A recent study by IBISWorld’s revealed that the Electronic and Computer Repair Services industry has declined during the recent five years. The increasing affordability of electronics and computers has prompted consumers and businesses to purchase new products rather than replace their existing equipment, and businesses and consumers typically have opted to purchase more advanced products and scrap damaged or outdated goods. In the five years to 2020, the computer repair industry will continue declining, albeit at a slower rate. New, technologically complex products will lead the way for increased computer repair demand. However, the industry will still suffer from declining trends, as electronics and computer products continue to decrease in price.
The largest industry segment is computer and office equipment repairs, generating an estimated 36.9% of total revenue. This category includes the repair and maintenance of computers and peripherals, photocopying machines, computer terminals, storage devices, printers and CD-ROM drives. Another service this segment performs is recycling inkjet cartridges, which is usually not a sufficient revenue-generating activity in itself. Most companies engage in this activity as an additional service to their computer repair and maintenance clients.
As a share of revenue, this segment has declined steadily in the past five years as a result of the trend to replace rather than repair computer and other electronic items (not including phones).
The study by IBISWorld’s stands in stark contrast to researches on the phone repair industry which has seen significant growth everywhere around the world. This is the case as more consumers use smartphones these days and dropping their gadgets and calling on a phone repair store has become more habitual than out of the blue.