Social media tools are reshaping how consumers will shop on Black Friday 2010 and in the future. The Huffington Post said Wednesday that with the increasing popularity of social media sites Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and Groupon, this year’s Black Friday is “the most social media-savvy to date.”
Social media tools are reshaping how consumers will shop on Black Friday 2010 and in the future. The Huffington Post said Wednesday that with the increasing popularity of social media sites Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and Groupon, this year’s Black Friday is “the most social media-savvy to date.”
Flat-panel TVs will be a top draw for Black Friday this year, presenting an “interesting phenomenon,” according to Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group. “We've always seen really low-priced things do well,” he told Consumer Electronics Daily, but this year TVs have helped “turn that aside.” Historically, the leading product for Black Friday features “a lot of money off” on low-priced goods, he said. “Now we're seeing stuff at $300, $400 and $500 being a great deal and Black Friday doorbuster products,” he said.
Sharp announced Tuesday that it’s sponsoring a video wall at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum preview site at 20 Vesey St. in Manhattan. The wall, made up of nine Sharp PN-V601 60-inch professional LCD monitors, will be on view to the public, showing footage detailing progress of the museum and memorial until Sept. 11, 2011, when it will be moved for permanent installation at the National September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels and Sharp Electronics CEO Kozo Takahashi unveiled the display at the preview site, a 2,000-square-foot storefront said to have hosted more than 1.3 million visitors since opening in summer 2009. Takahashi said the 9/11 attacks were an “international event” and Japan lost 25 citizens in the Trade Center bombings. Sharp is donating $1 million to the museum and will provide additional audio and video equipment including projectors, a “next-gen” video wall and capacitive-touch touchscreens, said Mike Marusic, associate vice president of Sharp’s Imaging and Information Company. Using the touchscreens, visitors will be able to search for victims of the 9/11 and 1993 World Trade Center terrorist attacks and locate their names at the memorial, Bloomberg said. According to Marusic, Sharp is the exclusive provider of video displays for the museum now, but a timetable for the sponsorship isn’t set.
Consumers using cellphones to shop for deals will account for $127 billion of the $447 billion in U.S. holiday spending that the National Retail Federation projects this year, said a report by IDC Retail Insights. IDC surveyed more than 1,000 consumers over age 19 in September to find out how growing familiarity with mobile and social media commerce will play out this shopping season.
The report card is in and 3D TV has received a grade of “D” from 6th Ave. Electronics, Vice President of Store Operations Tom Galanis told attendees at the “3DTV 2011: What’s Next” event in New York Thursday. The industry “could have done a better job” launching 3D, Galanis said in a keynote, by standardizing active-shutter 3D glasses so they work across TV brands and selling 3D as a feature rather than as a separate category. “It should have been presented to consumers that they were buying a higher performance set that was capable of 3D,” he said. Lack of content also affected the ability to present a complete package to consumers.
Absence of a sound business model still plagues 3D TV as the nascent technology approaches the six-month milestone since ESPN launched ESPN 3D. At the “3DTV 2011: What’s Next?” event in New York Thursday, video content and service providers cited the increased costs associated with developing 3D content with a lack of advertising support, sponsorships and subscription fees to help recoup those costs.
XpanD’s Universal X103 3D glasses, which began shipping two weeks ago with a $129 suggested retail price, will likely be $100 in a year, XpandD Chief Strategy Officer Ami Dror told Consumer Electronics Daily Thursday in New York. “Prices will come down, but slowly,” he said. Economies of scale won’t come into play with 3D glasses as with typical CE products, he said, because of the cost of the two LCDs needed in each set. “The main cost is “in the lenses,” he said, adding that “whether we make five million or 50 million,” manufacturing expenses don’t drop.
Predicting “Black Friday is going to be crazy,” BJ’s Wholesale Club CEO Laura Sen said in the company’s Q3 2010 earnings webcast Wednesday the company will respond to competitors’ pricing strategies by continuing to “do what we do and do it well.” Sen said “we've already seen noise” from Target and Wal-Mart on toys and electronics. CFO Frank Forward said the company is reserving guidance estimates for end-of-year results based on uncertainty about holiday sales, adding concern about “the highly promotional holiday season.” The company is “cautious in general” about general merchandise sales for Q4, he said.
Mitsubishi released Monday an upgrade for its 738 and 838 3D-ready TVs, enabling them to directly support all mandatory 3D signal formats prescribed by HDMI 1.4a, without an external adapter, the company said. The upgrades only apply to those set series, whose platform supports them, Frank DeMartin, vice president of marketing, told us. He said the update wasn’t available when the TVs were released this year, and older models can’t be upgraded. After consumers complete the upgrade, Mitsubishi 738 and 838 TVs will be able to connect directly to 3D sources, he said. The TVs will support frame packing 1080p/24Hz signals for use with Blu-ray players, frame packing 720p/60Hz signals used by 3D game consoles, and various side-by-side and top-bottom 1080p and 720p signals compatible with cable and satellite broadcasts and other sources, the company said. The TVs will also remain compatible with checkerboard signals used mostly by computer graphics card 3D drivers that aren’t part of HDMI signal specifications, he said. The free software upgrade will be downloaded automatically to 738 and 838 TVs connected to the Internet. Consumers can also download the update from the Mitsubishi website to a USB stick that can be inserted in the TV. The company will ship a USB drive by mail for $18 to consumers who request it, DeMartin said. The upgrade allows Mitsubishi 738 and 838 customers to “keep pace with an evolving 3D TV landscape,” he said.