« iTunes Tagging Hits CES | Main | XM, Sirius Deal Approved by Justice Dept. »
HD Radio Sales Restated
Industry analyst says HD Radio sales were far lower than previously stated and projected: Mark Ramsay of hear2.0 and Mercury Radio Research writes in a blog post a few days ago that while iBiquity claimed 200,000 digital AM/FM equipped radios were sold in 2006 and 1m to 1.5m would be sold in 2007, the actual numbers were far lower: 40,000 in 2006 and 330,000 in 2007. The 2008 estimate is now 500,000.
This is not surprising but is disappointing. I was always dubious about the claim of 200,000 radios sold in 2006, because there just weren't that many models or radios out there. I spoke to all the manufacturers, and if 200,000 were sold, they've have been jumping up and down, even split over the four or five companies selling receivers (car and otherwise) in late 2006 when I reviewed five tabletop radios that were relatively new or about to hit the market.
The 2007 number seemed ludicrous to me; the 330,000 figure is much more likely because in 2007, you could buy dealer-installed HD Radio units for cars, and at least one decent inexpensive car radio (< $200) was available with HD Radio. The 330,000 figure is probably 70 to 80 percent automotive, I'd guess.
I'm not hearing any good news about HD Radio at the moment, despite more companies selling products, and the whole iPod integration into very specific system setups.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://db.isbn.nu/mt3/mt-tb.pl/5006
Comments
Hi Glen,
You're probably not hearing any good news about HD radio because there is none. It was dead and antiquated before it was even a reality, it's main attributes are taking up adjacent channel space and severely cutting down receive range on both AM and FM.That the sound quality is better than analog is dubious at best. If you like artificial synthesized high frequencies then I guess IBOC is your thing, me? I like good old analog broadcasts, they sound great to me on a good system. IBOC is a non-answer to a problem which deregulation brought about by making 99% of the stations across the country sound the same. People are sick of the same old same old. How many times can you listen to the same top 30 songs? How many times can you listen to the same tired old classic rock tunes? The problem with radio is not the delivery system it is the bland, boring krap that is delivered.
Posted by: bobyoung | April 5, 2008 4:49 PM