Rebecca Day

A group supporting “conflict-free” electronics is creating PR headaches for consumer electronics companies this week via a Facebook campaign to urge manufacturers to track the use of certain materials in CE products. Sharp was the day-two target Wednesday in Jewish World Watch’s Facebook crusade demanding “conflict-free products” as part of the organization’s overall effort to “build a world without genocide.” The conflict-free products campaign is targeted at the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which, according to JWW, is being funded by the “trade in tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold,” key minerals used in some electronics. Canon was the featured manufacturer on Tuesday, when JWW members were urged to “like” the company’s Facebook page and then post a call to action. According to JWW, armed groups in eastern Congo generate an estimated $144 million each year by trading the ore minerals that produce tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold, which are used in cell phones, portable music players, computers and a “plethora of other electronics” worldwide. Because of the “lack of a transparent minerals supply chain,” American consumers may be “unwittingly financing armed groups that regularly commit atrocities and mass rape,” JWW said. The organization is asking manufacturers to ensure minerals they purchase “aren’t passing through tainted hands,” and urges companies not to leave Congo but to help “strengthen legitimate mining in Congo.” On its website, JWW urges major electronics companies, “the biggest buyers of Congolese minerals,” to sign a pledge ensuring consumers that their products are “conflict-free.” Other target companies include Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Lenovo, IBM, SanDisk, Intel, Philips, Microsoft, Panasonic, LG, RIM, Apple, Dell, HP, Nintendo, Acer and Toshiba.

Comparable store sales at Hhgregg were down 6 percent for fiscal Q3 ended Dec. 31, because of weakness in core categories including video, appliances and small electronics, CEO Dennis May said in an earnings call Tuesday. Expecting growth, the company “overindexed” in premium video technologies including 3D and IPTV, he said, and sales in the categories “fell short of expectations.” The weak economy, combined with lack of content and the price gap between low-end TVs and 3D TV, “continued to mute growth and limit near-term expectations,” May said.

Mozaex has begun shipping a 12-terabyte 3D-compatible media server that holds 300 Blu-ray discs or 1,500 DVD movies. The scalable server supports multiroom playback and offers online media options including Netflix and Pandora, along with media sharing for music and photos, the company said. The suggested retail price of the Solo 2 3D starts at $5,995 for a two-terabyte model and $11,995 for the 12-terabyte version. Consumers can add up to four Blu-ray or DVD players to enable simultaneous playback of any media in five rooms. Additional Blu-ray players are $2,995 each, and DVD players list for $2,495 each, the company said. The Mozaex server is compatible with Mitsubishi DLP, Panasonic, Sony and Samsung 3D TVs, and NVidia 3D Vision and Xpand glasses, the company said. Mozaex said its video server is “100 percent legal because it does not ship with unlicensed decryption software,” but the company offers a “peace-of-mind” solution for consumers concerned about copyright infringement issues. The Cache 100 disc changer solution prevents movie playback if the disc is not present. The Cache 100 is expected to ship by March 31 and has a planned retail price of $2,495, the company said. With every sale, Mozaex said, it informs buyers, “As it is with hundreds of millions of installed personal computers, it is the user’s responsibility to obey all copyright laws when, for example, importing or downloading media from the Internet or if they decide to install decryption software onto a computer.” In March, the company said, it will release an enterprise-grade server that supports 200 terabytes of SAS RAID 6 protected media storage.

The momentum for tablets promised at CES will translate to shipments of 55.7 million units in 2011, a 200 percent year-over-year jump, DisplaySearch said. The growth rate will drop over the next few years, but tablets’ share of the mobile PC market, also made up of notebooks and netbooks, will grow to nearly 35 percent, 172.4 million units, by 2014, said a report by the research firm. Mobile PC shipments are expected to reach 503.8 million units by 2014.

Dolby Labs lowered fiscal 2011 forecasts in its Q1 earnings call last week to $930 million to $970 million total revenue, and $750 million to $780 million for licensing revenue, mainly because of reduced independent software vendor (ISV) revenue and “lower expectations for PC unit growth,” said Murray Demo, chief financial officer. Revenue for the quarter was $242.7 million, up 10 percent year-over-year and 7 percent sequentially. Licensing revenue for the quarter was $188.2 million, up 14 percent year-over-year and 5 percent sequentially, driven by advances in the consumer electronics, broadcast and PC markets, Demo said.

Best Buy is using the Super Bowl stage to launch a Buy Back program it announced in an e-mail blast to “valued customers” Thursday. The ad, featuring Justin Bieber and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, is scheduled to air during the third quarter of the game between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers. In a letter to customers Thursday, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn said the program is “future-proofing your technology.” Under the program, consumers buy the technology they want today and Best Buy will buy it back at a set price when consumers are ready to upgrade. “You'll know upfront what your gear will be worth,” he said, and consumers can redeem the Buy Back dollars at stores and “immediately receive a Best Buy gift card."

Harman International reported net operating income of $53 million for the second fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of $13 million a year earlier. Net sales were up 3 percent to $956 million, the company said.

Pioneer Elite dealers, burned by the company’s exit from the plasma TV market, are wary and confused about the brand’s return to the U.S. market via LCD TVs made by Sharp under a licensing deal between the companies, dealers told Consumer Electronics Daily. Sharp gets the benefit of expanded distribution and Pioneer can again offer a complete home theater solution unavailable since the high-margin Pioneer Elite plasma brand was discontinued in 2009, the companies said. The TVs will be sold as a premium brand through Pioneer’s Elite dealer network, Sharp said. No timing was released.

Control4’s EMS 100 energy management system will be deployed as part of NV Energy’s demand response system, beginning in June, the first rollout of a customer-driven demand response management system in the U.S., Control4 said this week. Utilities have conducted trials of demand response systems, but the NV Energy program, expected to roll out to a minimum of 20,000 homes in southern Nevada by 2012, is the first to integrate a utility’s billing systems and its ability to push price and demand response, Paul Nagel, Control4 vice president of business development for energy systems, told us. “We've seen in the industry a number of small pilots with a couple of thousand units being tested in the home.” Those have used manual, “artificial” events to simulate a demand response or price message, he said.

TV manufacturers offered varied responses this week to a report in South Korea’s Joongang Daily that Samsung had formed “3D TV alliances” in Beijing last weekend with Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Haier and Changhong. The report, attributed to Samsung, said the six companies “agreed that the active-shutter glasses format is the best technology for a full high-definition, 3D experience.” It also said the six companies, which accounted for 90 percent of the Chinese 3D TV market last year, vowed “to expand their presence” with the active-shutter format.