Posted on 12/28/2002 1:23:42 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Plasma TV boosts Gateway picture
Low-price strategy, booming sales make some analysts enthusiastic
By Bruce V. Bigelow
STAFF WRITER
December 28, 2002
When Richard Doherty learned that Gateway, the build-to-order computer maker, was introducing a 42-inch plasma television for the holidays, he thought, "Oh, that'll be a good adjunct to their stores."
When he found out the Poway company would sell the giant flat-panel display for $3,000, Doherty thought, "Oh my God. They're going to change everything."
Though precise sales numbers on the plasma TV haven't been released, it's apparent that the computer maker has scored a coup – at least with analysts like Doherty.
Perhaps more importantly, Gateway might now have a product with the potential for sales growth not seen since the mid-1990s, when runaway personal computer sales drove double-digit revenue growth for the company.
As new government standards for broadcasting digital TV signals go into effect in coming years, some analysts predict the demand for plasma TVs could grow by 70 percent a year through 2008.
"We are constantly looking at the type of new product categories that made us so successful in the PC business," said Gateway's Gui Kahl, a digital solutions manager who guided the plasma TV launch.
In terms of current sales, Kahl and other Gateway officials will say only that holiday sales of the new TV have been running "significantly ahead" of their own internal forecast, whatever that may be.
Yet market researchers like Doherty, who works for the Envisioneering Group of Seaford, N.Y., say they're impressed, and that's a yuletide blessing for Gateway, which has been struggling to shake off losses for the past two years.
"The $3,000, 42-inch plasma TV turned a lot of heads here at Aberdeen and in the marketplace," echoed Peter Kastner, who heads the Boston-based Aberdeen Group's digital consumer technology practice. "The reason is the price point, plain and simple."
With Gateway's plasma TV priced at $2,999, analysts said the company is underselling similar-sized products by 30 percent to 50 percent.
The new TV uses plasma – a mixture of gases – arrayed in tiny gas-filled cells sandwiched between two thin sheets of glass. Using advanced electronics, an electrical current stimulates each cell, or pixel, to produce light and color – creating a vivid, steady picture.
Gateway does not make the flat-panel TV – which is thin enough to hang on a wall – and some analysts believe the original supplier is Sampo of Taiwan. In any event, the timing of Gateway's entry was impeccable.
"Retailers are telling us the Gateway entry this fall has cut in half the sales of similar-sized plasma TVs on both coasts," Doherty said.
Doherty also was enthusiastic about the consistent approach Gateway takes in educating consumers about digital TV on its Web site and in the company's nationwide chain of 272 stores.
Unlike big box consumer electronics retailers, Gateway also ensures that the digital electronic products it sells will work together when consumers get home.
"The second-biggest problem for high-definition TV in America, after confusion over cable and broadcast standards, has been the horrible experiences at consumer electronics retail stores," Doherty said. "Gateway makes sure that everything plays together."
In the last three months of 2002, Doherty estimates, total sales of plasma TVs in the United States could reach 25,000 – equivalent to all previous plasma TV sales. Gateway "clearly stands a chance to get up to 20 percent of that," Doherty added.
Still, other analysts caution those are small numbers – even for a high-priced product.
"It is a 'wow' item, and as prices come down, they will become more popular," said Michelle Abraham, a multimedia analyst for In-Stat/MDR near Phoenix. "But I don't see where they ever move into the mainstream in the next 10 years. It's always going to be more expensive than a comparably sized TV."
Josh Bernoff of Boston-based Forrester Research agreed, saying, "Even at $2,999, there aren't very many people willing to buy" the product.
He also doubts that sales of plasma TVs will come anywhere close to 70 percent compounded annual growth.
Nevertheless, Bernoff conceded that Gateway's sales approach can be an advantage as consumers who want their own home theaters "get into that zone where it gets complicated to hook up."
Besides, Bernoff added, "one of the reason retailers have big, fancy expensive products is that it gets people into the store so they can see all the other neat, fancy equipment that's on sale."
In the end, Bernoff said, Gateway's tactic makes sense for a company that is heavily dependent on consumer sales.
"They're just looking for other stuff they can sell," he said. "Clearly anyone who only sells computers is going to have trouble right now, and diversification is the only solution."
Bruce Bigelow: (619) 293-1314;
You bet...your Pioneer is much (and I don't mean a little) better!
All HDTV monitors (that I know of) upconvert a normal 480i (meaning 480 lines interlaced) scanned picture to 480p (meaning 480 lines progressively) scanned.
This is accomplished by interpolating (ie...making it up) an imaginary line from the information of one scan line and the next and painting that between the two.
This is commonly call a "Line Doubler". A "Scaler" is an even a more complex program that looks at the picture that happens before and after a scene (or field) as well as the lines themselves.
And to add to your (no doubt) confusion, there is also the case that film runs at 24 fps (frames per second) while video is 30 fps. The way to make film look good on a video projector is to do what is called a 3/2 pulldown, where some frames are shown twice and others are shown 3 times to match the 24 fps to 30 fps.
And LASTLY, since most TV that you watch is "square" (a 4:3 ratio) the new sets are rectangular (16:9) and so, to make the 4:3 fit the 16:9, the picture has to be distorted (stretched) to fit. That is an algorithmic equation as well, and some are better at it than others.
WHAT I am saying is that your Pioneer Elite does all three jobs (Line doubler, 3/2 pull down and resizing) far better that the Mitsubishi.
It's not even close (though the Mits are getting better...their first line doubler was stomach churning horrible)
Speakers are subjective, so I'd have to hear them, but McIntosh (showing my age again, when I hear McIntosh...I think "Amplifier"...the "kids" think "Computer"..LOL) is TOP SHELF stuff.
I mean better that 99% of the stuff on the market. And if it's tube equipment, it's now worth about 100 times more than the day it was bought.
One of my most memorial nights was listening to an old MC 220 stereo tube amp a friend had picked up. Listened all night with no ear fatigue.
Nice to know. I'm quite sure mine is an MC 220, also. It's dark in the closet and I can't make out the model on the front panel.
Just like Tony Soprano! :-)
Look on the back of the Pioneer on the far bottom right for red and white RCA jacks in an area labeled "Output" (underneath it says FIXED/VAR). Run a set of cables from there to your pre-amp. (Use "AUX" or "TAPE" etc... anything BUT "PHONO"!)
Go into the TV menu and look for something that allows you to set the audio out to "variable". (Make sure you also find the section that allows you to turn the built-in TV speakers OFF)
Then set the volume of the preamp to around 11:00 and the remote control of your TV set will raise and lower the volume through the Mac.
(Set your TV between the two speakers, of course...LOL)
Last I read over 50% of the wild wild web users are stuck with a dial up modem. Movies/video over the web is still a way off for us poor schlubs stuck with no fat pipe.
I have a 57" Sony HDTV and the future is not looking good with the studios making noise about decoder boxes to block HDTV signals unless you pay their usage fees. HDTV over the air is the cat' pajamas but I think you're right, the studios will kill HDTV.
The plasma's are nice, but I have yet to see one that has a real clear picture. Not in this price range. Under $10K. The Gateway had shadows and "lag" like most of these do.
The technology is getting there. In the long-term the "organic" stuff is going to be "oh wow" technology. I think someone mentioned that already.
(LOL!!)
I've got a good sense of humour. Calling someone a troll and criticizing their tastes isn't funny. Funny would be something like, "So you're going to enter the 21st century around 2017 or so?" Your comments were just mean. I thought making fun of people for being less well off than yourself was something an elitist Democrat-type would do.
$3000 (almost C$5000) is not a TV for me. It's almost half of the downpayment on a home. Maybe after I've got that home and have a good chunk of it paid for I will go out and get a luxurious creature comfort like a 42" TV.
No kidding! I remember back in the "old days" when I first heard the Lifestyle 12 5.1 system and how incredible it sounded to me! Then, a few months ago, I went to a new Bose store and heard some of their latest stuff. It all sounded like crap. My Aiwa mini-system was easily just as good. My, how the mighty have fallen...
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