 Posts Tagged ‘sales’Hollywood is getting nervous as audiences grow weary of new 3-D filmsFrom this May to September — the typical summer movie season — American motion picture studios will release 16 movies in the 3-D format. That’s more than double the number last year. From their financial performance so far, movie executives are running scared.  While 3-D has provided an enormous boost to films such as “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland,” it has undercut lesser quality films that are trying to milk the format for extra dollars. Toshiba glasses-free 3-D TV sales miss expectations Masaaki Osumi, president of Toshiba's Visual Products Company (pictured at CES in January), said the lackluster sales of Toshiba's glasses-free sets might indicate that the company needs to offer larger, 56in and 65in, sets to appeal to consumers; however, there are a number of technical hurdles to overcome. Glasses-free 3-D TV sets have been touted as the industry’s holy grail because consumers thus far have mostly rejected the expensive, heavy active-shutter glasses needed to view programming on most 3-D sets. However, Toshiba, the first manufacturer of 3-D-compatible TVs that don’t require viewers to wear special glasses, sold fewer than half the sets it planned to in the initial month of sales. Toshiba, which began offering the new glasses-free 3-D sets in late in December, sold only 500 of the 20in models and even fewer of the less expensive 12in sets, Masaaki Osumi, president of Toshiba’s Visual Products Company, told Bloomberg News. The lackluster debut indicates that the company needs to offer larger sets to appeal to consumers, Osumi said. Toshiba joined Samsung and Sony in noting that demand for 3-D sets has lagged behind expectations. The poor sales have dampened optimism that consumers will embrace the technology and help TV makers revive profits. “What the numbers say to me is that if you offer bigger sets, you get a better, more positive reaction,” Osumi said in the interview. Read the rest of this entry » Retail sees disappointing 3-D TV sales during holiday season Over the recent holiday season, 3-D TV just didn’t sell — anywhere. Remember a year ago at CES 2010? The new “big thing” then was 3-D TV, and it was hyped everywhere. Manufacturers jumped onboard with 3-D hardware for the home, while programmers announced extensive plans for 3-D programming. Now, with the CES 2011 conference behind us, it appears that the 3-D hype has dramatically subsided. The technology won’t disappear, but it will not get the same marketing emphasis as before. In American homes, at least, the industry now knows that 3-D TV will be a long, hard slog for years to come. Read the rest of this entry » While set sales have been lackluster in the United States, European markets dream of a 3-D Christmas Dixons Retail, which owns PC World and other popular CE chains, is dreaming of a 3-D Christmas. More than 1 million 3-D TV sets have been sold in Europe so far this year — a mere five percent of all TV sets sold. However, Dixons Retail, a major UK-based consumer electronics vendor, is now counting on the sales of 3-D sets to be a big seller in the final month before Christmas. Dixons owns PC World and the Curry chain, both major consumer electronics retailers in Britain. Its six-month pretax loss of more than $12.3 million has improved over more than $27 million the same period a year ago. However, outside of sales of Apple’s iPad and a variety of smart phones, 3-D TVs appear to be the company’s best bet to see a merry Christmas season in Europe. Read the rest of this entry » Toshiba to launch smaller, glass-free 3-D TV sets in Japan The Toshiba 3-D TV sets will initially come in 20in and 12in models and include built-in circuitry to convert standard 2-D images into 3-D. Toshiba said it would be the first on the market with a TV set that displays 3-D images without requiring viewers to use special glasses; however, the 3-D TV models, due to their small screen sizes and Americans’ preference for sets of 50in and larger, will become available to Japanese consumers first. Today, 3-D glasses are required to watch 3-D programming on TVs sold throughout the world by Samsung, Panasonic and Sony, as well as those currently offered by Toshiba; however, the Toshiba announcement means a technical breakthrough has occurred that might soon end that. The need for 3-D glasses has proven to be a detriment to 3-D set sales in the United States. Read the rest of this entry » Addressing consumer trepidation, vendors look to glasses-free 3-D TV technology Sony’s glasses-free TVs are targeted for release early next year. With 2010 sales of new 3-D TV sets disappointing at best, manufacturers are actively working to improve the situation before consumers lose interest. Sony and Toshiba have separately announced that they are developing HD 3-D TV sets that do not require any special glasses for 3-D content viewing. Reports said Toshiba’s first models are due before Christmas, while Sony’s glasses-free TVs are targeted for release early next year. Read the rest of this entry » CE stores, consumers desperately seeking content Some of the most frequently asked questions by consumers are about the availability of 3-D content. A new study from the Consumer Electronics Association surveying consumer electronics sales associates states that 80 percent believe sales of 3-D technologies will not be strong until more 3-D content is available. The survey, “The 3D Retail Experience – Opinions of Sales Associates,” polled more than 250 retail sales associates selling 3-D TVs and also found that many consumers are still confused about 3-D technology. Read the rest of this entry » 3-D TV purchases predicted to reach 20 percent of all sets sold in U.S. by 2013 The Consumer Electronics Association estimates 3-D TV set sales for all of 2010 will 1.05 million. In-Stat is predicting that one in five TVs purchased in the United States in 2013 will be 3-D-capable sets. Year-over-year shipments are expected to grow 231 percent between 2010 and 2011, resulting in a doubling of the U.S. installed base of units for 3-D TVs from 2010 to 2011. “High definition did create a wave of activity in the U.S. market, not seen since the introduction of color,” said In-Stat analyst Stephanie Ethier. “3-D TV promises to be the next significant innovation wave for living room entertainment.” Read the rest of this entry » 3-D global sales off to a slow start Globally, only one in eight 3-D set owners will actually watch 3-D programming this year. The numbers are starting to trickle in, and perhaps it’s no surprise: 3-D sales globally have gotten off to a slow start. To be fair, only a few vendors offered 3-D sets in the first weeks of sales, with major vendors like Sony just beginning to offer 3-D sets as of last month. 3-D TV and stand-alone Blu-ray player sales in the United States have exceeded $55 million in the first three months since the launch of these products in February, according to the NPD Group, a market research company. Read the rest of this entry » Panasonic boosts production of 3-D TV sets Panasonic said the U.S. unit allocation for the VT25 sold out in just over one week, which is a good sign for early sales of 3-D TV set models. While many might not agree with the Consumer Electronics Association’s sales predictions of 1 million to 2 million 3-D TV sets to be sold this year, there’s at least one true believer. Citing higher than expected demand, Panasonic has announced plans to increase production of its 3-D HDTV sets after only a month of sales. The Panasonic VT25, the company’s first 3-D model, got “a very strong reaction,” said Hirotoshi Uehara, the head of Panasonic’s consumer TV business. Although it would not provide specific numbers, Panasonic said the U.S. unit allocation for the VT25 sold out in just over one week, which a good sign for early sales of 3-D TV set models and an indication that at least some early adopters are willing to buy a new set so soon after they’ve purchased a new HDTV set. Read the rest of this entry »
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