Rebecca Day

Worldwide smartphone sales to end users jumped to 149 million units in Q4 2011, up 47.3 percent year over year, according to Gartner. Total smartphone sales in 2011 hit 472 million units, accounting for 31 percent of all mobile device sales, up 58 percent from 2010, Gartner said. Record sales of iPhones were behind the surge, promoting Apple to overtake LG to become the number three mobile phone vendor in the world, Gartner said. In smartphones, Apple became the top for the year 2011 with a 19 percent slice, it said.

Azione Unlimited, the fledgling start-up buying group founded by former HTSA Executive Director Richard Glikes, has shaved $250 per quarter off the dealer member dues for the organization, Glikes said Tuesday.

Sharp hit the home-shopping circuit Sunday afternoon, selling out of an electronics bundle at QVC featuring a high-end 60-inch Quattron 3D TV and Blu-ray player. No model numbers were given, but the Sharp LC60LE835U at Amazon, packing the same feature set including 1080p resolution, 240 Hz refresh rate, 3D and LED lighting, was selling Monday for $1,899 -- without a Blu-ray player. Sears and Best Buy listed the same TV for $2,199 Monday and Newegg sold it for $2,087, while the Sharp website posted a price of $2,799. The QVC bundle price on Sunday was $1,899 with the Blu-ray player tossed in and free shipping. Glasses weren’t included. The on-set Sharp spokeswoman downplayed the 3D feature, while promoting the apps available through the network-capable TV and the 2D/3D conversion feature on Sharp’s 3D glasses that allows viewers to watch a program in 2D when others in the room watch in 3D. The QVC host mentioned 240 sets being allocated for the promo, but he said more TVs were secured when the initial batch sold out. Sharp referred us to QVC for a final tally, but the network didn’t respond to our query by deadline.

Phorus, which plans to launch an Android-based wireless music system this spring, is “glad to see Google is as enthusiastic as we are about providing Android users with a wireless music solution for the home,” said CEO Dannie Lau founder, on published reports last week that Google plans to enter the home entertainment space with a branded multi-room audio product. Phorus launched PlayCast at CES last month and plans to sell the $199 system beginning in late March or early April, Lau told us by email Friday. Phorus is positioning the product as an alternative for Android users to Bluetooth or Apple’s Airplay solution. “PlayCast is a Wi-Fi solution, offering far greater range and sound quality than Bluetooth,” Lau said, and it offers multi-room capability compared with Bluetooth which can only transmit point to point, he said. Although Airplay is also Wi-Fi, it’s only available for Apple devices “and only supports multi-room streaming if a PC or laptop is the source,” Lau said. PlayCast, he said, was built “ground up for Android, and allows any phone, tablet or Android device to stream music directly to the speaker network.” PlayCast is being manufactured in China. Lau declined to comment on the type of magnets used for the speaker drivers when we asked if the company has been affected by high prices for neodymium. PlayCast speakers will have a retail price of $199 and will sell direct from the Phorus.com site and through Amazon, Lau said. He said Phorus’ marketing efforts through PR, events, trade shows and social media “will lay the ground work for our partners” and that the company plans to license PlayCast technology to “major manufacturers, retailers and device makers globally.”

Kodak’s announcement that it’s phasing out its capture device business -- including digital cameras, flip-style camcorders and digital picture frames -- will result in “significant impact among the 400 worldwide employees” of Kodak’s consumer business, company spokesman Christopher Veronda said Thursday. The company is exiting the digital device businesses during the first half of the year and is “actively seeking brand licensees” for those categories, Veronda said. The company has had “strong interest among several parties,” he said.

The hard disk drive shortage resulting from flooding in Thailand will continue to impact global PC supply through the current quarter, said Lenovo Chief Financial Officer Wong Wai Ming during its earnings webcast Wednesday. The shortage will exist for most of the first calendar quarter as PC makers try to meet demand, and will gradually ease late in the period, he said.

It’s a lot easier to join CEDIA today than it used to be, as the once-exclusive custom installation association seeks to broaden its membership, said board member Randy Stearns in a webinar Wednesday. In a response to a caller question charging CEDIA -- known for promoting luxury theaters and high-end home automation during stronger economic times -- with now signing up “any new member that has a pulse,” Stearns said CEDIA has gone “full circle,” since the heyday of the organization when it was “growing by leaps and bounds."

Hhgregg reported higher sales for fiscal Q3 2012 ended Dec. 31 but profit fell to $22.5 million from $26.9 million in Q3 2012 on margin pressure in the video category, CEO Dennis May said in an earnings call Wednesday. Sales were up in the quarter 26.9 percent to $829.5 million. “The holiday saw persistent challenges within the video industry,” May said, citing declining ASPs and stagnant unit sales that were down 6.7 percent for the quarter, according to NPD. Hhgregg saw a comparable store sales decline in video of 4.8 percent, May said.

Logitech, which four times has scaled back fiscal 2012 revenue projections, will “not experience the sales and revenue growth we experienced in the past” if it doesn’t successfully execute on growth opportunities, or if sales in mature markets are “lower than expected,” it said in its 10-Q filed Monday at the SEC. The company believes “sales of our PC peripherals in our mature markets will decline” in 2012 “and potentially beyond” due to “decelerating” demand for PCs in markets including North America, western and northern Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

At the end of a busy Monday involving announcements of a streaming video partnership with Verizon and the purchase of NCR’s Blockbuster Express DVD kiosk business, Coinstar said in its Q4 earnings webcast that Q4 revenue jumped 33 percent year over year to $520.5 million primarily on a boost in Redbox receipts. Redbox Q4 revenue rose 39.5 percent to $445.6 million on new kiosk installations, a “steady stream of strong” releases, “consumer acceptance” of the rental price increase implemented at the end of October, and videogame rentals, said CEO Paul Davis. For the year, the company reported revenue of $1.84 billion compared with $1.44 billion for 2010.