Rebecca Day

Interactive Voice will be at CES with its voice-recognition alarm clocks under the ivee brand as part of a move into the whole home, CEO Jonathon Nostrant told us Thursday. The company’s alarm clocks are its entry into voice-recognition but the company is eying more sophisticated home control products in the near future, Nostrant said.

Conceding the $199 tablet category this holiday season to the Kindle Fire, Archos will launch its own $200 model at CES with a higher-end feature set, Craig TerBlanche, director of marketing for Archos, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Archos elected to wait until January “to have something unique to announce for CES,” and the Honeycomb Android 3.0 operating system fits the bill, TerBlanche said. The Kindle Fire runs the Gingerbread, or Android 2.3, operating system.

Amazon made a last-minute push Tuesday to sell Kindle e-readers for Christmas, offering free two-day shipping to shoppers who placed orders before 8 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday. The promotion covered all Kindles, including the $79 model, which, according to the company, consumers are buying in multiples “as stocking stuffers.” Amazon also offered shoppers free one-day shipping on select products including portable navigation devices from Garmin and Tom Tom; digital cameras, primarily from Canon, Nikon and Kodak; tablets from Coby, Samsung, Sony, Dell and Archos; laptops from Sony, Toshiba and Dell; home audio products from Sonos and Tivoli Audio; and 65 models of headphones including Etymotic noise-isolating in-ear models and Bose QuietComfort 15 noise-canceling headphones that were selling for list price at $299, reference headphones from Denon discounted by $200 to $499, Shure in-ear phones slashed by $100 to $449, and Monster Vivienne Tam fashion in-ear headphones cut from $199 to $59. Amazon also held a limited-time sale on Samsung high-end 46-, 55- and 60-inch TVs. Examples included the UN55D8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D LED HDTV, slashed from $3,599 to $1,887, the UN60D8000 60-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D LED HDTV, dropped from $4,299 to $2,636; and the UN46D7000 46-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D LED HDTV, clipped by $1,074 to $1,225.

The rate of CE product returns has remained consistent over the past few years, according to CEA, based on a study conducted in conjunction with ShowUhow released Monday. The study of 2,036 randomly selected respondents in September found that more than a third of returned items are exchanged for the same model and brand, CEA said.

CEA has instituted new sustainability practices for CES, which opens Jan. 10 in Las Vegas for a four-day run. The initiative applies to attendees, show materials and local nonprofit organizations, it said. As part of the effort, CEA has partnered with its general services contractor Global Experience Specialists, which will manufacture signs made of a reusable, recyclable kraft paper honeycomb material, according to CEA.

In the homestretch toward Christmas, retailers are breaking out a spate of promotions to reach consumers on their terms. EBay and RadioShack are among those offering $10 coupons when consumers make minimum purchases, and Amazon is running a Saturday-Monday free shipping deal for “thousands of top selling items,” including cameras, video games and laptops, it said. Apparel e-tailer Zappos launched an iPad “magazine” app from which consumers can buy shoes and other merchandise directly using the device.

Worldwide shipments of e-reader displays are on track to jump 108 percent to 27.1 million units in 2011, but growth will slow to 37 percent in 2012, causing manufacturers to have to devise methods of differentiation to remain competitive, according to a report from IHS iSuppli. Strong growth in 2011 derived from a “relentless marketing push” and attractive pricing, IHS said, but competition from color-display tablets will dim demand for dedicated e-readers going forward, it said.

A year after Dolby Labs packed its CES demo suite with surround-sound solutions for computer audio, Dolby has refocused its attention on smaller form factors including tablets and smartphones. During a press demo in New York Tuesday, John Griffin, senior marketing manager, said Dolby is targeting “new use cases” for portable audio and will announce a new content partner at CES.

A day after the New York Times ran a blistering assessment of the Kindle Fire -- comparing it as a possible brand failure akin to the Ford Edsel and New Coke -- Barnes & Noble announced Monday that it is upgrading the Nook Color with the “largest-ever software update to the device."

Panasonic will deliver its first smartphone for the European market in March as part of a plan to sell 15 million worldwide in fiscal 2016, the company said Friday. Panasonic forecasts smartphone sales of 1.5 million units in the next fiscal year in Europe, which the company called its “stepping stone to the global market.” The decision to enter the smartphone market was based on consumers “rapidly shifting to smartphone usage worldwide and a steady growth expected particularly overseas,” Panasonic said. In fiscal 2016, Panasonic targets global sales of 15 million smartphones, including 9 million in Europe, Asia, China, and the U.S., and the remainder in Japan. A Panasonic spokesman wouldn’t comment on a rollout schedule for the smartphone in the U.S. but said the company doesn’t plan to make a smartphone announcement at CES in January. Panasonic exited the cell phone market in 2005. The company’s first smartphone will be a D-shaped unit with a Quarter HD 4.3-inch OLED screen and a waterproof, dustproof enclosure, it said. Panasonic created the Systems & Communications Company in April in advance of a reorganization scheduled for January 2012 to handle products and services related to system, network and mobile communications, it said. Within this company, Panasonic will “maximize its internal resources,” including manufacturing product at an existing factory in Malaysia that currently makes phones for the Japanese market. Panasonic will continue to expand its product lineup and increase sales “in a speedy process” by leveraging the group’s technological assets and development resources along with production and sales sites worldwide, it said.