The deadline of Feb. 17, 2009 for the switchover to digital TV looms over this CES as the CE industry, along with cable, satellite and broadcast executives assorted politicians and regulators from Washington meet here this week.

The deadline is appropriately a few weeks away from CES which made me recall a few personal memories about digital TV’s development and flat screen TV in general.

The first time I had heard of HDTV it was in a story about some engineering group meeting in Europe. It was the mid 1980s and I was new to the A/V part of the CE business. So when a copy editor at Home Furnishings Daily asked what the term “HDTV” meant I made a few frantic phone calls ...Read More

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There is some comfort in participating in annual rites and events that are held every year. Such events provide continuity and give reassurance that life, and time, marches on.

For this industry our annual rite is the journey to Las Vegas in the first week of January to attend the International Consumer Electronics Show.

After what we’ve experienced in the past 12 months, going to CES might be just what this industry needs about now.

I’ve been covering the CE industry and attending CES long enough to have forgotten what it...Read More

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During this time of year it is a common practice to try to be generous and kind to your fellow human beings, no matter your religious persuasion, or lack of same.

If nothing else, it is time to review the old year, be thankful for your blessings, set resolutions to change bad habits and look to the new year with hope. Many change their tunes during the holiday season and act like they really believe in the words, “Do unto others as they would do unto you.”

And then you run into a mob like Schultze Asset Management and you wonder how they can sleep at night.

If you&rs...Read More

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Contrary to what you might have thought, given all the gloom and doom, Black Friday retail sales were solid this year. And I saw more people shopping for consumer electronics on this traditional shopping day than ever before, at least in my unscientific New York metropolitan area survey.

Luckily, neither senior editor Alan Wolf, who took the early shift visiting stores before the break of dawn on

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I’m posting this just a couple of days before Thanksgiving and Black Friday, so forgive me if I seem more than a little philosophical.

In a few days you will know how the electronics/appliance sales fared during Black Friday and the holiday weekend — for your store or line and for the industry. So if sales are disappointing, this short missive may be of little comfort.

But the fate of an industry cannot be judged on the sales performance of one day or one weekend even in the best of times. Truth be told, this year, probably more than any other, Black Friday’s sales performance will affect industry and consumer as much in morale as it will on the bottom (or top)...Read More

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Between Tweeter going out of business, Circuit City closing and doing a liquidation sale at 155 stores and going Chapter 11, three LCD panel manufacturers getting fined $585M for price fixing, Directed dropping out of the satellite radio business, Panasonic trying to buy Sanyo and the traditional CES press conference I apologize for not blogging enough in the past week.

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Well, November finally arrived, as I indicated in my print Viewpoint column yesterday, but as the cliché goes, “Watch out what you wish for.”

Right before October ended, Tweeter and its almost 100 remaining stores were sold to a liquidator. And then yesterday news broke that Circuit City would close 155 stores and leave 12 markets in an effort to save cash.

News of Tweeter’s demise kind of went under the radar in terms of national news Friday since it hasn’t been a public company for some time and its owne...Read More

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Here is a brief heads-up from yours truly about a new blog we are introducing this week, called “Executive Insight.”

TWICE has decided to add an industry voice (actually what turns out to be a choir) to our blog area.

For the first time online we have handpicked several top manufacturers, such as LG Electronics, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony and Mitsubishi, among others, as well as CEA and CEDIA when it applies to the supplier side of the business, to contribute to this blog.

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The great thing about attending Consumer Electronics Association events is that you oftentimes get to hear and meet members of Congress and the administration.

Today we met and heard Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), a 45-year resident of Nevada, who sounded — and was later confirmed to be — originally from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Rep. Berkley's folksy and direct manner told those assembled at the CEA Industry Forum lunch what is likely to happen if there is an Obama administration.

For his part, Gary Shapiro, CEA president/CEO, introduced her in an equally down-home New York/Nevada ...Read More

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The first full day of the annual Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) Fall Industry Forum has come and gone with eventful remarks, presentations and opinions about the industry’s present, near future and beyond thrown about.

Monday’s big news was a predicted 3.5 percent increase in holiday sales, according to CEA’s 15th Annual CE Holiday Purchase Patterns study, a historically reliable weather vane of what may happen in the coming weeks. Among the details we didn’t have in our news coverage of the report was that “peace/happiness” topped the CEA Holiday Wish List for adults this year. (TV, video game systems and cellphones came in as Nos. 7, 8 and 9, so, recession or not, we have not become completely altruistic.)

The study mentioned little about the effect the DTV trans...Read More

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Report broke today concerning a study requested by the European Union indicates that teens and young adults are risking permanent hearing loss if they listen to their MP3players at a high volume for more than five hours a week. The report also takes a pot-shot at high-volume mobile phones.

This report from Reuters that I saw on Yahoo earlier today is rather typical of the coverage given to this report.

And a good analysis of the study is available here on a site called studenttechnews.net.

The concern about the volume of popular music – at concerts and clubs, via Walkman and traditional audio systems – have been ...Read More

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