Rebecca Day

Ten years is like a century in the tech world. What seemed like earth-shaking products a decade ago, as reported in Consumer Electronics Daily’s inaugural issue of Oct. 16, 2001, appear quaint now. A new portable music player, the Apple iPod -- pre-iTunes -- drew little interest that month as anything more than just another mp3 player predating the iTunes store launch in 2003. A decade later, the iPod will have sold more than 320 million units through Q3 2011, according to IHS projections, and has led an iRevolution expanding to smartphones and tablets that few but Steve Jobs could have envisioned in 2001.

Intel’s Ultrabook platform will dip to mainstream price points of $699 and higher this time next year, said CEO Paul Otellini during Intel’s Q3 earnings webcast Tuesday. Price has been a sticking point for some manufacturers this fall as Intel has said it wants Ultrabook prices to fall below $1,000 to drive demand, but processor pricing has forced OEMs to take a hit on margin, some OEMs say (CED Oct 12 p2). Initial pricing on Ultrabooks has been running $799 to $1,199 SRP in the nascent category.

Ultrabooks will become the mainstream notebook of choice for PC makers in the next five years, said Craig Berger, managing director for FBR Capital Markets, during a Web briefing. In a discussion with Anand Lal Shimpi, CEO of AnandTech.com, Berger said Intel will push Ultrabooks to become the preferred notebook by 2016 whether as a traditional notebook, tablet or “merged” form factor. “If you ask about notebooks or Ultrabooks in 5 years, they're basically going to be the same thing,” Berger said. FBR forecasts 40 percent notebook penetration by Ultrabooks in 2015, “but if Intel’s products are really good, that number could upside,” Berger said. Those estimates include Windows Ultrabooks using ARM-based processors but not tablets, he said.

Flooding in Thailand, where Western Digital operates two manufacturing facilities, will have “significant impact on the company’s overall operations and its ability to meet customer demand for its products in the December quarter,” the company said Monday. Western Digital was the top supplier of hard disk drives in Q2, with 53.8 million units shipped, 32.2 percent of the market, followed closely by Seagate with 31.3 percent, IHS said.

With the downturn in new housing starts, custom integrators and home system control companies are increasingly turning to commercial business to shore up sagging revenues. Elan Home Systems hopes that a recent $112,000 installation in a New Jersey restaurant leads to customer interest in home automation. The restaurant, Delicious Heights in Bedminster, has installed an Elan G home automation system for control of lighting, audio and video for 30 TVs, 50 speakers and digital signage that changes according to the restaurants revolving beer offerings. “The restaurant industry hasn’t changed in 200 hundred years in terms of what we offer customers in the front of the house,” the restaurant’s general manager, Marc Hudacsko, told us. “But the world is changing, and everybody has a smartphone now, he said. “Five times a day customers would ask me to charge their cell phones so we decided to install a power outlet with two USB ports in all booths for our customers.” The restaurant also offers free Wi-Fi and LED-backlit menus. Hudacsko uses an Elan control app to change volume for individual TVs and to flip channels when customers ask to watch a particular team. “I used to have to go to an equipment closet with all the cable and satellite boxes, find the right remote and then pull up the guide,” he said. Now Hudacsko pulls up the Elan app on his iPhone instead and changes volume and channels on the fly. Whether the technology will expand to a TV per table remains to be seen but is largely dependent on responding to consumer interest, Hudacsko said. “We don’t want to be ESPN Zone, but we'd have to look at what they want,” he said. The system was installed by 360 Media Innovations, Maplewood, N.J., where owner Chima Gale has installed two six-figure commercial projects this year in addition to the company’s standard residential load. Commercial projects give the added benefit of a service contract, “which we never get in residential,” Gale said. Business is now 60/40 between residential and commercial, he said. “I'd like it to stay that way,” he said. “It keeps us going.”

DENVER -- Sonos dealers were in the dark this week about the company’s plans to sell music systems through Target’s online and brick-and-mortar stores, they said at HTSA’s fall meeting. HTSA members we canvassed about the distribution agreement announced this week on the Sonos blog were surprised to learn about the big box deal. Some dealers didn’t begrudge the multi-room streaming company the opportunity for a significant boost in sales, but many weren’t happy about the 5 percent discount Target REDcard customers will enjoy.

DENVER -- HTSA vendor members are taking a wait-and-see approach to former executive director Richard Glikes’ plans for a new buying group, they told us at the HTSA Fall Pump-Up this week. Some told us they're waiting to hear details and others said they're waiting to see how the group progresses before making a decision to join yet another buying group for the independent dealer channel.

DENVER - Facing new leadership for the first time since its inception 15 years ago, the Home Technology Specialists of America buying group “has set a good path” but hopes to “get a bit younger” in the next chapter, board members Brian Hudkins, president of Gramophone in Timonium, Md., and Jon Robbins, CEO of Hi-Fi House in Broomall, Pa., told us Wednesday at the group’s Fall Pump-Up conference. HTSA will announce a new executive director in the next few weeks, Robbins said, following the departure of former executive director Richard Glikes, who announced his resignation at the end of August after the board rejected his request for a salary increase and a 3-year contract.

High-end audio company McIntosh Lab unveiled a new multi-channel power amplifier, AV processor, Blu-ray player, and three pairs of speakers last week at the Savant showroom in New York. The company also unveiled a 50th-anniversary limited-edition version of its MC275 two-channel tube power amplifier, which first shipped in 1961. The MC275 has gone through several refreshes over the years and was out of the McIntosh line from 1972-1994, said President Charles Randall. The MC275 will be available in December for a suggested retail price of $6,500, Randall said. Among new products for 2012, the MX121 home theater processor, MVP 891 universal Blu-ray player and MC8207 seven-channel 1400-watt amplifier combine to create a $14,000 package that’s half of what comparable components in the McIntosh line would command at retail today, Randall said. The MC8207 achieved a lower price point due to new LED-based blue meters on the front panel, and the Blu-ray player “came down a lot” in price because of maturing in the Blu-ray market, he said. The 3D-capable player spins Blu-ray discs, DVDs, Super Audio CDs and CD-R and CD-RW discs, the company said. The electronics will ship in January, and despite lower prices designed to appeal to a new group of audiophiles, distribution will stay the same, Randall said. The company also showed a new center-channel speaker, the LC R80, XR50 bookshelf speakers and the XR100 floorstanding speakers packing 11 mid- and high-frequency drivers and four woofers, he said. Speakers will ship to dealers in February, he said. Randall said the company is “not abandoning our audiophile customers” who “built the brand,” but it wants to bring more people in as audiophiles “without making them so cautious about making a major purchase.” The company hopes to reach the new customer with a systems approach versus component approach, he said. “We want to explain what goes together to make a system and to make it easier so they feel educated,” he said. On the McIntosh website, products will be grouped according to activity, room size and the type of music they listen to, including CD and vinyl records, he said.

Amazon.fr launched the first French-language Kindle and the French Kindle Store Friday, with 35,000 French-language Kindle books, including all 28 L'Express best sellers, “hundreds” of popular graphic novels and more than 4,000 free classics, the company said. The store also offers customers more than 825,000 titles in English and other languages, it said. Customers can change the language from the device settings page, according to a company spokeswoman. The French-language Kindle, a 6-inch, Wi-Fi, E Ink monochrome-display model that’s part of the international line, is sold at Amazon.fr for 99 Euros, Amazon said. The U.S. Amazon website lists it for $109. In addition to the U.S., Amazon sells Kindles in the U.K. and Germany. The spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on plans regarding additional international models.