eBay to Top $1.5B Over Portable Devices

eBay has been a force to be reckoned with, and now we know just how a big a MOBILE force it will be this year. The online sales company revealed today it will generate more than $1.5 billion in merchandise volume over mobile devices such as the iPhone. More than 8 million people use their iPhones to shop on eBay, said the company.
To help reach this forecast, eBay announced today two new apps for the iPhone that promise you can sell almost anything in less than 60 seconds on the go. And when you buy a new iPad, you can sell your old netbook through an iPad eBay app due on April 3.
Of the two free iPhone apps, one is for selling on the classic eBay site and one if for viewing on a newly designed eBayClassifieds.com site (similar to craigslist but without the “personals”). The eBay iPhone apps are also enhanced by the recent release of a PayPal Mobile for iPhone, to pay for your transactions.
“We offer more choice in ecommerce formats for sellers and buyers than any other online shopping destination,” said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces.

To view a demo of the eBay Selling app for iPhone, click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HKmN8oXJFM.
To view a demo of the eBay Classifieds app for iPhone, click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtm-3_31JCc.

Source: eBay via techcrunch

iPhone for Verizon Due?

Rumors that Verizon will begin carrying the iPhone are nothing new. But the latest report by the Wall Street Journal adds more fuel to the fire. It claims Apple expects to produce this year a new iPhone for CDMA carriers (such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint. AT&T is a GSM carrier).
Apple is due to release a new iPhone this summer but may also be developing a second model for Verizon, which would end AT&T’s three year exclusive joyride with the iPhone that helped it win a 43 percent share of smartphone subscribers, said the WSJ, citing comScore data. As for the standard GSM iPhone due this summer, it will be thinner with a fast processor.
Source: WSJ

Update: Not so fast reports AppleInsider, quoting UBS Investment Research analyst Maynard Um who says a Verizon launch of the iPhone is unlikely this year. Instead, a CDMA iPhone could be launched with overseas carriers such as China Telecom and KDDI in Japan.
As for the new AT&T iPhone expected this summer, it could offer a touch panel on the back of the phone for touch capabilities on both sides of the phone, Um told AppleInsider. It might also have HD video playback, AMOLED screen, 5 megapixel camera and longer battery life.
Source: AppleInsider

Source: WSJ

iPad to Nip at the Kindle

For all those wondering if a $500 iPad will steal share from eReaders (often below $300), this latest survey says yes. PriceGrabber claims 20 percent of consumers want to purchase an Apple iPad in the next year, and 13 percent will use it primarily as an eReader.
By contrast 12 percent of consumers plan to purchase an Amazon Kindle, 6 percent, a Sony Reader and 5 percent plan to purchase the Barnes & Noble nook, according to the survey which included responses from 1,631 online consumers.
Of course consumers will use the iPad for more than just an eReader. Beyond the 13 percent who plan to use it mainly as an eReader, 20 percent plan to use it mainly as an extra “mobile productivity device,” 19 percent will use it primarily as a laptop or netbook replacement and 10 percent mainly as an entertainment device, the survey found.
With the iPad (WiFi versions) ready to go on sale at Apple and Best Buy stores this Saturday, surveys predicting its impact and use are now released almost daily.
Another report from The NPD Group found that only nine percent of consumers are very likely to purchase an iPad in the next six months, because of its high price and because it is seen mainly as a netbook/laptop replacement.
Here’s another eReader news flash. PriceGrabber says the top price four in five consumers are willing to pay for an eReader falls below $250.

TomTom Adds $30 Traffic, Maps

TomTom is making traffic or map updates an affordable $30 feature on some models and getting rid of ongoing monthly service charges.
Starting today, Amazon is offering for pre-order three TomTom portable GPS models bundled with lifetime traffic updates and/or lifetime traffic bundled into the price of the PND. Models with traffic carry a $30 premium; models with map updates carry a $30 premium too and models with both features carry a $60 premium. The affected models are the TomTom XL 335S, XL 340S and XL 540S.
Then in April, other retailers can begin selling these TomTom models.
Not clear on this yet? Try this: the TomTom XL 340S, usually at $169 will be available in a lifetime traffic version, called the XL 340T at $199. The map update version is the 340M at $199 and the version with both services is the 340TM at $229.
TomTom notes that 18 percent of roads change in a given year, which makes map updates desirable.
Garmin also offers lifetime traffic with advertising (and no service fees) on some PNDs that are typically priced about $20 higher than their non-traffic counterparts.
Source: TomTom

Sears, Kmart Get eReaders

By Amy Gilroy
Sears, Kmart and Kohl’s will begin carrying eReaders in their brick and mortar stores this May as the eReader category is expected to heat up starting with the “Dads & Grads,” season.
To date, several mass merchants including Sears and Kmart only sell eReaders online although this should change in a big way by Christmas.
Sears said it will begin carrying the Sony Pocket and Touch Readers in 200 stores this May as well as the $149 Aluratek Libre in all stores. Kmart will also start selling the Libre in May and about half of the Kohl’s stores will begin test marketing the Libre starting the first week of May, said Aluratek.
John Wolikow, Aluratek VP sales and marketing said the company’s strategy is to “break the barrier to entry” for eReaders “from a pricing standpoint. There’s a lot of folks, we think, who would really enjoy eBook readers, but they don’t have $250 or $300 to spend, so we’re bringing them a solution that’s affordable.”
All of the Sony and Aluratek eReaders mentioned above do not offer over-the-air wireless downloads. The Sony Touch and Pocket editions carry general street prices of $299 and $169. The Libre gets the price down to $149 as it does not offer an E-Ink screen, however it uses an LCD technology optimized for eReading and low battery drain. The Libre has a 5-inch screen and it comes with 100 free eBooks on a 2GB SD card (included). It has rechargeable batteries that provide 24 hours of continuous reading.
The Sony Touch’s key feature is a 6-inch E-Ink touch screen that allows page turns by a finger swipe. It also allows stylus note-taking on the device or use of a pop-up onscreen keyboard. Users get 512MB of memory plus SD and Memory Stick slots. The Sony Pocket Reader is a more “pocketable” device with a 5-inch E-Ink screen without the touch capability. The device also sheds the expansion slots.
Source: CEoutlook
Photo: Aluratek Libre

Apple to Ship 8-10M iPads

The Apple iPad may not be for everyone, but it looks like pre-orders are going well.
Apple will ship between 8 and 10 million iPads by the end of the year forecasts Morgan Stanley, noting 2.5 million will ship in the first three months, reports AppleInsider.
Apple has already sold out of its initial shipment of online Apple Store iPad stock and is now citing an April 12 ship date.
The Morgan Stanley report says Apple is going after the 30-million unit notebook market initially, and down the road, it will target a unique tablet market, as Apple closes deals on content for books, magazines and video.
NPD Group however, cautions that mass appeal for the iPad is certainly a ways off given most people view it as a pricey netbook or notebook. NPD found that in the U.S., only 18 percent of all consumers surveyed expressed a “real interest” in owning an iPad (starting at $500) and only nine percent are very likely to purchase one in the next six months, because of its high price and redundant use-case. Sixty-six percent of consumers surveyed don’t plan to buy one, mainly because they see it as an expensive notebook or netbook. NPD said about half of current Apple product owners surveyed said they’d rather use a notebook or netbook instead.
NPD’s advice to Apple: “close the content deals that focus the iPad…around high quality media consumption.” I think Apple gets that.

Source: AppleInsider, The NPD Group

RadioShack Gets iPhone, Talks with Best Buy?

RadioShack, the 89-year old chain could wind up as part of Best Buy?
Even as RadioShack begins selling iPhones, a coup for any retailer (just ask all the regional CE stores that can’t sell it) it is struggling. The company with nearly 4,500 stores, is looking into putting itself on the sales block for more than $3 billion and/or a possible merger with Best Buy, reports the NY Post.
And all this backroom bargaining occurs while “The Shack” just started selling the iPhone. From March 28 to April 10, it will sell the 8 GB iPhone 3G for $95 (with a two-year AT&T Mobility contract) and the 16 GB iPhone 3GS for $195 along with a trade-in program for customers’ current phones, reports FierceWireless.

Pioneer Ships Car AV Sans Navi

Pioneer’s new AV head units keep the price down by making navigation optional. Shipping now, the in-dash AVH-P3200BT and AVH-P3200DVD car AV receivers are Pioneer’s first in many years to peel off navigation as an option. The double DIN units each have 5.8-inch touch slide interfaces with iPod/iPhone music and iTunes tagging via RDS radio. The AVH-3200DVD offers DVD playback and the AVH-P3200BT adds built-in Bluetooth. Add on navigation costs about $400 with the AVIC-U220. Prices are $449 for the AVH-P3200DVD and $499 for the AVH-P3200BT.
Source: Pioneer

Kenwood Adds Lifetime Traffic

Kenwood USA has begun shipping its flagship DVD/navigation receiver, the DNX9960, that adds free traffic for the life of the product at a suggested retail price of $2,000.
The unit, which uses Garmin navigation technology, also adds some photo realism to GPS maps and lane assist with views of signs on highways at complex junctions. The Excelon DNX9960 has a WVGA 6.95-inch touch screen with iPod video, USB video and built-in Parrot Bluetooth.
Source: Kenwood

Nelkin Leaves Panasonic for Sanyo

By Amy Gilroy
Industry veteran Andy Nelkin will leave Panasonic and head for Sanyo as North American president of consumer solutions effective April 1, said Sanyo.
Nelkin was most recently president of Panasonic’s commercial display division. He replaces Isaac Levy who will retire. Levy started working at a Panasonic distributor in 1977 and became group manager sales and marketing for Technics. He then moved to national marketing manager for audio at Sanyo and has since held positions at Thomson and Siemens before returning to Sanyo as a group VP and then group president. I’ve known Isaac for years and the opinion of CEoutlook is that he will not stay in retirement for long!
Source: CEoutlook

$18 for WSJ on iPad

The Wall Street Journal will charge iPad owners $17.99 a month for a subscription viewable on the new tablet, reports the WSJ. This is no bargain. I pay $156 for an online WSJ subscription for 12 months so the is iPad price is significantly steeper. It works out to $215.88 a year.
Source: WSJ via Engadget

AT&T Pursues Dog Collars

AT&T’s success with the iPhone has set off a voracious appetite for more devices to link to an AT&T data plan. The company is now pursuing pet-tracking collars, after expanding into netbooks and eReaders, says CNET.
Already, at the close of 2009, AT&T sold one million devices that are not cellphones, which link to its network.
Source: CNET

Get Ready for $99 eReaders

By Amy Gilroy
eReaders at $99 that are not connected to any particular bookstore are expected to flood the market by Christmas and some will be available this summer, say retailers.
As suppliers compete for a slice of the expected eReader bonanza, Manhattan-based retailers Adorama and Datavision, say they are expecting many sub-$100 eReaders for Christmas, and Hollywood, FL-based BrandsMart USA plans to stock a $99 model this summer.
Current low street prices for eReaders are between $129 and $149.
Ahron Schachter, VP of new product development/merchandising for Adorama, in NYC said he’s spoken to more than one supplier planning a $99 eReader for Q4. “You are going to see major, major names out there [at that price]. The eReader will be the digital disposable camera,” he said.
BrandsMart director of merchandising Mark De La Cruz, says he’s planning to sell a 5-inch (non-connected) eReader with a color screen from a vendor he won’t disclose this summer. “I’m hoping to get it before the summer, I’m trying to hit ‘Dads and Grads,’ he said.
Is $99 the ticket to make eReaders a must-have item this summer? “I don’t know if it will be this summer when it heats up; we’re just planning to be pretty aggressive,” said De La Cruz. The chain currently carries Sony Readers and will add four additional brands this year for a total of eight models.
Just how popular the bargain-basement, non-connected eReaders will become remains to be seen. After all, it’s the FREE wireless connection that made the Amazon Kindle so popular, noted Yankee Group analyst Dmitriy Molchanov. But he agrees that $99 eReaders are a possibility for Christmas, especially with a new Freescale system-on-a-chip processor on the way, which should cut the retail price of an eReader by $30 later this year.
And how secure is the market for eReaders in the face of the iPad and other tablets? The connected eReaders may fare well, at least initially, again, because of their free over-the-air downloads. Molchanov said, “AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has said that he doesn’t expect the iPad’s 3G connectivity to be a hit and that consumers will largely rely on the devices’ WiFi connection for the time being. I agree. Smartphones and eReaders then, will differentiate themselves with their always-on ubiquitous [free] connectivity.” iPad pre-order sales are proving Stephenson correct. Note: IPad data plans will run $14.99/month for 250 MB or $29.99/month for unlimited use.
However, not everyone is an avid reader and tablets should steal away some of the more casual readers. Some people would rather spend $499 to upgrade to a slate device rather than $249 for a limited use eReader said Ted Theocheung, general manager of PC & digital home ecosystem at Synaptics which makes screens for both eReaders and tablets as well as other portables.
Source: CEoutlook
Photo caption: It’s the free wireless connection that may protect eReaders such as the Amazon Kindle from lower priced newcomers and multi-use tablets.

ICE Launches TV Spot

In Car Experts (ICE), a car stereo buying group launched a TV spot for its retailer members.

The spot is free to ICE members and stresses a lifestyle approach to selling car audio. Retailers can tag the ending of the TV spot with their store information and can also customize parts of the commercial. It can also be embedded in a store’s website or facebook page.

To see the commercial click here or below:

Samsung Joins HTC with 4G Phone

At CTIA Wireless this year, 4G phones are becoming a reality, Android superphones are sweeping the show and eReader phones are surfacing.
Now at least two 4G phones are heading for the U.S. by the end of the year—as Samsung Mobile showed its first 4G phone–the Samsung SCH-r900, which joins the HTC Evo shown yesterday by Sprint.
The Samsung SCH-r900 CDMA phone will be offered by MetroPCS, using its LTE 4G network to be rolled out in the second half in certain markets including Las Vegas.
Sprint and MetroPCS could beat most if not all carriers to market with 4G as Verizon is not expected to offer a 4G phone until mid-2011 (according to many reports citing the Wall Street Journal).
Samsung is also planning to work with Skiff to bring built-in eReading to its smartphones and it will team up with media companies such as Paramount and Viacom to offer full-length movies and TV shows by direct download, Samsung’s mobile phone business leader JK Shin, said in a keynote address, according to Reuters.
Samsung also said its up and coming Wave smartphone will be the first phone DivX Certified for HD video playback at 720p resolution. It will be joined by a Samsung Galaxy S Android powered phone–also expected to receive HD certification. The Galaxy will offer a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen and “blazing fast performance,” said Samsung and it is expected to be available at the end of the year.
Also at CTIA, T-Mobile said it will upgrade its 3G service to High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) technology through most of its national footprint, for data speeds up to three times faster than 3G. Its new HSPA+ network will cover more than 185 million people in 100 metropolitan areas, by the end of the year.
The carrier will also begin selling its first netbook, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 today both online and in T-Mobile stores in select markets including Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami for $199.99 with two-year contract and data plan. The Mini 10 runs Windows 7 with an Intel Atom processor N450, and weighs three pounds with an 8-hour battery life.
T-Mobile started rolling out HSPA+ last fall in Philadelphia and has since added major areas of New York City, New Jersey, Long Island and suburban Washington, D.C., with deployment in Los Angeles coming “very soon.”

Source: Samsung, T-Mobile, Reuters

eReader Global Sales to Soar

We know what the Chinese think of Google, but what do they think about eReaders? The Chinese government is promoting eReading as “one of its major policies,” and China is expected to become the second largest market for eReaders this year, reports Digitimes.
Digitimes research also found that while Amazon and Sony dominated the global market in 2009, the industry is poised for a “major shakeup” in 2010 as Barnes & Noble and others become more competitive.
In total, global eReader shipments will jump by 386 percent in compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by 2013, climbing from 700,000 units in 2008 to 28 million units in 2013.

Source: Digitimes Research

Tourists Love NYC Apple Store

Apple’s New York City retail stores have become such tourist attractions that more tourists are taking photos of the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue than the Statue of Liberty, according to a Cornell University study. The store is the fifth most photographed landmark in NYC and the 28th most photographed landmark in the world!

Source: Cornell University via NY Post

Kobo $149 eReader Heads to Borders

By Amy Gilroy
Kobo, the eBook retailer, is launching its own $149 eReader to be sold through bookstores including Borders starting this summer, for a limited time.
The device uses a 6-inch e Ink screen and will be pre-loaded with 100 classic books. Users can also access the Kobo eBookstore with over two million books via Bluetooth or USB. The eReader will also be available in Canada this May at Indigo Books & Music.
Kobo already offers eReading apps for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre, Android-based smartphones, desktops and it will support the iPad and other color, touchscreen tablets. It also offers an eReading platform that other brands may use to supply their own eReaders.
Kobo’s eReader app supports continuous “bookmarked” reading between devices so you can start reading on an iPhone and pick up on a PC. It has about a two week battery life and measures 4.7-inches by 7.2 inches and 0.4 inches thick. It supports standard ePUB and PDF formats. The Kobo eReader application (not the eReader) supports WiFi and 3G.
Source: Kobo

Ford Ships 2 Million Sync Radios

By Amy Gilroy
The Ford Sync—the coolest factory radio– has been installed on more than two million cars, and the rate of new cars shipping with Sync radios is accelerating.
It took the Ford Sync, developed with Microsoft, ten months to progress from one million units shipped in Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars to two million. It took almost two years to reach the first million installs.
Ford also announced today that the Sync improves the resale value of the car by $200 to $240 (after one and two or one years of ownership, respectively).
The original $395 Sync factory radio was the first to “read aloud” text messages from a cellphone. It lets you link many portable devices to the Sync, including iPods and Bluetooth phones, and then control them by voice. It reads back your text messages from a compatible phone and lets you respond with canned voice commands. Last year, Ford added turn-by-turn navigation and traffic delivered by voice (with no screen) to the Sync. Users can also “ask” to hear local weather and sports scores using voice commands. Traffic and other data are sent over the voice channel of the user’s Bluetooth phone, so no data plan is required, and service is free for the first three years.
This summer, yet another version of the Sync–the MyFord Touch–will add WiFi, starting with the 2011 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX and by the end of the year it will permit voice control over Twitter (via OpenBeak), Pandora and Stitcher as well as 3G Aircard access. This new Sync system will migrate to all Ford vehicles over the next few years, eventually landing in 80-percent of Ford nameplates within 5 years, said the company.

Source: Ford
Photo: Ford at CES

3D Gaming Heats Up

By Amy Gilroy
3D may be “interesting” in the TV market at this early stage, but in gaming the excitement is reportedly “off the charts.”
Nintendo may ship a 3D version of the DS by the end of the year, says PC World. The new 3DS will be able to project a 3D image without requiring users wear special 3D glasses, said the report based on a Nikkei newspaper article.
The Japanese newspaper said the dual screens on the 3Ds will be no larger than 4-inches (instead of the 4.2-inch screens in the new DSi XL that launches in the U.S. this week). The 3DS will also have a 3D joystick, force feedback and improved wireless networking and battery life. Nintendo is also considering adding an accelerometer. More info could be revealed in June at the E3 show.
Sony has responded saying it won’t go portable with 3D gaming and is focusing only on 3D for its PS3 console, where the interest is “off the charts,” reports IGN.

Sony hinted at 3D in games at the Consumer Electronics Show in January as shown in this IGN video.

Source: PC World, IGN

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