MARKET & TECHNOLOGY
MARKET & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS …/ Cont’d. from Page 11 sed demand for high-end individual components; for example 33% of value sales of Dolby digital receivers cost more than 800 euros, and absolute growth in this high-end segment amounted to 39%. This trend was also influenced by rising demand for complete home cinema systems, which grew by 6% in value terms. Further impetus came from new products and in particular complete audio systems with MP3 docking, sound projectors for virtual surround applications, and audio streaming solutions. Total value sales of these products have tripled since the first half of 2007. Portable audio devices The market for MP3 players has reached saturation point, with the result that volume sales fell by 12% in the first half of 2008 compared to the same period last year. However, despite the fact that value sales fell by 14%, unit prices decreased only by a small amount. More than 80% of sales by value are of products using Flash technology. GfK is forecasting sales of around 35.5 million MP3 players in 2008. Accessories increased by 13% in value terms, will also continue to benefit significantly from the MP3 market. In-car electronics For the first time in several years, the in-car electronics market experienced negative growth, with sales decreasing by 11%. This is caused by the divergence between a 38% increase in volume sales of portable navigation devices, and a 7% decrease in value sales. Average price fell to 202 euros.Western European sales of portable navigation devices will amount to 17.6 million in 2008. Storage media As increasing numbers of players and recorders have their own internal storage, demand for blank CDs fell by 16%, and for DVDs by 2%. However, sales of storage cards, and particularly micro formats, increased by 32% as MP3 players, cameras and Navigation became increasingly common on mobile telephones. Demand for USB sticks rose by as much as 38%, not least because more and more consumer electronics devices have USB interfaces. For further research reports visit www.gfk.com CREATING THE HIGH DEFINITION VALUE BOX TAKUYA SUGITA, VIDEO BUSINESS UNIT DIRECTOR, PANASONIC AVC NETWORKS COMPANY Interview by Richard Barnes a quality similar to that of a movie theater. What makes Panasonic different from other brands? Panasonic makes most of the components in-house. As a result, we can introduce the world’s first, Single-Chip Signal Processing LSI to realize one of the highest picture and sound qualities. We are also working with Hollywood studios in collaboration with our Panasonic Hollywood Labs. The know-how we attain is used in developing our future products. How do you see the market developments in Europe? European people are always concerned about the quality of the products they buy. As a manufacturer, it is very exciting that we cannot sacrifice quality in our products. To be closer to the European market, we began producing DVD recorders in Europe. Last year, we achieved 3 million unit sales in this factory. This year we have started producing Bluray players. What are your future projections for the market? The increase of high definition contents will further accelerate the demand for Blu-ray products. Depending on the amount of high definition broadcasting, the market for Blu-ray recorders will grow as well. In this fast moving market, we want to keep the top position with our Panasonic original technologies and offer a Blu-ray lineup matching consumers’ needs. How do you see the latest developments in Blu-ray? We find that Blu-ray is an exciting category with lots of potential. After the format war, demand of Blu-rayrelated products has been rapidly increasing because the need for playback of high definition contents is increasing. In countries that have started HD broadcasting, we introduced Blu-ray disc recorders. That is why, at this IFA, we are showing the first Blu-ray disc recorder for the European market. What is the vision or direction of Panasonic in this category? Ultimately, we want to create a High Definition Value Box where consumers can use our Blu-ray disc players and recorders as the centerpiece of the living room. To realize this, we started offering SD card slot in our Blu-ray products, so you can view camcorder contents and view slideshows. Our Viera Link ensures ease of use with the remote control of our Viera TVs. We are also improving the picture quality to realise IFA International • Tuesday, 2 nd September 2008 www.ifa-international.org 13
