Best Buy Announces All Locations Will Sell Mobile Video
By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 5/29/2000
MINNEAPOLIS -- Jumping on the video bandwagon, Best Buy will begin selling mobile video for the first time in all stores on June 1. The chain will initially carry three brands, including AutoVideo by Rosen, TSI (Texas Saddle Bags Industries) and Steel Horse, as well as Clarion's new line as it becomes available, according to senior buyer for mobile electronics Phil Kalleberg.
While mobile video already accounts for 15-30 percent of some retailers' sales, Best Buy is just entering the market because it does not offer custom installation.
"Until last fall the business was geared to the custom-install shops, where you put TV monitors in the headrest," said Kalleberg. "We'll be selling custom fit products [and standard installed product] but not custom installation. We tested some of the grab-and-go portable products last fall, and based on the result of the test, decided to roll it out nationally."
He added, "We expect it to be a big part of our business. It will be our fastest-growing components in mobile electronics."
Best Buy will carry products ranging in price from $299 to $1,900, a company spokesman said. The products will include "monitors that hang from the back of the front seats, to DVD systems with flip-down LCD panels that install in the ceiling."
At the high end of the lineup will be AutoVideo by Rosen, which will include an overhead flat-panel display system in 5.6- or 6.4-inch formats installed into the headliners of the vehicle. They come with a VCP with a credit card-size remote that can control the screen, TV and video player functions, as well as wireless headphones. They also can accept video game players.
Suggested retail prices are $1,099 for the 5.6-inch screen system and $1,699 for the 6.4-inch model.
To promote mobile video, Best Buy is focusing its spring promotion this year on car electronics under the theme "going mobile." The chain is running a sweepstakes to win a 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser equipped with a high-end audio/video system. The system will include a Rockford Fosgate stereo system and an AutoVideo by Rosen car video system, plus a Sony PlayStation.
The contest will run from May 14 to July 8 with a random drawing for the winner of the $27,500 car taking place at the end of July.
Best Buy has also released the results of a national phone survey looking at summer travel and examining which electronics customers want in their automobiles for entertainment. The study found that most people spend up to eight hours a week in their cars in the summer and 45 percent would prefer to purchase a CD player or high-quality stereo over any other car electronics.
However, nearly 80 percent of Americans who have children would like to purchase a mobile video system, Best Buy found. In total, 30 percent of the respondents said they would like to own a CD player or changer, 17 percent would like to own a premium car audio system, and 13 percent would like to own a cellphone.
Nine percent of the respondents said they wish to own a GPS system, eight percent a mobile video player or gaming system, four percent would like Internet access, and three percent would like to own a radar detector. - Amy Gilroy
