news
Cord Cutting On The Cheap: RCA Roku TVs Now Available
Display-Vu has begun shipping a line of affordably priced RCA-branded Roku TVs. Three models are offered: 50 inches ($499 suggested retail), 43 inches ($379)...
news
Buying Groups
Nationwide Enhances MemberNet TV Platform
The Nationwide Marketing Group has added new features to its MemberNet TV service, which provides dealers with movie trailers, demo clips, digital signage and...
Industry
DJI Names Roger Luo President
DJI has named Roger Luo president of the company, a new position. Luo, who was previously operation VP, will be tasked with international development...
Audio
Klipsch Teams With Capitol Records For Heritage Speakers
Klipsch revealed the first fruits of its partnership with Capitol Records: a line of co-branded speakers. The special-edition Heritage and Heritage Wireless offering includes...
Industry
CEDIA & Escient Co-Founder Tom Doherty Joins HTSA
Tom Doherty, one of the original founders of CEDIA and a co-founder of Escient, has joined the Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) buying...
news
B&O Play Comes To Best Buy
Luxury audio manufacturer Bang & Olufsen will now sell its products through Best Buy. Beginning this week, the H4 and H9 headphones from...
news
UHD Alliance Taps Mike Fidler As President
Michael Zink, technology VP at Warner Bros., will assume the post of UHD Alliance chairman, and CE industry veteran Mike Fidler will take on...
Accessories
THX Launches Headphones Certification Program
THX has launched a performance-certification program for headphones, and 1More is the first company to receive official designation. THX said it established its headphone...
news
A Virtual-Reality Data Crunch Is Coming: Juniper
The coming VR revolution may be delayed by heavy traffic. A new report from Juniper Research forecasts that data consumption by wireless virtual-reality headsets,...
Home Automation
Savant Acquires Artison
Smart-home manufacturer Savant has acquired Artison, a maker of whole-home audio solutions. Savant said the deal allows it to leverage Artison’s key patents...
Car Electronics
Voxx Supporting Code Alarm Remote Start With Promo, New Dealer Agreements
Voxx Electronics is supporting the launch of its new Code Alarm remote-start lineup with a six-month-long promotion for both dealers and consumers. It is...
Accessories
Trndlabs’ Nova Buds Take On Apple AirPods
Serving as an affordable alternative to Apple’s AirPods, The Nova ear buds from Trndlabs offer the same wireless operation for half the price. Currently...
news
My Kindle, My Self
Summer is for reading, at least in my house. My sons are banned from screen time from 9-5 each day and the policy has...
news
Smart TV Sales Nudging Out Connected TV Devices
The number of people in the U.S. who will use a smart TV is expected to rise 10.1 percent from last year, to 168.1...
Appliances
Russound Moves Into The Backyard
Russound is shipping its first landscape speakers meant for use in outdoor audio environments. The new 70-volt/100-volt/8-ohm AW4-LS-BR speaker, with a suggested retail of...
Computers
Worldwide PC Shipments Decrease for 11th Straight Quarter
HP is the global market share leader Worldwide PC shipments totaled 61.1 million units in the second quarter of 2017, a 4.3 percent decline...
Audio
Smart Speakers Set to Capture 30 Percent of U.S. Audio Market In 2017
Fun fact: Amazon is now the world’s largest audio equipment vendor. Thanks to the success of smart speakers with voice personal assistants (VPAs), the...
news
Appliance Shipments Up 14%: AHAM
Appliance dealers loaded up on inventory in June in advance of the key July 4th holiday shopping period. According to the latest vendor data...
Accessories
Klipsch Adds Atmos Reference Speakers
Klipsch is bringing Dolby Atmos to its Reference line of home-theater speakers. According to the company, these will be the first two-way, horn-loaded Atmos-enabled...
news
What Will The 2nd Half Bring? Growth, Says CTA
Consumer enthusiasm for technology is exceeding expectations and will drive the U.S. CE industry to an estimated 3.2 percent growth this year, according to...
news
More Than Half of U.S. Households Subscribe To An OTT TV Streaming Service
Parks Associates reports that 59 percent of U.S. broadband households subscribe to an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service such as Netflix, Amazon or Hulu. The...
news
Nationwide Kicks Off Its Largest Summer Event Ever
‘Get the Best for Less’ targets all-important summer share Nationwide Marketing Group kicked of a new promotional event to help its members grab additional...
Appliances
Bluetooth Mesh’s Debut Welcomed
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) new Bluetooth LE spec now supports mesh networking, making the wireless technology an option for largescale device networks....
news
New Age Places Bets On Omnichannel, Smart Home
Tech retail may be a crapshoot these days, but New Age Electronics believes that a properly merchandised assortment of home automation, muscular laptops, drones...
news
Independents Thrive As Box Stores Dive: Report
A retail apocalypse may be upon us, but it appears to be limited to big-box chain stores. According to an analysis by small-business advisor...
news
Amazon-Kenmore Deal Portends Rough Seas For Sears … And The Appliance Biz
Alarm bells should have sounded throughout major appliancedom last month, when Sears Holdings found another retailer willing to sell its fading Kenmore brand of...
news
New Sharp 4K UHD TV Line Now Shipping
The latest batch of Sharp Aquos TVs is hitting retail sales floors. The line, introduced by Hisense at CES, includes the mid-range 4K UHD...
news
ProSource Membership Swells Past 550, Aiming For 800 Strong
ProSource, the $4.5 billion-plus buying group for specialty A/V dealers and custom integrators, added 15 new members last quarter, for a total of approximately...
news
Apple Has The Most Productive Sales Floor In All Of Retailing
Best Buy and Walmart may be the two largest brick-and-mortar tech dealers around, but when it comes to sales floor productivity no one holds...
news
Best Buy Adds Dyson In-Store Experiences
Latest addition in series of subsidized vendor shops Best Buy announced its latest in-store experience partnership: Dyson. The retailer will install about 90 Dyson...
news
The 10 Headphones Brands Winning Online
When it comes to the business of selling headphones online, discoverability means a lot more than pegboards and end caps. In an exclusive report...
news
LG’s $7B OLED Play Aimed Squarely At Samsung
LG Display’s production ramp-up of almost $7 billion to supply the market for OLED panels for smartphones through 2020 is yet another front on...
Appliances
LG Unleashed From The Dog Days Of Summer
It’s been a busy summer for LG Electronics USA, which in quick succession introduced an innovative new dishwasher, released a new trio of robotic...
news
School Bells Ringing In The Dough For Tech Dealers
A pair of recent studies confirmed what CE retailers like to hear: back-to-school spending is expected to rise this year. Parents plan to spend...
Accessories
Phiaton Unveils New Bluetooth Headphones
Phiaton has unveiled its first new headphones since CES 2016. Targeted toward travelers and commuters, the on-ear BT 390 wireless headphones feature Bluetooth 4.1...
news
Paying Via Facial Recognition? Consumers Say ‘Bring It On’
Survey indicates users growing comfortable with paperless transactions Consumers are ready and willing to embrace high-tech payment services, according to a recent study from...
Appliances
5 Selling Points to Get Customers to Adopt Smart Home (The Easy Way)
Smart home technology is becoming increasingly mainstream, but there remains a significant segment of consumers who are still on the fence about whether they...
news
Fitbit Slips To No. 2 In Wearables
China’s Xiaomi became the world’s largest wearables vendor for the first time ever in the second quarter, according to research by Strategy Analytics. Xiaomi...
news
Tablet Market Decline Slows
The tablet market showed some signs of life in the second quarter despite a continued downward spiral in overall sales. According to research from...
Buying Groups
Nationwide Bringing Smart Home To PrimeTime Show Floor
In its push to get its members up and running in home automation, the Nationwide Marketing Group will present a mock connected home on...
Appliances
Danby Appliances Entering Cannabis Biz
Danby Appliances is developing a new product line that is giving added meaning to “joint venture.” The Canadian majap maker is teaming up with...
news
Otter Readies Its 1st Brick-And-Mortar Retail Store
Joining the trend of experimental brick-and-mortar, Otter Products will open its first retail store in its Fort Collins, Colo., hometown. The accessory manufacturer, best...