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TechGlobal 500

Here Are the Electronics You Want This Holiday Season

By
Don Reisinger
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By
Don Reisinger
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November 16, 2016, 2:22 PM ET
Apple 9.7-inch iPad Pro
Apple's 9.7-inch iPad Pro shown in a demo area after its March 21 special event. Jason Cipriani

The holiday shopping season is shaping up to be tech-heavy—and expensive.

Tablets will be the most popular electronic gift during the period with 29% of people surveyed saying they included it in their holiday wish lists, according to a survey released on Wednesday by SquareTrade, a company that sells third-party protection plans for gadgets. Smartphones came in at second place with 24%, followed by televisions at 22%.

Although that might be what people want this year, what Americans will actually give to their friends and family is somewhat different. According to SquareTrade, 37% say they’ll give tablets to friends and family, while 30% say they plan to buy headphones for that special someone. Another 28% of respondents plan to buy game consoles as gifts.

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Like every other holiday season, retailers are planning big discounts for Black Friday, Nov. 25, and Cyber Monday on Nov. 28 (here’s a handy list of tech deals for Black Friday). Electronics are typically among the more popular gift ideas, and according to SquareTrade, that will again be the case in 2016.

More than half of all Americans will buy at least one electronic gift this year, SquareTrade predicted, accounting for $75 billion in spending.

Still, it’s somewhat surprising that tablets are atop holiday shopping lists in 2016. After all, tablet sales have declined over the last couple of years as customers shift to buying touchscreen-equipped notebooks like the Lenovo Yoga and the Microsoft Surface Book, at least according to market researchers firms IDC and Gartner. SquareTrade didn’t mention touchscreen-enabled notebooks in its survey results.

For more about Apple’s iPhone 7, watch:

Apple, the tablet market leader, has acknowledged that it, too, is experiencing a slowdown in sales. But even in face of declining sales—iPad sales dropped 6% last quarter, alone—Apple predicts that the tablet market will rebound at some point in the future without saying exactly when.

SquareTrade’s survey, conducted in October, was based on nearly 1,800 respondents.

About the Author
By Don Reisinger
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