. The best-known disease in this category is called carpal tunnel syndrome , which results from pressure on the median nerve in the wrist". Consumerization In a different sense, consumerization of IT

2989-403: The produced electronic waste from developed countries is exported, and handled by the informal sector in countries like India, despite the fact that exporting electronic waste to them is illegal. Strong informal sector can be a problem for the safe and clean recycling. E-waste policy has gone through various incarnations since the 1970s, with emphases changing as the decades passed. More weight

3050-573: The raw materials. The energy consumption of consumer electronics and their environmental impact, either from their production processes or the disposal of the devices, is increasing steadily. EIA estimates that electronic devices and gadgets account for about 10%–15% of the energy use in American homes – largely because of their number; the average house has dozens of electronic devices. The energy consumption of consumer electronics increases – in America and Europe – to about 50% of household consumption if

3111-442: The sound so that it could be played through a loudspeaker . Television was soon invented but remained insignificant in the consumer market until the 1950s. The first working transistor , a point-contact transistor , was invented by John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain at Bell Labs in 1947, which led to significant research in the field of solid-state semiconductors in the early-1950s. The invention and development of

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3172-881: The stigma for some of owning second-hand goods. But the benefits of reuse could allow lower-income households access to previously unaffordable technology while helping the environment at the same time. Desktop monitors and laptops produce major physical health concerns for humans when bodies are forced into unhealthy and uncomfortable positions to see the screen better. From this, neck and back pains and problems increase, commonly referred to as repetitive strain injuries . Using electronics before going to bed makes it difficult for people to fall asleep, hurting human health. Sleeping less prevents people from performing to their full potential physically and mentally and can also "increase rates of obesity and diabetes", which are "long-term health consequences". Obesity and diabetes are more commonly seen in students and in youth because they tend to be

3233-418: The term is redefined to include home appliances such as refrigerators , dryers , clothes washers and dishwashers . Standby power – used by consumer electronics and appliances while they are turned off – accounts for 5–10% of total household energy consumption, costing $ 100 annually to the average household in the United States. A study by United States Department of Energy 's Berkeley Lab found that

3294-412: The trustworthiness of both enterprise and consumer devices. In addition to the mass market changes above, consumer markets are now changing large-scale computing as well. The giant data centers that have been and are being built by firms such as Google, Apple , Amazon and others are far larger and generally much more efficient than the data centers used by most large enterprises. For example, Google

3355-697: The way they procure and manage IT equipment and services. Historically, central IT organizations controlled the great majority of IT usage within their firms, choosing or at least approving of the systems and services that employees used. Consumerization enables alternative approaches. Today, employees and departments are becoming increasingly self-sufficient in meeting their IT needs. Products have become easier to use, and cloud-based , software-as-a-service offerings are addressing an ever-widening range of business needs in areas such as video-conferencing , digital imaging , business collaboration , sales force support, systems back-up , and other areas. Similarly, there

3416-596: The world's largest professional society, has many initiatives to advance the state of the art of consumer electronics. IEEE has a dedicated society of thousands of professionals to promote CE, called the Consumer Electronics Society (CESoc). IEEE has multiple periodicals and international conferences to promote CE and encourage collaborative research and development in CE. The flagship conference of CESoc, called IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE),

3477-438: The world's leading consumer electronics companies about their energy and resource consumption and the use of chemicals. Electronic devices use thousands rare metals and rare earth elements (40 on average for a smartphone ), these material are extracted and refined using water and energy-intensive processes. These metals are also used in the renewable energy industry meaning that consumer electronics are directly competing for

3538-417: Was gradually placed on the need to dispose of e-waste more carefully due to the toxic materials it may contain. There has also been recognition that various valuable metals and plastics from waste electrical equipment can be recycled for other uses. More recently, the desirability of reusing whole appliances has been foregrounded in the 'preparation for reuse' guidelines. The policy focus is slowly moving towards

3599-490: Was immediately resaleable – or would be with minor repairs or refurbishment. This indicates a lack of awareness among consumers about where and how to dispose of EEE and the potential value of things that are going in the bin. For the reuse and repair of electrical goods to increase substantially in the UK, some barriers must be overcome. These include people's mistrust of used equipment in terms of whether it will be functional, safe and

3660-462: Was the growth of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s that began to reverse this pattern. In particular the rise of free, advertising-based services such as email and search from companies such as Hotmail and Yahoo began to establish the idea that consumer IT offerings based on a simple Internet browser were often viable alternatives to traditional business computing approaches. Meanwhile, it

3721-508: Was worth US$ 240   billion annually worldwide comprising visual equipment, audio equipment , and games consoles . It was truly global with Asia Pacific having 35% market share, Europe having 31.5%, the US having 23%, and the rest of the world having the rest. Major players in this industry are household names like Sony, Samsung, Philips, Sanyo, and Sharp. Samsung Electronics is part of Samsung . In 2003, combined revenues for Samsung Electronics were $ 55   billion. Samsung Electronics UK

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