Volume Up

Blu-ray's next barriers: DVRs, thinner notebooks

Throughout the recession of 2009, one of the few bright spots in the industry burned with the glow of a blue laser: Blu-ray players. Spreading beyond the base of the PlayStation 3, sales of standalone Blu-ray players increased 59 percent in 2009 and have grown 85 percent in 2010 through October, according to NPD's Retail Tracking Service.

In its early days, Blu-ray and HD DVD fought for the legacy of the DVD, one of the most successful consumer electronics products ever launched. Indeed, this year, the Blu-ray Disc format made substantial inroads against the DVD juggernaut that hindered its progress, even after its victory over HD DVD.

According to NPD's Household Penetration Study, 81 percent of U.S. homes had a DVD player in 2010, down from 87 percent in 2009.

Blu-ray is also a stronger format thanks to its competitive origins. Answering the mandated connectivity of its rival, HD DVD, the Blu-ray Disc Association developed BD-Live. It was originally conceived as a way to bring online extras to the disc-playing experience, but manufacturers have leaped on it to make Blu-ray the first affordable media technology beyond video games to bring the promise of Internet connectivity to the living room. … Read more

No movable feast for portable TV

When the U.S. federal government closed the curtain on analog broadcasts last June, one set of screens that forever embraced a slumber of white noise was analog handheld TVs such as the Sony Watchman. The already modest popularity of these products waned as their broadcast system reached its end. Furthermore, their usefulness could not be prolonged as was the case for millions of analog TV sets connected to cable or satellite set-tops or paired with a converter box offered through the federal coupon program.

It was not long, though, before a new crop of digital televisions rose to take … Read more

E-readers seek frame and fortune

Before the iPad, it was often said that there has never been a successful electronics device in a screen size between the cell phone and the laptop. Indeed, the form factor and functionality of such devices have been tough nuts to crack, but there have been a few successes.

While the most widely adopted of these was the so-called "portable" DVD player embraced by many top-tier consumer electronics brands, a more modest success story has been the digital picture frame.

Cleverly branded, overgrown multimedia players that had undergone battery removal surgery, the digital picture frame was a star … Read more

No Flash flood in iPad avoidance

As Steve Jobs announced at the unveiling of iPhone OS 4, Apple's iPad has already sold half a million units in its first few weeks of availability and in advance of the availability of the more expensive, but more flexible, 3G version.

This puts it on track to break most estimates of first-year sales. In defending Apple's entry into the space, Jobs noted that it was important for the iPad to do certain tasks better than either the smaller smartphone or larger notebook. Among those tasks were watching videos, reading books, and surfing the Web.

Indeed, the iPad'… Read more

Navigating the future of GPS devices

In the heyday of PDAs such as the Dell Axim and the Hewlett-Packard Jornada, companies such as TomTom and Navigon offered software that ran on other companies' hardware. The low installed base of PDAs prevented that solution from becoming a runaway success and gave way to integrated portable navigation devices, or PNDs, such as those from Garmin. PNDs sold in the millions, becoming hot gift items.

Now, though, the growing screen size and touch capabilities of smartphones are making them formidable rivals to standalone navigation devices. According to NPD Group's Mobile Phone Track, four out of five cell phones … Read more