Component Audio: Growth Despite Challenges

NEW YORK –

The component-audio business has
proven resilient despite lackluster
economic growth and continued
consolidation in the specialty-
A/V retail channel, said audio
marketers polled by TWICE.

They attributed growth to a
variety of factors, including the
need for component electronics to access content
from PCs, the Cloud, and – through wired and wireless
connections — from smartphones and tablets.

CEA statistics support the suppliers’ good mood.
Factory-level sales of component-audio electronics
rose 6.5 percent to $371.5 million
for the first nine months of
the year, and sales of speakers
of all kinds, including custom,
rose 14.3 percent to $530.8
million, CEA statistics show.

Here’s how key suppliers assessed
the state of the market in 2011, and prospects
for 2012, in response to emailed questions for the following
“virtual” roundtable discussion.