In 2005, sales of consumer electronics were $125.9 billion, up 11 percent over 2004, according to the CEA. The figure beat the association’s original forecast of $122 billion.

CEA attributes much of the growth in 2005 to next-generation product lines, flat-panel displays, MP3 devices and gaming consoles and software. “Consumer electronics sales are consistently growing, breaking records every year, because our industry is constantly changing to provide products that consumers love and can't live without,” said Gary Shapiro, CEA's president and CEO, in a statement.

CEA projects that sales of digital televisions (DTVs) will surpass $23 billion and 18 million units in 2006. DTV sales in 2005 grew 60 percent to $17 billion.

Analog and digital LCD TVs combined for $3 billion and four million units. Plasma TVs sold nearly two million units for a total of $4 billion in dollar sales. High-definition television (HDTV) continues to claim 85 percent of the total DTV market.

Launches of next-generation gaming consoles will continue throughout early 2006, pushing the gaming market to $14 billion. The gaming category experienced healthy growth in 2005 with total shipment revenues of $12 billion.

CEA also forecasts a continued strong market for MP3 players. "We are projecting an increase in sales of MP3 players to $4.5 billion in 2006, with 30 percent of all MP3 players sold having video playback capability," said Sean Wargo, director of industry analysis for the CEA. "MP3 technology helped boost the audio and accessories markets in 2005. With the introduction of video playback capability, MP3 player sales surged 200 percent in 2005 to $3 billion. Trends in 2006 should be no different."

CEA is predicting that total wireless handset sales will exceed $16 billion in factory-to-dealer sales this year. Some 104 million wireless handsets were sold in 2005 for a total of $13.5 billion.