2005 proved to be a bumper year for sales of DAB digital radios. A record number of over 1.4 million products were sold, making it the best-ever year to date.
Whilst ?kitchen portables? still proved to be the most popular DAB digital radio product type, eager buyers have now begun snapping up other types of digital radio.
The next two best-selling categories were digital radio hifi systems and alarm clocks, indicating that listeners are expanding their digital radio experience to other areas of their homes.
In the month of December, 20% of all DAB digital radios sold were in the form of hifi systems and 7% were clock radios. But to really appreciate the charm of clock radios, it helps to understand that this product category has grown by 290% compared with December 2004.
With DAB digital radios accounting for 16% of all radios (of any type) sold in December 2005, it?s not surprising that overall listening to digital radio is also on the increase. Around 5.4 million people now listen to radio stations via DAB digital radio, and the technology accounts for more listening hours than both the internet and digital TV combined.
Forecasts for 2006 indicate that digital radio sales are going to continue to grow, with a potential for around 2 million products being sold this year. Alarm clocks, hifi systems and personal portable products are expected to be among the most popular categories, but with manufacturers developing new products all the time, there could yet be some surprises?