D&M Networked Products Part of New Local-Markets Initiative
D&M Holdings has begun an initiative to design and develop products “from the outside in,” Bob Weissburg, president of sales and marketing, told Consumer Electronics Daily at a news conference in Weehawken, N.J., Tuesday to introduce 2011 Denon and Boston Acoustics products. “Listening to the customer” will be a key driver of the initiative, which includes dealers and end users, as the company moves away from a Japan-based engineering-driven strategy to a more localized approach based on individual markets, he said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Denon’s 2011 networked audio line encompasses the strategy with Apple’s Airplay and a slate of digital streaming music services from Pandora, Rhapsody, Napster and vTuner, Weissburg said. “The way people get and store content is changing,” Weissburg told us. “We have to understand how consumers are getting and accessing music."
As consumers gravitate to streaming music services, including content they stream via Airplay from Apple iPhones and iPods, companies like Denon are being excluded from the revenue model on the hardware side. When we asked Weissburg how Denon makes up for lost revenue on the source component side in the streaming age, he referred to AV receivers “not just being about amplifiers and tuners anymore” but as part of the “ecosystem of sound.” The receiver is “taking on a different role” in home entertainment, he said, citing multi-room distribution features, streaming content, control via proprietary apps and connected audio capability. “The days of having one device as a source are over,” he said. “People want content anywhere and they want devices that aggregate music and replace the dedicated source.” Weissburg said the company showed growth in AV receivers for every month in 2010.
Denon is launching a new line of receivers for the custom channel this spring under the IN Command moniker, with the “IN” referring to integrated network. Highlights of the lineup include new cosmetics, a three-year warranty and networking capability. At the same time Denon is packing streaming features into its receivers, the company is also lowering prices of content-based receivers “almost by half of what we currently offer,” said Jeff Talmadge, director of product development and systems integration. When the company’s $529 AVR-1912 begins shipping later this month, it will be the least expensive Airplay receiver in the market, he said. The company is eliminating its Series 3 receivers and will have a single lineup of receivers: IN Command, CI and core models, Talmadge said.
Also for the custom market, Denon showed a digital music player due later in the year that delivers multiple streams of music to multiple zones. Talmadge called it “an N7 without a CD player” in reference to Denon’s RCD-N7 $599 streaming CD player/receiver with AM/FM radio and integrated iPod dock. “It’s not just about the content but it’s about the control of the content,” he said, noting that the N7 derivative will be targeted to the custom channel. Price will be announced at CEDIA in September.
Denon showed iPod docks as part of its 2011 portfolio, but Talmadge said the iPod dock category is “moving away and not to be as important as it once was,” due to the emergence of other technologies including Airplay. DLNA is part of Denon receivers, too, and will become more important as Windows 7 and Android products gain market share, Talmadge said. The company is looking at additional lifestyle categories. Talmadge showed a slide of Denon’s vision of the networked home that included powered network speakers for the patio and kitchen controlled by an iPhone or iPod Touch. Further details weren’t available. Denon has no new Blu-ray players for 2011, Talmadge said.
Boston Acoustics showed two new soundbars, a $349 model with a wireless subwoofer that can switch between music and movies for stereo and simulated surround sound. The step-up Model 30 at $599 includes Bluetooth for higher quality sound when streaming music from an iPod, a dedicated center-channel speaker and discrete left and right rear channels, said Eli Harary, senior vice president, global brand management and business development for Boston Acoustics. Harary indicated a soundbar with Airplay built in will be shown at CEDIA.
Regarding product availability in wake of the Japan earthquake, Phil Cohn, senior vice president of sales for D&M, said all the new products shown at the meeting Tuesday were on schedule and will ship “imminently.” Denon’s Japan factory suffered “some damage” that will affect older models this summer, he said.
Regarding D&M’s new channel management strategy announced Monday (CED April 12 p11), Cohn said the company wanted to maintain brand value through specialty dealers. “We want to make sure how our brands are positioned in the market helps support that,” he said. “There are thousands of people who buy through distribution that we have no visibility to” and, in turn, who don’t know Denon’s needs and strategies regarding business rules, Cohn said. He cited transshipping, gray-market goods, unserialized products and counterfeit goods as problems the company wants to address. “The goal is to make sure all channel partners are qualified and able to tell our story.”