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US consumer electronics devices market to touch $239.4 bn this year
MUMBAI: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the ‘United States Consumer Electronics Report Q4 2011 report to their offering.
The US consumer electronics devices market, defined as the addressable market for computing devices, mobile handsets and AV products, is projected to be worth around $239.4 billion in 2011. This is expected to increase to $276.6 billion by 2015 at a CAGR of three per cent, driven by premium TV sets, smartphones and notebooks.
Computers BMI forecasts US PC hardware sales of $144.8 billion in 2011. CAGR for the 2011-2015 period will be about 2.5 per cent, but multimedia and entertainment notebooks are growth areas.
US PC sales grew strongly in 2010, boosted by a revival of the business market. BMI projects the market is on course for total PC sales of around 90 billion in 2011. Notebooks remain the largest product category but face competition from the smartphones of RIM Apple, HTC and other vendors as well as tablet notebooks spearheaded by Apple‘s iPad.
Mobile Handsets: Total US market handset sales are expected to grow to around 160 million units in 2015. With an increasingly saturated US market, handset revenues will be driven by emerging product areas such as smartphones, touch screen phones and HD camera phones. Smartphones will be a key growth area and are forecast to account for more than 50 per cent of the US market handset sales for the first time in 2011, with Android models the fastest growing handset market segment. As new long-term evolution (LTE) networks began to come online, this should boost replacement handset purchases.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
