Wayne,
N.J. – Steve Howcott, general manager of JVC’s consumer audio division, has
left the company, and his responsibilities have been handed over to consumer display
VP Michael Holmes.
JVC has been scaling back its U.S. home audio
presence in recent years, having dropped out of the AV receiver market several
years ago and, this year, scaling back its HTiB product selection.
It
wasn’t clear if Howcott’s departure would be one of several departures coming
in the wake of an announcement in Tokyo last week that JVC and Kenwood would
soon
to cut costs by establishing a new company that merges their
current holding company, JVC Kenwood Holdings, with Victor Co. of Japan (JVC);
Kenwood Corp., which makes home audio and communications equipment, and J&K
Car Electronics Corp., which sells JVC and Kenwood car audio.
JVC
hasn’t returned calls for comment.
At January’s CES, JVC
two soundbars to replace three models but at lower price points of a
suggested $249 and $149 compared to a
previous top price of $799. The company also showed three step-up iPod/iPhone
speaker systems, which it said would come to market depending on dealer
interest, and an iPod/ iPhone-docking Kaboom boombox.
