LAS VEGAS — The start of the International Consumer Electronics Show, which runs here through Friday, featured Sony entering the streaming market and rivals ushering in the 4K TV era, while Intel targeted wearable devices. Sony (SNE) on Tuesday announced two Internet cloud-based entertainment services, one for streaming television and one for streaming video games. Sony executives disclosed the new services in a keynote presentation during the
Apple’s (AAPL) rumored iWatch smartwatch reportedly is already in production. But contract manufacturers are having quality control problems in making the device, Taiwan tech news site DigiTimes reported Thursday. Apple’s (AAPL) iWatch and Qualcomm ‘s (QCOM) Toq smartwatch are seeing less than 50% yield rates “due to difficulties applying surface treatments on their metal injection molded (MIM) chassis,” DigiTimes said. “The MIM process is often used in the mass production of high-precision products with complicated industrial designs as it allows components to feature special shapes, but still maintain rigidness.” Some analysts say Apple will come out with a smartwatch in March to compete in the nascent market alongside Sony (SNE), Samsung, Qualcomm and startups like Pebble. Apple’s smartwatch is rumored to have a personal health and fitness component like Nike ‘s (NKE) FuelBand. Smartwatches, fitness bands and other wearable devices are expected to be a big theme at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Ten companies are exhibiting in a special CES tech zone called WristRevolution, including Qualcomm, Burg, Dennco Brands, Kronoz, MetaWatch, Neptune Computer and Cookoo-watch maker ConnecteDevice.
Video game software sales took a tumble in November as consumers spent their cash on new game hardware, including Microsoft ‘s (MSFT) Xbox One and Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 4. U.S. retail sales of new game hardware jumped 58% vs. last November to $1.33 billion as the Xbox One and PS4 consoles hit the market, the NPD Group reported late Thursday. Sales of new game software fell 24% to $1.09 billion. Gamers also bought additional controllers and other extras for their new consoles, driving accessories sales up 17% to $327 million. “With the introduction of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, coupled with positive sales for the Nintendo (NTDOY) 3DS, sales in November 2013 marked the best November for hardware sales on record,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “PlayStation 4 led U.S. hardware sales for the month, and marked the highest first month sales of a hardware platform on record.” Sony’s (SNE) PS4 had an extra week of sales in the month because it debuted on Nov. 15, while the Xbox One came out on Nov. 22. Microsoft (MSFT) touted that its new console sold at a faster pace than the PS4 in U.S.