SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple will be at the high end of its annual range of 25-50 store openings this year, reflecting a winning bet on real estate prices, its second-in-command said Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs conference.
Add Philips in Europe to the roster of TV vendors shipping 3D products this year. But it will take a laid-back approach to its launch, offering 3D-capable TVs with the active-shutter eyewear as an optional bundle until more 3D programming is available, it told dealers at its Barcelona briefing Tuesday. Executives at the Atlanta-based office of Funai, which handles the marketing and distribution of Philips-brand TVs in North America, didn’t respond right away to requests for comment on the company’s U.S. 3D TV plans.
Wal-Mart’s plan to buy Vudu marks the discount chain’s return to the video download business and drew mixed reviews from retailers, many of whom said they're leery of selling a service that benefits a rival.
The Nook e-reader will give Barnes & Noble a “halo effect,” CEO Steve Riggio predicted on an earnings call. He said the device is “now our single best-selling product” and is “building traffic in our stores.” The Nook contributed to a 33 percent total revenue increase year to year for the company in Q3 ended Jan. 30, to $2.2 billion, said Chief Financial Officer Joseph Lombardi.
The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) 2.0 spec that boosts throughput beyond 400 Mbps will be released next month, and products meeting it are expected to arrive in late 2011, Entropic CEO Patrick Henry told us.
Nexon America is “keeping an eye on” platforms including the iPhone and consoles, but “our focus right now is on PC online games,” CEO Daniel Kim told us at the Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (D.I.C.E.) Summit in Las Vegas last week. “The infrastructure isn’t quite there” on the other platforms to support the company’s strategy of free play plus micro-transactions, he said.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s annual review of intellectual property protection around the world turned into a referendum on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) under negotiation among several countries, in the eyes of many groups. The office received more than 300 comments on which countries should be added to its “priority” and regular watch lists of countries with worrisome IP practices, which should be left off, and the proper grounds for making determinations.
LAS VEGAS -- A new social-media company, Portalarium, is concentrating first on PCs, but it’s “platform agnostic,” co-founder Richard Garriott told us at the Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (D.I.C.E.) Summit. The company will turn to mobile devices including the iPhone this year and “game consoles are definitely on the list” for some time later, he said.
TV makers are urging the EPA to clarify quickly whether they would be required, as part of the revised Energy Star specification, to let consumers know that activating the download acquisition mode (DAM) feature in the TV would increase the power consumed by the devices. The issue was raised on a conference call last week to discuss a DAM test procedure (GED Feb 12 p1) developed by Rovi Corp. DAM refers to the power used when the TV is downloading channel listing information for the electronic program guide when the device is “not producing a sound or picture."
MUNICH, Germany -- Sony was unfazed by Panasonic’s claim that LCD for 3D is inferior to plasma displays (CED Feb 19 p3). Panasonic threw down the gauntlet at its annual briefing for European media and retailers here last week, saying “even the best 200-Hz LCD will show crosstalk” that blurs 3D images -- a clear allusion to Sony’s Bravia LCD system for 3D.