Photo: Pixabay/Karsten Paulick
LAS VEGAS: The shortages of new vehicles in the corona pandemic are causing many consumers to upgrade old vehicles with more modern audio technology. At the hi-fi giant Harman, for example, the retrofit solutions business grew by 30 percent last year. “It’s still a smaller part of our business, but it was a nice surprise,” said Harman manager Dave Rogers, who is responsible for audio products, of the German press agency during the CES technology fair in Las Vegas.
The retrofitting business with audio technology was generally seen as a discontinued model before the pandemic, as more and more cars in different price ranges are being equipped with infotainment systems ex works. Harman with brands such as Harman / Kardon or JBL also primarily supplies manufacturers directly in the automotive sector.
However, the production downtimes in view of the global shortage of chips mean that more car buyers are switching to used cars and then want to install new audio technology. Market researchers are now increasingly seeing retrofit solutions as a growth driver for the coming years.
Harman himself was also affected on a broad front by the bottlenecks in semiconductor products, said Rogers. “The only chips we can get enough of are those in wireless earbuds.” With all others – whether amplifier chips or Bluetooth modules – the supply is limited.
At the same time, consumer demand for audio technology remains strong in the pandemic. It has been observed across the industry that many people have spent more money on home electronics since spending more time at home in corona lockdowns. At Harman, which has been part of the Samsung Group for several years, the audio business grew by almost ten percent in the past year – although the large area of professional technology for concerts and cinemas was at a standstill with the pandemic, said Rogers.
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