U.S. holiday consumer tech sales fall 5.7 pct: NPD

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. consumer technology sales fell 5.7 percent in the holiday season, research group NPD said on Tuesday, as a bad economy and the lack of a hot product combined to keep shoppers on the sidelines.

Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, called it "by far" the worst holiday season since the group began keeping track earlier this decade.

Consumer technology sales at brick-and-mortar stores fell 8.1 percent to $7.5 billion in the five weeks that ended December 27, while online sales rose 7.1 percent to $1.7 billion.

Four out of the five holiday weeks saw sales declines, including a 24 percent drop during the week of Christmas, NPD said.

Baker said consumers, already feeling the pinch of a recession, saw no must-have device to pull them into stores.

"Not only was there not a really hot product, not only did the economy tell people that they shouldn't buy stuff, but the stuff I have, more than good enough in most cases."

Liquid crystal display televisions were the top consumer technology category in the holiday season, with revenue up 12 percent and units rising 24 percent.

The No. 2 category was notebook personal computers. Although unit sales rose 13 percent, revenue was flat as average selling prices dropped to $610 from $692.

Sales of MP3 music players continued to decline, with units falling 3 percent and revenue dropping 12 percent. Meanwhile, digital cameras saw a unit decline of 9 percent and a 21 percent drop in revenue, as the average price dipped to $129.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)