Automotive Multimedia Sales Underperforming in US and Europe. Increasing Availability Not Translating into Sales

sTrategy Analytics: despite increasing availability and strong consumer demand for automotive and multimedia communications features in cars, sales are poor. Although navigation systems are available on over 160 vehicle models in production in North America and Europe, and Bluetooth connectivity on over 60 models, in most mainstream car brands, multimedia sales remain at less than 5 percent.

Some selected companies, however, are able to generate significant sales in some specific segments. BMW, Mercedes Benz, Continental Automotive, Becker, JCI and Siemens VDO are all significant leaders in certain automotive multimedia and communications segments. But, in general, many mainstream markets are still wide open. Strategic marketing issues - including pricing, promotion and positioning - remain significant challenges for most mainstream car brands.

There has been increasing vehicle model availability for many new multimedia and communications features, such as iPod interface, digital audio, Bluetooth and navigation. Apart from iPod connections, decent returns on these product investments are simply not being achieved by most car makers. Our surveys show consistent high consumer demand for and interest in a variety of automotive multimedia features in the vehicle. However, automotive companies just can't seem to get their marketing strategies right.

Estimated Multimedia and Communications Availability (Vehicle Models in Production in North America and Europe)

	Embedded Navigation	Bluetooth	eCall Telematics	iPod Connectivity
Number of Vehicle Models	165	63	106	68

Source: Strategy Analytics

Automotive Multimedia and Communications Systems Supply and Adoption Analysis Publ 20061011