Gadget Stock Watch: Blu-Ray Checkmate, Wii Fit, More

1. Another painful blow for HD DVD. Paramount (VIA.B) is set to end its support of the HD DVD format, according to the Financial Times, following Warner Bros. (TWX) declaration of support only for Blu-ray last Friday. The addition of Warner Bros. gives the Sony-led (SNE) Blu-ray format representation of around 70% of Hollywood output, says the FT. Blu-Ray players are becoming affordable as they fall in price.

2. Wii dominated holiday sales in Japan. Leading Japanese game magazine publisher Enterbrain said Monday that Nintendo's (NTDOY.PK) Wii outsold Sony's PS3 by more than three-to-one in Dec., with unit sales totaling 744,123. After its first losing month to the PS3 in Nov., the Wii was boosted by the Dec. 1 launch of the "Wii Fit" fitness game. Microsoft (MSFT) only sold 38,994 units of the Xbox 360. Industry watchers are waiting for U.S. data from NPD later this month. Sony and Microsoft have already issued their sales totals.

3. Circuit City's UnMerry Xmas. Circuit City (CC) said Dec. comps fell 12% in the U.S. with net sales off 8.9% to $1.92B. Although the company said sales improved the last two weeks of the year, it was not enough to offset earlier weakness. CC gave back nearly all its 6.85% regular session gain in late trading. Best Buy (BBY) issues its Dec. sales on Friday.

4. Apple retail productivity. Apple (AAPL) averaged nearly $4,500 in sales per sq ft. in FY-2007, crushing Best Buy by nearly 5x, according to Bernstein Research. The closest retail rival, although not in tech, is Tiffany & Co. (TIF) at $2,750. Separately, a survey of reporters at CES shows 27% of them use Apple Mac.

5. Sony Chief Stringer on OLED timing. “We were late to market with LCDs. We went the wrong direction. We were late to market with the Walkman player, and we lost to Apple. We’re first with OLED." (Mr. Stringer at a CES press conference). Rival Matsushita (MC) has an ultra-thin TV trick up its sleeve in the plasma variety, as well as a record 150" model (note: its 103" sells for $70K).

6. Intel's "ultra-mobile" bet. AP reports Intel (INTC) CEO Paul Otellini made the case at CES for small web-connected devices (approx. 4" displays) over limited-function cell phones and larger notebook PCs. Intel plans to ship new processors and chipsets for such devices in the coming months. Qualcomm (QCOM) is eying a consumer model by year-end.

7. YouTube and Picassa on TV. Matsushita's (MC) Panasonic and Google (GOOG) will launch an Internet TV this spring, featuring capabilities including direct browsing of YouTube videos and viewing of Picassa photo albums.

8. Comcast, TiVo expand offerings. Comcast (CMCSA) plans to increase its video-on-demand library to 6,000 titles, from about 300 at present. Comcast intends to also offer the videos for viewing via its Fancast.com website. TV shows are free on Fancast, but Comcast didn't disclose plans for video pricing. Meanwhile, TiVo (TIVO) will soon offer a web video playback feature utilizing RSS feeds, as it looks to expand further beyond regular TV.