Consumer electronics

Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, communications, and recreation. Historically, these products were referred to as "black goods" in American English due to many products being housed in black or dark casings. This term 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 because they were historically housed in wooden cases. Since the 2010s, this distinction has been absent in big box consumer electronics stores, whose inventories include entertainment, communication, and home office devices, as well as home appliances. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver. Later products included telephones, televisions, calculators, cameras, video game consoles, mobile phones, personal computers, and MP3 players. In the 2010s, consumer electronics stores often sold GPS, automotive electronics (vehicle audio), video game consoles, electronic musical instruments such as synthesizer keyboards, karaoke machines, digital cameras, and video players. Such video playing equipment included VCRs in the 1980s and 1990s, and eventually DVD players and Blu-ray players. Stores also sold smart light fixtures, network devices, camcorders, and smartphones. Some of the modern products being sold include virtual reality goggles, smart home devices that connect to the Internet, streaming devices, and wearable technology. In the 2010s, most consumer electronics were based on digital technologies and increasingly merged with the computer and video game industry, in a trend often referred to as the consumerization of information technology. Some consumer electronics stores also began selling office and baby furniture. Consumer electronics stores may be physical "brick and mortar" retail stores, online stores, or combinations of both. Annual consumer electronics sales...