12 Volt Tidbits

By Bill Damsky

Older Customers Expected in Consumer Electronics
Baby boomers born between 1946 and 1954 are more than a quarter of the population (28%) and they own 77% of all financial assets. Products like tablet PCs, cellphones or “communications and engagement products” will become a $20 billion business by 2020, says Investor Business Daily. CE suppliers are taking note and starting to target older consumers as the first baby boomers begin to turn 65.

Should you go after an older demographic? Note that Audiovox entered the “hearing aid” (personal sound amplifier) market at CES.

Souce: Investors Business Daily via CEA Smartbrief

Clarion Facebook, Twitter Promos

Clarion said it will get aggressive this year about contests and giveaways on its new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ClarionUSA and twitter http://twitter.com/Clarionusa.

Earthquake TD5X Ships Tuesday

Earthquake Sound starts shipping Tuesday a 3000 watt max, 5-channel amplifier, that it’s been working on for more than a year and a half.

The TD5X is rated at 4 by 100 watts RMS and 1 by 400 watts RMS.  It has a low profile heat sink, and it has an auto sensing feature so installers can choose to forgo snaking a remote antenna wire. The amp will only turn off if it senses no music has played for 20 minutes.

Other features include an on-dash remote bass control. Suggested retail price is $499.

Source: Earthquake Sound

Kindle 3G Goes on Sale at AT&T Stores

AT&T will begin selling the Amazon  Kindle 3G through its stores starting March 6, marking the first time the carrier has stocked an eReader.

The Kindle 3G at $189 uses AT&T’s wireless service to download books but there are no monthly fees to the end user.

Amazon has already extended Kindle distribution into larger retail chains such as Best Buy, Target and Staples.

About 6 million Kindles have sold since the eReader launched in 2007, says Forrester.

Source: AT&T and Reuters

12 Volt Hawaii Meeting Tonight

Hawaii dealers and reps will meet tonight, Monday, at 7 pm to decide how they will best organize to deal with anti-12 volt legislation in the state.

Hawaii industry members must

A.    Figure out an alternative to the recently killed-bill HB1178 that sought to limit car audio in the state.  The industry agreed to work with the state to help curb “noise pollution.”  So its  incumbent upon the industry to create a proactive plan and perhaps create a kind of “safe sounds” campaign, Carmina Ahmed of Car Audio Express in Hawaii told us.

B.     Regroup to fight the senate version (SB1368) of the same car audio bill and other pending bills that would all but ban car alarms in Hawaii.

C.     Figure out the best way to regroup: join the Mobile Electronics Retailers Association or create a separate Hawaii’s action group.

Ahmed expects about 30 industry members will attend tonight’s meeting. Wish we could!

Source: CEoutlook via Hotwire

12 Volt Tidbits

Driver Safety

49 percent of people would be comfortable using a driverless (autonomous) car, in an Accenture study.  That may bode well for the new driver safety products for the aftermarket such as those from  Mobileye and Audiovox.

They study also cited good market potential for car sensors or black box data that can be used to tell if you are a safe driver and then reduce your insurance premiums.   Source: Translogic

Ex-OnStar chief Chris Preuss Praises Ford

“Ford legitimately caught the industry sleeping at the switch when it launched the Sync in-vehicle connectivity system in late 2007,” he wrote in a blog on Autopia. “Not only was it a major leap on the technological front, it was one of the best automotive marketing plays since the Toyota Prius.”

He also says that cars with cellular service built into the dash will grow common when “cellular speeds increase and the cost of service decreases.” When will that be? He doesn’t say. But it’s possible automakers will just include the price of a cellular connection in the price of the car. Source: Wired’s Autopia

Verizon iPhone Has Antenna Issues: Consumers Reports

By Bill Damsky

Antennagate is back. Apple’s iPhone on the Verizon network has a similar antenna problem to the one that caused a small uproar when the iPhone 4 was first introduced on AT&T, says Consumer Reports.

If the phone is gripped in a certain way, it can cause dropped calls or prevent users from placing calls in areas with weak signals.

After testing the phone, Consumer Reports found when you place your hand against the lower left side of the phone, in what has become known as the “death grip,” it causes a drop in performance.

“The phone performs superbly in most other respects,” it said.

Consumers don’t seem all that perturbed. There is no deluge of complaints to Verizon, said the publication. However, as with AT&T’s iPhone 4, Consumer Reports is omitting the Verizon iPhone 4 from its list of recommended smart phones despite its high rankings on other attributes.

Source: Consumer Reports

Kicker Supplies Subaru with Subwoofer

Kicker (Stillwater Designs) announced Friday that it’s powered subwoofer is now offered as an OEM upgrade in some Subaru models.

The Subaru option includes a Kicker 10-inch powered subwoofer in a molded enclosure to fit in the trunk or cargo area of the car.  The option is  compatible with 2008-2011 Impreza sedans, Impreza WRX sedans, 2011 WRX STI sedans, and all 2008-2011 Impreza, Impreza WRX and WRX STI 5-door vehicles with navigation or non-navigation audio systems.

The powered sub includes a 100-watt, digital amplifier that is tuned to match the size of the enclosure.  It is available through Subaru dealers now for $499.99.  It may also be installed at the factory port facility.

Source: Kicker (Stillwater Designs)

Why Component Speakers Rose 56% in 2010

If you were a component speaker last year, you were hot.  While the total car speaker category rose 41 percent, component speakers shown even brighter.

Dollar shipments of components surged 56 percent last year for 2 key reasons:

A.    New cars have been shipping with separate tweeter cut outs for about five years now and suddenly consumers are ready to fill those ready made holes with speakers offering separate tweeters.

B.    Prices fell on component speakers so they can be found from top brands starting $129 or $149.  Two years ago these speakers usually sold for over $200.

Pioneer’s Ted Cardenas said, “We as an industry have been anticipating that kind of natural adoption for component speakers…we’ve been expecting the aftermarket to have a little more success,” he said because “practically every new vehicle, even going back 5 or 6 years, even at a base level or the first step up, would include a tweeter.”

By units, component speaker shipments soared by 75 percent last year, again outpacing the total car speaker category, which rose 46 percent in unit shipments.

The Consumer Electronics Assoc. however, does not assume the trend will continue.  It pegs growth at only 1 percent in dollars this year and sees component speakers falling in dollar shipments after that at a rate of 4 percent in 2012, 8 percent in 2013 and 9 percent in 2014.

Source: CEoutlook and CEA

12 Volt Sale at Newegg, Move over Amazon

Newegg.com, known for its sharp pricing on computers, is a major player in car electronics and is holding a hefty sale on 12 volt products from leading brands.

Sale items include one or more models from Alpine, Clarion, Dual, Garmin, Kicker, Naxa, Polk Audio, Rockford Fosgate, Sony, and TomTom.  Some of the discounts are almost 50 percent off.  There’s a special sale section and then additional sale products can be found in sidebars here.

Newegg is ranked as the 16^nd top seller of car electronics with annual 12 volt sales of $46 million, according to TWICE magazine’s registry.

Both Newegg and Amazon have seen rising sales in car electronics in recent years.

Source: Newegg

DIY: Convert a Car Speaker to a Home Model

This falls under the category of FYI or how to re-purpose excess inventory.

In honor of Speaker Week at CEoutlook, we’ve resurrected this story on how to convert a car audio speaker to a rugged home audio loudspeaker. Hint: it requires MDF and a saw.

Hey, it could come in handy. See eHow’s guide to getting it done here…

Source: eHow

12 Volt Tidbits

Ford and the Aftermarket
We stupidly asked Ford–since GM’s OnStar is moving into the retail market–if there’s any chance that Ford might do the same with its MyFord Touch. Is Ford interested in selling in the aftermarket? Here’s what a spokesman said: “SYNC with MyFord Touch is a holistic, integrated software/hardware interface and cannot really be “packaged” and sold in the aftermarket. The more appropriate question is if we would ever consider licensing the technology for others to integrate into their cars. That would be more feasible, but we’ve never considered it.”

ICE Update
In Car Experts (ICE) reports its new work4experts Web site has already attracted more than a dozen applicants. The site was set up to match up employees laid off from Ultimate Electronics with retail members of the ICE group seeking to hire installers, sales people and other 12 volt experts.

More than one Prius
What do you call more than one Prius? The official term is now Prii, Toyota announced after running a contest for the best term for the plural of Prius.

Spending on Older Autos Gains

Here’s another reason your shop may want to expand into working on leather seats, or other car upgrades.

Consumers are holding onto cars longer and they are spending more on their aging autos.

Even owners of a car that’s 10 years or older plan on keeping the car another 5 years on average, reports NPD. This is driving a need for replacement parts of mufflers, alternators, etc, which were up about 7 percent last year.

You can see by the chart below that more people are driving older cars, and what’s interesting is they are spending more now on cars older than 10 years.

“..spending on older cars remains relatively high. In fact, spending on vehicles 10 years and older is an average of 10 percent higher than spending on newer vehicles. So the vehicle population is aging, and consumers are demonstrating a willingness to continue to spend on these vehicles,” said an NPD report.

Source: The NPD Group
Charts by NPD
Photo via Junky Car Club

Xoom Reviews: Honeycomb is Great, Not Perfect

Motorola’s Xoom tablet, which is officially available Thursday, gives us the first glimpse of Android’s Honeycomb OS designed for tablets and reviewers say it’s a big improvement over earlier versions of Android. The Xoom is also fast and zippy but it’s quirky in some areas, leading some to conclude the product was rushed to market.

Then again the Xoom will be updated in Q2 so buyers can rest easier.

Complaints were the device crashed occasionally, said reviewers. The lack of Flash in the initial version was also disappointing, and although the device comes with an SD card slot—it’s not enabled.

Time Magazine says Honeycomb is easier to use than earlier Android versions. It removes the use of excess buttons. You can step back through apps by a control strip that’s always at the bottom of the screen. You still have menus, but they are at the top of the screen and a bit easier to use than on previous Android OS versions. You also get a “status panel,” that tracks incoming mail, downloads in progress, etc.

However, Time’s Harry McCracken says, “parts of Honeycomb do have a not-quite-finished quality. Both the browser and the photo viewer have crashed on me – one time apiece – and I’ve encountered a few odd freezes… Otherwise,” he says, “the tablet’s high-end innards delivered an experience at least as fluid as the iPad, even when I had a bunch of programs open.”

Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky concludes the Xoom is a true competitor to the iPad. “In fact, it outclasses the iPad in many ways. Still, the end user experience isn’t nearly where it needs to be… Honeycomb and the Xoom are spectacular — unfortunately they’re a spectacular work in progress.”

On the plus side, the Xoom’s performance is very brisk. “We were blown away by the robustness and speed of applications like the browser and some of the included games. The general responsiveness of the UI and touch reaction was in line with the best the iPad exhibits…” said Engadget.

Battery life is strong. Engadget got about 8.2 hours of use, which is better than other Android devices, and way better than some, but still less than the 9.3 hours you get on the iPad.

Still Engadget found the device still feels like it’s in beta. Some apps crashed, the volume button was hard to find and use. It “makes you wonder if this wasn’t rushed out to market in order to beat the next wave from Apple,” it concludes.

Digitimes, a Taiwanese journal, says that Best Buy’s first batch of preorders for the Xoom are completely booked, leading to optimism that sales will be brisk on the 10.1 inch device.

The Xoom ships with 3G capability but it will be upgraded to 4G in Q2 at no extra cost. It has dual cameras and will sell on Verizon at $600 with a 2-year contract or $800 off contract. It also sports a 1 GHz Tegra 2 processor, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 32GB of internal storage.

Source: Time Magazine, Engadget, PC Magazine, Digitimes

Garmin Earnings Slide as PND Sales Drop

Like TomTom, Garmin reported that sales of portable navigation devices (PNDs) fell in the second half last year.

Garmin’s revenue for the December quarter fell 21 percent overall to $838 million and fell in the automotive/mobile segment by 31 percent to $559 million.
Total net earnings for the company fell 52 percent.

Garmin expects PND revenues for the full year 2011 to decline by 20 percent over 2010 as unit sales fall. However, the PND business is still expected to generate positive cash flow in the future, said the company.

Garmin’s marine and outdoor fitness revenues were up respectively in Q4 by 9 and 15 percent to $37 million and $171 million.

Fitness revenues should grow by 25 percent for the full year 2011, said the company and outdoor product revenue should grow by 5 percent.

In auto OEM, Garmin said the take rate of its navigation system in the new Chrysler 300 is over 50 percent; which is higher than the industry average. Auto OEM revenue for 2010 was less than $100 million but will grow this year.

Source: Garmin and AP via Yahoo! Finance

Car Speaker Sales Soar 46% in 2010

Car speakers—they can make a plain radio, satellite radio, HD radio or your iPod + deck sound phenomenal.

They represent 42 percent of the aftermarket (in dollar shipments), and this year, they are expected to see a small bump in sales of 1 percent in dollars and 3 percent in units, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

The category shocked some industry watchers last year, as it propelled itself out of a slump and rose 46 percent in unit shipments to retailers. Please see our showcase for full story.

CEA: 12V Rebounds in 2010

Car stereo shipments were up last year by 7 percent in dollars, (excluding Bluetooth headsets, which the Consumer Electronics Assoc. lumps in with autosound).

As noted in our speaker story, car stereo went from “stuck in reverse” to a stint in “overdrive.”

Car CD—a category considered in decline—rose 7 percent in 2010 shipments. And speaker shipments soared 41 percent.

This contrasts with reports from the NPD Group, which found sales flat in car electronics for 2010. NPD measures sell-through to consumers, while CEA measures sell-in to retailers.

2010 marked “a return from the doldrums.” Retailers replenished inventory, and some picked up the business lost from the closing of Circuit City stores, said CEA’s Steve Koenig.

There was a return to consumer spending, plus some pent up demand. And consumers are holding onto cars longer.

But all that’s not enough on its own to lift car electronics from the doldrums. Overall car electronics shipments should fall this year by one percent (including Bluetooth headset sales), declining another 3 percent in 2012 and then 4 percent each in 2013 and 2014, predicts the CEA.

Other statistics for 2010 over 2009 from the CEA (shipments in dollars):

Amp shipments fell by 13 percent.
Hands free cellphone kits fared poorly with a 44 percent decline
Shipments of head units with iPod/USB connectivity were up 50 percent
HD radio had a good year with shipments of head units with built in HD Radio up 180 percent

Source: CEA

Xoom Gets Official $600 Price Tag

Motorola officially listed the price for its Xoom tablet due on February 24 as $599.99 with a 2-year Verizon contract: a gutsy price given the iPad ranges in price from $499 to $829.

The Xoom will also be available at $799.99 off contract.

Motorola said earlier that it believes its device is better than the iPad in a number of ways. It offers 4G, a slightly larger display at 10.1 inches and includes two cameras while the iPad (at least the original iPad) is without a camera. Apple is expected to unveil an upgraded iPad next week.

The Xoom is also the first tablet to run on Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), which was designed especially for tablets. The Xoom won’t support 4G unti Q2, but customers will be able to upgrade to 4G at no cost.

Wireless 3G data service for the Motorola’s tablet will begin at $20/month for 1GB of data.

Source: Motorola Mobility

Apple May Reveal iPad 2 March 2

Apple is expected to introduce a new version of the iPad at a press conference March 2, according to reports in AllThingsD.

Consumers will be able to take delivery on the device in April, as expected, claimed Reuters, refuting a report earlier that the iPad 2 was held up in production and would not reach consumers until June. (See earlier story).

News of the delay had sent Apple shares tumbling by 3 percent.

The new iPad is expected to offer front and rear cameras with a slimmer form factor and a better display.

The iPad was arguably the hot technology device of 2010. It sold nearly 15 million units last year and upended the laptop and netbook markets. More than 50 million tablets are expected to be sold this year, with Apple capturing the bulk of the demand.
Source: AllThingsD,  Reuters via Yahoo! News

Pioneer Launches Ads for Pandora

Pioneer Electronics launched a new series of ads for its Pandora car radios.

The ads will run exclusively on the Pandora homepage and within the Pandora iPhone app.

The ad can appear in different versions targeted to the age of the user.  An 18 year old will see Pioneer’s $150 single CD player with Pandora, while a 40 year old listener might see the top-line navi head unit  AVIC-X930BT. The ads feature “Barry the audiophile” below:

The ad series launched on February 10 in time for the Verizon iPhone launch.

Pioneer says the campaign already has a high click through rate, and it’s outperforming other consumer electronics advertising on Pandora in clicks.

Source: Pioneer Electronics

Car Speakers of the Future Shown in Detroit

Do we really need car speakers as we know them in new cars or will a simple exciter vibrating the car’s headliner do just as well?

If you rattle the headliner or door trims just so, you’ve got a speaker, especially if you combine it with Bongiovi Acoustics’ signal processing.

Johnson Controls and Bongiovi showed off such a system at the Detroit Auto Show last month.

The concept is not really new. Ford was ready to replace the door speakers in its 2005 Mustang, but the sound quality was lacking so they scraped the concept, Plastics News tells us. Click for video.

But by using Bongiovi’s digital signal processing, Johnson Controls says the audio is better than a car speaker and its 50 percent lighter.

Bongiovi tunes the system to match the interior of the car. We’ll have to keep an eye on this one.

Source: Plastics News

Thanks JR.

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