Notes From CEDIA & Beyond

While many are still catching up from the recent goings-on at CEDIA Expo, RetailVision and the variety of buying group meetings, here are a few things that have happened over the past few weeks that I thought should deserver further comment:

As we mentioned last week, CEDIA Expo's attendance rose 4 percent to more than 29,000 during what should be a difficult time for the custom install market. Putting that aside, the observations that you hear about the role CEDIA Expo plays in the CE business is an interesting one. One reporter in the press room at CEDIA called it "the successor to Summer CES." On a grand scale, of course, it is not close to the scope and size of CES, either the January show or the old Chicago event. But if you want to visit most top-tier A/V suppliers and A/V accessories makers right before the fall selling season at one place over a couple of days, yeah, you can make a case for the analogy. Due to the size of the show and the cities CEDIA Expo has been held during the past few years (Indianapolis, Minneapolis and now Denver), even if you don't make formal appointments, you can almost accidentally bump into people you need to speak to.

I sometimes call CEDIA Expo the "trial-balloon show." Many times major brands coming here with new technologies that "just might" be introduced at CES and/or the following calendar year ... if those technologies and products garner enough interest from retailers and installers at the show.

Last September Ultimate Electronics, whose headquarters is in Thornton, Colo., right outside of Denver, took advantage of the proximity of CEDIA Expo to bring many of its top suppliers to its flagship 30,000-square-foot store (see TWICE, Sept. 25, 2006, p. 6). This September the chain announced that it is testing major appliances at a store in Tulsa, Okla. Many of the industry's top brands will be carried. For details on the chain's white-good strategy, take a look at Alan Wolf's story starting on p. 1. Some may ask: How can a chain named "Ultimate Electronics" carry major appliances? Remember that a chain by the name of Circuit City had a good run in majaps for some time. And for those who may question Ultimate's decision to enter the market, I'll quote a major retail executive who once told me, "If a retailer can profitably sell, deliver and install big-screen TVs, they can do the same thing in appliances." We'll soon see if Ultimate's CE installation expertise will carry over to majaps.

While many of us were at CEDIA, Apple introduced a slew of additions to its iPod line (see TWICE, Sept. 17, p. 1) and it also cut the price on iPhone by $200. The howls on the price cut Apple heard were from all those people who waited on line for hours to buy an iPhone at full price in late June. Apple said it would offer those iPhone owners a $100 store credit for other Apple products. To those who are still disgruntled iPhone owners, all I have to say is: Welcome to the consumer electronics business.