First of all, is the in-car video market changing?
Abhishek Visveswaran: Traditionally, in-car video systems have been restricted to Rear Seat Entertainment (RSE) systems, mainly aimed at keeping children occupied on long journeys. However, this is now changing as Hard Disk Drive (HDD) navigation systems are become increasingly popular. Our research shows that over 85% of HDD systems are equipped with DVD video drives. Moreover, the vast majority of vehicle manufacturers in Europe now offer video playback in some form and a few of them even have it available on all of their models. Vehicle manufacturers such as Mercedes and Land Rover are also introducing dual-view screens so that the front passenger can watch movies without distracting the driver. However, RSE systems continue to dominate the market using a variety of screen locations and configurations. Q: You mentioned DVD drives, what about Blu-ray discs and high definition? AV: In countries such as the UK, domestic Blu-ray sales witnessed a growth of over 450% in 2008. A number of
