Aside: Holiday Season Estimated Electronics Sales Up 6.5% to $8.75 Billion Through December 23

[Author's note: the HTML in this document is allowing a large blank space before the table that can be seen a little further down. If anyone has a way of fixing it, please let me know. -BK]

Source The NPD Group as reported by Doug Olenick of TWICE magazine on 2 January 2007 (http://www.twice.com/article/CA6403572.html?nid=2402 accessed 3 January 2007)

Overall Christmas season sales grew 6.5 percent to $8.75 billion. According to NPD's point-of-sale data, $8.75 billion was spent from Thanksgiving week through Dec. 23. This year's increase was lower then the 10 percent increase posted during the 2005 season, according to NDP.

The top five selling categories for the year were LCD TVs, digital cameras, notebook computers, MP3 players and plasma TVs. Navigation systems did not break into the top five, but were the fastest growing category at retail, with revenue increasing 143 percent and unit shipments up 309 percent. Other big winners were external hard drives, digital cables and USB flash drives, said NDP. Interestingly enough, these data end on December 23, the last day of Hanukkah this year. Even the Miracle on 34th Street alludes to the crush of sales right up to store closings on December 24, not to mention the after Christmas sales. Scroll down to see the table if it is not visible:

Category	Dollar Volume	Dollar Share of Total	Unit Growth 2005 vs. 2006	Dollar Growth 2005 vs. 2006	Average Selling Price 2005	Average Selling Price 2006
LCD TVs	$924 million	11%	124%	109%	$738	$689
Digital Still Cameras	$828 million	9.5%	19%	2%	$214	$183
Notebook Computers	$813 million	9%	59%	26%	$979	$777
MP3 Players	$719 million	8%	56%	45%	$152	$140
Plasma TVs	$393 million	4.5%	95%	29%	$2,400	$1,582

Source: The NPD Group

The Consumer Electronics Industries comes out with its sales estimates within a few days, if history is a guide. On yet another aside, Hanukkah gift sales are difficult to find, and business writer Carol Carter of allbusiness.com wrote in her blog that she couldn't even find any online promotions for Hanukkah gift sales other than Wal-Mart (Source: www.allbusiness.com accessed January 2007.) I guess that just adds to the Colbert Nation's "protest against the assault on Christmas".