Rebecca Day

Initial supplies of the new iPads announced Tuesday by Apple are likely to be more limited than usual, NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim said in a blog post Wednesday. The shortage will hit the iPad Mini harder due to its lower price, which will attract a broader audience, and constraints in the supply chain “point to an even more than typical tightness” for the 7.9-inch tablet, Shim said.

Backed by the theme “In Search of Incredible,” Asustek Chairman Jonney Shih launched at a press conference in New York Tuesday a lineup of Windows 8-based computing products under the Asus brand, including what he called the first dual-screen convertible Ultrabook. Shih referred to the end of the “personal computer era” and the beginning of the “ubiquitous cloud computing era” marked by the “SoLoMo” themes of social, location and mobile. He touted Asus goals of performance, style and affordability.

Technology shoppers have more e-commerce bargain options for holiday shopping this year as manufacturers are using mainstream deal services such as Groupon and Living Social to hawk tech gear. Groupon Tuesday featured a Westinghouse 40-inch 1080p LED-lit LCD TV for $379, 24 percent off the $499 list price, with free shipping, according to an email blast. With more than two days to go, more than 50 had been sold and only one order could be placed per customer, according to the website. The TV, model UW40t2BW, was listed at Amazon for full price, we found. Shoppers were encouraged to check out product return information through a link to FAQs before purchasing, but the return rules were confusing: “Unless otherwise stated in the Shipping Info, you may return almost any item you purchased directly from Groupon Goods within 14 days of receipt. However, books, beauty products (excluding electronics), undergarments, perishable items, any items marked ‘final sale,’ and items that have been worn are non-refundable and may not be returned.” We sent a query to customer support for clarification and were told our question -- whether a TV could be returned if we didn’t like it or it was broken -- would be answered within 24 hours. We drilled down in the goods section on Groupon and found discounts on Coby TVs of up to 63 percent off. With a day and a half left on the deal, Groupon had sold out of more than 1,000 Coby 40-inch LED-lit 1080p models at $299 (down from $800), the website said. Of the remaining 46- and 50-inch LED-lit 1080p TVs, more than 80 46-inch LED-lit models -- at $549, down from $900 -- had been sold and more than 410 of the 50-inch models -- slashed $501 to $599 -- had sold, it said. An unlocked Sharp FX Plus smartphone, on sale for $89 at Buy.com, was promoted at Groupon for $69, for $331 savings, according to the deals website. More than 1,000 had been bought since Groupon first advertised the smartphone Sunday as a featured item, the website said. LivingSocial, meanwhile, showed a device that converts a household item into a loudspeaker using sound vibrations. Trying to bank off the its speaker’s guest role on ABC’s “Shark Tank” TV show, the manufacturer of the OrigAudio Rock 3.0 audio device was selling the product on LivingSocial Tuesday for $19, down from $35. The device connects to a rigid surface -- a cardboard box, cooler, drawers, cups, lamp shades - and turns the surface into a loudspeaker using vibrations from the battery-powered device, which connects to a music source for playback.

SanDisk cut projections for 2012 industry NAND flash memory supply growth from 70 percent to 60 percent, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said on a Q3 earnings call Thursday. Citing “capacity and technology status,” Mehrotra said the company has also lowered 2013 estimates for industry supply growth rates to 30-40-percent from the July projection of 40-50-percent. Lower supply growth and expected strength in demand “bodes well for healthy flash industry fundamentals in 2013,” Mehrotra said.

Google TV’s place on the Google roadmap was murky following an earnings call late Thursday, as company executives steered questions about the platform to Google Fiber trials and YouTube instead. In response to an analyst question about the potential for Internet access on TV screens, CEO Lawrence Page said Google executives are “excited about television, screens and displays and have been for a while.” He added, “We've had Google TV as a product for quite some time,” he said, positioning the platform as somewhat dated. Page didn’t mention manufacturer Hisense’s planned rollout of a Google TV product in mid-November or products from Sony and LG currently on the market. Page said “it’s great to have a real browser available on your television to access YouTube” and other content, adding that YouTube is available on “a lot of other devices including DVD players and game consoles.” Google is “working hard” to get distribution for YouTube for Chrome, for Google “as a whole” on TV screens, “as well as our own products,” he said. The company is “still in the early stages of that,” he said. Regarding how Google Fiber fits into the company’s plans, Page noted that the service is still in limited trials in Kansas City. Google Fiber, controlled by the Nexus 7 tablet, “can drive the industry forward,” he said. Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette added that with Google Fiber, the company is “pushing for the next chapter of the Internet in the U.S.” where consumers want faster Internet speeds “at reasonable prices.” Google Fiber is a “great mouse trap,” he said. Page sidestepped a question about the differences between Google TV and Google Fiber, directing the conversation again to YouTube, saying, “Recently YouTube transitioned for me a year ago to something that could keep me entertained for hours on TV,” citing “high-quality” content tailored to users who can build their own channels. YouTube’s “tremendous increase in usage” has translated to increased monetization, he said. “That’s how we see the future,” Page said. “YouTube is going to be available everywhere -- on mobile, TV, desktop -- wherever you want.”

SAN FRANCISCO -- Consumer awareness, prohibitive costs and Food and Drug Administration regulations are hurdles to the mainstreaming of the nascent digital health market, said panelists at the “Health and Fitness Tech” session at the 2012 CEA Industry Forum Tuesday. While consumers are beginning to adopt mobile health technology, there are still major barriers to entry, panelists said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The goal of one standard to “do it all” in consumer electronics remains as elusive today as it was 20 years ago when the industry began work on the CEBus standard for interoperability, said Jay McLellan, president of home automation pioneer Hai by Leviton, at the CEA Industry Forum. The hope for a single standard in the connected home is “very, very challenging,” McLellan said, “because there are different needs for different technologies.” Some standards are for short-wave mesh-networking communications such as Zigbee and Z-Wave and others are for long-range communications to reach “out in the garage or down the street,” he said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Technology products are “in a pretty good position” heading into the holiday season, said Steve Koenig, CEA director-industry analysis, during the 2012 Holiday Sales and Forecast session at the CEA Industry Forum. According to CEA’s 19th Annual Purchase Patterns survey, 76 percent of holiday gift shoppers plan to buy a CE product, Koenig said, similar to last year’s findings. U.S. consumers plan to spend $252 each on technology this season, compared with $194 in pre-recession 2007, he said, a 30 percent bump. Year-to-year CE sales growth will be on par with last year, he said Tuesday. Overall, consumers plan to spend $1,634 this holiday season, up 11 percent over 2011, he said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Whether advances in technology have reached a point of being “good enough” was a recurrent theme at the Five Technologies to Watch session at the CEA Industry Forum Monday. Of the five technologies, displays and high-end audio stood out as categories where advances in quality and resolution may have maxed out in consumers’ minds, leaving categories such as TVs and audio components with no option but to expand into broader usage models rather than higher quality experiences.

The iPhone 5’s new Lightning connector is causing headaches for manufacturers of iPhone and iPod docks, as well as for consumers, who are having trouble with the few connectors available, if they have managed to find them at all.