Home Electronics Industry News -- December 2001

NOTE: This page is an archive for previously posted news stories from December 2001 - Since most of the links are now inactive, they have been removed. However, the headlines and summaries are still posted to historically document the news headlines from the dates listed.

Top Technology Stories for 2001
From Segway to Satellite Radio, CNN details the top technology events and stories for this past year.

12/30/01
Putting The Merry In Christmas
DVD was the retail star of this year's holiday shopping season, as sales of DVD players and related products soared above last year's figures, despite a general retail downturn.

12/29/01
Bose Wins $8 Million Judgment; Harman To Contest Patent Ruling
All is not peaceful in audio land as Bose wins a lawsuit against Harman International (Harman Kardon) for patent infringement for one of Harman's bass loudspeaker port designs.

12/28/01
Can The VCR Save Free Music-File Sharing?
What do the VCR and the latest controversy over technologies such as Napster and other music-file sharing services have in common?

12/27/01
Cyrus Jumps the Pond
Cyrus Electronics, a well-known UK maker of audiophile components, is making a leap into the competitive U.S. market with a product debut at the upcoming CES2002.

12/26/01
CD Dark Ages
Universal is planning to release new music CDs with anti-copy technology. This will mean that some new CDs may not play in some players. Other music labels may follow suit. To find out more on this controversy, check out the above report by Stereophile.

12/24/01
NAB: Consumers Against Satellite TV Merger
The impending merger of DirecTV and Echostar (DishNetwork) is creating a lot of concern amongst both consumers and industry analysts.

12/23/01
RadioShack Restructures
In an effort to keep up with changing retail trends, Radio Shack is going through another metamorphsis, which includes exiting several product categories, closing of several stores, and the selling of its Texas headquarters.

12/22/01
SonicBlue Lays Out Defense Against Networks
SonicBlue responds to a lawsuit by the Networks, claiming that its lastest generation ReplayTV digital video recorders do not infringe on copyrights or automatically erase commercials.

12/21/01
Philips May Close U.S. Consumer Unit
Although it is the world's 3rd largest consumer electronics manufacturer (the largest in Europe), Philips is considering a pull-out from the U.S. consumer market if sales figures don't improve within three years.

DVD Players Lead Black Friday CE Sales
DVD continues to be the retail star as sales of DVD players on the day after thanksgiving increased 53% over the same day last year. Other big sales categories that contributed to a successful start for the holiday shopping season included home theater and color TVs.

12/20/01
Best Buy Q3 Earnings Skyrocket 40%
Best Buy seems to be bucking the negative outlook of most retailers lately by posting a profit margin of 21% and a 40% increase in earnings, over this same period last year.

12/19/01
Black Colors Circuit City Group’s Q3
After experiencing a loss of over 64-million dollars last year at this time, Circuit City seems to be bouncing back this year with 21-million dollar profit for the third quarter.

12/18/01
Canadian HDTV
Canada continues its plunge into the HDTV race with an announcement by Rogers Cable that it will be expanding HDTV offerings on its cable systems. To find out more on this signifigant development, check out the above report by Stereophile Guide To Home Theater.

12/17/01
New Software Lets Viewers Choose DVD Film's Rating
A new software program allows viewers of DVD movies the ability to edit out objectional language and violent scenes. On the surface this may seem like a great tool for parents of small children, however, will such a tool also be used to censor important depictions of history or ideas expressed by filmakers?

12/16/01
DVD-A Sales Outstrip SACD
Although it is far too early to evaluate the success of DVd-Audio or SACD, very early sales figures put DVD-Audio ahead of SACD in both hardware and software sales.

12/15/01
DVDs Favored Format
The growth of DVD has been the success story of this past year in consumer electronics, with bargain pricing on players and an abundance of titles (now totaling over 15,000).

12/14/01
PVR Companies Wage Patent War
As the PVR (Personal Video Recorder) continues to struggle for the mainstream consumer's dollar, the two main players (TIVO and SonicBlue) seem to be arguing over patent rights.

12/13/01
Wireless Makes Waves 100 Years On
On December 12, 1901 Marconi sent the first wireless message via Morse Code from England to a receiver in New Foundland.

12/12/01
CEA: Cable Still At Fault
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) continues to put the pressure on the Cable industry for its continuing delay in developing compatibility standards with DTV/HDTV products.

12/11/01
Fox Not Ready To Quit On VHS
Despite the impact of DVD on home entertainment, there are still millions of VHS VCRs in use. FOX entertainment is one studio that plans not to abandon such a large customer base.

12/10/01
VM Labs On Brink Of Chapter 11
VM Labs, makers and proponents of NOUN technology, which adds interactive functions (such as gaming and enhanced menu navigation) to DVD players (select models marketed by Toshiba and Samsung) appears to heading towards bankruptcy.

12/09/01
Court Upholds Satellite Must-Carry Edict
In a suprise decision, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court Of Appeals has ruled that satellite programming providers (DirecTV, DISH Network) must carry all local channels, not just network affiliates, in areas where they offer local TV feeds to its subscribers.

12/08/01
SONICblue Begins Shipping ReplayTV 4000 To Consumers
Despite pending lawsuits from the TV networks and movie studios, SONICblue is pressing ahead with its latest generation of DVR, the ReplayTV 4000, which will enable users to, amongst other things, to share recorded videos via broadband connection.

12/07/01
Retail Sales Softened By Sept. 11
Consumer electronics retail buying trends have finally emerged from the results of the September 11th Attack on America. Although all retail sales were lower in September and October, sales increased in November. Best Buy, Sears, and Walmart seem to have whethered the situation fairly well, but others, such as Circuit City, Good Guys, Radio Shack, and Harvey Electronics saw signifigant sales dips.

12/06/01
Winter Olympics Get Sharp
For those of you that own an HDTV, NBC and HDnet have announced it will broadcast some of the events at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in full 1080i HDTV with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

12/05/01
Kodak, Sanyo To Produce OEL Flat-Panel Displays
Will your next video display actually be an organically based device?

12/04/01
Study: Internet Use Steals TV Time
In what seems like an obvious conclusion, with more Americans on the internet (spending an average of 9.8 hours a week online), the corresponding hours devoted to TV viewing have decreased.

12/03/01
Cheaper, Faster, Smaller, Better
Digital TV continues its march into the consumer marketplace as Zenith and Pioneer announce their next generation of digital set-top boxes.

12/02/01
Bigger Better Tower?
Despite recent financial woes, TOWER Records has just opened a new state-of-art shopping facility in Los Angeles that features a performance stage, SACD demonstration rooms, and a selection of audio/video components, as well as its traditional extensive offerings of CDs and DVDs. For a full report, check out the above article by Sterophile Magazine.

12/01/01
1-Speaker Surround Sound Coming To CES
1Limited will be demonstrating its innovative single source surround sound system at the upcoming CES.

For additional News Stories check out my Home Electronics Industry News Archives.