LAS VEGAS -- Sales of the Kinect for Xbox 360 motion-sensing system totaled more than 8 million globally in its first 60 days available, passing Microsoft’s revised forecast for selling 5 million through the end of 2010, CEO Steve Ballmer said in a CES keynote Wednesday. The company in November boosted its Kinect sales forecast for 2010 to 5 million from 3 million.
LAS VEGAS -- DTS wants to “leverage” the benefits of its new Neo:X post-processing technology for markets beyond just traditional home audio systems, to markets including videogames, Chief Technology Officer Frederick Kitson said on the eve of CES Tuesday night. The technology “will enhance the experience in a lot of different venues and a lot of different products,” including TVs, car electronics and even mobile phones, he said.
LAS VEGAS -- When it emerged from bankruptcy last year, General Motors made it clear that it expected its OnStar subsidiary to play a major role in the company’s revival by “extracting value” from OnStar technology and the brand, OnStar President Chris Preuss told a news conference at CES. OnStar responded with what Preuss called Tuesday a “bold and transformational move” to take the safety, navigation and communications service to the aftermarket in 2011 over the Verizon Wireless network.
LAS VEGAS -- Sharp came to CES showing some of its largest and smallest LCD-based devices to date, bowing its first 70-inch LCD TV and a tablet PC that’s currently available in Japan in 5.5- and 10.8-inch screen sizes. Few details were available for the Galapagos tablet PC that will be introduced in the U.S. during second half 2011. The Japanese tablets operate on the Linux operating system but OS, processor, screen size, price and availability haven’t been set for the U.S. market, said Bob Scaglione, chief marketing officer.
LAS VEGAS -- Panasonic is adding two LED-based LCD TVs to its line of 3D Viera TVs as part of an overall expansion of its 3D TV line for 2011, Senior Vice President James Sanduski said at the company’s CES news conference. The LCD models are “targeted toward gamers,” and will ship in spring, he said. Pricing wasn’t provided. The company is also expanding its line of Viera plasma 3D TVs to 12 models this year from last year’s eight, it said.
LAS VEGAS -- Calling 2011 “the tipping point,” when the number of connected consumer electronics, mobile devices and tablet PCs surpasses the number of PCs in the home, Netgear CEO Patrick Lo said at a CES news conference Wednesday that his company is entering the “second phase” of its tech roadmap that began 15 years ago. Netgear is launching at CES eight consumer products to connect mobile and entertainment devices to the Internet, to deal with the “major shift in how people use the Internet.”
LAS VEGAS -- LG Display will halt production of active-shutter 3D LCDs within six months as it throws support behind its film patterned retarder (FPR) technology, which can be paired with passive polarized glasses, CEO Kwon Young Soo told us after a news conference.
LAS VEGAS -- The new line of Pioneer Electronics in-car devices that the company is bowing at CES this week stresses more connected features than ever, as the company looks to satisfy growing consumer demand. To that end, after introducing the Pandora music service in two navigation units last year, Pioneer has now expanded the feature to nine in-dash models this year across its full product lineup, Ted Cardenas, director of marketing, said at a news conference.
LAS VEGAS -- Sony in 2010 “established ourselves as the industry leader in 3D because we do business across the entire 3D universe,” CEO Howard Stringer told a pre-CES news conference Wednesday. For 2011, Sony will embark on “the next phase of our 3D strategy,” which is to make 3D “more personal,” Stringer said.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will continue to push discrete graphics chips even as it moves to combine the technology with CPUs in a new Fusion platform being introduced at CES, company officials said.