Plotting Out a Year's Worth of Topics

Anyone who works for a magazine knows that this is the time when everyone puts their heads together to formulate a list of topics, features, and interviews that will appear in the following calendar year's issues. It's called an editorial calendar, and we're now in the final stages of putting together ours for both Marketnews and here's how! magazines. While the fast-paced nature of this business is always on our minds, you never really comprehend it fully until you sit down to perform such a task as this. It's difficult to try and slot applicable topics into various months of the year! How do you truly look to the future of consumer technology, where things can change literally from one minute to the next? It's almost impossible! Nevertheless, we do our best based on projections, expectations, and good ol' intuition.

There are seasons and holidays that dictate high selling times for particular products, for example. Back-to-school is logically during the July/August timeframe, while the holiday shopping season is November/December. Flat-panel sales often spike during the SuperBowl (February) and Black Friday (end of November after the U.S. Thanksgiving). Photo products do well during or just prior to the summer time, since people are either looking to buy digital cameras to take on their vacations, or printing photos like wildfire having just returned from a trip. As for the camera manufacturers; they typically save their major official product announcements for February/March (during the PMA trade show) and October, which is when they all hit like wildfire. Yes, there are enough new digital cameras coming to fruition to result in two major launch times per year! And Boxing Day? Ahh, every retailer of every gadget loves Boxing Day...that is if you're not working a 12-hour shift on the sales floor!

When it comes to highly-anticipated technologies for next year, we can attempt to predict when a few might hit it big. New cell phone carriers, for example, all anticipate having their services up and running by Q3. So it's safe to assume that a lot of attention will be placed on this space come that time; which is also when we can expect to see a flood of Google Android devices hit the market. CES, North America's largest technology trade show, takes place in early January, and naturally, every manufacturer will be making major announcements at that time. Ditto when it comes to the custom audio/video industry and CEDIA; the September-held trade show dedicated to that part of the technology space.

Then there are other "up-in-the-air" items that need to be considered. Will LED become a fierce competitor in the flat-panel arena next year? Can Blu-ray make it for the long-haul? Is Android going to take over the cellular world? Will WiMAX and NFC technology become commonplace? Can digital downloading overtake physical video media? We can speculate all we like, but the truth is that topics have to be reworked throughout the year to best accomodate what's happening. And let's face it: something always happens to shake things up.

In a way, this is a good thing. There is never a time where we have nothing to write about in the technology industry; and never a slowdown in product development. While TV manufacturing might slow down, cell phone manufacturing picks up. As cell phones slow down, PCs and digital content take off. There's always something. The other day, I saw a demonstration on TV of a head-worn device hooked up to a computer that could analyze brain waves and dictate letters of the alphabet that the person was thinking. Entire words would be spelled out on screen, letter by letter, until a full sentence was formulated. The point? It was being used by a man with ALS in order to help him communicate. Now that is truly amazing: there's so much more to technology than we could ever imagine.

What do you predict will be the big topics of '09?

Acronyms: Confusing the Customer

The topic of confusing acronyms came up in a meeting yesterday, and got me thinking about the CE industry and the product sale. It's obvious that a salesperson should "dumb things down" in order to make sure the customer doesn't stare at him like a deer in headlights. But how many CE-related acronyms do we unknowingly take for granted that the average customer understands?

"HD" is the most common. You'd think by now that everyone under the sun knows what "HD" stands for, but the truth is that some don't. Then there's "PVR" or "DVR". The other day, a friend of mine asked me what "SLR" stood for because she had no idea.

Keep in mind that the actual words might not be important to know as long as the customer understands what you're describing. For example, as long as he knows that an LCD is a flat-screen TV, or a DVD is a circular disc that plays movies, then the actual term isn't 100% necessary. Two other examples: JPEG and MP3. No one really needs to know what they stand for as long as they understand what the terms are in reference to. But then there are others. "Who's your ISP?" a retailer might ask a stunned mother of three. "Huh?"

There's a simple way to avoid this: just use the words! Acronyms are meant to shorten sentences and simplify language for people who understand them. If the person doesn't, acronyms only make things more difficult. And that's the key. It could be a really simple word, but using the acronym might mistakenly intimidate someone, and make him think it means more than it is. So rather than say JPEG, just say "a type of digital image called JPEG", or even simply "photo". (The exact terminology will, of course, depend on the context).

It's important to note that you should always know your audience. If you're sitting among a group of CE industry members, well, you're pretty safe to follow the anything goes policy. But at a family dinner, you might want to go light on the alphabet soup.

With that said, for anyone who is interested in the meaning behind the acronyms noted above, here they are (along with a few others you might commonly hear or read about thrown in for good measure):

HD: High Definition. Basically, this refers to the resolution of a TV.

PVR: Personal Video Recorder. This is a device that has a built-in hard drive on which you can record TV programming.

DVR: Digital Video Recorder. Same as above, although the term DVR might be better suited toward a device that is separate from your cable or satellite TV box. For example, TiVo is a great example of a DVR. A set-top box from Bell TV that has recording functionality built right into it is probably better referred to as a PVR. The terms really are interchangeble in my books, though.

SLR: Single Lens Reflex. These are those big (although increasingly getting smaller) digital cameras that have interchangeable lens.

LCD: Liquid Crystal Display. This is a type of display, and refers to the process in which it's made and operates. While LCD can be used to describe anything from your cell phone's screen to that of a calculator, it's most commonly used in this industry to describe flat-panel TVs.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group. This just refers to the type of compression used in digital images that bear this extension (e.g. blog.jpg). It's the most common photo file type out there.

MP3: Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3 Audio. Similar to JPEG, this is a type of compression for audio files. As with JPEG, it's arguably the most popular file type.

ISP: Internet Service Provider. This refers to the company that provides your Internet service. For example, Rogers, Videotron, or Bell.

VoIP: Voice Over Internet Protocol. This is a type of communication that lets you make voice calls using the Internet rather than a landline phone connection.

USB: Universal Serial Bus. This is a universal method of connecting a variety of portable devices. If you own a laptop, you'll probably see a couple of USB ports (small and slighty square-shaped) where you can plug in everything from a digital camera to an MP3 player. In the mobile phone industry, mini USB (a smaller version) is quickly becoming a standard as well.

GUI: Graphical User Interface. This one, usually actually spoken as "goo-ee", is the graphical menu that pops up on a device, whether it be a PC, touch-pad control, or TV. The term is most typically used, however, to describe the guide that appears on your TV when you're searching for programs via cable or satellite TV.

Feel free to add your own in the comments section below!

Underestimating the Power of Secondary Features

Have you ever spent tons of money on a birthday or Christmas present for a young child, only to find that he/she is more fascinated with the box it came in? I've noticed a similar situation when it comes to high-tech products and the "average" consumer. Sometimes the feature that you just gloss over during your presentation, or worse, don't even mention, is one that's likely to pique the customer's interest.

This Father's Day was a case in point for me. We arrived at my parent's house, where my dad was overly enthusiastic about showing us a new discovery he made about his flat-panel TV and DVD player. When he puts in a music CD, the track titles come up on-screen, along with a standard play/pause menu, controlled via the remote. He had no idea, but absolutely loved the ability to pop in a CD, sit on the couch, and scroll through some tunes! My mom is planning a party with the girls next weekend, and she plans to set up her background music using this newly discovered method of theirs. Of course they don't really have any speakers, but let's take things one step at a time...

We often overlook simple functionality like the ability to play back CDs and control them using your TV. The same goes for features like being able to play back photos on the big-screen, or even connecting the TV to a computer and surfing the 'net using the flat-panel as an oversized monitor.

These hidden gem features go way beyond just TVs and DVD players. Lots of consumers don't know that you can use the same flash memory card in a digital camera that you can in an MP3 player or a digital camcorder, for instance. I'll bet lots of dads that received iPods this Father's Day (or Father's Days past) don't realize they can also play back photos and video on the device. Or what about that portable iPod dock? I'll bet many owners don't even know that they can connect other things, like a different portable player, speakers, or even a CD player attachment, to that nifty device using an AUX input on the back.

It's amazing how much we take for granted that the consumer knows. If you're selling technology products, learn to read the customer and gauge what features he/she might like, and might not care about. It doesn't hurt to say "did you know that this product X and can also do Y?" You might just be surprised at the response.

Blockbuster Won't Give in; Bids for Circuit City

For years, it seemed like the writing was on the wall for movie rental outlets like Blockbuster. First, there was on-demand TV through cable services that essentially let you order a movie right from your couch. Then, there was nifty inventions like TiVo that made it really easy to record a movie at 4 a.m., then watch it whenever you felt like it. As if that weren't enough to put pressure on the traditional DVD rental business, out came Netflix, a company that let you order a movie online, and they'd deliver it right to your door!

Lately, however, it seems like Blockbuster is pulling out all the stops to ensure that the company isn't left in the dust as technology continues to move forward. We've already seen what happened to music retailers like Music World and Sam The Record Man that refused to change their business plans to keep up with the changing ways of music distribution. Blockbuster obviously wants no part in that when it comes to its business, and is making sure the company stays on the cusp of development.

The strangest move came today, when Blockbuster Inc. put in a bid to buy U.S. consumer electronics retailer Circuit City. Huh? You'd think that, if anything, it would be the other way around! But Blockbuster is offering more than US$1-billion for the mammoth CE retailer, stating that a combined company (worth approx. US$18-billion) would be "uniquely positioned to capitalize on the growing convergence of media content and electronic devices." Could we see Blockbuster stores now not only renting DVDs and video games, but also the devices needed to watch or play them? Or perhaps creating promotions whereby you receive a free movie rental with the purchase of a Blu-ray player from Circuit City? It might even be more than that.

Reports all over the 'net claim that Blockbuster is planning to launch its own set-top box that would allows users to stream movies to a connected TV, a la Apple TV. Content would reportedly come from Movielink's massive library, a company that Blockbuster purchased last year.

It looks like Blockbuster has finally bitten the bullet and realized that it needs to make bold moves in order to remain competitive, and not be eaten up by all the new players. In addition to its attempt to buy Circuit City and the rumoured set-top box device, Blockbuster has also been ramping up its Blu-ray DVD offerings to keep in line with consumer demands. It's even putting dedicated Blu-ray kiosks in store, demonstrating the quality of Blu-ray versus standard DVD.

Most people seem puzzled by Blockbuster's moves, but it's better than sitting back and watching other companies take over an area where you were once king. Kudos to Blockbuster for taking steps to improve, and for attempting to find interesting synergies that will add further value to its business. Sure, a consumer electronics retailer is very different from a DVD rental company, as many reports have pointed out. But maybe there's more synergy between the two than we realize. If, as I've argued many times, the content drives the hardware, it makes perfect sense for Blockbuster to grab a piece of the hardware pie to complement its diverse software offerings.

Sharp Caters to the Ladies, Teaches About HD

According to Sharp's research, 75% of the consumer electronics purchases within the home are made by women (or at least "OK'd" by them), yet just 2% of females actually feel confident on their knowledge of high-definition TV. Given these staggering numbers, the top LCD manufacturer hosted an educational event for about 25 journalists to teach them about HD, answer questions, and squash myths. Surprisingly, the questions came flooding in so much that an official presentation almost wasn't needed.

What's the difference between LCD and other technologies? Asked one woman. What does 720p, 1080i, and 1080p mean? Chimed in another. Questions even touched upon topics that us in the "tech" field often take for granted. What's a bezel? inquired a puzzled female journalist. Sharp Canada's Kevin Andrews calmly explained that it's just the tech industry's term for the frame around the TV. This gal wasn't dumb, nor was she uninformed. But we often don't realize that people really don't recognize these terms, nor buzz words like 1080p, 16:9, or letterboxing. Just because we use them every day doesn't mean they do! Questions continued on to span topics like how to clean a flat-panel when your kids run their grubby hands across it, and where would one buy such a solution?! Attendees even touched upon issues of energy consumption, proper viewing distance, and yes, surround sound. Apparently women do understand that you need a good surround sound system to go along with your high-def flat-panel TV, but they just needed some reassurance from a reputable source.

A demo showing the movie Enchanted playing via a standard-definition DVD player on the left and a Sharp Blu-ray player on the right (both on Sharp's new special edition AQUOS SE94-series LCDs) provided further evidence that the high-definition experience really is worth it. Rogers Cable provided the high-definition set-top boxes for the demo, while reps from both companies were on hand to answer questions related to both flat-panel technology and source devices.

After the demonstration, which ran for about an hour and a half, I was able to chat with some of the journalists, none of whom worked in the technology sector. When I asked one gal whether the demo convinced her to buy a flat-panel TV (she's still living in the CRT world), she explained that, although she wasn't jumping out of her seat to buy one today, she certainly feels more confident having been educated on the technology. It's just like buying a car, after all. No one wants to walk into a store or sales office being vulnerable or uniformed.

Interestingly, one journalist told me that she didn't even know she could connect most flat-panel TVs (like the aforementioned Sharp AQUOS models) to her computer or notebook and view digital photos, or even surf the 'net, on the big-screen. "That's a huge selling feature for women and moms," she said, "and companies should really focus on features like that." Many attendees also seemed pleasantly surprised to learn about Sharp's AQUOS Net feature, which provides real-time tech support whereby a rep can actually adjust your TV settings remotely to optimal viewing. (This feature was officially announced at CES in January 2008).

The main reason I attended this event was to gain some insight into where the "average" consumer stands with HDTV, and I was truly blown away by how many terms, buzz words, and high-tech features are taken for granted within the industry. Imagine that, while we spend so much time focusing on the minutia of picture quality, something simple like PC connectivity makes all the difference with the core buying audience. It was truly an enlightening experience. Kudos to Sharp for taking the initiative to start educating consumers on the benefits of HDTV, and how to get it. The more customers that jump on the bandwagon, the better.

Stay tuned for video footage from the event, including eye-opening commentary from some of the female attendees.

Photo: (l-r) Sharp Canada's Chris Matto, Bill Friend, Eteinne Kwan, and Kevin Andrews were on hand to answer questions, and demonstrate the differences between SD and HD content.

Gearing up for CTIA WIRELESS

The big North American wireless show takes place in Las Vegas, NV next week, and I'll be attending for the first time. Up until recently, wireless has really been a category all its own, somewhat distinct and separate from "consumer electronics". But today, mobile phones are virtually multimedia devices, and even mini-computers, crossing over into pretty much every category of CE.

I expect to see a lot over in Sin City (aside from the heavy gambling, drinking, and scantily-clad girls, of course!) Here are a few trends that I foresee taking precedence at this year's event:

Touch-screens: Ever since the iPhone hit the U.S. market, touch-screens have been all the rage in cellular. Sure, the standard messaging phone that comes with a stylus can technically be called a "touch" screen phone, but we're now seeing more advanced designs that are optimized for use by your grubby fingers. Most notable as of late is the HTC Touch with boasts its own TouchFLO technology (stay tuned to the April issue of here's how! for a review of this phone). Just yesterday, LG brought two touch-screen models into Canada. Even Sony Ericsson's 5 MP K850 camera phone includes a partial touch-screen (just the soft-keys). I expect to see tons more touch-able models on the show floor this year.

Apps: Applications are the hot trend for mobile phones now. You can download pretty much any type of application for your phone, from weather updates, to social networking site access, or even a poker game. Sites like http://www.handango.com/ serve as home to tons of third-party applications; and many providers try to work out deals with the manufacturer (or rather the carrier) to include their apps with the phones at purchase. Judging from the way the industry is going, along with the e-mail pitches that have been flooding my inbox for the past few weeks, application developers will be at every nook and cranny of CTIA WIRELESS. Some hot application? Social networking, navigation, and, just plain "fun" stuff, like games.

Video: Video on-the-go is becoming a popular category in itself, but being able to access video through a mobile phone is slowly gaining steam. I really saw it begin to take off in Canada a year ago when Rogers Wireless introduced video calling, along with its VISION suite of multimedia services that included, among many other features, access to top videos from sites like YouTube, along with TV content and movies. In the previous blog post, I discussed Quattro Wireless and TMZ.com's announcement to bring a "mobile" version of the Hollywood gossip site to cell phones. Being able to view video on a mobile phone is just getting started, and I gather we'll see tons more innovation in this area at CTIA and beyond.

WiMAX: At the Canadian Telecom Summit last summer, Motorola President Greg Brown said that WiMAX could make broadband "as ubiquitous as air," and he's right. WiMAX is basically an extension to traditional WiFi, permitting wireless access for up to 50 km rather than the paltry 30-100 metres that 802.11 can provide. There's an entire pavilion at the show dedicated to WiMAX, and I'll definitely be stopping by to find out what's in store for Canada.

Sleek, Sexy Designs: Sleek and sexy designs have truly become of paramount importance whether you're looking at the phone that's stuffed in your pocket, or the speakers that surround your TV. With regards to mobile devices, thin is definitely "in", as is large (and wide) screens, big buttons, ergonomic and attractive feel, and convenience keys, like one-button access to a camera, or music keys on the front of a flip-stye handset.

These are just a few of the key innovations I expect to see at CTIA WIRELESS 2008. Stay tuned next week for reports (including video on our sister Websites, http://www.marketnews.ca/ and http://www.hereshow.ca/) right from the show floor.

[Photo: Famous actor Willian Shatner joins Rogers Wireless' Chief Marketing Officer John Boynton at the launch of video calling in Canada last year.]

Form or Function?: Quick Poll

What’s more important when it comes to technology products in the home: form or function? Do you want the best-sounding speaker, or the coolest looking one? The computer that will let you perform the most advanced tasks, or the one that comes in different colours and gorgeous designs? Is the high-fidelity tabletop radio the best one for the kitchen, or the stunning wood-finished model that matches perfectly with the decor?

Of course in a utopian world, we’d have the best function combined with the best design at the most affordable price. But let’s face it: we don’t live in that world. Although I must admit some products come pretty darn close. Take Apple’s iPhone, for example. Aesthetically, there’s no question that it’s a beautiful device. And from what I hear, it’s equally as functional. Bose's QuietComfort 3 noise-canceling headphones have been nothing but a God-send to me, boasting effective noise-cancellation, with a beautiful and comfortable design, long battery life, and a convenient travel case. But sometimes one side of the coin will overshadow the other.

If you had to skimp in one area, as a manufacturer, retailer, or purchasing consumer, would it be form or function? In other words, would you rather a product that sits in your home to look OK and operate fantastically; or one that operates OK but looks absolutely stunning? I guess it depends on the particular product, and how one would define “OK”, but I’m interested to hear reader’s opinions on this topic.