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Buying an HDTV? Why you’ll likely end up with a Samsung

September 8th, 2009, 4:53 pm by

Samsung is far more recommended than Sony TVs, says J.D. Power.Samsung TVs have been having a HUGE sales year, nearly besting Irvine’s Vizio as the top seller of LCD TVs nationwide last quarter. Back then, analysts said Samsung’s growth is because the company integrated the brighter, newer LED technology into TVs faster than the competition.

But another reason surfaced today: More salespeople at major electronics stores recommend Samsung LCD TVs.

J.D. Power and Associates, which rates companies based on consumer surveys, sent 1,500 mystery shoppers to major electronics stores like Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics and Ken Crane’s. Store salespeople recommended a Samsung LCD TV nearly 2-to-1 over second-place Sony (see chart on right).

Most recommended 2Q 2009 2Q 2008
Samsung 58% 35%
Sony 21% 28%
Vizio n/a 7%

The report, from the J.D. Power and Associates and Market Force Information 2009 Television Retail Insights Report, said the gap between first and second place widened this year as Samsung pumped up its LCD TV marketing campaign.

“In the last six months, Samsung made a remarkable shift to the point where they’re being recommended as a premium brand based on quality and features. Samsung is being portrayed as a Sony,” said Chris Denove,  J.D. Power’s vice president of operational research.

Denove doesn’t suspect that Samsung is covertly paying salespeople to promote the brand even as 58 percent recommend a Samsung compared to 21 percent for Sony. Rather, he believes Samsung’s new status is rightly deserved. Samsung, previously considered a value brand by salespeople, has done a great job marketing its LCD TVs, he said. And its LCD TVs were not only among some of the first available, but they have won awards.

That’s good news for Samsung, but terrible news for Sony, which has relied on its aging credentials as a premium brand.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • • | 25 Comments »

Vizio’s Internet TV delayed till December

August 25th, 2009, 1:57 am by

Vizio's Internet TV, the VIA, works just fine months before its November 2009 launch.

If you’ve put off the purchase of an HDTV this long, here’s one reason to wait until December: The VIA Internet TV from Vizio, the Irvine TV company that became the nation’s biggest seller of LCD TVs this year.

The Vizio Internet Apps TV will let people watch TV and check Facebook status, tweet on Twitter or order a Netflix movie. It was supposed to go on sale this summer but Vizio wanted to add more content so it delayed the launch till just before Christmas.

Watch the Vizio slide showRisky? Yes. Retailers like to get the goods in stores well before shoppers start thinking about the holiday. But Vizio says it wanted to make sure there was enough content to entice the consumer.

“We want to make sure that we bring features to market that are important to the consumer,” said John Schindler, vice president of product planning.

Vizio has announced several partners including Accedo Broadband, Amazon Video On Demand, Blockbuster On Demand, Flickr, Netflix, Pandora and Rhapsody. More recently, Vizio added eBay, Facebook, Radiotime, Revision 3, Rallypoint Sports, Showtime TV, Twitter and Vudu.

The 55-inch VIA will be an LED TV with Web access (Wi-Fi and Ethernet), a USB port, 240 hertz and a Bluetooth remote with slide-out QWERTY keyboard for $2,199. Price and launch date are moving targets. When I first heard of this set at January’s Consumer Electronics Show, Vizio priced the TV at $1,999.

But don’t expect to be able to surf all of your favorite Web sites. The TV doesn’t offer full browsing — something Vizio felt was better left to a computer.

“This is a garden environment,” Schindler said. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • • | 6 Comments »

Is Vizio No. 1 LCD TV seller or not?

August 19th, 2009, 1:51 pm by

Vizio Inc., an Irvine HDTV sellerAnother quarter, another victory for the Irvine TV company Vizio Inc., which continued to sell more TVs than everybody else. Or was it?

Two market research firms just announced the top companies for second quarter 2009 LCD TV sales. Vizio is number one in one report, and number two in another report.

iSuppli has Vizio less than a half percent ahead of Samsung. But DisplaySearch has Samsung ahead.

DisplaySearch says Vizio fell to second place when judged on units. However, DisplaySearch added that Vizio continues to see “strong growth” thanks to relationships with retailers like Walmart.

Vizio is leader in LCD TV sales, during 2Q 2009, according to iSuppli.iSuppli, meanwhile, noted that Vizio didn’t grow as much as second-place rival Samsung. Still, Vizio was ahead of Samsung in market share by 0.4 percentage points, or 21.7 percent vs. 21.3 percent, as shown in the chart on the right.

Samsung’s appeal? Back-lit TVs, also called LED TVs, allowing for a brighter picture. Vizio’s first LED TVs are on the verge of hitting stores later this month.

“Samsung in the second quarter was very aggressive in introducing and marketing its LED-backlit LCD-TVs, allowing it to boost sales of these sets,” Riddhi Patel, iSuppli principal analyst, television systems, said in a statement.

Vizio spokesman Jim Noyd cleared up the confusion: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • | 14 Comments »

Samsung slims down Blu-ray player

January 7th, 2009, 8:45 pm by

DVD players are no longer very big, but when it comes to high-definition Blu-ray players, there is room to shave. Samsung offered the best looking redesign. Its new BD-P4600 is 1.5 inches thick, which Samsung believes makes it the slimmest Blu-ray Drive player in the industry.

Bonus: Includes a Wi-Fi dongle that plugs into one of two USB ports. So, technically, it’s wireless. Also, this player plays CDs, upconverts regular DVDs and supports BD Live (to access more videos from the Internet). Being so skinny, Samsung offers a way to mount it on the wall for those folks who really want to keep things tidy.

I didn’t see it in person — only through slideshows during Samsung’s press conference. Release date and price were not available. Here are some better photos provided by Samsung:

More CES 2009 coverage: 

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Samsung enters PC world with 4 laptops, plus netbook

October 14th, 2008, 12:00 am by

Is there really room for another computer company? Samsung plans to find out. The Korean company, which started selling PCs in Korea in 1983, is launching five laptops for the first time in the U.S. today.

I visited withf Dave McFarland, Samsung’s senior product marketing manager (who previously held a similar job at Toshiba), for a closer look. Samsung’s North American PC headquarters is in Irvine, where the company also has its printers, monitors and other computing products located. 

McFarland said the reason Samsung finally entered the U.S. market is simple: It already makes many of the parts that go into laptops: hard drives, memory, LCD screens, AC adapters and communications chips. 

“Sixty percent of what’s in a laptop is made by Samsung,” McFarland said. “The one piece missing is the computer.”

Click images below for larger photo:

    

For more photos, see the slideshow HERE.

 

But at least one industry analyst isn’t too excited. David Daoud, from market researcher IDC, has two words: “Good luck,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Computers • • • • | 2 Comments »

Latest photos of Sprint’s new cell phones

October 8th, 2008, 9:52 am by

I met with Kevin Kunkel, vice president of Sprint’s western region (and based in Irvine) and he brought with him a bunch of cool phones that are coming out from Sprint. So, of course I had to take some photos and share with you all.

The Rant by Samsung will be available Oct. 17. This is more of the standard phone with a slide-out keyboard. It’s obviously targeting the text-messaging crowd with the full-QWERTY keyboard. Other features:

  • Sprint has the exclusive on this cell phone, which will be available Oct. 17. 
  • Cool not-so-obvious features: 
  • 2.0 MP camera/camcorder with 4x digital zoom
  • stereo Bluetooth
  • GPS
  • expandable memory up to 8GB
  • speaker-independent voice recognition
  • Available in red and black. Best Buy will offer the Rant in purple.
Below: HTC Touch Pro and LG Lotus… Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Cell phones • • • • • • | 2 Comments »

Photos! AT&T’s new Internet tablet

September 22nd, 2008, 5:30 am by

AT&T wants a bigger piece of your home and today unveils the new AT&T HomeManager, a tablet computer-like gadget that is part Internet appliance, part PC and part speakerphone. It’s going to be available in nine markets, including Orange County, for $299 plus restrictions (see below).

The wireless device, built by Samsung, is really a phone  with an impressive menu of features — at least for a phone. It has a 7-inch touch-screen display, SD memory card slot, Wi-Fi and a separate handset for folks who prefer a traditional handset (pictured on right).

The main menu is heavy on the phone features — call log, voice mail, address book and Yellow Pages. It’s a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone so it needs high-speed Internet, from AT&T of course. But beyond phone service, it also offers access to traffic, weather, recipes and more.

The company showed me a demo of the HomeManager when I stopped by its Anaheim office on Friday.

While it looks a lot like Samsung’s ultra-portable computer, the much-cheaper HomeManager must be a bare bones version with simplified hardware and a proprietary operating system. It’s also more like a netbook, the current craze in computers. Such smaller, lower-priced PCs are less powerful than laptops and are geared to people who just want an Internet machine.

More pics below the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: news • Wi-Fi & networking • • • • • | 1 Comment »

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