Rebecca Day

LG stuck with IPS (in-plane switching) LCD technology for the 5.2-inch display in its glitzy new G2 smartphone launched Wednesday at New York’s Time Warner Center, a couple of floors above the high-rent space where Samsung once operated an Experience Center.

Harman added nearly 500 patents to its growing intellectual property portfolio in 2013, CEO Dinesh Paliwal said on an earnings call Tuesday. The IP portfolio numbers almost 5,000 patents, Paliwal said, with 3,100 of those coming over the last five years as the company is “rapidly incorporating” the innovations into its products. The expanding IP folder is helping Harman add customers and new awards, including “three new competitive replacement wins” in its infotainment business, which the company will announce at its investor meeting Thursday, he said. The large and “very young” patent portfolio will give Harman flexibility to “license, cross-license and monetize” the patents over the coming years, Paliwal said. Q4 sales at Harman “exceeded all expectations” across the company’s infotainment, lifestyle and professional segments, with sales up 8 percent for the quarter ended June 30 to $1.9 billion versus $1.1 billion in the same quarter a year earlier, Paliwal said. He credited the net sales increase to new platform launches in infotainment, including the company’s scalable platform solution announced at CES; growth in home and multimedia products and expansion in the professional division into lighting. Net income for the quarter fell 89 percent to $5 million on restructuring and non-recurring charges, the company said. The restructuring included the elimination of more than 500 jobs in “high-cost countries,” Paliwal said. The company divested a manufacturing facility in Germany, which resulted in 430 additional positions, he said. Infotainment unit revenue grew 4 percent to $614 million for the quarter, and lifestyle unit sales advanced 5 percent to $348 million, the company said. For the fiscal year, Harman posted net income of $143 million on revenue of $4.3 billion, down 2 percent from 2012, it said.

OSD Audio -- a direct-to-consumer “under the radar” audio company celebrating its 10th anniversary -- wants to create a name for itself in the retail world. The company will have its coming-out party at CEDIA Expo this fall, Doug Turner, vice president, told Consumer Electronics Daily on a press tour in New York Tuesday. At CEDIA, OSD wants to raise its visibility as it prepares for possible entries into a broad swath of distribution channels including custom integrators, the 12-volt aftermarket, commercial contractors and big-box retailers, Turner said. The company doesn’t expect to court “boutique” specialty AV dealers, he said.

Speaking in front of the P.C. Richard & Son Union Square location in New York Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged TV makers to beef up security in connected TVs. “The problem is that hackers can hack into your TV and watch you for whatever purpose,” Schumer said in a segment that appeared on a local CBS news report. In a news release issued Sunday, Schumer said major TV manufacturers should create a “uniform standard of security” that would be implemented in all new Internet and “video-enabled” televisions. Schumer cited smart TVs with built-in webcams, microphones and Internet access that allow viewers to access online media and make video calls.

The home automation industry needs “a strong leader” in innovation, presence and business execution, Control4 CEO Martin Plaehn told Consumer Electronics Daily Friday, the first day the home automation company began trading on the Nasdaq. With the initial public offering, the company “has the tools” to fill that role, Plaehn said.

A lack of key new products in Q2, including iPad and iPhone products from Apple, hurt ZAGG earnings, the company said on an earnings call. Prior to the earnings announcement, the company had lowered its annual sales outlook of $274 million-$280 million to $245 million-$252 million. Net sales fell 17 percent to $51.2 million, down from $61.6 million in Q2 2012, it said. Net income for Q2 2013 was $2.8 million vs. $5.8 million in the year-ago quarter, it said. CEO Randy Hales said in a statement that in response to lower 2013 sales, the company “focused aggressively on cost management,” which resulted in improved gross margin and EBITDA and net income in Q2. Among its product lines, ZAGG’s invisibleSHIELD represented 38 percent of net sales versus 41 percent in the year-ago quarter, keyboard sales slipped to 25 percent of net sales and iFrogz audio products, the lowest-margin products in the line, increased in share from 15 percent to 21 percent, the company said. Analyst David Strasser of Janney Capital Markets cited the shift in the customer for ZAGG products as sales declined at Best Buy while sales increased at Walmart. The rise at Walmart sales indicates the strength of the iFrogz brand, but is also “something that needs to be monitored from a gross margin perspective,” Strasser said. Part of the shift was due to Walmart ramping up on ZAGG products, while lack of new introductions “disproportionately hurt Best Buy,” he said. ZAGG is also struggling to further penetrate other existing retail accounts with new products, he said, which also contributed to weakness. Executives were optimistic that new ZAGG product introductions linked to upcoming high-profile tablet and gaming products for Q4 will lead to stronger second-half results. “We're confident in what we're seeing shape up for the fourth quarter,” Hales said. ZAGG shares closed up Friday 4 percent to $4.93.

H.h. gregg is revamping its product mix by scaling back declining CE categories and adding more SKUs to the growing home products segment, CEO Dennis May said on the company’s fiscal Q1 earnings call Thursday. While CE remains an “important category,” it will become a smaller piece of the retailer’s overall sales mix as it moves into new territory, May said. The “reshaping” of the product mix will change the timing of the profit and sales and reduce the company’s “reliance on sales and profits within the holiday season,” he said.

The announcement from low-priced Chinese TV manufacturer TCL last week that it’s entering the U.S. market next month with a $999 Ultra HD TV brings stark stratification to the fledgling Ultra HD market. TCL trumpeted its $999 50-inch Ultra HD TV as being $5,000 less than LG’s 55-inch product and drew the expected responses from specialty dealers who have already been priced out of the TV market by big box retailers able to buy premium products at steep discounts (CED July 26 p1). Comments from specialty retailers, who say they hope Ultra HD can bring some margin back to TVs, ran the gamut from attacks on quality to questions of performance in low-priced sets.

The International 3D Society has re-branded itself the International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society to reflect the organization’s expanding effort to “future-proof film, television and digital content creation and delivery,” it said Tuesday. Areas of focus in advanced imaging will include Ultra HD, auto stereoscopy, laser projection, high frame rate and holography, along with other next-gen advanced imaging content and delivery technologies, the society said. It plans to promote the technologies through educational seminars, publications and awards for “best practices” within the industry worldwide.

Amazon subsidiary Woot.com is running a deal on refurbished big-screen TVs 55 inches and larger through Friday, with a 90-day limited Woot warranty. The multi-day offer was led Tuesday by Sharp’s LC-70C8470U 70-inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Smart TV at $1,699 and Vizio’s 70-inch E701i-A3 70-inch LED Smart TV at $1,299. Elsewhere, the Sharp 70-inch was selling new at B&H Photo Tuesday for $3,297 with free shipping and one-year parts and labor warranty. A refurbished Sharp LC-70C8470U was selling at Rakuten.com for $1,789.97 plus $166.57 for shipping. Woot said its shipping charge is $5 per cart item. Other items in the Woot refurb sale include the Vizio 65-inch M3D650SV ($1,099.99), selling new at vizio.com for $1,539.99; the Sharp 60-inch LC-60C8470U ($928.99), selling refurbished at overstock.com for $1,197.99; the LG 55-inch 3D 55LM4600 ($649.99), selling new at Walmart for $748; and the Hisense 55-inch F55T39EGWD, $599.99, out of stock at several other stores, we found.