On the flip side, among the biggest losers were the utilities and consumer goods industries, which led the pack in 2011.

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"The fact you can pack more technology into different consumer electronics devices, on an unrelenting and steady pace defined by Moore's Law, means there will always be another gee-whiz gadget that will intoxicate, " says IDC analyst Crawford Del Prete.

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"While we hope that other companies do not follow suit, history has shown us they adopt a pack mentality on pricing, " said Audrey Gallacher, of watchdog Consumer Focus.

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"The likes of Tesco, Carrefour and Metro would see themselves as chasing hard in the pack behind Wal-Mart, " said Richard Lloyd-Owen, Deloitte's head of consumer business.

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"We have spent months designing, engineering and testing a complete juice pack family of products, dialing in the details to make the user experience flawless from the moment the consumer puts the case on their iPhone 5, " said Ross Howe, vice president of marketing at mophie.

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