Industry – Page 7 – Devices View

Format Wars II: Revenge of the DVD

August 31, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Tekrati picked up my post last week on the death of VHS, and implied that I said that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD killed off VHS. Nothing could be further from the truth! I often question whether there’s any mass market demand for a high definition format in the first place (and before I get flamed, yes, there is strong enthusiast demand. I certainly want to go beyond 480p). But only 11% of households have an HDTV, and anamorphic ("enhanced for widescreen") DVD looks pretty darn good on those sets. We’re also going into the format war without clear and massive support …

Industry

Engadget’s Walk Down Memory Lane

August 22, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Engadget unceremoniously posted a version of its witty, sardonic take on all things gadgety (including some home theater content) circa 1985, as if Engadget started out as a BBS (Bulletin Board System – a pre-pre-pre-cursor to web sites). Was today April 1, and I missed the memo? This is brilliant, brilliant stuff. Of course, there wasn’t much of a home theater industry back in 1985 – which in and of itself is interesting, showing just how fast this market has grown. The best you could do then was HiFi VHS and a 35" TV — RPTVs were just too dim …

Displays / HDTV / Industry

Woot.com Sells $1.3 million in TVs over 22 Hours

August 9, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

Woot.com has built on its relationship with InFocus and yesterday the one-item-per-day online outlet store flexed the power of its unique retail model: it sold out an allotment of 450 new (not refurbished) 61" ultrathin (6.85" deep) DLP RPTVs over 22 hours for $3000 each. InFocus sweetened the deal further with a $500 rebate. This TV typically cost $5,000 – $8,000, and includes 2 ATSC tuners, an NTSC tuner, a Windows CE-based web browser, and all the trimmings. With woot’s flat $5 shipping, this leads to some remarkable statistics: Item Quantity: 450 Item Price: $2,999.99 Total Sold: $1,349,995.50 Last Order …

Coping with the Death of Audio

July 25, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

At a macro level, it’s pretty clear that audio component sales are dropping, while displays – flat panel and DLP rear projection sets in particular – are consuming the bulk of consumer outlays. So what is a company that specializes in selling high end audio components to do? Audio Advisor started out as a catalog retailer of high end audio toys (they’re now on the Internet as well), and each catalog used to feature pages after page of amps, preamps, integrated amps, high end CD players, extremely expensive record players for analog lovers, and digital audio doodads that supposedly improved …

Computing / Industry

When the walls are open, Microsoft’s moving in

June 16, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I was at Microsoft’s Preview Day today in New York, which for me was largely about mobile devices (see my bio). One thing that came across clearly, however, was the centrality of Windows XP Media Center (XP MCE) to Microsoft’s overall consumer plans. This reminded me of an interesting case study in Digital Connect about a custom installer, Silicon East, which has a somewhat unique specialty putting systems into new construction. That’s nothing new – when the walls are open, it’s the best time to put in home networking gear, and the walls are never more open than during new …

Computing / HDTV / Industry

Yes, it was a live demo… also a misleading one

June 12, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Back in February I wrote about Microsoft’s Lightspeed IPTV demo at CES and linked to BusinessWeek’s skeptical coverage. Well, the magazine was just biding its time and this week they completely skewer the initiative (subscription required), highlighting the endless delays in commercializing it. It seems the impressive demo I saw at CES was real. The problem is that the technology doesn’t work for millions of users at once, which is kind of important for the operators who want to broadly deploy it. Live and learn. Still, TV over IP seems somewhat inevitable. Japan and Korea have DSL service 10x faster …

Industry

Retail Goes Custom

May 31, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

There’s a new big box retail mini-chain (5 stores) here in Northern NJ, Electronics Expo, and it is unlike any other big box retail store I have seen. The CEDIA custom installation market is growing at double digit rates, and Electronics Expo is essentially a gigantic showroom for flat panel displays, front projectors, and more flat panel displays. The highlight of the store is the second level – a walkthrough of a ‘model home’ with flat panel displays absolutely everywhere. Extremely high end receivers – though no separates – are arrayed in two of the rooms on the main floor, …

Audio / Displays / Industry

When Manufacturers Don’t Manufacture, What Are They?

April 26, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I wrote earlier about Outlaw’s new 990 audio processor, and was left with a few questions. They’ve since posted a FAQ that not only answers my questions, but also provides rare public insight into industry practices for cross-company parts sharing. Audio is a lot like the automobile industry – creating a platform is enormously expensive, and companies often share development to keep costs down. Sure, there are a few boutiques that create everything themselves from scratch, but custom efforts are enormously expensive, limiting the potential market size. Outlaw uses the three different models shown below for product development, and so …

Audio / Industry

New/Old Audio Technologies New Again: Part Two

April 15, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Outlaw just announced a new pre/pro (the surround sound processing portion of a receiver without the amplifier section), the model 990, and its a doozy: a high end version of the company’s 950 for only $1099. More surprising than the product itself is Outlaw’s secrecy about it – while some analysts (including yours truly) were briefed on this last year, this is the first public indication the company has made that they were even working on a new pre/pro, and it should be shipping within the next month or two. The change in strategy was due to the flack the …

Industry

New Online Retail/Marketing/Research Channel: Woot.com

March 24, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

At 1 AM EST every night? morning? something extraordinary is happening to online retail. Woot.com is an online outlet for tech overstocks and refurbs, but its unique business model is opening up some intriguing possibilities for building an installed base for a certain breed of product. The store offers one item per night at dramatically discounted prices – popular items sell out fast, and aren’t replenished. A new item goes on sale the next night. The item descriptions are cheeky, the online forum is relatively uncensored, and the audience is extremely geeky (and proud of it. Though the site definitely …