Are electronics necessary?

It seems to me that one thing that will emerge from the current economic downturn is some idea of how deeply certain technologies have wormed their way into our everyday lives.

Although the current traditional wisdom is that all electronics sales will suffer as people have less disposable income, it will be interesting to see which technologies hold up best. My guess is that cell phones and televisions will do OK because they are viewed as necessities. Few people faced with replacing their phone or TV would decide to do without. However trading in an iPod for one with more storage or new features might not be as popular in hard times.

There are some fringe technologies that won't do so well, I think. Among these are Blu-Ray players and satellite radio. They are looked on as things we can do without.

There are some who say that entertainment goods always do well in a downturn because when people have less money they like to treat themselves with relatively inexpensive items like music CDs or DVDs. That remains to be seen.

In any case, it will be interesting to see how things shake out -- which items have turned from gadgets into necessities.