Pandemic, war, chip shortage: yet the electronic gadget market is growing

Every living human being will buy at least one electronic device in 2022. Actually the estimates collected by Statista are more precise: 8.947 billion pieces will be sold, while the Earth’s population reaches 7.753 billion people, so the ratio is 1, 11. The market will grow slightly, 1.82 percent, but in times of pandemics, war and chip shortages, that is not at all obvious. And yet the proposals are not lacking, indeed never before as now the market is in turmoil, also to seize the new opportunities of returning to a normality that no one hopes to be the same as before. And therefore: hybrid work, home entertainment, increasingly immersive communication, powerful and easy-to-use devices, and in general a new sense of confidence in the possibilities of technology.

In the computer, for example, returned to the core after years of continuous expansion of tablets. But even in the tablet, which increasingly are real computers. So on the one hand Microsoft experiments on design with the Surface Laptop Studio, capable of tilting in different ways depending on use, and Apple launches the Mac Studio, the most powerful desktop in its history, which however is not the largest nor the more expensive. On the other, Lenovo and Samsung are focusing on very powerful tablets but equipped with keyboard, stylus and 5G connection.
And then the magic word: ecosystem. Which means the ability to easily switch from one device to another, finding a familiar interface. Apple wins, for the unrepeatable combination of hardware, software and services, which has been one of its strengths for years, but Samsung, Honor, Lenovo, Realme, Microsoft and others are making great strides forward, despite the difficulty of reconciling profoundly different operating systems such as Windows and Android.
Manufacturers that until yesterday had only smartphones in their catalog, today offer at least one laptop (and in many cases have presented it in Barcelona). After all, with documents increasingly on the cloud, ubiquitous wi-fi and built-in cellular connectivity, a PC can also be seen as a grown-up smartphone, to be used first for work or study, then also for business. leisure and communication.

Between 2020 and 2021, in Italy the consumer electronics market grew 21 percent, a record. Computers push purchases, especially for teleworking and distance learning, but the smartphone they held up well, also because many thought it was time to change phones and switch to 5G, which is increasingly widespread even outside the major centers. That the times are ripe must also have thought of it in Cupertino, where they have recently presented the iPhone SE 5G, the third generation of the cheapest smartphone from Apple: under the old-fashioned design hides a very powerful processor and the 5G connection.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​where fifth generation networks had been talked about for some time, the focus this year was more on companies than on consumer users.

Yet, among the stands, RealMe, Xiaomi, Honor, TCL, Oppo and others all exhibited very recent devices, with first-rate photographic compartments and often with very fast charging systems. Here too, 5G connection is a must, even at entry level prices.