Harman has been putting a lot of focus on home and portable audio and is now investing in the car stereo aftermarket, said new Senior Sales Manager for the Mobile Aftermarket, Glenn Ihrke (formerly with Alpine).
“Harman has identified the aftermarket as a potential growth area for the company…not necessarily a growth category, but a growth area for the company.  But in the last several years we haven’t had the programs or products for the aftermarket,” he said.

Harman's Glenn Ihrke

The company is already making changes to court the specialist as it believes it can triple its market share in car audio through the specialty channel.
It has implemented new programs such as adjusting freight requirements so they are more easily met by smaller shops.  The product lines will also be more profitable, Ihrke said.
Next month, the company will ship a new JBL GTO speaker line to match the amps shipped earlier in the year.  Ihrke says it uses “high tech” materials but maintains a reasonable price range from about $120 to $200.  Also a new Infinity Kappa line is due this summer.  Next year, the company will focus on filling out the MS line of add-on electronics for the car.
Harman said it will beef up its presence at the MERA KnowledgeFest this summer with a larger booth and it will run two training seminars.

State Farm Insurance has joined with Ford to allow owners of some Sync radios to receive discounts on their insurance payments.
Drivers who enroll in the program initially save about 5 percent on their auto coverage.
Since the Sync has a built-in Vehicle Health Report, it can send to the insurance companies direct odometer readings on the number of miles you’ve driven.  Under the program, every six months, your discount is re-evaluated. Those driving the national average of 1,000 miles per month will typically get a 10 percent discount.  Those driving less can save up to 40 percent.
Sync’s Vehicle Health Report is a standard, no-subscription feature that allows owners to request a diagnostic report about their vehicle’s performance and maintenance. Since it pulls the odometer reading directly from the engine computer, the mileage from the report is considered verified and can be shared with State Farm representatives, said Ford.
The discounts will be part of State Farm’s Drive Safe & Save program and will launch first in Utah, followed by other states.

Garmin showed a new concept for OEM car infotainment systems that uses a large controller knob filled with sensors for many functions, instead of a touchscreen.
It also uses gesture control.
Separate from the dash screen is a large knob with four buttons with IR sensors.  When a hand approaches the knob it “wakes” up before being touched. Then it lets you control modes such as audio, apps, navigation and “communications.”
Stations presets are also separate from the radio, below it.  And they also have built-in sensors too, so you don’t have to look at them.  As your hand nears the preset, an image of it appears on the dash screen so no need to look down.
When you are not using the system, it reverts to a simple display on the screen that shows basics like song title and radio station.
The idea is to minimize driver distraction and ‘eyes off the road.’
Garmin believes the screen should be higher on the dash too, where the driver can better see it.
The concept system was developed by Garmin’s auto OEM group to help provide research on reducing driver distraction.  As Garmin supplies aviation GPS to pilots, it knows a bit about user interfaces designed for use at high speeds.
Garmin’s system can also be tied into HVAC controls and connected services.
The first fully designed car audio system from Garmin will be available in most 2013 Suzuki models.

Proline Brings the WOW!!! Factor to Brooklyn

Spectators jam the display area at the Proline event.

BROOKLYN, NY (05.23.12) – Proline’s May 20th Car Show produced record setting sales. Traffic on Utica Avenue, a main Brooklyn artery, was virtually shut down for several blocks in each direction.
Shef Sadik, related to 12voltnews.com “We worked on the planning of this event for for several months. Through the years we have had many very successful promotions. We wanted this to the the best. At the end of the day, Sunday May 20th, the cash register told us our 2012 event was the largest to date.”

Shef Sadik

Staff members virtually moved all the product in the showroom out to the parking lot in front of the store for the event. “Our idea was to put our ridiculous specials right in front of competitors in the sound off and car show. “Head-to-head” loudest vehicle and “Cleanest” vehicle contests are huge in the New York. Well over 200 luxury imports, SUV’s, pick-ups and bikes were on hand. Our specials caught their eyes and the wallets came out” Sadik added.

This overhead shot shows the expanse of the show area.

Car audio gear across the board was the big mover at the Proline event – amps, speakers and subs.

Morris Hartman

Big Daddy’s Morris Hartman was right in the middle of the action. “What a selling show. The entire day was more than crazy. I got to tell you that a show like this is really exciting – for Proline, the industry and for me personally” Morris Hartman told 12volt news.com in a very excited voice. Hartman and Big Daddy’s supported the Proline event with MTX, Lightning Audio, BOYO, Renegade and Clarion.

Will Sullivan

“We need more individuals like Morris in our industry. He was selling his balls off” Proline’s Will Sullivan told 12voltnews.com. “He was at the microphone and barking out the special deals and raffle items. Somehow he still had his voice at day’s end.”

There was gridlock on Utica Avenue in front of the Proline's location in Brooklyn.

Industry support for the Proline event was strong with JL Audio, Rockford Fosgate, Kenwood, Audio Control, MTX, AutoPage, Viper, Renegade, Escort and Lightning Audio providing ammunition for the event. Jeff Schultz, Kevin Stelling and Dave Berry were vendor representatives spotted in the middle of the action.

A word to all 12 volt dealers: Bring the WOW factor back to your customer. When most dealers are complaining about internet prices killing their business embrace it and sell your self – not the product. Quality and reliability can’t be bought online. I tell the staff we’re different from the next shop down the street because we are Proline -  and that you can’t shop! Shef Sadik – Proline

“It was wall to wall at the Proline event” DEI’s Bob Hernandez stated to 12voltnews.com. “Cars were double parked on Utica Avenue for as far as as anyone could see in both directions. Proline is a very good Viper account and we wanted to be on hand to participate in the big event.”

Proline promoted their event with email campaigns, text messaging, hard calls and social media. Flyers and mailings to targeted zip-codes preceded the event 2 months out.
A private security firm was hired and local authorities were notified of the event well in advance.
Sullivan and Sadik both expressed great appreciation for the great job their staff did throughout the entire event process and the super vendor support.

Imagine Siri that’s robust enough to work well in the car.  Nuance announced it now has such a product.  It’s due to roll out in production vehicles this summer, and may be heading to the aftermarket.
Nuance said it is in talks with leading aftermarket suppliers including traditional Japanese suppliers to include the product in their radios.
“The head unit manufacturers are all very interested in this type of connected capability. Several of them are already seriously considering it.  We’re engaged with them in discussions,” said Ed Chrumka Nuance Senior Product Manager for Connected Car Services.
Nuance’s new voice control platform is called Dragon Drive!  It works around background noise in the car and uses natural language with better than 90 percent accuracy in word recognition  Just as with Siri on an iPhone, it lets you send a text message such as “I’m stuck in traffic,” via dictation.  Or you can ask it to post the same message to Facebook or Twitter.
You can command it to “Listen to the email from Alex,” and then have it read the text aloud in human-like speech. You can also search for any song on Internet Radio or on your connected device. And you can ask to have newspaper headlines read aloud to you.
The system has a higher sampling rate than others on the market, say Chrumka.  And it’s trained to recognize a speaker who is talking into a microphone located a couple feet away, with road noise and passengers chatting in the background.  Further, the more you talk to it, the more it recognizes your particular speech.

Nuance provides the speech engine for the Ford Sync, GM’s OnStar, Garmin devices and many of the other voice control systems available. Nuance works with most of the top 10 automakers and it works with Apple, but it wouldn’t confirm that it makes the engine behind Siri.
As noted, the first production car to include the new Dragon Drive! Engine will be available this summer and more than one auto maker will offer the service this year.
Dragon Drive! may be marketed on a subscription basis to the end user.

As pointed out in USA Today, screens are getting bigger on the dashboard, just as they’ve upsized in our livingrooms.

Lexus GS screen

The trend is apparent in new vehicles and is working its way into the aftermarket.
The Lexus GS now has a 12.3-inch display so it can show a split-screen image with a map on one side and radio/HVAC controls on the other. The Tesla Model S due this summer will have a 17-inch screen.
In several Ford models, the screen is (or will soon be) 8-inches, up from 6.5 inches.  The same is true in Hyundai’s 2013 Santa Fe crossover with an 8-inch screen.  And the BMW 7 series display is now up to 10.2 inches.
The aftermarket is also starting to see a migration to larger screens.  Alpine will ship in June, the first aftermarket head unit with an 8-inch screen—the INE-Z928 at $1,499.95.  The company is also looking at other screen sizes, said VP and GM Aftermarket Business Unit, Steve Crawford.
Sony is also examining the trend and watching to see if the industry coalesces around a single larger screen size.
Of course, departing from the traditional single or double DIN opening poses several problems, said Sony Business Manager for Mobile Taka Noguchi. “We want to look at a [larger] screen size that would fit in most OEM cars, but we don’t have that info yet.  So, at this moment, we should wait and see how the trend develops.”
Simply making a DIN sized radio with a large overhanging screen could pose problems as it might interfere with climate control knobs and other dash buttons.   “So we have to research well,” Noguchi added.
Earlier this year Power Acoustik introduced a single DIN car radio with an overhanging 9.3 inch tablet for a screen at $399.

Audiovox Electronics Corp. announced Wednesday the appointment of Joe Tegerdine to the post of Director of Location Based Products and Services.
Tegerdine was recently Senior Director of Business Development and U.S. General Counsel for Wistron Neweb Corp., a Taiwan based manufacturer.
At Wilstron, he successfully secured a number of multi-million dollar machine-to-machine communication (M2M)  programs covering mobile health, smart grid and transportation. He led the certification effort with Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, and secured the manufacturing contract to supply communication modules for the largest deployment of cellular smart meters in the U.S.,” said Audiovox.
“We have identified M2M and Location Based Services as significant growth opportunities for our company and as many of you saw at CES in January we unveiled our first product in this category- -Car Connection under the Audiovox brand and announced our distribution partnership with Tagg the Pet Tracker under the Qualcomm brand,” said Tom Malone, president of Audiovox Electronics Corp. “Joe brings a unique skill set to the team as he has a very thorough understanding of the market and has vast experience in creating the partner relationships required to succeed.”
Source: Audiovox Electronics

In Japan, Toyota and Nintendo have teamed up so that you can control a Toyota navigation system with a Nintendo DS.
Passengers (presumably not drivers) can input a destination from their DS and view maps and also sightseeing information.
It requires a Kuruma de DS game card (translatation: Use the DS in the Car).  It works over Bluetooth after pairing with a Toyota Smart Navi system.
The Smart Navi system costs the US equivalent of over $2,500 and the Kuruma de DS may be purchased through Toyota for the equivalent of $92. (A DS must be purchased separately).

GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

Scott CarmichaelDuh.Oaken Ashen ThorneDear GM, I use Facebook daily, like multiple times and I have yet to see a single ad from you there. Maybe you do have ads there, and other companies, but, [...]Marcus HugginsWho pays attention to FB ads? I am on FB practically every day and I rarely notice the ads. I certainly have never purchased a product based on FB ads.Brian StiffWOW “Facebook Ads Don’t Work” are you kidding. If you actually have ever ran a successful Facebook Ad Campaign you’d see they work very well compared to ot [...]Foren SicpicsUsing Facebook does not equal using Facebook ads.bryannagyI work with Facebook ads at a large ad agency and they actually work really well- much better than any other forms of online advertising. We get a much hig [...]

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Just days before Facebook’s historic stock offering, General Motors said it plans to stop advertising on the social media site, concluding that its paid ads don’t have a big impact on consumers.

GM spends about $40 million a year on Facebook marketing, according to the Wall Street Journal, about $10 million of which is for paid advertisements. It will continue to post relevant content about the company and its brands on GM’s Facebook pages.

GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick told the Journal that GM “is definitely reassessing our advertising on Facebook, although the content is effective and important.”

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Why GM Yanked Its Facebook Ads On Eve Of IPO Joann Muller Forbes Staff

Are Facebook's Ads Or GM's Products The Problem? Micheline Maynard Contributor

In a statement, GM said: “We regularly review our overall media spend and make adjustments as needed. This happens as a regular course of business and it’s not unusual for us to move our spending around various media outlets – especially with the growth of multiple social and digital media outlets.
“In terms of Facebook specifically, while we currently do not plan to continue with advertising, we remain committed to an aggressive content strategy through all of our products and brands, as it continues to be a very effective tool for engaging with our customers.”
GM has been re-evaluating much of its advertising strategy over the past year, consolidating its global advertising and media-buying agencies in a bid to cut $2 billion from its marketing budget while improving the efficiency of its advertising.
The Journal, citing people familiar with GM’s thinking, said the carmaker began to question the effectiveness of its Facebook ads earlier this year and GM marketing executives, including Ewanick, met with Facebook managers to address their concerns but remained unconvinced that advertising on the website made sense.
The news comes at an awkward time for Facebook, whose $105 billion IPO is scheduled for Friday.

Apple was granted a patent Tuesday for a steering wheel remote control for a smartphone or iPod-like device.
It’s based on Apple’s old “click wheel” found on the original iPods.  But this time it gets a new touch-sensitive design and a system for mounting on the steering wheel, reports Patently Apple.
The patent is for a wireless device that works with a transmitter.
The “click wheel” is mounted on “clamping feet” (pictured below) that attach to the steering wheel, and the clamping feet can rotate depending on the orientation of where the device is mounted.  The face of the click wheel also rotates to suit the orientation on the steering wheel.
Since steering wheels come in different thicknesses, the clamping feet are hinged to accommodate them. The feet may be made of aluminum, plastic, fiberglass or other materials, according to the patent.
The patent was originally filed in Q1 2011 under the names of designers from Apple

Audiovox Electronics parent VOXX Corp. announced gains in sales of OEM and traditional car audio for fiscal 2012 ended in February.
Aftermarket car audio and security sales rose but were offset by lower sales of satellite radio and fulfillment of FLO TV products (discontinued last year).
The company recently reported an increase of nearly 5 percent in combined car audio, security and OEM sales for the fiscal year ended in February compared to a year earlier.   OEM sales alone grew by 14.8 percent over the year earlier but were offset by a $20.8 million downturn in satellite radio/FLO TV fulfillment.
The satellite radio segment, however, is expected to see an increase this coming year, Pat Lavelle, VOXX President and CEO told analysts Tuesday.
VOXX also expects to be a key player in mobile DTV (digital TV for moving vehicles and portables) as the service begins to roll out more aggressively over the next 12 to 18 months.  Through VOXX’s recent purchase of antenna maker Hirschmann, a leader in mobile DTV tuners, the company believes it will have “a first mover advantage” in the segment.
VOXX is now a company made up of about $500 million annually in car audio and OEM sales, $200 million in high end audio and $200 million in accessories, it told analysts Tuesday.
Net sales for the year reached $707.1 million, up almost 26 percent from a year ago.  Net income for the year rose to $25.6 million from $23 million (but would have been slightly less than a year ago if not for a higher tax benefit this year).
Total electronics sales grew 35 percent to $561 million compared to $415.2 million a year ago. Accessories sales fell 0.3 percent to $146 million.
During the fiscal year, Klipsch, (purchased in March 2011) generated about $169.5 million in sales.
Audiovox said it expects sales to hit $900 million for fiscal 2013.

Kenwood may offer driver assist products in the future, joining other suppliers such as Mobileye, Alpine and Audiovox.
“It’s on our roadmap…but it’s too soon to talk about it,” said Kenwood’s Keith Lehmann.

Mobileye Driver Assist System

Audiovox also told us it is working on a prototype for a blind spot detection product, but it too is not ready to announce firm details.  In addition, Audiovox hopes to ship its delayed aftermarket lane departure warning system in about 90 days.  As announced earlier, the system will carry a price of about $599 and will be aimed at both the retail and expeditor markets.
While the driver assist category has been slow to gain headway in the aftermarket, it bears much potential say industry members. Audiovox’s Tom Malone notes the products require “intensive” reliability testing.  “There’s a lot of software involved, and a lot of different vehicle configurations so they are not easy to get into the market…..it’s got to be reliable and unique for every vehicle.”
But he believes the products will be met with strong demand.  “Absolutely, consumers are ready for this.  Blind spot detection is a great product.  The consumer gets it in about 30 seconds and it’s one of those things nice to have in the car, once it’s made affordable and people can get them at a retail store or car dealer….  and lane departure warning as well,” Malone added.
Sony said driver assist products “is not part of our future offering,” according to a spokeswoman.
In driver safety, Alpine offers an active back up camera that provides audible and visual warnings of moving objects detected behind the vehicle.  The company would not reveal future products but noted it has a full driver assist testing facility in Japan and is researching additional products and features.
Alpine’s Steve Crawford said the category represents an opportunity for specialists since they are better positioned than mass merchants to explain the products to customers and install them.
Steelmate confirms it is on track to offer, what may be the first blind spot detection device for the aftermarket this September.  The device plugs into the car’s OBDII port and is expected to cost about $39

Pioneer announced delivery in Japan this July of its head up display that now adds augmented reality navigation.  A holographic image on the windshield shows the car in real time, photo realistically moving down the road, with information on the next turn.

Pioneer Cyber Navi

The system can be mounted on 70 percent of existing cars.  The head up display projector mounts where the sun visor sits on the driver’s side.
Not for penny pinchers, the unit costs the equivalent of about $4,000.   Pioneer showed a scaled down version of the system at CES for the past 2 years, and said that it would eventually come to the U.S. market.  A spokesman in Japan said the product will not come to our shores this year, however,
The device is called “Cyber Navi.”   It can work with a front mounted camera, displaying the image from the camera while superimposing information on it.
The system gives you a 37-inch long color image with a resolution of 720 by 260 pixels. Bluetooth is used to communicate between the head up display (HUD) and the navigation system.
The HUD was developed with U.S.-based MicroVision.  It uses red, green and blue lasers for the light source and MEMS mirrors, said Nikkei Business Publications.
Also, it captures images of speed limit signs and gives the driver an audible alert.

The new Samsung Galaxy SIII won headlines last week for its many intelligent features plus a dazzling screen even larger than that of the hot selling SII.

Samsung Galaxy SIII

You can see some of the phone’s cool features below.
For the car market, the device breaks ground as the first MirrorLink ready phone in the U.S. to the best of our knowledge.   It now looks like MirrorLink will get an official stateside launch this summer,  when the SIII is due for U.S. release and when the first two MirrorLink car radios will launch in the aftermarket—the  XAV-701HD ($700) and XAV-601BT ($550)—from Sony.  Both are both AV receivers with  full control over Android, Nokia and Windows Phone smartphones.  Apps appear as mirrored onto the car radio and users may control them from the radio.  iPhone apps will also appear mirrored on the radio.
The Sony 601 is expected to ship at the end of this month while the 701 should ship in August.
Sony’s Taka Noguchi has said in the recent past, “MirrorLink is becoming the defacto standard in the industry—in the OE industry, the aftermarket, as well as the mobile phone industry.  You can easily connect a smartphone and car audio.”
MirrorLink’s aim is to allow most phones to work with most car radios (OEM and aftermarket).  It permits a mirror image of your phone to appear on the car radio screen, and let the radio control the phone.
You can see a 17 second video clip of MirrorLink on the Galaxy SIII below:

The Galaxy SIII should “help MirrorLink get established and get early volume sales,” said IHS iSuppli analyst Egil Juliussen.  Samsung sells a staggering 20,000 Galaxy phones every hour. And one in four phone sold around the globe are by Samsung, now the leading phone maker.
But Juliussen notes that MirrorLink is only one of four smartphone-to-car radio standards vying for a place in the automobile. Two others are Harman’s Aha Radio and Pioneer’s Zypr.   And the strongest competitor may yet be HTML5.   The new Cadillac Cue due next month will support HTML5, said Juliussen.    An Audi spokesman at CES in January told CEoutlook that HTML5 will be a strong platform for car radios.
As for the new Samsung Galaxy SIII, it provides Siri-like voice control, and it has facial recognition so if you take a photo of your friends, you can automatically send them all a copy.   It “knows” when you are still using the phone so it won’t go into lock mode because it tracks your eye movement.   It runs Android 4.0 and will be available later this year in 4G.
CNET says: “The Samsung Galaxy S3 brings a gorgeous 4.8-inch 720p display, quad-core processor and 8-megapixel camera, all crammed into a good-looking, impossibly slim and light casing. At this point we have few concerns, and this smart phone looks set to reproduce the Galaxy S2′s success.”
Alpine is also expected to offer a MirrorLink car radio in the U.S. this year

First Post!

Welcome to the new Parkway Car Stereo Blog!