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Bobby Simmons Sr. watches tennis on his high-definition theater-style screen in the basement of his Stafford Lakes subdivision home. His finished basement--with a sports theme--has a total of seven television screens, plus a billiards table and a bar.
Bobby Simmons Sr. plays billiards in the basement of his Hartwood home. The room has a pool table, bar, and seven television screens, including a high-definition theater setting (at right). |
By MICHAEL ZITZ
As the Super Bowl approaches, the consumer electronics industry is banking on people like Bobby Simmons Sr. of Stafford Lakes.
The week before the big game is traditionally a time when sports fans go out and buy new TV sets for parties in their homes.
Simmons, a 40-year-old former professional baseball player who now works in network support for a Springfield company, didn't wait until the last minute.
He's turned his basement into a "sports bar" to have friends over and watch ball games year-round.
He made the bar with his own hands. And he also fashioned a "scoreboard" with pictures of himself and 5-year-old son Bobby Jr., both in baseball uniforms as boys.
Simmons, who currently plays for the Fredericksburg-based semipro Meadows Farms Baseball Club, said he rarely drinks a beer, but wanted to set up his "sports bar" to watch ball games with baseball buddies and with his young son.
He has seven TVs in the mix.
There's a wall-sized, 110-inch projection high definition TV. There are two smaller flat-screen HDTVs, and another TV that's an 80-incher.
"I didn't really spend that much money," Simmons said. "I did all the work myself, and I got good deals on the TVs."
According to the Consumer Electronics Association in Arlington nearly 60 percent of high-definition television owners consider themselves sports fans.
Consumer electronics industry insiders fully expect TV sales to jump next week as they always do right before the Super Bowl.
According to a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation in Washington, consumers expect to buy 1.7 million new televisions prior to the game, up from 1.4 million in 2005.
"Retailers look forward to the Super Bowl every year, knowing that it means big business," Phil Rist, vice president of strategy for BIGresearch, which conducted the survey, said in a statement. He said home electronics are a huge part of that.
But there are some concerns about whether that will translate into strong HDTV sales, in spite of brave talk.
During the Sports TV Summit during the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month, Bryan Burns, ESPN vice president of strategic business planning and development was upbeat, saying, "We have turned the corner on HDTV and gone through all the roadblocks."
He announced that ESPN will air more than 600 sporting events in HD in 2006--way up from the 87 shown in 2003.
In spite of the bravado, Simmons is a ray of sunshine in the middle of what might be a brewing storm for HDTV makers.
An Ipsos Insight survey released this month showed 90 percent of Americans know about HDTV, but few are getting over the "worth it" hurdle.
While nine out of 10 Americans have heard of HDTV, only 15 percent are currently planning to give up their old TVs to get it, according to Todd Board, leader of Ipsos' Technology & Communications practice.
He said about 15 million American households now have HDTV, Board estimated.
The percentage of consumers aware of HDTV who perceive it as "too expensive" declined from 72 percent in 2004 to 66 percent in 2005, reflecting price reductions, he said.
Board said the problem may be that "the brilliant engineering and product development minds" in the industry aren't in touch with what the average person "wants and cares about."
The average consumer is referred to in the industry as "the 50th percentile."
He said instead of listening to that group, the industry focuses on "early adopters" willing to pay exorbitant prices for the newest technology just for the "cool" factor.
Board said most Americans know they'll eventually get an HDTV, but are waiting for "Moore's Law," which says prices on new technology will always start high and drop quickly, to kick in.
The thinking, Board said, is "If I can wait just a little bit longer, the price will bottom out. A sizable percentage of consumers is saying 'I don't absolutely gotta have it right now.'"
He said another factor hurting high-end TV sales is that "You can sample iTunes, but you can't sample hi-def until you go someplace and spend some time. You can't sample hi def in the privacy of your own home."
Board said this could be dangerous for the budding Blu-ray Disc market. Blu-ray, launched at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month, offers a DVD format that can store huge amounts necessary to record HDTV.
But slow HDTV sales could hurt sales of new Blu-ray devices like players and recorders.
"If they're not careful, consumers will pragmatically leapfrog that whole device, the same way they skipped Beta for VHS."
He said there's potential for the market to shatter into segments who must have "that shiny tactile object" that is the HDTV set, those who want to make their PC their home media center hubs and those who simply want to store their TV and other media on portable data storage devices that can be tethered to USB ports or used on-the-go as handheld units.
The survey is based on 511 telephone surveys taken of consumers who were age 18 and over across the United States. It has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
Karl Wiley, senior director of computers & consumer electronics at eBay, said it's possible to be an early adopter of this kind of technology and not break the bank.
"You can maximize savings," Wiley said, "if you maybe don't want to have it the first week but are interested in having new technology within the first two or three months.
"You start to see tremendous deals on brand-new in-box items sold by aggressive discounters," Wiley said.
"We also have the opportunity to come in and get a fantastic deal on slightly used or open-box returns," he said.
He cited the example of someone getting a new plasma TV for Christmas, opening the box and realizing there's a scratch on the side.
The TV is then returned to the store, which puts it on sale on the Internet to cut its losses.
To reach MICHAEL ZITZ:
Email: mikez@freelancestar.com
