News, Notes From All Over
By Steve Smith -- TWICE, 11/21/2005
Prime time for the CE industry has arrived, between preparations for the holiday selling season at retail and International CES, which in 2006 will have what is believed to be its earliest start time ever — Thursday, Jan. 5. As is typical, news items about the season and about CES have been flooding TWICE recently, giving one more than enough ideas for a column such as this. Here are a few worthy of note:
Sprint Nextel Allow Song Downloads To Hybrid MP3 player/cellphones:
I doubt I was the only cellphone owner (but not Sprint Nextel subscriber) who read that item and said, “Can't the industry perfect voice service, without loss of calls or dropouts, before we begin to download songs to our handsets?” And I'm sure someone must have said, “Will the audio quality for the songs be as 'good' as the digital image quality of built-in digital cameras?” And I'll repeat what a respected CE engineer told me a long time ago about combination products: Engineers love them, but when they break, you have two products that you can't use.
'Wheel Of Fortune,' Sony, Circuit City Launch Holiday Sweepstakes:
This column does not tout individual promotions of any type, but this one strikes me as worthy of note. Sony is finally beginning to use the synergy of its varied holdings, in this case “Wheel Of Fortune,” which is produced by Sony Pictures Television. Sony is teaming with Circuit City, which is also thinking “outside the box” as management gurus always preach, with this nationwide promo. After all the battering that both industry icons have taken in the recent past, this is an illustration of many changes both have made in recent months. (You can read the details of this promotion in the Sony story that starts on p. 1.)
CEA Is Using Industry's Expertise For New CES Service:
The annual New York press event for International CES was held last week, and you always hear something you didn't know about the show. This year, show producer Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is offering a new service, MyCES, which will help connect with the people, products and events attendees need to see at the show via the Web. You will be able to identify exhibitors you need to see online among other, as CEA puts it, “YOU-based” services. With the expanded Sands Convention Center firmly in the CES mix this year, MyCES should be valuable.
ADL Holds Record Industry Dinner Honoring Komiyama, Lee and Throgmartin
The Consumer Technology & Appliance Division of the Anti-Defamation League held its annual dinner dance in New York, Saturday, Nov. 12, and set all records in terms of attendance and funds raised for the organization. (See story and pictures on p. 91.) Kudos for all involved, especially the honorees: Sony's Dick Komiyama, Monster Cable's Noel Lee, and H.H. Gregg's Jerry Throgmartin. The ADL provides an event where industry colleagues can socialize for a worthy cause and wish each other luck before going back to work Monday morning and continue planning for the holiday selling season and CES.
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