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  • Sales of Full HD TVs rising in UK

    Price cuts for LCD TVs ensure drop in value of UK consumer electronics market – but continued growth of full HD TVs help bolster figures

    Demand for Full HD TVs is helping to offset the declining market value for UK consumer electronics products, according to a report from market research specialists GfK.

    The total market for electrical goods fell in value for the first time for years in May, with A/V turnover down 7 per cent compared to the same period last year.

    The study by GfK shows that with “vision” products contributing most of the market value, a key factor in the downturn was the performance of the LCD market.

    For the first time ever in the UK, this declined in May – dropping 4 per cent despite a 12 per cent increase in LCD unit sales over that period.

    Central to the decrease was a fall in the 32” segment and, coupled with an overall average price fall of 20 per cent, a sizeable decline in value was registered.

    However growth remains strong in the 37", 40" and 42" LCD sectors which now represent one fifth of LCD units (Q/E May 08).

    “There are signs that the overall price erosion for these larger screen sizes are slowing too: 40-42" average prices fell by 31 per cent in the latest year ending, 27 per cent in the year to date, but a less pronounced 21 per cent in the latest month,” says the report.

    It goes on to point out that one of the factors contributing to this is the continued emergence of Full HD sets, which in May saw a significant increase in share of the overall LCD market, increasing from 10 per cent to 14 per cent of sales from April to May.

    The report adds: “Plasma sales remain strong at 50" with Full HD also continuing to penetrate the market. A fifth of Plasma sets sold in May were Full HD.”

    The second most important section of the vision market is the DVD market.

    Although total DVD value has fallen on a year on year basis, the GFK report say it is “encouraging” that there are still two key growth sectors.

    One is the standalone player, which it notes is boosted by High Definition.
    “And with the High Definition format war now resolved we should expect to see increased activity within this area,” says the report.

    “The other growth sector is DVD Recorder with Hard Disc Drive (HDD) and the HDD sector is now worth more than the no HDD sector (51 per cent of total Recorder value in May).

    Although camcorders are a much less high profile market, GfK says High Definition models also offer a source of value to the market.

    The report concludes that despite the downward trend seen for vision products as a whole in May there remains plenty of opportunity with High Definition/Full HD and the new service of Freesat.

  • Paul Semenza appointed senior vice president at DisplaySearch

    Display industry veteran Paul Semenza has been named as Display Search’s senior vice president managing its North American and European analyst teams.

    With more than 20 years of global market research experience, Semenza most recently served as vice president and manager of iSuppli’s Display Business.

    In this role he managed the firm’s market intelligence and consulting practice in the electronic display and consumer electronics sectors.

    A frequent speaker at major industry events such as CES and SID’s DisplayWeek, Semenza is has been quoted in leading business and trade publications such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, EE Times, Bloomberg, Information Display and CNBC.

    Tim Bush, DisplaySearch’s group president and general manager, said the company was “thrilled” to have Semenza join its team of global analysts.

    “Paul’s leadership, industry knowledge, and market insights will be a great complement to the DisplaySearch business,” he said.

    Prior to iSuppli, Semenza was a program officer at the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council, where he directed studies on IT policy.

    Before that, he served as a consultant for Mogee Research on international patent activity and was an analyst for the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), covering emerging technologies such as flat panel displays.

    He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and master’s degree in electro-optics from Tufts University.
    In 1994, he received a master’s degree in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

  • Touchscreens to become more than just smartphone feature

    Touchscreen–equipped mobile handset shipments are to exceed 230 Million by 2012 as technology spreads to feature phones

    The popularity of touchscreens in smartphones and their influence in driving data revenues will cause the technology to rapidly spread to other handsets.

    A report from IMS Research credits the original iPhone for sparking interest in touchscreen phones.
    But its says what is currently a steady growth in sales of touchscreen-equipped mobile handsets will become even stronger.

    The report forecasts that while fewer than 30 million touchscreen phones were sold in 2007, this will surge to over 230 million by 2012.

    It cites numerous signs that show touchscreens are poised to significantly increase their presence in the mobile handset market.

    Among them are recent announcements from the three largest mobile phone manufacturers which have highlighted a trend in the increased production of phones using touch technology.

    In July, LG revealed that it had sold 7 million touchscreen handsets. This announcement came just five quarters after LG launched its very first touchscreen mobile phone.

    Showing similar success, Samsung recently released the Instinct, a full touchscreen handset, through Sprint.
    Just one week after the launch, Sprint announced that the Instinct had already become the best selling EV-DO device in the carrier’s history.

    Not to be outdone, Apple reported selling 1 million of the new 3G iPhone handsets in just the first three days of its release.

    Femi Omoni , IMS Research analyst and report author, said the original iPhone was the catalyst that created this huge market interest in touchscreen phones.

    “The fact that it was not only popular with consumers, but also helped drive data revenues proved how important touchscreen handsets can be,” he said. “Now all of the network operators and handset manufacturers want a piece of the pie.”

    The impressive growth that IMS Research is predicting will not be driven solely by the smartphone segment either.

    According to the report Touchscreens & Input Technologies for Mobile Handsets, touchscreens will increasingly penetrate the much larger feature phone segment.
    In fact, Nokia just announced that its initial foray into the touchscreen market will be targeted at the “volume market” because that segment of the population is the largest consumer of mobile phones.

  • Chinese rival to Blu-ray squares up for fight

    Odds stacked against Blu-Ray competitor despite cheaper production costs and lower royalties

    Volume production of China’s self-developed high-definition optical disc format – China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD) – is to begin in the fourth quarter of 2008.


    Shanghai United Optical Disc has completed its first production line and its output is initially expected to sell only in the Chinese market.

    Until recently CBHD was known as CH DVD (China High-definition DVD) – the Chinese version of the Toshiba-supported HD DVD format that lost out to Sony-backed Blu-ray last year.

    Yet while the costs of setting up a CBHD manufacturing facility and royalty fees to produce players are lower than those for Blu-ray, Taiwanese drive-makers are not optimistic about the format’s prospects.

    A report in the Chinese-language enorth.com.cn says that CBHD will find it difficult to compete with Blu-ray Disc (BD) in the Chinese market.

    This is despite the costs for refitting a DVD production line to manufacture CBHD discs being only US$800,000 – much lower than the US$3 million needed to set up a BD disc production line.

    Royalty fees to produce licensed CBHD players will be about 55 yuan (US$8.10), are also much lower than BD licensing rates.

    However, the enorth.com.cn report suggests that these cost advantages will not be sufficient to impact upon BD’s increasing market penetration.

    It points out that members of the BD Association have reduced retail prices for their entry-level Chinese-made BD players in the North American market to around US$299 and prices are expected to drop further.

    This would leave CBHD players facing challenging price competition once they are launched in the China market.
    The reports also notes that CBHD has not won support from leading movie studios in Hollywood and this is expected to render the format at a significant disadvantage in competition with BD.

  • Verizon gets a bite of Apple's success

    iPhone credited with spurring Verizon’s smartphone sales as Q2 earnings exceed predictions

    Verizon Wireless has exceeded analysts’s predictions and posted impressive second quarter earnings of US$1.88 billion.
    A key factor in the results was increased smartphone sales, which now account for 30 per cent of the US carrier’s device sales.

    Denny Strigl, Verizon’s president and COO, even went as far as to give the build up of interest for the 3G iPhone’s launch earlier this month some of the credit for his company’s results.

    Verizon, currently the number two phone service provider, is fighting the Apple handset’s exclusive carrier, AT&T, for the market leadership slot.
    “As we saw with the initial introduction, the iPhone has actually stimulated smartphone sales,” he said.

    Verizon Wireless’s revenue for the second quarter was US$24.12 billion, up from US$23.27 billion in the first quarter and a 3.7 per cent increase compared with second quarter 2007.

    Shrugging of a sluggish economy, the company attributed strong growth in wireless services and demand for data services as the primary stimulators in the results.

    Businesses or individual smartphone users don’t appear to be switching off services, pulling back on data services or putting off handset upgrades.

    Verizon Wireless added 1.5 million subscribers in the second quarter bringing its total subscriber base to 68.7 million.
    Last week AT&T reported adding more than a million subscribers.

  • The Matrix to be released on Blu-ray

    Seven-disc set will include the five Matrix movies, hard-cover book and biogs

    The film that played a major part in converting mainstream audiences to DVD is now to be released on Blu-ray.
    Warner Home Video has announced that they will bring the highly anticipated The Ultimate Matrix Collection to Blu-ray on October 14th.

    The sci-fi action hit starring Keanu Reeves was an immediate success on DVD, particularly in the sell-through category. Previously, most DVD owners were satisfied with renting movies.

    Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios home entertainment, recently claimed that Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie, could have a “Matrix-effect” on Blu-ray.

    He suggested that the highly visual nature of the new thriller could be the trigger to mass sales of Blu-ray devices when it is released in the format.

    Whether one movie can have such an effect remains to be seen. However, signs that Blu-ray is gaining momentum have also come from Japan, where shipments of Blu-ray players and recorders in Japan have increased to a six-figure level with 122,000 in June alone.

    This is a dramatic increase compared to May when it was only 82,000 units.
    It is expected that these figures will continue to rise in coming months, as Japanese workers receive a bonus in July and the Olympics in Beijing are held in August.

    Both of these factors are predicted to boost the consumer electronics sector.

    The seven-disc Matrix set will include five BD-50s – one disc for each of the three Matrix films, one for Animatrix, and one for The Matrix Experience – and two DVDs.

    Also included in the set will be a hard-cover book with photos and information from the films.
    Video will be presented in 1080p VC-1 and accompanied by a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack.
    Among the extras with this release are three exclusive In-Move Experience BonusView features, 35 hours of extras and digital download of The Matrix.

  • Samsung launches 8-megapixel smartphone

    i8510 – or the Innov8 – offers strong combination of business and entertainment features

    Samsung has launched the i8510, its first 8-megapixel camera phone, which comes with autofocus features, face recognition, image stabilizer, and flash.

    The smartphone uses the Symbian v9.3 operating system and features on-board software that allows users to edit and personalise photos.

    The camera records video at 30 frames per second and comes with a secondary camera to make video calls.

    For mobile professionals, the Innov8 offers multiple ways to connect. It’s HSDPA-compatible, so users outwith the US can get a maximum downlink speed of 7.2 Mbps.

    There’s also integrated Wi-Fi for high-speed connection, and an EDGE connection. The smartphone can receive push e-mail, has an HTML browser, and is Bluetooth-capable.

    Although lacking a touch-enabled display, its 2.8-inch LCD screen has an accelerometer sensor, and it can be navigated with a 4-way navigation key and an optical mouse. Samsung did not elaborate on how the optical mouse would be implemented.

    The Innov8 has an integrated GPS that can be used to geo-tag photos, as well as utilise cellular data for assisted-GPS services.
    Handsets come with 8 or 16 GB of memory on-board and that can be expanded up to 8 GB via the microSD slot.

    On the multimedia side, the Innov8 has a host of options. The handset, which has a standard headphone jack, can play multiple audio formats, and it has a built-in FM radio. The video player is capable of playing many codecs, including DivX.

    Measuring 4.2 by 2.1 by .7 inches, the Innov8 will be launched in Europe in August, with global release to follow in September.
    No details have so far been released on pricing.

  • AT&T extends Navigator GPS coverage

    Navigator coverage now almost on a par with many standalone GPS units

    AT&T Navigator is now available in 20 countries after the service was extended to offer international coverage.

    It means that Navigator, which can be used on any AT&T smartphone with a built-in GPS chip, now operates in many countries in western Europe, North American, the US Caribbean, and six Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenyang, Tianjin and Qinhuangdao.

    Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, mobility marketing and operations for AT&T’s wireless operation, said the operator now gave customers the ability to use their mobile phones in more countries than any other US carrier.

    “They now can use our robust GPS-based navigation offering whether at home or abroad to easily get from point A to point B or to find and get directed to a local business or service,” he said.

    The AT&T Navigator Global Edition comes with voice turn-by-turn directions, or text turn-by-turn directions. Both of these come in different language settings including English, German, Italian, or Spanish.

    The service provides a level of coverage which almost on a par with many standalone GPS units.
    The Navigator Global Edition sports a business finder that searches business matches in the US and overseas countries from among more than19 million business and service database.

    Handsets capable of this service, which costs US$19.98, include AT&T Tilt, BlackBerry 8800, BlackBerry 8820, BlackBerry Curve 8310, BlackBerry Pearl 8110, BlackJack II and MOTO Q9h.

  • US iPhone 3G launch sales double first version

    Stocks of iPhone 3G still scarce as more than 500,000 sold in first week by AT&T

    A fortnight after the iPhone 3G was launched many Apple retail stores have no handsets in stock and lengthy queues form outside those that do.

    Now AT&T has provided frustrated buyers with further evidence that Apple’s latest handset is popular – the carrier has sold twice as many Apple iPhone 3G units upon launch as they did a year ago with the first generation iPhone.

    The company also noted that it had more than doubled its smartphone users year-on-year since June 2007, from 8 per cent to 18 per cent.

    Although official numbers have never been published by AT&T, it is generally estimated that 270,000 first generation iPhones were sold in the opening weekend after launch.

    Based on AT&T’s latest comments suggest at least 500,000 iPhone 3G units have been sold in the US by AT&T.
    That will be little consolation to many potential purchasers who have so far not been able to buy a 3G iPhone.

    AT&T also reported that they added 1.3 million new subscribers, pushing its user base to 72.9 million, making it the largest carrier in the US over Verizon.

    Apple will continue its iPhone 3G roll-out next month by releasing the touchscreen smartphone in 20 more countries.

    The second-generation iPhone has so far been launched in 22, with an estimated 1 million iPhone 3Gs sold globally in the first weekend after its release.

    With another 20 markets opening next month, Apple to take its tally up to 70 countries by the end of the year – with the goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.

  • Race towards wireless HD hots up

    Sony and Samsung join new consortium supporting technology that could replace tangle of video cables with wireless transmission of HD video

    A group of consumer electronics manufacturers and wireless technology firms has joined forces to develop a new standard that could send HD video signals wirelessly from a set-top box to screens around the home.

    The consortium – comprising Sony, Sharp, Samsung, Amimon, Hitachi and Motorola – expects to have specifications for its Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) technology finalised by the end of the year.

    Based on technology from Amimon Ltd of Israel, WHDI is the latest addition in the race to replace video cable.
    A key ingredient of WHDI technology is a new video-modem that operates in the 5GHz unlicensed band to enable robust wireless delivery of uncompressed HD video (including 1080p).

    WHDI allows secure, encrypted HD video delivery through multiple rooms and other potential signal obstructions, such as people and furniture, while maintaining superb quality and robustness with less than one-millisecond latency.

    The consortium plans to enhance the current WHDI technology to enable wireless streaming of uncompressed HD video and audio between CE devices such as LCD and plasma HDTVs, multimedia projectors, A/V receivers, DVD and BD players, set-top boxes, game consoles, and PCs.

    The new interoperable standard aims to ensure that CE devices manufactured by different vendors will simply and directly connect to one another.

    TVs with Amimon’s chips could reach stores by next year, costing about US$100 more than equivalent, non-wireless sets.

    Noam Geri, co-founder of Amimon, said: “If you have a TV in the home, that TV will be able to access any source in the home, whether it’s a set-top box in the living room, or the PlayStation in the bedroom, or a DVD player in another bedroom. That’s the message of WHDI.”

    The quest for wireless streaming of high-definition video has seen various contenders emerge.
    Among them is WirelessHD, centered on technology from SiBEAM Inc, of which Sony also forms part of the group to enable it to have “wider options”.

    Another hopeful is ultra-wideband, or UWB, which requires less compression than Wi-Fi but its range is more limited.
    WHDI is less exotic than either WirelessHD or UWB. It uses a radio band at 5 gigahertz that’s used by some Wi-Fi devices.

    Motorola has looked at competing technologies, but WHDI is the only group it has joined.
    The company plans to build the technology into its set-top boxes, but the first product is likely be a pair of adapters that talk wirelessly to one another. One could be attached to a set-top box, the other to a TV set.