In-car entertainment - a booming market

In a world of traffic jams and pot-holed roads, half of our lives is spent on the road, driving or being driven. It’s but natural for Indians to load their cars with the latest in the in-car entertainment systems.

If one is to believe the car entertainment makers almost every car in the country has an entertainment system. So much so that car entertainment system makers are now ready for the Nano challenge. So expect Indians to load their cars with the best at dirt cheap prices.

Consumer spending research points out that, after tyres the biggest accessory spend in the car market is on audio systems. While high-end cars pack quite a bit of technology into the humble car stereo, even volume-end cars are beginning to get a taste of designer decibels.

At a time where roof-mounted screens are finding a place from themselves in the world of small car. It is not strange to note that more than half of the in-car entertainment industry is ruled by the unorganised market.

In-car entertainment industry is estimated to be worth around Rs 700-800 crore, of which 60% of the market is contributed by the unorganised sector. Most of the organised market is OEM or manufacturer driven and players believe it has been enjoying a steady growth of 7.5% as per last year’s figures.

The real revolution in the audio mart has been in technology as the Indian market leaped across a tech-divide to jump into the MP3 bandwagon. Almost all car audio players are fascinated by the fact that local demand skipped several notches on the value chain to stay in step with global trends.

So most Indian consumers now prefer to shell money to buy an MP3 player even if it means buying it from the unorganised market. And the trend of playing music on MP3 is not restricted to just major towns alone. The MP3 technology has gradually trickled down to smaller cities and towns. Clearly when it comes to splurging on car entertainment, the Indian consumer knows what he wants and doesn’t like to lag behind on the technology front.

The Indian consumer has actually risen above the bare minimum cassette player to MP3, and is now ready for the high-tech and globally prevalent music systems. Car entertainment system manufacturers believe there are several factors that have influenced the technological revolution in the in-car entertainment systems.

Just as the car makers car audio systems too will be dictated by the Indian road and weather conditions. Indian road conditions are harsh and the dust factor makes things worse. Industry sources agree that music systems with front-loading or what is more popularly known as the slip down variety, are selling more.

Slip down refers to a system in which the music system remains inside the dash board unexposed to the dust. On pressing a button, it is ejected out unlike the conventional system where the stereo remains ex-posed all the time. No wonder most factory-fitted entertainment systems are either the slip down variant or the built in the dashboard.

Even the after sales market players boast of the latest technologies as far as the slip down music system is concerned. Of course how well a particular technology is accepted also depends on the kind of music Indians like to listen to.

Indians generally listen to low frequency bass unlike the higher frequency like treble in western countries. That’s one reason why they go for oval shape speakers which have a dial of 6x9, believe industry players. What also drives the in-car entertainment system is the technologies that the consumer is using in the comfort of her/his home. So roof-mounted screens with DVD players is becoming a standard with most high-end cars and SUVs. In fact the after-sales markets is flooded with options for visual entertainment.

Most of these DVD players and screens are also sporting additional features like gameport. So your kids can play their games when one is travelling long haul. The fact that even B-segment cars have now got a mounted screens or mounted screens on the dash board is found common place these days.

In a bid to bridge the gap between home entertainment and car entertainment further, music system companies are also offering spanky LCD screens to go with the DVD players. Convergence being the watchword. Consumers now expect car systems to offer them bluetooth connectivity with a USB port.

And why not, in-car-entertainment system makers have to quickly adapt to the changing entertainment trends. So blue-tooth connectivity to transfer songs from your mobile to the music systems is what the new age car drivers. Not to forget the option to connect the i-pod with the car music systems.

A lot of focus is also being put on infotainment. So navigational devices come as cool add-ons with several music systems for the car. How about getting all of this in one? Companies offer music systems that have a navigational device fitted on to the dashboard, with a microphone to attend calls, a parking camera to be able to park safe, roof mounted screens with DVD player, blue-tooth connectivity and game-port attached to the DVD.

Gadgets for your car

Your car is your mobile castle these days--and so deserves to be appropriately outfitted with the latest gadgets. And there's no shortage of gear for doing that.

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, equipment makers of all stripes were on hand to show off their latest and greatest for making your car into something far more than a mode of transportation. The newest global positioning satellite systems, for instance, let you talk your way to a destination without ever taking your hands off the wheel. Other gadgets aim to help you buff up your ride's status symbol. Still others cater directly to the kid-toting crowd.

Start with the fun stuff. Bazooka, Earthquake, Titanium Power and Magnadyne--these aren't exactly weapons but companies with sound systems that will make the ground shake and put a dent in your eardrums. We were overwhelmed by the JackHammer SuperWoofer from MTX Audio. There's nothing lightweight about this subwoofer. It weighs in at 369 pounds. It incorporates magnets powerful enough to wipe out the data on credit cards that come within 25 feet. This is the ultimate, "competitive" sound system.

Frequent nighttime drivers might appreciate the Flir PathFindIR thermal imaging camera, which can spot animals and pedestrians up to 2,000 feet away--much sooner than you can eyeball them. This is no toy system; military and police vehicles have tried out this technology. It's also priced accordingly.

You can get lost evaluating all the GPS systems available these days. Happily most are priced within the budget of typical consumers. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, the Magellan Maestro Elite was the only on-board system that lets you use Google Local search to look up locations. Garmin's nuvi 880 features speech recognition so that you can talk to your direction system, rather than touching a screen to figure out where to go next.

Microsoft and Ford Motor have created Sync, an "in-car connectivity system" that first debuted last year but will become more widespread in 2008. The latest Sync is designed to generate vehicle diagnostic reports and automatically call 911 if an air bag goes off in an accident. And here's the cool part: Sync also lets motorists call up songs on their iPods and other MP3 players via voice commands. Ford plans to make Sync available in most of its high-end vehicles by the end of the year, but it can be purchased separately, too.

There are other ways to make gadgets work in your car even if they weren't exactly built that way. Add Scosche's BlueLife DIY Bluetooth Receiver into a car that isn't equipped with Bluetooth and your cell phone and music devices will get channeled through the car speakers.

Sirius and Ford together have developed a "Travel Link" navigation system, which the carmaker will roll out during 2008. The subscription service features an in-dash screen that provides live information about local gas prices, traffic conditions, sports scores and local movie listings. Included in the hardware for Travel Link, although technically separate from the service, is a 10-gigabyte voice-command "jukebox" that can hold up to 2,400 songs and display complete track information and album cover art thanks to technology provided by Gracenote.

Then there's Azentek's multimedia PC--the Atlas CPC-1200, designed explicitly for cars. It uses an Intel Core Duo processor and can do anything you need--run Microsoft Vista, play high-definition radio, run a GPS system.

If that seems too elaborate, there are ways to amuse your children in the car for a more modest price. Sirius Satellite Radio has launched an automotive satellite TV service. Only three channels so far--but they are the ones that most kids want to see: Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel and a special mobile edition of the Cartoon Network. It's available in some Chrysler models now, and more broadly available in the second quarter of this year.