Executive Insight
Expert Insight on the latest consumer electronics from the editors of TWICE Magazine
Can VIZIO Cross Over from TVs to PCs?
News that VIZIO plans to enter the PC market caught quite a few CES attendees off-guard, and it was a common topic of conversation at the show this week. The company announced plans to market all-in-one (AIO) and notebook PCs. There seem to be good reasons for VIZIO to enter the PC market from a supply-chain perspective. Many of VIZIO’s panel suppliers and assemblers make both LCD TVs and P ...... Read More
Comments (1)Time for the New Action CE Industry!
In 1967 I joined the “New Action Army”, not to be confused with the “I Want You!” Army of my predecessors, or the “Today’s Army Wants to Join You” Army, the “Be All You Can Be” Army, the “Army of One” Army, or today’s “Army Strong” Army, all of which came in sequence after my time. While I don’ ...... Read More
Comments (3)Pick yourself up, dust yourself off…
Whew. Another holiday season has come and gone. Now, we calculate the returns and profit margins and wait for the analysts, consultants and pundits to tell us how our industry performed this year. But you already know, don’t you? As a manufacturer/supplier, you know if the marketplace wanted your offerings. As a retailer, you know if the customers were willing to pay top dollar, or shopped ...... Read More
Comments (1)Amazon's New App Terrible for Consumers and Retailers
While Amazon’s new price check application may seem great for consumers, in the long run it’s not good for anyone. Consumers only THINK they only care about the lowest prices. Sure no one wants to feel stupid for paying more than they should. This is one of the reasons that Saturn was successful for a while. If you bought a Saturn you were sure that no savvier buyer was paying less t ...... Read More
Comments (13)“We’ll Lose A Buck On Every One We Sell But Make It Up In Volume”
“Some 152 million shoppers say they will hit stores on Nov. 25, the day after U.S. Thanksgiving, up 10.1 percent from 138 million people last year, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation, an industry group.” Reuters November 17, 2011 “It’s an $800 TV for $200, so we figured people would be out here really early, and that’s a deal we didn’t ...... Read More
Comments (2)SSDs: The Performance/Reliability Drive Wave Consumers Will Be Riding Soon
Although Solid-State Drives (SSDs) have been manufactured since 1976, they didn’t begin to appear in more mainstream consumer applications such as mass-marketed notebooks until 2006. Today, with SSDs delivering so many advantages over hard disk drives (HDDs), a growing number of notebook manufacturers are offering them as the standard drive; and using an SSD is no longer a matter of “ ...... Read More
Comments (0)Consumer Reports: Buy Your Electronics On The Internet
This headline, and many others similar to it, recently appeared online and in newspapers across the country, summarizing the findings from the latest (December 2011) Consumer Reports (CR) retailer satisfaction survey. No doubt, many who do not subscribe to CR, but who saw these stories, would never have heard of the survey were it not for the brief synopsis appearing in their newspapers and online ...... Read More
Comments (2)Why Retailers Are Becoming Online Media Players
For years, major retailers have created new revenue streams by transforming existing assets into paid media channels — e.g., product in-store signage, TV display ads, co-op circulars, etc. That practice isn’t likely to change, but there’s a new asset retailers are increasingly looking to convert into a profit-making media channel: website visits. (See: Figure 1) Earlier this ...... Read More
Comments (0)Losing Customers One Return At A Time
It seemed easy enough: Pick up a can of WD-40 from Home Depot and spray the front door so my wife would no longer know when I was sneaking out for a jelly donut in the morning. A week later I pulled the cap off the can and found that the nozzle head was broken. Dismayed, I opened the door, it squeaked, my wife woke up, and I went directly to Home Depot. I put my $3.98 can of WD-40 on the returns c ...... Read More
Comments (9)Memo To Mr. Stringer: You Might Want To Rethink That
“Yes, yes, Apple makes an iPad, but does it make a movie?” Sony Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer said in a presentation at Berlin’s annual consumer electronics fair yesterday. “We will prove that it’s not who makes the tablet first who counts but who makes it better.” Bloomberg/BusinessWeek September 1, 2011 The combination of the first and last sen ...... Read More
Comments (1)Who’s got a 'Pet Rock'?
In the 1970s, Gary Dahl made a small fortune selling Pet Rocks. It was, understandably, a gimmick. It was a rock in a box with a “Care and Feeding” manual. He sold thousands, maybe millions. I had one that I was given as a gift.It was a phenomenon — not unlike Cabbage Patch Dolls, Tickle-Me Elmo or other products that retailers could not keep on the she ...... Read More
Comments (1)Buzz: You Know It When You Don’t Hear It
By the time you read this the fact that Best Buy’s quarterly profit is off 30 percent, a figure close to the decline in their stock price over the last year, will be old news, as will explanations of why that is (”the economy is bad”, “there are no really cool new things to sell”, “others are struggling as well”, etc.) Some of that is true but is it ...... Read More
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