ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 9, 1997 TAG: 9701100009
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
RETAILERS, however, are skeptical after seeing last year's promises never come to pass.
After one of its slowest selling seasons in years, the consumer electronics industry is determined to get people excited again about its latest gadgets and gizmos.
Watch TV on your personal computer! Send e-mail through your telephone! Record crystal-clear images using digital camcorders!
Despite a raft of cool new products, U.S. manufacturers face skeptical retailers at the giant Consumer Electronics Show opening today in Las Vegas. Last year, the trade pledged innovations that never arrived on store shelves.
``Last year there were a lot of promises. They promised everything,'' said Chuck Cebuhar, vice president of home electronics at Sears Roebuck & Co.
``Now we need some solidification.''
The stakes are high for makers of electronic gear. At least 80,000 participants, mostly retailers, will be searching for the next hot product at the industry's largest annual event. Many store buyers place orders for the whole year.
Last January, manufacturers whetted retailers' appetites by pledging to bring out what seemed the next product wave - digital video discs, or DVDs - by mid-1996. Store owners drooled over potential sales of a product that looks like a CD but plays full-length movies with crystal-clear pictures.
But the machine that was supposed to captivate people was unavailable in U.S. stores last year because of a protracted industry tussle over copyright issues.
The electronics industry insists this time it can deliver. Having resolved copyright concerns, Sony Corp. and other electronic giants are announcing on the show's eve they will start selling DVD players this spring, timed with a rollout by entertainment companies of a limited number of movies on discs.
Starting at $600, DVD players initially will cost more than video cassette recorders and, unlike VCRs, won't allow consumers to record programming. Still, the industry estimates it will sell about 1 million DVD players around the world this year, rising to 10 million by 2000.
Key to renewing electronic fervor is a trend toward convergence of traditional digital and entertainment technology. By late spring, major computer makers hope to sell ``PC TVs'' - personal computers that enable people to watch television and actually interact with the programming.
Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and others have begun selling $2,500 to $3,000 camcorders that use digital technology to deliver sharper images and reduce picture distortion. But prices need to drop to the $1,000 level before consumers take the bait, retailers say.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB