July, 2010 | HD TV PROFESSOR

Month: July 2010

3DTV Shipment Forecasts Increase

July 30, 2010 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

The market research firm DisplaySearch is now forecasting that about 3.4 million 3DTVs will be shipped in 20210, for about a 5% share of the total worldwide HDTV market. One of its competitors in the display market research business is iSupply, which now predicts that about 4.2 million 3DTVs will ship this year. DisplaySearch's prediction for the year 2014 is 42.9 million, which is considerably more pessimistic than iSupply's 60.5...

A New Approach to Cord-Cutting

July 29, 2010 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

"Cutting the cord" is the term that analysts have given to the growing movement of consumers who have disconnected themselves from the traditional utilities. At first, it meant users who got rid of landline telephone service and rely instead solely on cell phones. Now it also applies to folks who are now watching so much television content from the Internet that they are turning off their expensive cable and satellite...

Table Top 3D

July 28, 2010 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

At SID 2010 in Seattle, I saw a clever demonstration. Syndiant wanted to demonstrate how their pocket projector could be used to create a stereoscopic 3D image. So one of their engineers duct taped two of them together, put different polarizers across each lens, aligned the images, and voila! It was a very effective 3D projector that worked with passive glasses. So that was a cool way to get 3D...

Metalorganic Gasses in Short Supply: Who Cares?

July 27, 2010 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Yes, this is another supply chain story. Never heard of "metalorganic gases"? Don't feel bad; few people outside of the semiconductor industry (and some Chemistry majors) know what they are. Apparently they are an essential component in the fabrication of certain types of semiconductors, and they are used to deposit thin films of different chemical compounds. And according to an article in DIGITIMES, the price for some of these has...

And for Great Deals on HDTVs, Shop Dell?

July 26, 2010 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Sure, anyone who works with computers is familar with Dell, the company that built an empire based on online shopping for desktops and notebooks. (They even managed to make us forget Gateway, with their spotted-cow shipping boxes, which is now part of Acer.) But would you think of Dell for your next HDTV? You might consider it. Over this past weekend, Dell ran a one-day special deal on the Sharp...

MLB Goes 3D

July 23, 2010 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Only a handful of early adopters got to see it, but Major League Baseball broadcast some experimental 3DTV early this month around the All-Star Game in Anaheim, California. Earlier in the week, Fox Sports shot two games in 3D from Seattle as the Mariners took on the Yankees. These were sponsored by Panasonic and DirecTV, and were broadcast by DirecTV, Verizon, and major cable operators. The big game was the...

Samsung’s 50″ 3DTV for $1K

July 22, 2010 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

How can an analyst predict the future if the manufacturers accelerate time so much that the future is here before we can even finish our speculation? That's about what has happened in the 3D segment of the flat panel HDTV market. I've been saying that making a current set "3D capable" really does not add much cost in materials or assembly, and that eventually all but the lowest-priced entry models...

The Rest of the Story: Best buy vs. Ultimate

July 21, 2010 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Back in April, I wrote about a lawsuit between Best Buy and Ultimate. Ultimate was advertising that it comparison shops at Best Buy and Walmart every day, and that its prices were lower. Best Buy complained that this was not true, and that the Best Buy prices were sometimes lower than those advertised by Ultimate. Arbitration failed to resolve the disagreement, and so Best Buy sued. Now here's the rest...

Get Ready for Black Friday!

July 20, 2010 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Can't you just hear that holiday mall music playing already? Be glad that you're not running a consumer electronics retailer business, because those folks are already holed up in their war rooms, mapping out strategies for Black Friday sales for this year. According to a report in TWICE, "manufacturers, retailers and buying groups are already planning aggressive Black Friday promotions that may begin earlier, and last longer, than last year’s...

Willing to Pay for Internet TV

July 19, 2010 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

As I wrote at the end of last month, the new Hulu Plus service for $9.95 a month stands to disrupt television viewing habits. It provides more content that does not expire, and it's all offered in 720p high definition. As it turns out, more and more people view this sort of offering as appealing. Some people have the attitude that everything on the Internet should be accessible for free,...