IHS Study Sees Explosion Of Internet Radio In Cars

Growing

"Global sales of cars with Internet radio capability are set to rise dramatically during the next eight years," reports THIS WEEK IN CONSUMER ELECTRONICS, "leading a wave of in-vehicle apps that will be integrated into car electronics systems in the coming years, according to the IHS ISUPPLI AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH SERVICE from IHS."

The effect on radio will be large, as sales of autos equipped with Internet radio are expected to increase to 24 million units in 2018, up from 168,000 in 2010, according to the IHS study. Sales in the U.S. are expected to grow to more than 10.9 million units in 2018, from 149,000 in 2010.

"The next several years will see an explosion in the use of in-vehicle apps in cars, driven by booming shipments of automobiles employing head units designed to integrate Cloud-based content," said IHS Principal Analyst For Automotive Infotainment EGIL JULIUSSEN. "These apps, whether built into cars or provided via connected mobile devices like smartphones, will provide a range of infotainment, entertainment, remote diagnostics and navigation services. With music having been the leading form of entertainment in cars for more than 75 years, Internet radio is expected to lead the in-vehicle app revolution."

IHS noted that about 50 car models in the U.S. are currently equipped with an Internet radio app or will have it in their model-year 2012 versions.

"PANDORA was cited as a leading influence for the rise in Internet radio, along with iHEARTRADIO, SLACKER and SPOTIFY," noted TWICE. "As for other Cloud-based sources of content, IHS named APPLE's iCLOUD, GOOGLE MUSIC and AMAZON's CLOUD DRIVE as those likely to see implementation in the car. 'However, at this point in time, automotive OEMs have shown little interest in implementing this type of Cloud service in the car. Instead, the trend is toward popular entertainment apps such as PANDORA, iHEARTRADIO, SLACKER and more,' it noted."

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