"Mini Cooper offering factory-installed HD Radio"

[davideduardo]

There is no reason why, with JVC producing a car stereo with a built in HD receiver for well over a year now, that any HD receiver for an $1800 car stereo system has to be an additional $500 plug in. Not ready for prime time in this particular case.

Those are typical prices for options on high-end cars. When you are dealing with the lowest priced BMW, nicely equipped as they say, coming in arould $50 k, the options are pricey. The GPS you could mount on your dash costs $400, but the BMW one is $2,100. If you want the nice, matching one from BMW you pay... otherwise, you have a $60 k car with a GPS stuck on the windshield with a suction cup. Your choice.

Let's go back to this post from July 2006, when everyone's favorite, David Eduardo, who wants to turn the clock back more than anyone said.....

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,40571.msg288764.html#msg288764

For the promotion campaign, June of 2006 was the launch. For most manufacturers, the FCC decision a couple of months ago was... this is when Samsung, for example, decided to make a 9mm HD chip... which will unleash loads of cheap HD radios and portables in the first 6 to 9 months next year. June 2006 was the radio launch. With way over a thousand stations covering over 70% of the population, and an FCC approval, the big manufacturers (Sangean is not, for example, a big manufacturer) are now coming in.

A couple of months ago... that would place us back in May 2006... which would be 13 months ago.

Actually, the HD Alliance comapign began in June, 2006. It was a necessary step to get the manufacturers on board after the FCC decision... and to start building some awareness.

But when the market doesn't react as everyone had hoped, we get to reset the trip odometer and forget it. I am sure that it will launch again when AM's go 24/7 within the next month or so...

AM is pretty much dead. HD may make a difference, but there are so few good AM signals that it may not matter.

I'm not sending it to the scrap heap, but to say that it is viable in a car when you have an $1800 unit that needs an additional $500 add on.

That's the way high-end cars work. This is not a Hyundai we are describing. Car manufacturers make more on upgrades than on the car itself. That's why they are costly.

 

[PocketRadio]

Actually, the HD Alliance comapign began in June, 2006. It was a necessary step to get the manufacturers on board after the FCC decision... and to start building some awareness... AM is pretty much dead. HD may make a difference, but there are so few good AM signals that it may not matter.

The first HD Radio was sold in 2004, and stations have been broadcastng in HD since 2002 - interest in HD Radio still remains flat:

http://www.google.com/trends?q="hd+...odcast&ctab=0&geo=US&geor=all&date=all&sort=0

Many 50KW AM stations are ranked ewith #1, or in the top-five:

WHO-AM News Talk Information 9.7 7.2 9.9 10.6
WLW-AM News Talk Information 8.9 9.9 11.2 9.8
WSB-AM News Talk Information 9.3 8.7 9.2 8.2
WGN-AM News Talk Information 5.3 5.5 5.8 5.4
WBBM-AM All News 4.2 4.1 4.4 4.6
WLS-AM News Talk Information 4.1 3.7 3.7 3.8
WTAM-AM News Talk Information 7.3 8.0 6.5 7.3
WJR-AM News Talk Information 4.8 4.9 5.3 5.3
KMOX-AM News Talk Information 8.4 7.7 8.2 8.4
KSL-AM News Talk Information 5.9 6.7 8.6 7.7

http://www.arbitron.com/radio_stations/home.htm

AM is far from dead, as news/talk/sports is very popular - AM-HD will destroy the AM band, with adjacent-channel interference and only about half the coverage of analog.

 

[wgliradio]

For the promotion campaign, June of 2006 was the launch. For most manufacturers, the FCC decision a couple of months ago was... this is when Samsung, for example, decided to make a 9mm HD chip... which will unleash loads of cheap HD radios and portables in the first 6 to 9 months next year.

Samsung is ONE manufacturer. What was JVC, Panasonic, Onkyo, Sangean, Kenwood, Yamaha building?

 

[R.F. Burns]

For the promotion campaign, June of 2006 was the launch. For most manufacturers, the FCC decision a couple of months ago was... this is when Samsung, for example, decided to make a 9mm HD chip... which will unleash loads of cheap HD radios and portables in the first 6 to 9 months next year.

Samsung is ONE manufacturer. What was JVC, Panasonic, Onkyo, Sangean, Kenwood, Yamaha building?

Samsung manufactures parts, None of the other manufacturers outside of Panasonic manufacture parts. They purchase parts from outside venders. For instance I own a Macintosh Amplfier and while Mac designed the amp, other companies manufactured the parts.

 

[wgliradio]

Sanyo makes parts as well (or at least used to), but Samsung also does put a finished product to market, or is the Samsung name that puts the finished product to market now different than the Samsung name that makes parts?

 

[davideduardo]

Sanyo makes parts as well (or at least used to), but Samsung also does put a finished product to market, or is the Samsung name that puts the finished product to market now different than the Samsung name that makes parts?

Samsung is fully vertically integrated, from fab to retail branded products. While they undoubtedly outsource some things in their products, the designs and most components in them are made by them. Samsung appears to be, based on sales, the largest electroincs company now. That is why the fact that they have designed and are ramping to manufacture an HD chip is so enormously significant. This is the present day equivalent of RCA pushing the color TV market in the late 50's.

 

[davideduardo]

For the promotion campaign, June of 2006 was the launch. For most manufacturers, the FCC decision a couple of months ago was... this is when Samsung, for example, decided to make a 9mm HD chip... which will unleash loads of cheap HD radios and portables in the first 6 to 9 months next year.

Samsung is ONE manufacturer. What was JVC, Panasonic, Onkyo, Sangean, Kenwood, Yamaha building?

Based on 2006 revenues, Samsung has greater sales than all those others combined. Sangean is a tiny company, for example.

 

[wgliradio]

Samsung would be the last place I would turn to for CE. To me they've always been just above bottom feeder.

I find it hard to believe they outsell the likes of Sony and Phillips, but since your life is only numbers, and this is a one angle point, I will yield to the numbers.

 

[davideduardo]

Samsung would be the last place I would turn to for CE. To me they've always been just above bottom feeder.

I find it hard to believe they outsell the likes of Sony and Phillips, but since your life is only numbers, and this is a one angle point, I will yield to the numbers.

Samsung has, probably, the best r&d and design facilities of any company in the sector. In white goods, they are the new high-end leader, with astoundingly good appliances. Their HDTVs, in all three formats, are consistently rates either best or at the top (I have several, and they are astounding and attractively priced since they make the panels themselves). I've also switched over the last couple of years to all Samsung monitors, too (no dead pixels, good service, etc.).

Net sales are $140 billion for 2006, and estimated around $170 billion this year. That compares to Sony's $66 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007. Or Panasonic (Matsushita)'s $77 billion in global sales. Phillips did $27 billion last year, per it's annual report. So Samsung has sales roughly equal to Sony, Panasonic and Phillips combined.

 

[wgliradio]

Samsung has, probably, the best r&d and design facilities of any company in the sector. In white goods, they are the new high-end leader, with astoundingly good appliances. Their HDTVs, in all three formats, are consistently rates either best or at the top (I have several, and they are astounding and attractively priced since they make the panels themselves). I've also switched over the last couple of years to all Samsung monitors, too (no dead pixels, good service, etc.).

Net sales are $140 billion for 2006, and estimated around $170 billion this year. That compares to Sony's $66 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007. Or Panasonic (Matsushita)'s $77 billion in global sales. Phillips did $27 billion last year, per it's annual report. So Samsung has sales roughly equal to Sony, Panasonic and Phillips combined.

Hard to imagine any new product as astoundingly good, but the sales figures can't be lies since you only live by numbers and nothing else.

Sony seems to have been hit hard by it's battery recall and Play Station 3 rollout. Also, Samsung had a difficult 1Q of 2007 with sluggish demand for key products and lower prices due to an oversupply.

We all know things ebb and flow.

 

[Chuck]

Samsung has, probably, the best r&d and design facilities of any company in the sector. In white goods, they are the new high-end leader, with astoundingly good appliances. Their HDTVs, in all three formats, are consistently rates either best or at the top (I have several, and they are astounding and attractively priced since they make the panels themselves). I've also switched over the last couple of years to all Samsung monitors, too (no dead pixels, good service, etc.).

Net sales are $140 billion for 2006, and estimated around $170 billion this year. That compares to Sony's $66 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007. Or Panasonic (Matsushita)'s $77 billion in global sales. Phillips did $27 billion last year, per it's annual report. So Samsung has sales roughly equal to Sony, Panasonic and Phillips combined.

Hard to imagine any new product as astoundingly good, but the sales figures can't be lies since you only live by numbers and nothing else.

Sony seems to have been hit hard by it's battery recall and Play Station 3 rollout. Also, Samsung had a difficult 1Q of 2007 with sluggish demand for key products and lower prices due to an oversupply.

We all know things ebb and flow.

I don't know, but I've had a Samsung HD TV for over 3 1/2 years and it has been great. I'd buy another. Samsung is one of those "quiet" companies. They don't make a big deal of themselves. They just deliver. That may be an Eastern mentality showing through, but Korea is not the same place it was during the Truman administration. (Check out their cars...They are very good also. “When better Buicks are built, Hyundai or Kia, their sister company, will build them.”

 

[wgliradio]

I have a Samsung DVD player that works well but has little use as a bedroom unit. I bought it because it was a cheap unit. My image of Samsung was/is a cheap company, which is why I was not surprised to find the unit for $39 in 2005. If it were a Panasonic, Phillips or JVC, I would expect to pay more.

I have just never thought of Samsung as a "quality" brand, a title which is getting harder and harder to find. Lately I have not gone wrong with Phillips, especially for portable devices... JVC or Yamaha.

 

[davideduardo]

I have just never thought of Samsung as a "quality" brand, a title which is getting harder and harder to find.

Search the web for articles on Samsung's R&D compounds. They are world famous for innovation in both circuitry and operational ease and ergonometrics. Samsung spends more on R&D than all the brands you have mentioned in all your posts combined; right now they are prtty much the gold standard for LCD screens... even better than Matsushita, in fact.

 

[wgliradio]

Search the web for articles on Samsung's R&D compounds. They are world famous for innovation in both circuitry and operational ease and ergonometrics. Samsung spends more on R&D than all the brands you have mentioned in all your posts combined; right now they are prtty much the gold standard for LCD screens... even better than Matsushita, in fact.

Do you work for them? Enough!

 

[PocketRadio]

I have just never thought of Samsung as a "quality" brand, a title which is getting harder and harder to find.

Search the web for articles on Samsung's R&D compounds. They are world famous for innovation in both circuitry and operational ease and ergonometrics. Samsung spends more on R&D than all the brands you have mentioned in all your posts combined; right now they are prtty much the gold standard for LCD screens... even better than Matsushita, in fact.

The low-power HD Radio chipset is still vaporware !

 

[davideduardo]

The low-power HD Radio chipset is still vaporware !

Name one time industry gian Samsung has announced a product that it did not ship.

 

[PocketRadio]

The low-power HD Radio chipset is still vaporware !

Name one time industry gian Samsung has announced a product that it did not ship.

"Bringing HD Radio to the Masses"

"This is very pioneering, very challenging work, Ma said. Our design has to be low-power, low-cost, low-noise and with enhanced sound quality... The big challenge is large-system integration because we have to address the noise problem, Chowdhury added... By its very nature, DSP is very noisy, but analog is very sensitive to noise... Designing, building and testing these systems and the other circuit blocks will be very challenging."

http://uanews.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/6/wa/EngrStoryDetails?ArticleID=13525

Your statement is meaningless - we all know what "very challenging" means.

 

[davideduardo]

Search the web for articles on Samsung's R&D compounds. They are world famous for innovation in both circuitry and operational ease and ergonometrics. Samsung spends more on R&D than all the brands you have mentioned in all your posts combined; right now they are prtty much the gold standard for LCD screens... even better than Matsushita, in fact.

Do you work for them? Enough!

Since you are totally ill-informed as to the size of Samsung, its quality, vertical integration, etc., as long as you post that Samsung is a low quality provider, I will correct you.

You seem to think that Onkyo and JVC and... oh mygawd... Sangean are industry leaders. The fact is that the true leader is the company you dismiss... a company recognized for it innovation in product design and R&D expenditures. As with HD, you just seem to have the world a tiny bit upside down.

 

[PocketRadio]

Since you are totally ill-informed as to the size of Samsung, its quality, vertical integration, etc., as long as you post that Samsung is a low quality provider, I will correct you.

You seem to think that Onkyo and JVC and... oh mygawd... Sangean are industry leaders. The fact is that the true leader is the company you dismiss... a company recognized for it innovation in product design and R&D expenditures. As with HD, you just seem to have the world a tiny bit upside down.

Your post is still meaningless, and does nothing to address the challenges associated with developing low-cost, low-power, and low-noise HD Radio chipsets.

 

[davideduardo]

Your post is still meaningless, and does nothing to address the challenges associated with developing low-cost, low-power, and low-noise HD Radio chipsets.

Essentially, if Samsung says they will have a 9mm chip shipping in Q1, they will.