After a miserable past few years, marked by the rise of Samsung Electronics Co. and the dominance of Apple Inc., Japan’s once-powerful electronics manufacturers are grappling with outside investors and fed-up creditors looking to break the cozy and insular bonds that were once a hallmark of the country’s corporate sector.

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Sharp said Tuesday that Executive Vice President Kozo Takahashi, 58, will replace current President Takashi Okuda, who led the company during a tumultuous year in which it scrambled to secure capital and warned about its future.

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Complicating Sharp’s attempts to survive increasingly dire finances, two former presidents have joined current President Takashi Okuda in seeking to negotiate deals with different sets of possible investors, creating confusion among creditors and potential investors about who is in charge at a critical moment.

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Fast forward to today: The battle for the living room is already over, and the overall war for the consumer is on. Key players in this big war? Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Samsung and LG. Sony, Panasonic, Sharp and Nintendo? By and large on the outside looking in, wondering how the vision for living room dominance blew up.

When do we stop calling them phones or tablets or TVs?
Thanks to Moore’s Law, the advancements in storage, battery life, screen display, processing power and improved networks in the past 10 years have allowed numerous “screens” to become pervasive in a consumer’s daily life. These screens are ubiquitous, and not typically locked to a location, except TVs. Consumers spend time on phones, tablets and notebooks both in the home and while mobile.

We are rapidly iterating devices to simply be powerful screens connected to the Internet, connected to clouds. The main question for a consumer will soon be, “Which size screen will I use in the car? On the train? In rooms in my house?” That answer will be driven by which hardware vendors have aggregated the best services for consumers, coupled with a compelling user interface (UI), frictionless commerce opportunities and social and communications layers built in.
The reality today is that consumers can do nearly the exact same things on a device with a 4-inch, 8-inch, 12-inch, 15-inch or 20-inch screen. There will naturally be some functions that will be more appropriate on one screen size over another, but interchangeability is already here.

So who is leading in the war to control the consumer?
The single biggest key to everything? Control the UI on the connected screens. Companies who control the UI will then dictate how software is accessed, and which software. Making a compelling, fun, friendly UI is considered to be a very special sauce — rarely made and hard to do.

As shown in the chart above, most of the leading companies for controlling consumer interactions have at least a decent UI. Apple clearly leads the way, but Amazon and Google have made strides with improved UI. Microsoft took a big step forward with the Windows 8 UI, and Facebook has worked on improving its UI on both laptops and mobile.

If you take the same chart and substitute the companies for the countries of origin as shown in the second chart, the subtle trend of UI success becomes clear — companies based in Silicon Valley and in the greater Seattle area are dominating, and Japan-based companies are seriously lagging. While the hardware manufacturing base may still be in Japan and Korea, UI and software development are still based in the U.S.

To this point, efforts have been made by both Japanese and Korean companies to build a presence in Silicon Valley. Nintendo moved many of its operations from Redmond, Wash., down to Silicon Valley in an effort to become more in touch with connected companies and potential partners. Earlier in February, Samsung announced plans to open up a research and development (R&D) center in Silicon Valley as well, largely focused on software — with an assumption for UI development, too. For all Samsung’s dominance in phones, memory, TVs and appliances, UI has not been a strength.

While much of the focus today is on phones, tablets, laptop and TV screens, part of the connected consumer idea will soon include connected appliances. Remote management of the oven, inventory management for food in the refrigerator, or remote management of home security or heating systems are going to become more mainstream. It’s not quite a Star Trek-type leap of faith, but software solutions will have to be built for the TV and the fridge. Samsung, given its pole position in many hardware solutions, would have great potential in these expanded connected devices, but it is still early. Hence, the investment in a Silicon Valley lab could prove hugely strategic over the next 10 years.

How do TV manufacturers change to stay competitive? How does Japan stay relevant in a connected world?
Partnerships are going to be more critical than ever because software development and UI are not core strengths for many Japanese-based consumer electronics companies. However, partnerships with non-Japan based companies are rare, and a huge challenge is to change the corporate culture of many Japanese companies. Many of these companies are engineering-driven cultures with long-standing histories of making successful products over the past 50 years. Unfortunately, the analog age of standalone devices is over, and the connected, digital world awaits. For many companies, it’ll mean partner or perish.

P.J. McNealy is founder of consulting firm Digital World Research and has conducted research in the technology and gaming sectors for 15 years. He authored “Early Days: The Market for Social Gaming and Facebook’s Potential Achilles’ Heel,” in May 2013; it is available on Amazon.com.

Apple shares slipped below $500 in early morning trading for the first time in nearly a year, after the Nikkei said Japan Display and Sharp have begun reducing production of the liquid-crystal-display panels used in the iPhone 5 amid slower-than-anticipated global sales of the handset. Apple had reportedly planned to order enough LCD panels to build 65 million iPhone 5s this quarter (aside: that is a fantastically large number that should be viewed with at least a modicum of skepticism). But sources told the Nikkei that the company has essentially halved that order (aside: some skepticism merited here as well, perhaps). The Wall Street Journal subsequently issued a similar report.

As of this writing, Apple shares had fallen more than 3 percent to $504.25, having earlier touched $498.51. The decline extends a slide that has dragged Apple’s stock price down almost 30 percent since last fall, when anticipation for the iPhone 5 had pushed it above $700.

It’s worth noting that analysts don’t seem all that concerned by the reports that are freaking investors out today. Consensus among the few I’ve spoken to seems to be that 65 million iPhone 5s in a quarter was unrealistic to begin with, and component-order cuts like this are typical following a big holiday season ramp. As Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um said, “We believe investors should not put too much merit in the 65 million estimate as (1) order cuts are not new news and (2) the likelihood that Apple would have shipped 65 million iPhone 5’s for the March quarter would have been miniscule, in our opinion, given the large implied sequential ramp into what is typically a seasonally slower quarter.”

Officials at some of Apple’s suppliers, who declined to be named, said the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has been working on testing a few designs for a large-screen high-resolution TV.

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The companies said Tuesday that they also will work together to develop displays using a new Sharp liquid-crystal-display technology and Qualcomm’s emerging low-power-display technology.

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This jibes with what AllThingsD has been hearing lately, as well, and lends further credence to rumors that poor display yields at Sharp had hamstrung early iPhone 5 supplies. “Apple is facing significant production constraints due to a move toward in-cell display technology, which pushes units into the December and March quarters,” Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes noted earlier this week. “[That] factor has limited sales this past week according to our checks.”

But now with Sharp’s display production “adequately” ramped up, supply is less constrained. No surprise, then, that Apple is pushing ahead with its aggressive global rollout schedule which brought the iPhone 5 to 22 new markets today, and a number of U.S. regional carriers, as well.

The teardown analysis by the firm previously known as iSuppli is still ongoing this afternoon and not yet complete. But here’s what has been found so far: Memory chips from Sandisk are in the phone, in a possible sign that Apple is curtailing its purchases from memory chip maker Samsung as a result of the acrimonious legal fight still ongoing between them.

Flash memory chips used for storage are estimated to add between $10.40 and $41.60 to the cost of the device, depending on storage capacity. The iPhone also has $10.45 worth of DRAM memory.

Another iPhone part previously supplied by Samsung — the battery — appears to have been supplied by Sony. In both cases, it’s likely that Apple is buying both memory and batteries from more than one supplier. This means that Samsung memory chips and batteries may still be found inside some iPhones and not others. The battery in the iPhone 5 cost $4, down from $5.90 on the iPhone 4S, IHS says.

The iPhone 5 also contains a wireless processor from Qualcomm and touchscreen controller chips from Texas Instruments and Broadcom. STMicroelectronics maintained its role in supplying the gyroscope chip.

The parts used inside the iPhone 5 cost a combined $197 for the base model while the cost of assembly runs about $8 a unit. The iPhone sells for $199 to $399 with a two-year contract, but without a subsidy-bearing contract it sells for $649 for the base 16-gigabyte model, $749 for the 32-GB model and $849 for the 64-GB model.

The findings are more or less in line, if slightly lower than a preliminary cost estimate of $199 on the base 16-gigabyte model that IHS issued earlier this week. The cost estimates don’t take into account costs for other items, including software development, research and development, packaging, shipping or distribution. Apple declined to comment.

The latest estimate is fairly close to the cost estimate range of $188 to $207 that IHS issued last year on the iPhone 4S. Apple is selling the iPhone 5 for $199 for a 16GB unit, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB.

That $9 difference between the component cost for the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 is important because it’s a relatively small difference between 3G and LTE or 4G phones, says Wayne Lam, analyst with IHS. “Most other phones built for LTE had much bigger displays, and everything got oversized. And that pushed the material costs higher,” he said. Apple’s screen is the same width as before, but is slightly longer than on the iPhone 4S.

Apple is also benefiting from a strategic investment in Sharp that paid off in the creation of a new in-cell touch-enabled display. The new display requires fewer layers than previous ones, and incorporates touch sensors directly into the display itself rather than using a touch-enabled overlay technology. The result, Lam says, is a display that is thinner than in previous generations of iPhone. The total cost of the display, IHS estimates, is $44, versus $37 on the iPhone 4S.

Another difference is in the wireless technology. With the iPhone 5 ready for LTE — Long Term Evolution — wireless networks, the cast of wireless chip suppliers has changed somewhat. Qualcomm supplied the primary wireless chip with additional chips coming from Skyworks Solutions, Avago Technolgies and Triquint Semiconductor. “We’re seeing a lot more parts from Avago and Skyworks this time around and only one from Triquint,” Lam said. The combined cost for the wireless components adds up to $34, up from $23.50 on the iPhone 4S.

There’s also a mysterious Apple-labeled chip that has not been seen in prior iPhones. Lam says it’s likely to be an audio chip of some kind. Apple is said to have been working on ways to improve audio and voice quality for phone calls.

In March, the firm took apart the latest iPad and came up with a range of estimates: $309 for the base Wi-Fi-only model to $409 for the higher-end 64GB 4G-ready model.

IHS regularly conducts teardown studies of wireless phones and other consumer electronics devices in order to find out who a company’s suppliers are. Like most manufacturers, Apple prevents its suppliers from identifying themselves publicly, much as they’d love to, so teardowns serve as confirmation of a relationship between a manufacturer and a supplier that is usually the subject of rumor and speculation.

The firm also estimates the combined cost of components — analysts check on the list prices of each part — to compile what is known in industry lingo as a bill-of-materials estimate, or BOM, that gives a fair idea how much a manufacturer, in this case Apple, makes in gross margin on each device sold. Apple doesn’t disclose its gross margin on a per-product basis, but when it reported its quarterly results on July 24, it said its overall gross margin was 42.8 percent.

In this case, the firm acquired five iPhones and disassembled them all. One thing the firm’s analysts were looking for was any variance in the identity of the memory supplier. Historically, Samsung, the world’s largest supplier of flash memory chips, has been a significant supplier — one of many — to Apple across its mobile product lines.

The Apple-Samsung relationship has been complicated by the epic series of smart phone patent lawsuits between them. Apple won a key round in the U.S. last month, winning a $1 billion judgment against Samsung in a federal court in San Jose, Calif.

Samsung still manufactures the A6 processor for Apple, continuing a relationship that dates back several years. Apple designs the chip. Early iPhone models contained processors designed and built by Samsung. IHS estimates the per-ship cost of the A6 to be $17.50 versus $15 for the previous generation’s A5.

IHS has also recently taken apart Nokia’s Lumia 900 and estimated its build cost at $209. Meanwhile, Google’s Nexus 7 tablet cost $152 to build.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120921/apples-iphone-5-is-pried-open-its-profitable-secrets-start-bursting-out/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120913/iphone-5-screen-production-begins-at-sharp/ http://allthingsd.com/20120913/iphone-5-screen-production-begins-at-sharp/#comments Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:12:50 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=250469 Sharp has resolved the unspecified manufacturing issues that prevented it from shipping iPhone 5 displays on schedule earlier this summer. Sources close to the Japanese electronics maker say it began mass-producing liquid crystal display panels for the iPhone 5 this week. That’s encouraging news for Apple, which has implemented an aggressive global rollout plan for its latest smartphone.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120913/iphone-5-screen-production-begins-at-sharp/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120906/struggling-sharp-mortgages-factories-to-stay-afloat/ http://allthingsd.com/20120906/struggling-sharp-mortgages-factories-to-stay-afloat/#comments Thu, 06 Sep 2012 17:05:39 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=248298 It’s a dull day, indeed, for Sharp. The struggling electronics maker said Thursday that in order to remain in business, it has mortgaged nearly all of the real estate it owns in Japan, including a key factory that produces displays for the next-generation iPhone, which Apple is expected to debut next week. News of the move comes as Sharp scrambles to secure funding from Hon Hai, parent company of Foxconn Electronics.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120906/struggling-sharp-mortgages-factories-to-stay-afloat/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120905/a-first-iphone-5-sales-estimate-10-million-in-a-week/ http://allthingsd.com/20120905/a-first-iphone-5-sales-estimate-10-million-in-a-week/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:17:06 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=247657

“We’re reading the same rumors and speculation that you are about a new iPhone, and we think this has caused some pause in customers purchasing.”

– Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, July 24, 2012

Whatever iPhone sales Apple forfeited to “rumors and speculation”-delayed purchases in its disappointing second quarter, the company will likely make back in spades come the launch of the next-generation iPhone it is expected to unveil on Sept. 12. Already, analysts are predicting that pent-up demand for the device could generate some massive early sales.

Wall Street currently expects Apple to report sales of between 22 million and 23 million iPhones during the September quarter. But if Apple ships its next-generation iPhone on Sept. 21, as expected, sales could be even higher.

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, iPhone sales for the period could range between 26 million and 28 million units, with the bulk of that increase occurring the week of Sept. 21.

“We believe that if the 21st is the actual ship date, Apple could sell six million to 10 million iPhone 5s in the final week of September barring supply issues,” Munster speculates.

Six million to 10 million iPhone 5s sold in a week.

Those are some big numbers. And to hit them, the device would have to have a very big opening weekend, which is certainly possible. Historically, first-weekend sales of new iPhones have ramped up significantly with the debut of each successive model. The iPhone 3GS sold more than one million units during its first weekend at market. The iPhone 4 sold more than 1.7 million. And the iPhone 4S sold more than four million.

So, are sales of six million to 10 million iPhone 5s in a week plausible? It would seem so, as long as Apple’s supply chain isn’t too constrained. But with reports of delays in iPhone screen manufacturing at Sharp, that remains an open question.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120905/a-first-iphone-5-sales-estimate-10-million-in-a-week/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120831/hon-hais-revenue-jumps-but-net-is-flat/ http://allthingsd.com/20120831/hon-hais-revenue-jumps-but-net-is-flat/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:45:07 +0000 Lorraine Luk http://allthingsd.com/?p=246927 Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. said Friday its first-half profit rose only slightly as revenue growth driven by strong demand for Apple products was largely offset by an accounting loss on its investment in Sharp Corp.

Hon Hai, which assembles Apple Inc.’s iPad and iPhone, said its net profit for the six months ended June 30 rose to 27.53 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$918 million) from NT$27.38 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose 25 percent to NT$1.89 trillion.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120831/hon-hais-revenue-jumps-but-net-is-flat/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120831/production-of-iphone-screens-delayed-at-sharp/ http://allthingsd.com/20120831/production-of-iphone-screens-delayed-at-sharp/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:00:19 +0000 Juro Osawa http://allthingsd.com/?p=246827 Japan’s Sharp Corp. hasn’t started mass producing screens for Apple Inc.’s next iPhone, a person with knowledge of the situation said Friday, signaling potential supply problems for the U.S. company as it gears up to unveil its next-generation smartphone next month.

People familiar with the situation said that Sharp had planned to start shipping iPhone screens to Apple by the end of August, but mass production has been delayed partly because of manufacturing difficulties. It remains unclear when the company can start shipping the panels, one of the people said.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120831/production-of-iphone-screens-delayed-at-sharp/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120803/sharp-shares-dive-30-percent/ http://allthingsd.com/20120803/sharp-shares-dive-30-percent/#comments Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:00:28 +0000 Kenneth Maxwell http://allthingsd.com/?p=237566 The gloom gathering around Japan’s electronics industry darkened Friday as investors spooked by Sharp Corp.’s steep losses and perceived strategy fumbles sent the shares skidding to lows not seen for nearly 40 years, wiping nearly a third off the company’s value.

Sharp’s 30 percent slide to its lowest level since November 1974 was the most eye-catching symbol of the trouble with Japanese electronics players, coming the day after the company warned it would slip to multibillion-dollar losses once again this fiscal year.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120803/sharp-shares-dive-30-percent/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120802/sharp-president-were-shipping-screens-for-the-new-iphone-this-month/ http://allthingsd.com/20120802/sharp-president-were-shipping-screens-for-the-new-iphone-this-month/#comments Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:01:27 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=237216 Further evidence that Apple’s next-generation iPhone is on track for a fall release: Sharp president Takashi Okuda said today that the company will begin shipping screens for the new device this month. Sources say those screens will measure four inches diagonally, significantly larger than those used in the iPhone 4S. As AllThingsD reported in July, Apple is expected to hold a special iPhone event on Sept. 12.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120802/sharp-president-were-shipping-screens-for-the-new-iphone-this-month/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120717/next-iphone-has-thinner-screen/ http://allthingsd.com/20120717/next-iphone-has-thinner-screen/#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2012 07:30:58 +0000 Juro Osawa and Lorraine Luk http://allthingsd.com/?p=230803 Apple Inc.’s next iPhone, currently being manufactured by Asian component makers, will use a new technology that makes the smartphone’s screen thinner, people familiar with the matter said, as the U.S. technology giant strives to improve technological features amid intensifying competition from Samsung Electronics Co. and other rivals.

Japanese liquid-crystal-display makers Sharp Corp. and Japan Display Inc. — a new company that combined three Japanese electronics makers’ display units — as well as South Korea’s LG Display Co. are currently mass producing panels for the next iPhone using so-called in-cell technology, the people said.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120717/next-iphone-has-thinner-screen/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120327/sharp-sells-stake-to-hon-hai-in-watershed-for-japan-tech-sector/ http://allthingsd.com/20120327/sharp-sells-stake-to-hon-hai-in-watershed-for-japan-tech-sector/#comments Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:15:27 +0000 Juro Osawa http://allthingsd.com/?p=190446 Sharp Corp., once a proud titan of Japan’s electronics industry, said Tuesday it would sell nearly a 10 percent stake to Taiwan’s Hon Hai Group, and struck an accord with its new shareholder to shake up its core — but loss-making — liquid crystal display panel operations.

Sharp will issue new shares worth ¥66.91 billion ($808 million) to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and its group companies in the biggest investment ever in a Japanese company by a Taiwanese one. Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract maker by revenue of electronic products, will also take half of Sharp’s 92.96 percent stake in its LCD panel factory in Sakai, western Japan.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120327/sharp-sells-stake-to-hon-hai-in-watershed-for-japan-tech-sector/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120320/how-japans-sharp-lost-its-edge/ http://allthingsd.com/20120320/how-japans-sharp-lost-its-edge/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:37:01 +0000 Daisuke Wakabayashi and Juro Osawa http://allthingsd.com/?p=188479 Sharp Corp.’s domestic liquid-crystal-display factories once made the company a source of pride for Japan’s electronics sector. Now it has taken on a less impressive mantle: Symbol of a sector struggling to compete globally.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120320/how-japans-sharp-lost-its-edge/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120214/worry-about-an-apple-television-dont-make-samsung-laugh/ http://allthingsd.com/20120214/worry-about-an-apple-television-dont-make-samsung-laugh/#comments Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:24:34 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=174221 Smug complacency.

That seems to be the standard TV industry response to rumors of an Apple HDTV. Back in December, Sharp’s Kozo Takahashi dismissed the potential threat Apple might pose to the TV market, saying consumers are far more focused on price, picture quality and size than on any advanced technology and design innovation Cupertino might bring to bear on its rumored television.

Today, it’s Samsung’s AV product manager Chris Moseley who doesn’t think Apple has the R&D chops to field a formidable TV.

“We’ve not seen what they’ve done, but what we can say is that they don’t have 10,000 people in R&D in the vision category,” Moseley told Pocket Lint. “They don’t have the best scaling engine in the world and they don’t have world renowned picture quality that has been awarded more than anyone else. … There is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality.”

Perhaps. Samsung’s clearly got a lot of expertise in display picture quality. But presumably Apple’s got some applicable experience here, too, thanks to its own desktop display offerings and the Retina display. And as Brian Ford notes, it’s rarely wise to bet against Apple, even if you are an incumbent. Just ask former Palm CEO Ed Colligan, who famously dismissed Apple’s chances in the smartphone market back in 2006:

“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” Colligan said at the time. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

Of course, that’s exactly what happened. And Colligan’s career at Palm didn’t even last long enough for him to eat those words.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120214/worry-about-an-apple-television-dont-make-samsung-laugh/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120106/at-ces-2012-3-d-is-riding-shotgun-to-smart-tvs/ http://allthingsd.com/20120106/at-ces-2012-3-d-is-riding-shotgun-to-smart-tvs/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:48:29 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=160499 After years of flogging 3-D TVs at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, television makers are trying a different tactic.

For 2012, they are focusing on making TVs “smarter” by enabling them to connect to the Internet for apps and video services on the Web.

But that doesn’t mean 3-D is going away. It’s just riding shotgun with smart TVs.

Smart TV is not a new concept, of course. Up until now, it has been defined as Internet-connected television achieved through a separate box or device that connects to the TV and streams Internet content, or via a computer-like processor built directly into the TV.

On the showroom floor in Las Vegas next week, electronics makers including Samsung Electronics, Sony and LG Electronics are expected to show off more television sets that bring Internet connectivity to entertainment centers for the home. Yesterday, Google announced that LG will join the list of companies supporting Google TV; Samsung, Sony, and Vizio Inc. have also adopted Google’s Internet TV technology.

With Apple rumored to have a possible Internet-connected HDTV in the pipeline, TV makers are making all kinds of pushes to bring to market devices that offer consumers a full range of options. For many consumers, the answer for now will still be external devices that offer easy, upgradable solutions, like the Microsoft Xbox, Apple TV, Google TV and even Roku’s latest gadget.

Analysts believe that Internet-enabled TVs will begin to take a larger share of the market by default, eventually becoming a check-off item for consumers, rather than a special feature. Some 60 percent of new televisions being sold in 2012 are expected to have Internet connectivity. According to NPD’s DisplaySearch, connected-TV shipments are expected to reach 138 million globally by 2015, accounting for 47 percent of all flat-panel TVs.

So where does 3-D fit into all this?

TV makers will still be touting 3-D at CES 2012, as many smart TVs will also include 3-D capabilities. Samsung Electronics, for instance, says that more than half of its 2012 TV models will support 3-D. “Our commitment to 3-D is only deepening,” says Ethan Raisel, director of communications at Samsung.

Tim Alessi, Director of New Product Development at LG, estimates that around 20 percent of all LG TV units will support 3-D, and notes that 3-D is featured in 50 percent of the company’s lineup for this year.

But despite the fact that 3-D TV sales in 2011 showed some encouraging gains — with an estimated 21.5 million 3-D units reported to have shipped last year and sales showing significant gains from quarter to quarter — the forced exuberance over three-dimensional screens has been tempered a bit.

That’s likely because it doesn’t matter how well 3-D TV units are selling — for the consumer, anyway. “It’s not really the penetration that matters, it’s the use,” says Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. “You’d be hard pressed to find a 3-D TV owner that actually uses it in 3-D mode even once a week. That’s not a formula for building consumer momentum.”

For TV, 3-D presents a three-headed monster: To start, there are the technical and psychological obstacles of those pesky 3-D glasses — and while autostereoscopic (glasses-free) 3-D technology is being worked on in many R&D labs, industry experts all agree that quality 3-D without glasses is at least a few years away.

Secondly, 3-D presents a chicken-and-egg dilemma that doesn’t exist with smart-TV features — the question of where the viewable content will come from. Many content creators have been holding off on making 3-D programs. The Discovery Channel and ESPN made headlines two years ago when they announced 3-D channels; but in terms of sports, 3-D has been relegated to key events, due to high production costs.

An increasing number of 3-D movies are available on DVD, but moviemakers that hopped aboard the 3-D train early — think Pixar Animation Studios and DreamWorks Animation — were likely doing so to plant a flag in the ground for when 3-D finally does hit critical mass in the living room, says Scott Steinberg, head of strategic consulting firm TechSavvy.

Sony Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer even said recently, regarding the company’s 3-D TV push, that he hadn’t realized all of the challenges in getting 3-D content in place.

And the third issue affecting the uptake of 3-D has been the cost of the sets. On average, the cost of 47-inch to 50-inch 3-D TV sets is $400 more than similar HDTVs, according to a 2011 report from Retrevo. And while the entire consumer electronics industry has been hurt by a weak U.S. economy, TV sales have been hit particularly hard.

Steinberg says that for the average American household, television purchasing is about being practical right now. “It’s much more important to have the maximum-value TV with Internet capabilities and apps, than to invest in a still-unproven technology like 3-D.”

A December 2011 report from Parks & Associates on consumer purchasing intent also indicates that smart TVs are what’s grabbing the interest of consumers right now.

Even that report points out that smart TVs won’t deliver the killer blow to 3-D. As smart TVs are punched up with even more features — from apps to motion remotes to voice-command capabilities — more middle-class households looking to purchase smart TVs may buy in to 3-D, whether they’re actively looking for it or not.

Whether consumers actually want to sit in their living rooms and wear 3-D glasses to watch TV remains to be seen. For now, TV makers will still insist that they do.

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• And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!
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• Dynamic Dual Coverage: Ballmer’s Last Act in Vegas and the BCS Championship in 3-D
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• Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV
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• Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share
• Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)
• Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile
• AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works
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• Acer Introduces “World’s Thinnest” Ultrabook and a “Me-Too” Cloud Service
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• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year
• Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120106/at-ces-2012-3-d-is-riding-shotgun-to-smart-tvs/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20111227/lcd-makers-cough-up-538-million-to-settle-price-fixing-charges/ http://allthingsd.com/20111227/lcd-makers-cough-up-538-million-to-settle-price-fixing-charges/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:24:54 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=157459 A coterie of seven liquid-crystal display makers have agreed to settle antitrust claims that they were colluding with one another to fix the prices of LCD panels.

Samsung, Hitachi, Sharp, Chimei Innolux, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Epson Imaging Devices and HannStar Display, as well as some of their affiliates, will pay $538 million to settle allegations brought by eight state attorneys general that they conspired over eight years to fix prices on LCDs used in everything from computer monitors and notebooks to televisions and mobile phones.

Of that sum, about $501 million will be used to subsidize a refund program for consumers. The remainder will be distributed to the state governments of Arkansas, California, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New York, West Virginia and Wisconsin to settle their penalty claims. The settling companies have also agreed to participate in antitrust compliance programs.

(Image courtesy of Flickr user Frank Gruber)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111227/lcd-makers-cough-up-538-million-to-settle-price-fixing-charges/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111227/supply-chain-chatter-has-two-apple-tvs-targeted-for-midyear-launch/ http://allthingsd.com/20111227/supply-chain-chatter-has-two-apple-tvs-targeted-for-midyear-launch/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:50:38 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=157385 The rumored Apple television now has a rumored launch date and a few rumored screen sizes as well.

Supply chain sources tell the occasionally reliable Digitimes that Apple hopes to launch the device in either the second or third quarter of 2012 and that initially it will be available in two sizes, 32 inches and 37 inches. The so called “iTV” will reportedly run on a Samsung chip and feature modified amorphous TFT LCD displays manufactured by Sharp, which has been rumored to be retooling a production line at one of its factories specifically to manufacture them.

Assuming Digitimes’ report is accurate, which is a big assumption, Apple would seem to be gearing up to disrupt yet another industry with one of its trademark seismic shifts. And if it succeeds, the rewards could be massive.

UBS analyst Maynard Um says Apple stands to gain an incremental $50 billion to $100 billion in market cap if it manages a successful television-set offering, one that not only stands out from the competition but steals market share away from it, as the iPhone has from incumbent smartphone manufacturers.

PREVIOUSLY:

• What if Apple Television Is an iMac?
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• Apple TV? Think Bose VideoWave, Only More Apple-ish.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111227/supply-chain-chatter-has-two-apple-tvs-targeted-for-midyear-launch/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111220/google-kkr-set-california-solar-deal/ http://allthingsd.com/20111220/google-kkr-set-california-solar-deal/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:00:08 +0000 Ryan Dezember http://allthingsd.com/?p=155328 Google Inc. and KKR & Co. Inc. are expected to announce today a joint investment in a California solar-power project, showing investor interest in the industry amid expiring government incentives.

The Internet giant and private-equity firm will become majority owners of four solar farms south of Sacramento, according to people familiar with the matter. Recurrent Energy, the project’s developer and a subsidiary of Sharp Corp., will remain a minority owner and operate the facilities, these people said.

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