Revised CEA Stats Say Portable Audio Sales Rose In '00

By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 2/26/2001

ARLINGTON, VA. -Factory-level sales of cassette- and CD-based portable audio products did a lot better than indicated by initial CEA estimates.

The previous estimate of 2000 sales, based on 10 months of actual sales, showed combined sales of cassette- and CD-based portables (headset and boombox combined) falling 27.1 percent to $1.45 billion (TWICE, Jan. 29, p. 52). Revised estimates based on sales through most of December show sales rising 7.5 percent to $2.14 billion.

Much of the revision resulted from a dramatic change in 2000's estimated boombox sales. Previously, boombox sales were estimated to have dropped 64 percent to $350 million from 1999's $972 million. Now they're estimated as having risen by 7 percent to $1.04 billion.

Headset-based portable sales are still estimated to have risen 8.2 percent to $1.1 billion.

Sales of Internet-audio headset portables rose last year to $107 million, not the $192 million previously estimated by CEA.