Sales of audio, AirPlay, home control fill gap
Directors of some of the industry’s top buying groups recently spoke with Dealerscope’s Nancy Klosek on a variety of topics, including 3DTV sales, new partner programs and predictions for 2011 sales. For the full interviews, please see the upcoming March issue of the magazine.
[by www.dealerscope.com]
Dealerscope: Is the most important product to the majority of your dealers still TVs or has another category replaced it?
Dave Workman: A quiet category doing very well is audio. It’s been a consistently positive performer through 2010.And 3D does help audio sales, as consumers need HDMI switching capability and are looking at things like soundbars, simple 3.1- and 5.1-channel systems, and wireless multi-room systems. You’ll also see the Apple AirPlay in quite a few receivers and clients in 2011 that will allow the building of wireless audio systems, and it will all need to be explained.
Richard Glikes: The two hottest things other than TV are control – that’s very hot – and Apple AirPlay. You’ll see AirPlay everywhere, and it will be included in everything … boom boxes, receivers.
Mike Decker: HDTV, connected TV and 3DTV will still make up the majority of our TV sales. Also, new product categories such as tablets, home health care and Disney-related products will support new streams of revenue and profit for our membership.
Bob Lawrence: Video has always been a cornerstone, and the other emphasis is to drive the connected home.As energy prices rise and variable-rate electric meters are being installed in homes, people will need to adjust to this different way of being billed – and they will want to control their homes in a much different way. It used to be $30,000 to $50,000 to have a connected home; today, it’s $8,000 to $10,000, still high, but more accessible. And you can achieve for what many is an adequate amount of control for $2,500 or $3,000.
Jim Ristow: There are two main categories. One is the connected home in general. Whether the ecosystem consists of smartphones, tablets, PCs, audio, lighting or HVAC control, all are connected and controlled and will become mainstream. New business models are emerging as we speak, well beyond $30,000-to-$50,000 systems that used to define the category.
It’s a new market, and it’s beyond boutique. Our members are poised to ride that wave.These solutions are difficult to execute in box stores. There is also a resurgence in sound. Better sound is being revitalized as a consumer interest, but in a non-traditional way.
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