That’s a lot of tech – Consumer electronics to hit all-time high of $223.2 billion in 2015

It’s the beginning of the year and that’s a pretty good time for predictions about where the tech industry is going to go. Our usual approach involves a crystal ball, a Ouija board and possible a small goat so we tend to leave the speculation to professional speculators, like the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), who have analysts and figures and things that make sense in the real world.

And the CEA have said, via their semi-annual The U.S. Consumer Electronics Sales and Forecasts report, that the consumer electronics industry is set to have a bumper year. Though their forecast for 2015, which pegs overall sales of consumer electronics (TVs, drones, 3D printers and anything else you can buy and have shipped to your home) for the year at $223.2 billion (around R2.6 trillion, if we have our conversions right), is limited to the States, that’s a record-setting year by anyone’s standards.

And that’s just what it’ll be, according to the folks at CEA. A 3% increase is expected in the consumer electronics sphere in 2015, bringing us to the total mentioned above. Emerging technology is expected to see marked growth, in the region of a 108% increase over 2014. That’s good news, as drones, 3D printers, UHD TVs, items like the Nest and other connected home devices all fall under that banner.

As do wearables, but those little wrist-puters are expected to see growth of their own, up 133% in terms of revenue and with 61% more units being shipped this year. That’s over 30 million wearables expected to hit the market in 2015, we’re sure that Apple will make up a decent chunk of those.

Smartphones are expected to hit the 169.3 million shipped mark in the States this year, tablets come in at 80.7 million units shipped and both categories are projected to make more cash for their creators in 2015. Another item that is expected to perform well is the (not so) humble 4K TV, though overall TV sales are apparently going to take a slight knock. Even with that slight downer, 2015 is looking like a fantastic year in tech already and we’re only a week in. Hang about, we’ll be bringing you all the news and probably a lot of confirmation of the CEA’s report throughout the year.