Panasonic Corp. will work with U.S. electronics provider Best Buy for its launch of 3D televisions in the United States. The official launch of Panasonic’s 3D ventures in the U.S. will be on Wednesday, and Best Buy will be the main promoter of the products in the market.
Best Buy will setup viewing areas at its retail outlets across the country, where consumers can try out the Panasonic 3D products. Panasonic is aiming to sell half a million 3D televisions in the United States in their first year on the market, and expects a 50-inch Viera model to retail in the region for $2,500.
Consumer interest in 3D has been on the rise due to high-profile theatrical releases of 3D titles, such as James Cameron’s Avatar or Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Panasonic is in 4th place in the global market for flat-panel televisions (behind Samsung, LG Electronics and Sony).
Result for: consumer interest
Beginning this month, Samsung’s Netflix-streaming Blu-ray players will be upgraded to allow access to the rental company’s over 300 high-definition movie and TV titles.
The two current Netflix model, BD-P2500 and BD-P2550, offer access to Netflix’s 12,000-strong “Watch Instantly” streaming service, but almost all of those titles are in SD. A firmware update coming this week will allow the players to handle HD playback however.
The content, in an effort to save buffering time, will be in 720p resolution and will also include only standard definition audio.
“Our state-of-the art Blu-ray players truly have become the ultimate HD digital entertainment delivery system with the latest support to allow HD streaming from Netflix,” said Reid Sullivan, VP of marketing, audio/video and imaging at Samsung Electronics America. “By understanding changing consumer interests, we are making it easier for consumers to experience a vast world of captivating content, instantaneously, all at the touch of a button.”
Result for: consumer interest
Motorola has announced today that it has inked a deal with Paramount to start a movie download service for its millions of mobile phone customers.
The service will launch in the UK at first and then move to Germany, Italy, Spain and France. The service is different than other mobile offerings however and will not allow on the go downloads. Users will instead have to download the movies to their PCs and then move them over to memory cards on their Motorola phones.
The company is hoping that customers will pay up to £8.99 per movie to watch on the small screen.
“We’re expecting significant consumer interest in the movie download store, with blockbusters available from just £5.99,” said Andrew Till, senior director of applications and service portfolio of the multimedia team at Motorola. “The first 40 films being made available mark a significant step change in our content strategy and we look forward to adding further rich material in the coming weeks and months.”
Prices will range from £5.99 for catalog movies to £8.99 for newer releases.
