As Harman International moves to expand car OEM business to 65% of revenue by 2006, it said it would lessen reliance on CE products. Car OEM currently accounts for about 50% of overall revenue, trailed by professional and consumer products at 30% and 20%, respectively, Exec. Chmn. Sidney Harman told investors and analysts at company’s annual meeting in N.Y. Mon. As car business grows, CE share is likely to fall in 10-20% range, company said.

Future Shop founder Hassan Khosrowshahi departs as chmn.-CEO following its acquisition by Best Buy; Kevin Layden remains Future Shop pres.-COO, reporting to Best Buy Pres.-COO Brad Anderson.

Downloads of new DivX video compression format have exceeded one million in last 2 weeks, developer DivXNetworks said. It said new MPEG-4 based codec, DivX 4.02 and DivX Playa had 20% faster encoding speed and improved visual quality compared with original DivX 4.0. More than 5 million downloads have been recorded since release of 4.0 version in June, DivXNetworks said. Company estimated that more than 25 million downloads had occurred since DivX codec emerged in 1999. Technology’s high compression ratio enables easier sending of digital video over Internet.

Matsushita Battery Industrial said it had produced cumulative total of 100 billion dry cells, 83% of which were manganese batteries, rest alkalines. About 40% were produced in Japan, company said.

Creation of “simplified, content-based” universal ratings for all entertainment media is suggested by American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in issue of Pediatrics magazine published Mon. System should describe content of videogames, music, other entertainment according to “key risk areas” such as sex, violence, language, AAP said.

Sega of America said retailer reaction to its game Super Monkey Ball for GameCube already was strong. Game maker said Toys “R” Us “recently doubled its orders for game, citing buzz factor as impetus,” while Electronics Boutique predicted it would be success “based on presale efforts.” E-rated (Everyone) game started shipping at $49.95.

EMagin unveiled 3D version of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) designed for headsets used in PC gaming applications. Display is based on eMagin’s 0.59” design that has 800x600 resolution, 100 candelas and power consumption of less than 300 mw. Design features stereovision embedded directly in high- resolution display that takes advantage of frame sequential technique implemented in most of Nvidia’s graphics chips. Nvidia is major graphics chip supplier for desktop and notebook PCs as well as Microsoft’s Xbox video game console that ships later this month.

Technology licensing and marketing agreement was announced by ESS Technology and NEC under which former will develop enhanced versions of NEC system controller chips for digital set- top boxes and other devices. ESS and NEC also agreed to jointly promote ESS system controller devices for NEC’s VR-series of microprocessors.

Chunghwa Picture Tubes laid off 300 employees at Yangmei, Taiwan, plant as it halted CRT production on 2 lines. It will formally close lines, which produced 17-19” CRTs for PC monitors and 20” for TVs, by year-end and transfer some workers to TFT LCD and plasma display panel factories in Padeh, Taiwan, company said. Yangmei plant will retain two 17” color CRT lines and 1,500 employees, it said.

Sony will increase CE production in China in effort to trim costs, Chmn. Nobuyuki Idei said, without revealing specific plans. Comment came at recent East Asia Summit sponsored by World Economic Forum. Sony already manufactures at 6 plants in China, including 4 joint ventures, making products such as TVs and components, with DVD players announced to come on line soon.