On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

According to GfK, the good news is that retail business is getting better this decade. The bad news is that the market is changing (again) and retailers will have to jump a new "Valley of Death" to prosper.

GfK's Dr. Rudi Aunkofer told delegates at RetailVision the global financial crisis created cautious retail behaviour, lower stock levels and much more retail/vendor driven price competition.

But besides the "crisis" (and we use quotation marks as the crisis really affected many other areas of business far deeper than consumer IT), there were underlying cycles that typically drive our IT business.

Created using the flexible Em-ITX form factor, VIA launches 6.5" and 15" VIA VIPRO touch screen panel PCs for next gen Human Machine Interface applications

The 6.5" VIA VIPRO VP7806 and 15" VIA VIPRO VP7815 are both fanless and durable with IP65 compliant LED backlit panels that can withstand temperatures of -20°C to 60°C.

With touch panel navigation, 2 megapixel autofocus IP camera, microphone and speakers, the VIA VIPRO series looks good for next gen panel apps that include hospital patient terminals, home and building automation and advanced multimedia-rich security ecosystems.

Both VIA VIPRO VP7806 and VIPRO VP7815 are based on the VIA ART 3000 embedded box PC.

Go VIA VIPRO VP7806

Go VIA VIPRO VP7815

One analyst panicked netbook markets by drawing conclusions from slowing netbook growth. Another analyst, Jeff Orr with ABI Research, disagrees: "With an estimated ship volume of 58 million, netbooks have made the consumer mass market grade."

"But the iPad won't be mass market...that takes sales in the 40 million to 50 million unit range. For a CE device to make it mass market, and that's what the iPad is, a CE device, it has be under $200."

ABI estimate 8 million media tablets – including iPad– will ship during 2010.

"Just 1% of potential netbook buyers will be impacted by media tablets," Orr predicts.

Go ABI on Netbooks

Jon Peddie Research (JPR) says the S3D market is poised for rapid growth: almost 1 million dedicated S3D PCs will ship in 2010, but that will grow to 75 million by 2014.

Although most PCs will be S3D capable due to the GPUs that are in them, not all PCs will be S3D PCs because they need a special monitor, glasses, and appropriate content. JPR expects to see S3D PCs achieve a much higher growth rate than their more traditional counterparts and they will have a higher ASP.

JPR sees 7 major apps that will take advantage of S3D on the PC:

1. PC: Games
2. Blu-ray DVD movies
3. Streaming TV (IP TV)
4. Photo-editing
5. Home video editing
6. Streaming video (from YouTube and other sites)
7. Professional graphics (CAD and visualization)

Go JPR S3D PC Market Study