Rebecca Day

LAS VEGAS -- Enthusiasm for 3D among Chinese consumers could give the flagging 3D industry the boost it needs, said Levin Tang, secretary general of the China 3D Industry Association, during the keynote at Insight Media’s Projection Summit Tuesday. Consumption of 3D, both at home and in theaters, is rising at a rate proportional to China’s economic growth, Tang said.

Duracell Powermat, a joint venture between Procter & Gamble’s Duracell division and Powermat, launched a charging kit called the 24-Hour Power System for smartphones in New York electronics stores Monday. The kit is part of a $100 million design, marketing and infrastructure effort to advance wireless charging in general, Ron Rabinowitz, CEO of Duracell Powermat, told us. In addition to the new charging kit, the initiative includes wireless charging “hotspots” in and around the New York area and an education/marketing campaign featuring rapper Jay-Z, who has invested in the joint venture and whose Manhattan 40/40 Club features wireless charging tables for patrons to charge their smartphones. Duracell Powermat wouldn’t disclose Jay-Z’s stake in the venture or how it changed the 55/45 ratio of Duracell and Powermat investments.

The inflection point to reach the billion-unit sales target the LED industry has staked for 2014 is the $10-$15 light bulb, said David Biven, Cirrus Logic director-product marketing, energy products. While there are products on the market at that price point now, “they're not very good,” he said on a call with investors.

China’s $4.1 billion subsidy on home appliances -- designed to spur purchases of energy-saving TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines and water heaters -- could lead to a price war on TVs, according to NPD DisplaySearch. LCD and plasma TV makers may try to promote sales of energy-saving products in the second half of 2012 through a 5-20 percent reduction in retail prices, said Bing Zhang, director of China market research. Price cuts, as much as 15-20 percent, are expected to be largest in the 32-inch category, Zhang said, followed by 19- and 42-inch TVs. Any TVs that don’t meet the energy saving index will become “excess inventory,” Zhang said. As a result, Chinese TV makers may have to cut prices over the next few months, he said.

The U.S. will invest up to $120 million over the next five years to launch the fifth Energy Innovation Hub with a goal of developing solutions for rare earth elements and other materials important to energy technologies, the Department of Energy said last week. The aim of the Critical Materials Hub is to reduce U.S. dependence on critical materials and ensure that the deployment of domestic energy technologies isn’t hindered by future materials supply shortages, DOE said.

Lenovo, known for road warrior notebook PCs rooted in the IBM PC business it purchased seven years ago, is attempting to break the business mold with a new series of “retail-friendly” Ultrabooks due in the U.S. later this month. Ultrabooks are a major part of Lenovo’s strategy to capture at least 10 percent of the consumer market in the U.S., and the company is funding that effort with a $50 million worldwide marketing campaign -- its most expensive ever -- that launches this month, Nick Reynolds, director, marketing & strategy, told Consumer Electronics Daily.

Despite recommendations from proxy advisor companies Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis & Co encouraging shareholders to vote against re-electing board of directors nominees including Michael Duke, CEO, and former CEO Lee Scott, Walmart shareholders approved all 16 board nominees in the company’s annual meeting Friday at the 19,200-seat Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The recommendations, according to a Reuters report, followed a New York Times article in April that said Walmart failed to fully investigate allegations six years ago of $24 million in bribes said to be used to expand the retailer’s presence in Mexico.

Samsung Semiconductor took a PR swing to New York Thursday, promoting a late-April software upgrade for its Optical Smart Hub SE-208B that it hopes provides a solution to negative feedback the DVD writer/streamer got since introduction earlier this year. Samsung is banking on the Smart Hub and the recently launched SE-218BB external DVD drive to give its optical disc business relevance in the tablet and Ultrabook worlds at a time when optical drives face a dramatically reduced role in the upcoming Windows 8 era.

"It’s no longer a TV world, it’s a media world,” said Disney CEO Robert Iger on a webcast Wednesday from the Sanford C. Bernstein conference in New York. Commenting on Disney’s announcement Wednesday that it would launch its TV Everywhere app for the Disney Channel through Comcast next week, Iger said the media world is becoming more “fragmented” and will only become more so as people consume media at home, at school, in cars and “walking down the street.” With technology enabling more avenues for consumers to view media, content companies have to determine which the most important venues are and “how can we create, or preserve, the most value,” he said. Iger said Disney’s decision to “embrace” technology rather than respond in a threatened way has “definitely worked.”

Savvy shoppers who combed e-tailer websites over Memorial Day weekend could well have scored bang-for-the-buck CE deals ranging from steep discounts to freebies, we found in a scan of online ads Friday. Though the magnitude and number of deals fell far short of holiday selling season frenzy, hhgregg’s $99 offer on a Coby 19-inch LED-backlit LCD TV had a distinctly Black Friday feel, advertised as it was as a “doorbuster” deal with a limit of one per customer.