I used SONICgreen so everyone would understand it's a parody. A long time ago I made fun of Bose in a message forum by making fake press releases. They were absolutely idiodic sounding so that only a complete fool would think they were from the real Bose. Yet, Bose threatened me with legal action.

Anyway, the point is that Sonic Blue's stated rational for leaving the car stereo market isn't at all consistant with what the company is currently doing. Portable music systems, GoVideo VCR's, ReplayTV, CD Players, etc. These are all consumer items that compete against the big boys of electronics just like RioCar.

One has to wonder if SonicBlue is discontinuing RioCar at least in part due to the company's dire financial situation. Revenue down 72%! Profit change of almost a billion dollars in the wrong direction! A stock price around $1. If it weren't for the events of Sept 11th, SonicBlue would probably be delisted from Nasdaq by now.

I hear what the company is saying, and it makes sense to me on one level. Yet, the company's actions elsewhere are completely different. I would suspect RioCar was simply the most vulnerable product that had the least developed marketshare, and times where tough so they pulled the plug. It's too bad because they never really gave the product a chance since there was virtually no marketing effort.

SonicBlue is one of those companies that will be hit hardest by a recession. Nearly everything they sell is expensive fun stuff that consumers don't really need.