Best Buy Bets Ultra-High-Def Screens Make TVs Cool Again
The world’s largest electronics chain has teamed up with Samsung Electronics Co. andSony Corp. (6758) to open in-store showrooms staffed with Blue Shirts trained to tout the merits of Ultra High-Definition, or 4K, technology, which generates a picture four times sharper than existing high-definition TVs.
Televisions in particular have been dragging. While Americans continue to buy TVs to watch communal events like the Super Bowl in their living rooms, secondary sets for bedrooms and kitchens are losing out to tablets and computers, said Veronica Thayer, an analyst for IHS Technology based in Austin, Texas. U.S. TV shipments fell 13 percent to 34.3 million last year from 39.3 million in 2011, according to IHS. Best Buy’s U.S. revenue in the category has declined the past four years.
TV makers have been trying to come up with a successor to flat-panel, high-definition sets only to watch 3D televisions flop and Web-connected sets fail to catch on.
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