Strategy in TECH...
Azione Unlimited, a national dealer buying group, announced earlier this week that it has added Thorens turntables to its vendor lineup. Thorens is distributed in the United States by Vancouver, BC-based Rutherford Audio, who also has outlets in Seattle, WA and Denver, CO.
Outerwall, Inc. (f/k/a Coinstar), owner of Redbox – the national video rental kiosk powerhouse – made several surprising announcements on Tuesday that suggest the company is dealing with some serious business issues. First, the company announced that Redbox division president, Anne Saunders, has left the company. And second, the company said that it would make significant cuts to its staff…and to other projects.
Spotify, the popular music sharing app, announced today that it will offer streamed music to smartphones for free (ad-supported), starting today. Spotify has long offered this capability on desktop computers for free (again supported by advertising), but had required a paid subscription (ad free) for mobile devices. Now…everything changes.
The company also announced that it has exclusively licensed the rights to stream music from rock icons Led Zeppelin…also starting today.
Clare Controls, a mid-level manufacturer of home automation products, announced on Tuesday that it has appointed the New York Marketing Team as its sales representative for the New York Metropolitan market. The appointment is effective immediately.
Century Stereo, a prominent and respected Northern California A/V specialty retailer, announced this week that it will hold an exclusive, invitation-only, high-end consumer event called A Taste of the Good Life for a Good Cause. Partnering with Century Stereo in this event is JBL and Ferrari of Silicon Valley. According to the company, this event – being held December 12th – will offer invited guests the opportunity to “explore the best of the best in regards to luxury.”
The DaVinci Group announced today a significant upgrade to its warranty program – already one of the best overall warranty programs available. Currently, the company offers 2-years parts and labor on all wireless products, 5-years parts and labor on all amplifiers, and an impressive Lifetime replacement warranty on all architectural speakers, volume controls, and speaker selectors. How do you improve on a solid warranty package like that?
Beats Electronics, Inc., better known by their Beats by Dr. Dre brand, announced today that they are partnering with the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation in an effort to save and preserve the iconic Muscle Shoals Sound recording studio in Sheffield, Alabama. The effort comes in response to a documentary shown at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, reminiscing on the incredible influence of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and its predecessor, FAME Recording Studios, also in Northern Alabama, for nearly two decades the unlikely center of the music business…but which have both now fallen into disrepair.
Easy Access Distributing announced last week that their dealer event held last month, called the Emerging Technologies & Home Awareness Expo was a huge success. Held at the Courtyard by Marriott in Billerica, Massachusetts, the company said the event drew an attendance of 170 area integrators over two days.
On Thursday last week, Nortek, Inc. released the financial results for its third quarter (ending September 28, 2013) as well as their nine-month YTD results – and on the following Friday convened a conference call with analysts to discuss them. While management put a positive spin on these results, one didn’t have to look very hard to see some glaring bumps Nortek is experiencing on their challenging road to success through restructuring and reorganization.
You can almost hear it in Michael J. Clarke’s voice when he said: “Nortek’s net sales and underlying operating performance for the third quarter were consistent with our expectations.” Not exactly the rousing proclamation of success we typically hear on their conference call for industry analysts.
Government data makes a strong case for a sustainable recovery under way – but most people in the consumer electronics industry tell me that this recovery is, at best, mediocre and, at worst, not happening. And as challenging as most are finding the economy, start-up companies tell me the headwinds are more like those of a Category 1 hurricane as they try to launch new products and services – hoping to get traction – in a very hostile start-up environment.
But one new start-up that has caught our attention – Wren Sound Systems – seems to be gaining ground with its new wireless speaker system…a product we find unique and interesting.
