In his latest Web column, The Barbell Strategy: Bulking Up for Radio’s Growth, iBiquity Digital President/CEO, Bob Struble says HD Radio technology needs to be ubiquitous in cars and portable media devices.
“The traditional CE market is too big for iBiquity or radio broadcasters to ignore,” states Struble. As I have written previously, in a normal year (not this year), 15 million or so cars are sold with AM/FM receivers; 65 million AM/FM tuners are sold in all other CE products — home stereos, table radios, clock radios, boom boxes, iPod docks, aftermarket car radios, etc.”
Consumer electronics almost never penetrate the factory installed auto market without first proving out in the CE segment, he continues. “Automakers won’t put new consumer technology in cars until they are certain that it works and there is demand for it. You have to be a success in CE first.” And that takes time, however the company is making progress, both in the auto segment and portables, he writes.
