The Consumer Electronics Association predicts that total “core” car audio aftermarket shipment revenues will fall by 8 percent over the next five years.
Sales to dealers of car audio head units, amplifiers, speakers, signal processors, sat radio devices and OE integration units and kits will drop from a total of $1,355 million in 2010 to $1,343 million in 2011 and slip to $1,253 million by 2015.
But the market is innovating again. It’s injecting head units with new Internet Radio capability, which should help sales. The question is, by how much.
Said the new CEA forecast report, “…innovation is rampant and new products such as Pioneer’s AppRadio are changing the nature of the game. Current CEA projections show double-digit unit growth for head units equipped with Internet radio control or apps, but it is too soon to label this feature an aftermarket savior.”
“CD playback remains the aftermarket’s killer app,” it concluded…(ouch).
Shipments of aftermarket head units will actually climb by 9 percent in units, hitting 6.8 million units in 2015. In dollars, head unit shipments will fall by 4 percent to $492 million in 2015, down from $515 million in 2010.
During the next five years, amplifier shipment revenues will climb by double digits, predicts the CEA, but speaker revenues will fall by double digits.
Total sales of OE integration will see single digit growth in revenues.
The forecast does not include shipments of fixed and portable navigation, mobile video, radar detectors and security. The CEA estimates those categories combined generated $2,188 million in wholesale revenues in 2010. They will decline to revenues of $2,062 million in 2011, and $1,926 in 2012.
Source: CEA
