Revenues from factory-to-dealer sales of portable audio players grew to nearly $167 million during April 2003 - an increase of 12 percent compared to the same period in 2002.
This is according to figures released today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).
“The rise in portable audio sales is largely due to the increasing growth of MP3 as a format,” said Sean Wargo, senior industry analyst for CEA. “Portable CD players that play MP3, MP3-capable car CD players and portable MP3 players are the hot areas in audio right now.”
During the month of April, manufacturer-to-dealer unit sales of CD/MP3 players increased 184 percent in year-to-date numbers to 732,000 thousand units. Additionally, in-dash MP3-compatible CD players also have shown impressive growth so far this year, increasing 186 percent to 686,00 units through April in year-to-date totals. Portable MP3 player sales also increased five percent during April over 2002 figures. Leading this increase are new MP3 content services, such as Apple’s iTunes service, that have helped to drive this market while providing consumers with access to legal content downloads at reasonable prices and the downloads can then be transferred to MP3 players.
“The arrival of these new services stems from the stellar growth in the MP3 category we saw starting last year when actual sales blew past the forecasts. And as MP3 sales continue to grow, we can expect the emergence of more content services to cater to an increasing consumer base. With new developments in areas such as MP3s, outlook for year-end figures remains positive, despite a decline in total sales of 12 percent, compared to last year,” Wargo concluded.
