A/V, Handhelds In Holiday Battle

By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 10/18/2010

TWICE: Do you expect more sales dollars in handheld products (tablet and netbook PCs, cellphones, MP3, e-readers) than flat-panel TV and home audio?

Rob Eby, D&H Distributing: Tablets will be huge. Add that to the success of the many other portable formats, and it could potentially be larger than sales of TVs. This is not to say that portability will take away from display sales. It’s more that the array of digital content that consumers want at their fingertips is so wide, it can accommodate a whole list of developing formats and categories, and that collective demand can surpass even the success of flat-panel TVs. 3D TV was expected to be an ongoing driver, but that technology hasn’t taken off as quickly as was originally hoped.

Warren Chaiken, Almo: Certainly more units of handheld products will be sold this fourth quarter but not sales dollars. TV and home A/V products carry a higher ASP than handheld products therefore the actual revenue volume will be greater in these categories.

Fred Towns, New Age Electronics: The highest demand will probably be for tablets and netbooks with e-readers. With the price point for flat screens becoming more affordable, consumers will be inclined to include audio solutions, like surround sound, to complete their home entertainment investment.

Mark Gustavson, WYNIT: Flat panels and home audio systems may take a back seat to portable devices this season in terms of units sold. It remains to be seen if portable device volume will be sufficient to generate more revenue that installed home entertainment equipment.