Rebecca Day

IDC said the worldwide tablet market will see a “massive deceleration” in 2014, with growth braking to 7.2 percent, down from 52.5 percent last year. At the core of the slowdown is the expectation that 2014 will be the first full year of decline in Apple iPad shipments, IDC said Tuesday. The slowdown for the iPad along with the overall category isn't "a surprise,” said Ryan Reith, IDC program director, citing stretching tablet life cycles that resemble those of PCs more than smartphones. In the early stages of the tablet market, device life cycles were expected to mirror those of smartphones at two to three years, Reith said, but instead tablet owners are holding on to tablets typically for more than three or four years. The drivers of longer-than-expected tablet life cycles are legacy software support for older products -- especially within iOS -- and the increased use of smartphones for a variety of computing tasks, he said. In addition, shipments of 2-in-1 devices have been modest, despite advancements in the category, and are expected to reach 8.7 million units this year, accounting for just 4 percent of the combined tablet/2-in-1 market, Reith said. IDC attributed sluggishness in 2-in-1 products to “consumer hesitancy around the Windows 8 platform.” There’s “a lot of pressure on tablet prices,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, IDC research director-tablets, noting “an influx of entry-level products" that "serves Android really well.” Tablet makers are trying to offset price pressure by focusing on "larger screens and cellular-enabled tablets,” Bouchard said. Factors that could affect upcoming tablet shipment totals include industry reaction to Windows 10, Google’s moves in the category with Android and Chrome OS and Apple's rumored product line expansion, he said. Android tablet/2-in-1 shipments for 2014 are estimated at 160 million, up 16 percent year-over-year, and will command nearly 68 percent of the market, IDC said. The iPad will account for 65 million shipments, down 13 percent, comprising 28 percent of the market, IDC said. Windows tablets tallied 11 million shipments for just under 5 percent market share, it said.

While sales floor expertise is largely considered to be at a low point in CE retailing, Verizon Wireless has opened its largest of three Destination Stores in Houston, touting a staff of 70, including specialists available to assist with hands-on training and product education, according to a news release.

Roughly 103 million Americans will shop online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday this year, a bump of 6.1 million shoppers over 2013, said CEA’s "2014 Pre-Black Friday Report."

Intel and fashion design company Opening Ceremony bowed Monday a high-end wearable — a designer smart bracelet — at a launch event in New York. The $495 bangle, due in early December in Barneys New York retail stores, does not operate with a smartphone, instead packing its own SIM card for use on the AT&T Wireless network. A two-year contract is included in the retail price, although the wireless fee beyond the contract period hasn’t been determined, executives from both companies said on a panel. The partnership with Opening Ceremony is part of Intel New Devices Group’s charter to contribute to the Internet of Things through “human-to-machines interactions,” Ayse Ildeniz, New Devices' general manager-strategy and business development, told us following the panel presentation. Citing the estimate many in the industry have forecast — 50 billion connected IoT devices by 2020 — Ildeniz said Intel plans to contribute to the IoT with intellectual property and innovation breakthroughs in how people “actually talk to that big world when it becomes a reality.” Wearables are a first step in reaching that goal, she said. Opening Ceremony is billing MICA (My Intelligent Communications Accessory) as a “luxury bracelet with embedded technology” that enables users to stay close to those important to them. The bracelet's features include the ability to link with Google Mail and to get Facebook and event notifications, Ildeniz said. Intel partnered with TomTom on the GPS side, which can give a quick read of time to destination. Through a partnership with Yelp, the bracelet can show nearby stores, restaurants and other points of interest. Opening Ceremony co-founder Humberto Leon noted the bracelet’s ability to “get macro” in telling how long it will take to arrive at a destination whether walking or riding in a vehicle. Users can “curate” a VIP contact list that filters notifications and text messages, and incoming alerts are indicated by a vibration, according to literature. Carol Lim, co-founder of Opening Ceremony, noted that the MICA is not intended to replace a smartphone. It’s not for people to check their Instagram accounts or to receive messages from everyone in their contact list, she said.

Opportunity in the smart home market is being challenged by a host of factors including pace of new product introductions, lack of interoperability, increasing product complexity and business objectives that “aren’t aligned,” said Tom Kerber, analyst at Parks Associates, during a webcast. Kerber said there’s swelling interest in the category as participants on the manufacturer, service provider and retailer sides all look for ways to profit from the nascent, but growing, category. Kerber said interest is growing worldwide, as Tuesday’s webcast included attendees from North and South America, Africa, Asia and throughout Europe. As the number of smart home devices grows “exponentially,” companies in the market are challenged to “scale to keep pace” with the number and breadth of smart devices available, Kerber said. Consumers increasingly want those products to be interoperable, but most aren’t because interoperability “is rather difficult to accomplish,” he said. In most cases, customers who have bought a networked camera and thermostat, for example, find “those products don’t work together,” Kerber said. Another hurdle to smart device interoperability is the “growing number” of home network standards, Kerber said. “It seems like every month there are announcements of new groups that are working together to expand interoperability,” he said, citing Open Interconnect Consortium, Thread Group and ULE on the home network side and Allseen, DLNA and UPnP on the peer-to-peer side. Interoperability also is occurring in the cloud where services and business data are exchanged between partners to create new value-added services, he said. “The challenge is bridging between the multiple protocols and communications standards.”

Apple’s shortage of the iPhone 6 is good for business on eBay, we found by monitoring various auctions for the four-day-old phones. Apple said Monday it sold more than the available 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models in the three days after the phones went on sale in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the U.K. “We could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible,” said CEO Tim Cook in a statement (http://bit.ly/1tV4wzg). Business was brisk at eBay Monday, which featured the new Apple phones on its landing page. Our midday search for the iPhone 6 brought up 1,913 results. The lowest price we found was $700 for a 16 GB model of the 4.7-inch version with the disclaimer in the product description, “Long story short I got scammed by a seller. The phone is being financed through tmobile and will eventually be blocked on their network... . It has or will eventually have a BAD IMEI (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity).” The item condition was listed as “for parts or not working” and 17 people were watching the item, which had a day to go in its “buy it now” auction. We saw an auction for a new, unlocked 64 GB 6 Plus silver phone end at $2,550 Monday, surging more than $1,000 in the last 40 minutes of bidding, which began Friday at $400. The phone’s suggested retail price is $399 at the Apple website.

Apple’s wireless charging technology for the Apple Watch, which CEO Tim Cook suggested would be part of a user’s nightly ritual, didn’t do anything to settle the wireless charging competition among the three primary contenders: Alliance for Wireless Power, Power Matters Alliance and Wireless Power Consortium. Concerns that the market would be muddied by a fourth competing standard were allayed on Apple Watch launch day “at least for another six to 12 months” ahead of the next watch announcement, said Ryan Sanderson, IHS analyst, in a research note. In fact, industry watchers said it appears that Apple Watch’s charger isn’t really wireless at all because it requires the watch to be tethered to the charger that’s held in place by a magnet. Apple Watch’s inductive wireless charging isn’t a “drop and charge” technology, “nor does it offer any range of movement” to the user, said Sanderson. It’s “essentially a wire with a magnet on the end,” Sanderson said. In a New York Times interview last week (http://nyti.ms/1sboEIP), Cook referred to the need for “finishing touches” as a reason why the Watch won’t be available by Christmas, leading the writer to speculate that improving battery life might be one of those touches. “Whilst Apple did announce a wireless charging solution for its eagerly awaited smartwatch,” it was “far from innovative when compared with other wireless charging technologies currently in production or in development,” Sanderson said. Existing wireless chargers typically use a pad or mat on which consumers can place an enabled device without the need to connect the two with a power cable. Advancements in wireless charging are beginning to offer more spatial freedom, so a phone doesn’t have to lie directly on a charging surface. That’s opening the door to furniture and countertops that can be charging locations, Sanderson noted. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, meanwhile, will ship without wireless charging support built in, Sanderson said. The lack of wireless charging capability in the new phones could indicate that the Watch’s technology is an interim step. Consumers who want wireless power charging for their phones will have to take the route users take today, using a case with a built-in wireless charging receiver along with a compatible charging pad with a transmitter. A Duracell product sells for $119 at the Apple Store, compared with a mophie juice pack battery extender case that sells for $79.

DENVER -- Lutron advanced its diplomatic role in the Internet of Things with product and software announcements at CEDIA Expo last week. At a news conference Friday, CEO Michael Pessina outlined Lutron’s trajectory in the home control market -- from the company’s first CEDIA Expo 24 years ago, where it displayed on a tabletop a collection of mostly analog products tied together with wires -- to a software-driven company whose app was featured at the Apple Watch launch in Cupertino, California, three days earlier.

DENVER -- Chief Operating Officer Mike Fasulo affirmed Sony’s commitment to high-resolution audio and video in the CEDIA Expo keynote Wednesday. Citing the 25th anniversary of CEDIA, Fasulo noted Sony’s support of the custom integrator channel even before the association’s formation. This year at CEDIA Expo, Sony announced 4K Ultra HD TV, projector and receiver models offering control over IP for smoother integration with integrated home systems.

The more smart watches that hit the market -- from consumer electronics companies trying to ignite sales and luxury watchmakers trying to protect their turf -- the more industry watchers are questioning the need for the category. All eyes are on Apple’s announcement Tuesday in the hopes that Apple gives the world a shiny, compelling reason to buy an extra gadget in the way it created the smartphone. In a blog post Friday, NPD Connected Intelligence analyst Eddie Hold said smart watches haven’t added value to date. “It doesn’t do anything that my smartphone doesn’t already handle with ease,” Hold said. “It’s just another gadget (and a rather bulky one at that) that I need to remember to charge at night.” Smart watch companies hope consumers are more jazzed about the technology than cynical observers. Timex has jumped into the smart watch market and Guess linked up with Martian Watches last month, while at IFA last week Asus, LG, Samsung and Sony rolled out their own versions.