Despite interest from distributors in the U.S. and around the world, 3D’s future “is hard to tell,” David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Communications, said at the UBS conference in New York Monday. “It’s very expensive,” he said, adding that Discovery chose to work with Sony and Imax to minimize the costs of developing a 3D channel and to share information along the learning curve.
Despite interest from distributors in the U.S. and around the world, 3D’s future “is hard to tell,” David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Communications, said at the UBS conference in New York Monday. “It’s very expensive,” he said, adding that Discovery chose to work with Sony and Imax to minimize the costs of developing a 3D channel and to share information along the learning curve.
Energy management solutions and expanded audio and video features for webcams are new areas that Schlage will focus on for its Z-Wave-based home management system in 2011, Dwight Gibson, general manager for the company’s Connected Home Solutions group, told us in a pre-CES briefing last week. Schlage’s 2011 product plan includes energy monitoring and management, he said. The company wants to give consumers the ability to see their “complete energy profile,” Gibson said, so they can better control those costs. Lighting, appliances and HVAC systems drive more than 80 percent of energy consumption in homes, “and that’s where consumers’ actions can make a meaningful difference,” he said.
Electronic Arts is driving toward $750 million annual revenue from digital business, Eric Brown, chief financial officer, said during a webcast from the Credit Suisse Technology Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. The company generated $430 million from digital content in fiscal 2009 and that grew to $570 million in fiscal 2010, driven largely by downloads for extra content including micro-transactions for free-to-play games, social network games from Playfish, and map packs for Xbox 360 and PS3 video game players, Brown said. Full-game downloads have also been a key driver for the company’s revenues for fiscal first half 2011, which ended Sept. 30, he said.
PC peripheral maker Logitech is looking at the tablet PC market as an opportunity, not a threat, chief financial officer Erik Bardman said Wednesday in a session webcast from the Credit Suisse 2010 Technology Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. While Logitech’s bread-and-butter mouse and keyboard business is “still growing,” Bardman forecast that it will “grow a little slower” over the next five years with growth dropping to 10 percent. “If people do replace laptops with tablets,” he said, “there’s a productivity element there, and we're very good with productivity input.”
Reversing a trend, the number of Google searches for Black Friday deals did not hit new highs Thanksgiving week -- but they did increase the week before and early this week, according to a report delivered via webcast by CEA research director Shawn DuBravac.
Panasonic on Wednesday will begin selling the much-awaited Blu-ray 3D version of Avatar as part of a bundle promotion called the “3D Ultimate” pack that also includes two pairs of Panasonic’s second-generation rechargeable 3D glasses, Henry Hauser, vice president of merchandising, told Consumer Electronics Daily.
Financial returns on the Nook e-reader and digital content platform “may be greater than we originally thought in our one- to three-year models,” Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said Tuesday in the company’s fiscal Q2 earnings webcast. The company predicts an annualized run-rate of $400 million for digital content when the fiscal year ends in April, Lynch said, noting that “selling digital content through the Nook bookstore is the fastest growing business we've ever launched at BN.”
Consumers on average are willing to allocate $87.20 for the 3D feature in TVs, according to a report by DisplaySearch, which doesn’t bode well for success of more expensive passive-eyewear solutions that could improve the comfort level of 3D TV viewing. That $90 premium is a long way from the current $500 delta between 2D and 3D LCD TVs that DisplaySearch cited. But getting the cost down is key to 3D becoming mainstream and creating a market base for more content. While the ultimate goal is auto-stereoscopic 3D that will eliminate the need for glasses altogether, that solution is far down the road, DisplaySearch said. In the interim, manufacturers will debate the merits of two 3D technologies in an effort to balance consumer comfort, cost and picture quality.
Cyber Monday presented an interesting collection of electronics steal deals, inventory blowouts, bundles and free shipping, Consumer Electronics Daily found as we perused websites Monday for advertised specials. Going after aggressive shoppers, Target scraped 99 cents off an already-slashed Hewlett-Packard all-in-one printer, bringing it to $29 even. In video, Target used pricing on little-known brands to lure e-shoppers. Sale items included a Sceptre 19-inch LED LCD TV marked down $69, to $149, with free shipping. An Aiptek HD camcorder with 47.5 MB storage and 5x optical zoom went into carts at $119, down from $179. Target broke the $300 barrier on a 32-inch TV with a Vizio 720p 60Hz-model discounted $58, to $299. Savvy shoppers would have done their homework and shopped elsewhere for a Samsung 26-inch LN26C350 that Target pitched at $429. Wal-Mart offered it for $386 and J&R for $299, both with free shipping.