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Electronics retailers are revamping their aisles to focus on hand-held gadgets this holiday season to excite consumers who have grown weary of their traditional big-sellers: televisions and personal computers.

Shoppers this Christmas can expect to see more smartphones, electronic readers and touch-screen computers in the most prominent store displays, underscoring a dramatic shift to powerful portable devices that is fast changing the face of consumer electronics retailing.

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Best Buy, which reported a 61% jump in second quarter profit Tuesday despite flat sales at stores open at least 14 months, said it will showcase devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer and Amazon.com Inc's Kindle e-reader this holiday season. It also plans to turn the middle of its stores into a playground for motion-sensing videogame accessories from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp.

The Richfield, Minn., retailer already has radically pared back its formerly expansive selections of movie and music discs as consumers gravitate to digital entertainment purchases. What remains will be further reduced to make way for the electronic fashions of the moment, it said. On Tuesday, Best Buy said it will expand iPad distribution to all of its 1,093 U.S. stores Sept. 26.

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However, television sales fell despite the rollout of new 3D models, with both average prices and total volumes notching "low-double digit" declines compared with last year. Mr. Dunn also said internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50%.

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Panasonic Corp. TV executive Yoshiiku Miyata said in an interview with the Journal last month that "there is definitely a slowdown in U.S. sales, while Sony's TV head Yoshihisa Ishida said last month he saw signs of "rapid deterioration" in the American economy and no longer expected to make U.S. sales targets.

Slack TV demand has led to a inventory buildup that is spurring price cuts to spark sales, said analyst Riddhi Patel at researcher iSuppli Corp. She predicted that by Black Friday (the big shopping day after Thanksgiving), lower-tier brands of 32-inch HDTVs will sell for as little as $199, with other name brands advertised below $500.

"It has become largely a replacement market," Ms. Patel said. "New features are not driving sales in a significant way.People are saying, 'I could buy a television or something totally new like an iPad that I don't already own.'"

Retailers hoped new technologies such as 3DTV and internet-enabled televisions bundled with popular applications such as Twitter would help slow the downward trend in average television prices, which have been falling 20% to 25% a year in recent years.

However, 3DTV sales are off to a slow start, as programming for the expensive sets continues to be scarce and the requirement to buy additional viewing glasses for around $100 apiece is turning off potential buyers.

For consumers, the situation likely means more lavish television promotions this Christmas season, with lower prices on fancier models and bundling deals that throw in free 3DTV glasses as well as Blu-ray movie players.

"You are going to see better and better deals on 3DTVs," said Richard Leeds, chief executive of Systemax Inc., which operates the TigerDirect website and has begun opening stores after purchasing the brand names of fallen retailers CompUSA and Circuit City. "That is going to make adoption speedier."