Strategy in TECH...
Toshiba Corp. has pulled the plug on a highly-touted smart glasses project – a product similar in concept to the recently cancelled consumer version of Google Glass. What’s most interesting about this decision by Toshiba is that they made it just days before the originally scheduled – and loudly promoted – launch date.
The Associated Press is reporting that Ingram Micro, Inc., best known as parent company to custom integration distributor AVAD, has been sold to Tianjin Tianhai, a Chinese Shipping company in a deal worth roughly $6 billion. The all-cash deal works out to approximately $38.90 per Ingram Micro share, well over its previous close of $29.42.
Multiple sources have told us that McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., a brand once deeply committed to the specialty electronics retail channel, has notified dealers by phone that for the first time in its history the company will allow Internet retailers to sell the brand. The list of online dealers that will be authorized to sell McIntosh products includes Amazon.com. The news has sent a shock around their dealer base and we have heard from several very loyal, long-time McIntosh dealers…who are very, very angry.
We learned this week that two large New York Metro area rep firms have joined together to create a mega-rep firm offering an impressively large assortment of largely custom integration-oriented lines. The two firms are Audio Associates of Somerset, NJ and Thea & Schoen of Clifton, NJ…and the news is sure to shake up the market.
Just before the Consumer Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) held its annual Expo in Dallas in October 2015, we learned it had appointed a new Chief Executive Officer – Vincent Bruno, who joined the organization after leaving his role as a marketing director for Crestron Electronics. Bruno, who went through an extensive executive search process, hit the ground running, including trying to meet as many members as possible at the show.
But now, months later, the organization is trying to regain momentum after some concerning issues came to light, the most recent being the exit of Crestron, which we announced last week. Bruno described his go-forward plan…and it is ambitious.
A long and proud tradition in our industry is the narrative of the individual sales rep or distributor salesperson schlepping through wind and snow to meet with one of their dealers lugging product samples and marketing materials, pitching his lines, getting a purchase order from the dealer, calling the order into his manufacturers and thus earning a sales commission. But data from Forrester Research, Inc. released last year shows that this tradition is rapidly diminishing, with market trends projecting the elimination of as many as 1 million B2B sales jobs – like those held by sales reps and distributor salespeople – by 2020.
In a move that appears to indicate that major TV makers are finally accepting the reality that consumers don’t want 3D TVs, Samsung and LG are said to be limiting or eliminating the feature from future TV models. Some may say, ‘What took you so long?’ But the reality is that the industry invested billions of dollars developing the technology and has been slow to eliminate it – saying that there are still some enthusiasts that love 3D content.
Sharp Corp., the troubled Japanese manufacturer of LCD panels and TVs, finds themselves in unfamiliar territory – multiple potential parties want to buy them and are bidding the price up. Unfortunately, this situation has emerged as a result of their deepening financial troubles and whatever offer they accept is likely to change the company in fundamental and unknown ways…forever.
But perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that despite political pressure to accept an offer from a Japan government-backed bidder – an outcome that everyone in Japan expected – the company has let it be known that it is favoring a bid from a foreign bidder…Taiwan’s Foxconn.
Much like the amazing growth in music streaming over the last few years, streaming TV has also seen an explosion in the number of users as well. This growth has been fueled in large part by the growing popularity of both original programming and the replay of popular shows on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. Now new research data predicts that in 2016 streaming TV will reach the tipping point – more than half of all Americans will watch TV programming from streaming video services.
After receiving several urgent communications from multiple sources, Strata-gee.com has confirmed that Crestron Electronics – for years the single largest exhibitor at CEDIA’s Expo – has informed the trade association that it will not participate in the upcoming 2016 event. Crestron, a long supporter of both CEDIA and the Expo, has always maintained a huge presence, with an upfront positioning right at the entry, thanks to the many priority points it has earned over the years. Now, CEDIA is fast at work finding a replacement.
