Boston, MA - November 30, 2006 - The new Strategy Analytics report, "OE Automotive Audio: Leading Suppliers Hold Their Positions," concludes that Blaupunkt, Siemens VDO, Delphi and Visteon still dominate the supply of audio head units for new vehicles produced across Europe and North America, despite increasing competition in automotive digital multimedia.

Scale economies, well established car maker supply relationships and new product ranges are enabling these four leading system suppliers to meet the ever increasing competition in the automotive audio. Together, Blaupunkt and Siemens VDO represent 55 percent of audio head units shipped into European vehicle production in 2006, while Delphi and Visteon represent a total of 66 percent of the audio head units shipped in North America. Alpine, Harman International and Bose, however, are mounting strong and well targeted competition in the premium audio sectors of the market.

"Although the market positioning of these four audio suppliers is very strong, consumer audio requirements inside the vehicle and on personal devices is changing rapidly," says report author, Joanne Blight, Director, Automotive Practice. "The ongoing challenge for market leaders and their competitors is to develop well-priced products to meet the increasing demand for new forms of digital audio entertainment. In particular, compressible format CD players, digital radio and connectivity for portable music players will very quickly become central features on in-vehicle entertainment systems."