Consumer electronics: For tomorrow's buyer: New home videos, auto diagnostics, and refinements in calculators

The ongoing economic downturn has spelled reduced profits and even losses for manufacturers of consumer electronics. The resulting shakeout has been characterized by big operations assimilating smaller ones, and more than a few troubled businesses folding their tents permanently. A period of retrenchment with minimized expenditures for research and development has set in. What innovation remains is concentrated in those products most likely to pay a quick dividend — portable calculators, digital watches, digitally tuned color television, and continued exploration of several promising schemes for home video players. Serious attempts also continue toward the development of electronic control and diagnostic systems for automobiles. Perhaps a forerunner of pollution-free personal transportation, battery-powered delivery trucks are being field-tested by the U.S. Postal Service in California.