Innovation drives automotive infotainment semiconductor growth

16 Mar 2009

The forecast of audio visual entertainment and telematics Internet connectivity demand are stated to be worth $5.4 billion by 2015.

The continuous rapid innovation in digital consumer electronics and growing adoption levels will create new in-vehicle and vehicle-portable device product opportunities for OEMs and suppliers that will increase infotainment semiconductor demand by 50% between 2008 and 2015, according to Strategy Analytics' new Automotive Multimedia & Communications service report. The Forecast predicts that car audio entertainment will continue to provide important mainstream revenue growth opportunities for IC vendors due to the rollout of multi-standard broadcasting (e.g. SDAR, DAB, HD Radio, DRM, ISDB-T), and the storage and connectivity features increasingly expected by consumers with portable devices and ‘soft' audio and video content libraries (e.g. Bluetooth, USB, HDD). Furthermore, Strategy Analytics expects that enabling Internet radio is going to be a major driver of content and connectivity to the car, as a consequence of the explosion in the Internet radio stations feeding off consumer desire for more diverse and specialised content.

According to Chris Webber, vice president of global automotive practice at Strategy Analytics, automotive chip revenues across all applications are being negatively impacted in 2009 by the global economic downturn affecting car sales. However, new product innovation and high consumer interest in in-vehicle entertainment systems will provide semiconductor vendors with new growth opportunities.

Senior analyst Mark Fitzgerald added that infotainment semiconductor demand will also come from growth of in-vehicle DVD systems and embedded eCall telematics modules to support services such as OnStar and Toyota's recently announced Safety Connect service.