Blaupunkt
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Blaupunkt (German for "blue dot") is a German electronic equipment manufacturer, noted for their home and car audio equipment, that is part of Robert Bosch GmbH. Founded in 1923 in Berlin as "Ideal", the company changed its name to "Blaupunkt" in 1938, named after the unique blue dot painted onto its headphones. After the Second World War, Blaupunkt moved their headquarters and production to the town of Hildesheim.
Within the 1960 and 1970s, Blaupunkt had become the leading German manufacturer for car radios and car audio equipment. Blaupunkt can also be considered the first manufacturer of a GPS (Global Positioning System) based In Car navigation systems (the Berlin RC303), which have become one of the company's best selling products. Despite their strong market position, Blaupunkt has almost always suffered from losses througout its history and rarely ever managed to make profits. Being a branch of the Robert Bosch Company, the losses have always been covered.
For many years, Blaupunkt car audio equipment models often carried the name of a city somewhere in the world, eg "London RDM126". In Blaupunkt model nomenclature, this can be translated as "An RDS CD player capable of controlling a Multichanger, rated at 4x30W RMS (4x30 = 120) from model year 1996". High end models typically had German place names.
Blaupunkt also used the brand "Velocity" to sell product aimed at a lower cost market. Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, Mercedes and BMW all fit Blaupunkt products into their cars, often branded with the manufacturer's own mark (eg The VW Gamma or BMW Symphony lines). Blaupunkt also specialise in coach installations, selling TVs, multiple-speaker setups and PA equipment to that industry.