Sales of navigation and video entertainment products accounted for a great part of the surge. In 1999, those two product categories accounted for about 12 percent of total retail sales in the mobile electronics category. By 2005, it was responsible for 23 percent.
Still, audio systems sales are the heart of the market. Research shows that the top seven modifications done to a car by a mobile electronics retailer are audio related. The installation of amplifiers accounts for 22.1 percent of installs and 12.8 percent of planned to install and goes down from there through installation of component speakers, head units and subwoofers. Surprisingly, DVD players and video monitors were ranked eighth in most popular purchase.