By Madelaine B. Miraflor Las Vegas, Nevada — As technology moves even faster to improve the lives of the people, the world's largest economy is seen to yield record-breaking numbers when it comes to its consumer technology industry. Based on a new research of Consumer Technology Association (CTA), excitement about emerging technologies and the resilience of historically leading categories will drive the United States' consumer technology industry to a record-breaking $351 billion in retail revenues in 2018, 3.9 percent higher than 2017 numbers. "Technology is improving our lives in more ways than ever – and consumer enthusiasm is growing just as quickly as companies can bring their innovations to market," said CTA president and chief executive officer Gary Shapiro. Unveiled at the on-going Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018, the latest edition of CTA's semi-annual industry report — the US Consumer Technology Sales and Forecasts — includes for the first time a projection for consumer spending on music and video streaming services – valued at $19.5 billion in revenue, 35 percent higher than just last year. CTA added streaming services sales — which include Internet-enabled services that deliver on-demand or linear video content like Netflix and on-demand audio content like Spotify and Apple Music — to better capture the full expanse of the ever evolving and expanding consumer technology market. Excluding the addition of streaming services, total industry revenue would increase by 2.2 percent in 2018. "Our forecast incorporates several key economic factors including a strong stock market, continued job growth and stable rules for international trade to forecast these record-setting sales for breakthrough technologies and longtime market leaders alike," Shapiro said. "And the driving themes of 2018, including voice computing, artificial intelligence and connectivity that make our lives better and more efficient, will be on display across the show floor this week at CES 2018," he added. CTA is the nation's largest tech trade association. Its semi-annual report serves as a benchmark for the US consumer technology industry, charting the size and growth of underlying product categories. The CTA consensus forecast reflects US factory sales-to-dealers for more than 300 consumer tech products. Overall, US sales of connected devices are projected to reach 715 million units in 2018, a 6.6 percent increase year-over-year. Specific products projected to contribute significantly to this growth include smart speakers, smart home, drones, virtual reality (VR) units, and health and fitness wearables. Coming off of a tremendous 2017 holiday season, voice-controlled smart speakers, including Amazon Echo and Google Home, are on the rise. Unit sales increased 279 percent in 2017 and CTA projects 2018 unit sales will reach 43.6 million units (60 percent increase) and earn $3.8 billion in revenue (93 percent growth). As voice recognition technology is integrated into more speakers at a variety of price points, smart speakers is a category to watch in 2018. The popularity of smart speakers will then have a ripple effect on the smart home market, as consumers discover the benefits of voice-activated home automation. CTA expects sales in the category — including smart thermostats, smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, IP/Wi-Fi cameras, smart locks and doorbells, smart home systems, and smart switches, dimmers and outlets — to reach 40.8 million units in 2018 (41 percent increase over 2017), earning $4.5 billion (34 percent increase).