The Impact of Convergence on the Competitiveness of the European Consumer Electronics Industry

Consumer Electronics (CE) encompass all electronic hardware and software products and systems, fixed or mobile, intended for purchase by large numbers of private consumers, enabling them access to services, functions and content at their discretion. Today, the CE industry, as it goes rapidly digital, is in the midst of a new wave of change. The different worlds of television, telephone and data processing are beginning to share similar technologies and are starting to develop overlaps. This technological "convergence" spurs an array of other convergence moves in products, markets and businesses. This leaves industrial, commercial and public policy makers in Europe with three major questions: How is the CE product spectrum changing, with regard to services, usage and markets? How is the global structure of the CE industry changing and what effect could this have on corporate strategies in the European Union? Which public policies could be important in this context and what underlying research is needed? This article is constructed as to give an answer on the last question by means of answering the first two. In doing so, it offers state of the art knowledge, but the authors would like to stress that during their research one of the main problems they found is the lack of research on this topic