I thought about what I could say after a phenomenal Christmas and New Year season. 
It was a great one. Even though times have been a little tough I have really seen some growth not only in the industry but in myself. I thought about what I would talk about today and I think we need to focus on how we can better represent our industry and who we really need to focus on in the wild AV world we live in and the markets we represent. Let’s talk about who we really represent and how we can better market to Builders, Architects Designers and Homeowners.

            In the Builder market, I, as a CEDIA Certified Designer, have to be on top of my game. This market is very meticulous and price c...Read More

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During the past several years—and no doubt during the next several years—the problem of consumer electronics product returns will continue to vex the consumer electronics industry. Add today’s global economic challenges to the mix, and the profit and loss due to these product returns could spell financial difficulties. As a result, consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers would be wise to address this manageable issue now in order to achieve high performance.

Putting the returns problem in perspective, Accenture research has found that the cost to retailers and manufacturers of consumer electronics product returns in the United States in 2007 amounted to approximately $13.8 billion. But when tested by the retailer or equipment manufacturer, only 5 p...Read More

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This week Sony Corp. announced a series of measures to strengthen the overall profitability and operating efficiencies of our global electronics businesses.

As you’ll see in the press release, these include reconsidering certain investments, consolidating manufacturing operations, and reducing the number of electronics’ employees worldwide by about 8,000 from around 160,000 globally.

The news hit home here in the U.S. as our ...Read More

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We would like to share a few sales and business tips that might be useful to you. These five key areas of focus will help keep your business vital and growing: 

• Know Your Customer Targets - The foundation of your business is past and current clients. Analyze the type of customers where you’ve had success and use that foundation to help you identify new target customers. Then, develop a compelling sales proposition, like a free pre-holiday system inspection of a customer’s home theater because the best sales opportunities are created while in a customer’s home.
  Use that inspection time to identify opportunities to upgrade the homeowner’s system. For example, games are hot. If you don’t already offer gaming systems, develop audio/video packages to enhance the gaming experience. You can help your

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I don’t know what everyone was worried about this Thanksgiving. Black Friday was slammed.  I thought it was going to be a wonderful relaxing day. I was wrong. Say hello to camping equipment, tents and waiting in the Texas rain all night long for the big retail shops to open.  I don’t know what everyone was thinking, but it was a mad house. You would never think the economy was in a funk — at least not there.

But I digress; let’s talk about the custom side...Read More

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Twenty years ago, cellphones were few and far between. These days, even 10-year-olds carry them. This makes me wonder: Will the wireless TV be the “cellphone” of the next generation?
There has been tremendous buzz about wireless TV leading up to International CES next month. Many predict

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Thirty-five years ago, Sharp introduced the first LCD calculator. In 2001, Sharp introduced a 10-inch LCD TV for $1,299 and a 20-inch model for $5,999. Today, consumers can purchase a 65-inch LCD TV for less than $5,000. The evolution of LCD has taken us from a calculator to large-screen TVs up to 108 inches, and, most recently, to an ultra-thin LCD with 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, encased in a frame that is less than 1 inch thin. But we have only scratched the surface of the promise of LCD.
LCD is still evolving. In fact, LCD technology has completed only a little more than half of its evolution. Since an LCD is composed of several parts, including backlights, color filters and polarizing plates, amon...Read More

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TV brand marketers often get a bad rap for trying to fool unsuspecting consumers with bogus specifications touting product superiority. But in the case of contrast ratio specifications, the rap is well deserved.

For the last few years now, contrast ratio numbers have been escalating faster than the rate of home loan foreclosures. At one time, 5,000:1 was considered an excellent contrast ratio. Today, if your TV doesn’t surpass 50,000:1 or even 100,000:1, its contrast spec doesn’t even merit mentioning. In fact, this model year one manufacturer has specified 1,000,000:1, a contrast ratio that no doubt would please Dr. Evil. However, w...Read More

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Nonetheless, when I think of today’s economic situation, I tend to put it into a Physics 101 context, for example, in the context of the laws for energy conservatio...Read More

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Looking at the sales reports from the long Thanksgiving weekend, it looks like retailers in general and consumer electronics in particular did a bit better than the pundits were expecting. Industry data I've seen showed overall sales increases, compared to the same period last year, up in the single digits, ranging from about 3 percent to 7 percent.

Here at Sony, sales of our Bravia LCD televisions, Blu-ray Disc players and Reader electronic book devices all exceeded expectations. Clearly, the demand for flat-panel HDTVs is very strong with the holidays, the Superbowl and the analog TV cutoff all coming in the months ahead. On the BD player front, there were a lot of great deals going on. And we've seen that the Reader is making a bigger mark as a gift item this year. 

Individual retailer reports seemed to have varied somewhat, bu...Read More

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