Income distribution—the relative income shares of the rich and the poor—usually changes so slowly that it can be ignored in product planning. But electronics manufacturers that ignore it now risk being trapped in the middle when market growth is predominantly at both ends. The bulge at the top of the income distribution is the result of very skewed income growth in the fastest-growing economies, especially those of the U.S. and China. The bulge at the bottom is less obvious in national statistics, but it is very clear when you take a worldwide view. It results from electronic product price reductions that have made several billion people potential buyers of stripped-down, basic electronic products.
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