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When my older brother was in high school, my Dad would help him work on his car. Their heads buried under the hood and dashboard; bodies contorted to connect yards of wire as they installed speakers, components and a power amp into his new project car. It was a metallic green, ‘67 Fastback. My brother had gotten a “real deal” on a Pioneer, 8-track player because compact cassette players were quickly replacing them.
The memory has emerged because it was at that time, in another American garage, that Scosche Industries was incubating its future.
Scosche has evolved from being consultants for car stereo makers, to being car stereo parts manufacturers. They’ve since flourished to innovate within a completely different car audio world today.
At Scosche, the modern system has cut the wires on sound media, enabling the iPod and MP3s to rule with Bluetooth as their missing link. Since 1980, the company never wavered in its ability to adapt, and 27 years later has literally written encyclopedias on car audio sound installation. These encyclopedias, in printed or interactive volumes, are available online with a subscription. Their latest entry, BlueLife, is a branded specialty line of Bluetooth products and iPod accessories that aid in moving music easily from the car to in-home units. Scosche has specialized in integrating radios into every type of car since its inception.
As developers and manufacturers of mounting and wiring adapters, the company’s work has helped to ease complexity of car stereo installation. Choosing Kenwood or Pioneer for an Audi, Toyota, or Cadillac was a smoother negotiation for the professional installer or DIY’ers alike. The company’s most recent venture in car audio adaptability meant bringing to market aftermarket solutions for Bluetooth.
“We pioneered iPod integration into cars using Bluetooth technology and called it BlueLife,” said marketing administrator, Trevor Kaplan. “Our customers were the first to be able to listen to their iPod wirelessly in CD quality with our BlueLife® adapter, and even answer phone calls through their car speakers from Bluetooth-enabled phones. When a new technology is released, it’s obviously more expensive because it’s not mainstream yet, but now we’re on our 3rd generation of our BlueLife® kits and new technologies have allowed us to make improvements by adding DSP and Echo Cancellation to the cellular portion, all while bringing the price down.”
Their efforts with the BlueLife line has won praise as they were one of the winner’s of iLounge’s, “Best in Show” in 2006 and have been awarded numerous times for innovative products. Last December, their BlueLife wireless headphones won the prestigious 2007 CES Innovations Award.
Scosche was created as a small, family run business and is still family owned and operated today. The company says, “We’ve been on the forefront of technology due to our designs and ability to react to technological advancements. We will continue to innovate new ways to use the Bluetooth and integrate wireless devices into the daily lives of our customers. The future will take us into areas that weren’t thought possible before now; we’re only just now starting to get a glimpse of the potential advancements like increased battery life, longer range devices and especially streaming video, which will change the scope of the industry and the way consumers use products.”
An example of answering consumer demands, this year Scosche introduced the third generation BlueLife® Do-it-Yourself kit. The new kit allows non-Bluetooth equipped vehicles to answer cell phone calls and play music wirelessly through their car speakers. Using the Bluelife® adaptor, users can answer phone calls through car speakers from Bluetooth-enabled phones. Especially designed for today’s new vehicle owners, the DIY kit eliminates the need for an elaborate installation and is described as a simple solution for wireless audio and hands-free cell phone capabilities.
Scosche is now a ‘Made for iPod’ vendor, and has created unique iPod accessories that can be used with Apple’s ‘Works with iPhone’ program. The agreement with Apple, as a licensee, allows Scosche’s products to work with current and future versions of iPods and iPhones - unlike products without licensed, authentication technology. The ‘Works with iPhone’ accessories include car chargers, USB cables and an in-car interface that allows a customers’ factory radio to control the music on their iPhone or iPod. Other product-specific accessories include silicone skins, polycarbonate cases and 3.5mm audio cables. The company is very reactive to industry changes, as a result, they’ve been adapting for almost three decades.
They’ve already dedicated new teams to the development and support of their newest products such as Bluetooth and the hottest category: iPhone accessories. They said that they target what’s hot in product development and create alliances with the new device manufacturers. Creating such alliances to allow the company to have accessories made available even before the device is on the market.
Scosche products are currently sold in over 40 countries and their world scope is only limited by certain international trade regulations keeping some technologies landlocked. None-the-less the company reflects American-made ingenuity and the company’s resourcefulness has enabled their flexibility amid technological advancement. Changes in design and manufacturing have presented evolving opportunities. The company says, “We have team development meetings in an open forum-style to increase creativity and product functionality. The wireless consumer wants their gadgets combined into a single device and they expect to be able to use it everywhere. We are pioneering Bluetooth systems and in-vehicle integration to address consumer expectations.” American born and raised, Scosche Industries meets Wireless Dealer Magazine’s expectations of a well-branded and firmly rooted company on the world’s wireless stage.