On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Wired magazine opens a pop up store in Times Square for the holiday season-- a temporary space for both vendors to show off the latest in CE and customers to have fun with the latest gadgets.

It is the 7th year for the Wired store, now something of a Christmas tradition in the Big Apple.

The store carries a wide variety of offerings-- from toy robots to a deluxe 24-carat gold plated Atari console and even giant Lego sculptures. It also has interactive features, such as a Tissot augmented reality screen. After trying out, customers can order their choices by scanning bar codes with their mobile device.

Wired uses the SONAR mobile app to provide personalised product recommendations-- and suggests similar pop up arrangements can prove to be an extra retail opportunity, encouraging customer spending.

Watch The Wired Pop Up Store 2011

Go Wired Store 2011

Google continues inching towards the retail business-- after opening the "shop within a shop" Chromezone in a London PC World branch, Google opens an "Androidland" store within a Telstra outlet in Melbourne, Australia.

The store collaboration involves not only Google and Telstra, but also Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG. The outlet showcases different devices running on the Google OS, with special displays and gaming kiosks "that will help shoppers learn about Android phones and tablets."

Meanwhile Google-trained "experts" get to help customers.

It all sounds very much like the Apple take on retail, even if lacking the hype Apple stores tend to get. But the idea is fairly sound, as the dozens of Android devices can lead to consumer (and retailer!) confusion.

There is no mention if Google has any plans to export the Androidland concept towards Europe yet, but the Australian opening could very possibly be a test case for further Google forays into retail space.

Go Androidland Opens in Melbourne

Go Google Softly Steps into Physical Retail

IHS iSuppli says the Amazon Kindle is "already shaking up the market"-- predicting the Amazon tablet will beat the competition to take 2nd place in the global Q4 2011 tablet market.

The iPad, of course, will remain firmly entrenched in 1st place.

The analyst estimates Amazon will ship 3.9M Kindle Fire tablets in Q4 2011, taking over 13.8% of global tablet shipments. The total exceeds Samsung (1.8M units with 4.8% share) and is only 2nd to Apple (18.6M units with 65.6% share).

The Kindle Fire totals also contribute to a 7.7% increase in iSuppli 2011 tablet shipment estimates-- the analyst now predicts 2011 tablet shipments will reach 64.7M (up from August 2011 forecasts of 60M), with Y-o-Y growth reaching 273%.

The analyst also expects shipments will reach 287.2M by 2015.

Ultimately the ace up Amazon's retail sleeve is "rock bottom" pricing-- at $199, the Kindle Fire costs less than it the $201.70 iSuppli estimates the tablet costs to make. According to the analyst, Amazon plans to use the Kindle Fire to boost physical good sales, allowing the company to afford making a loss on hardware-- something the rest of the Android-based competition cannot.

After all Amazon offers Kindle Fire customers free one-month membership to Amazon Prime, with free movie and TV show access, the Kindle ebook lending library and (crucially) free 2-day shipping on physical goods.

Will Apple strike back at the Amazon attack? Some analysts speculate Apple will launch a lower-cost iPad version-- but more realistically, Apple could simply reduce iPad 2 prices with the inevitable iPad 3 launch, just as it did with the iPhone 4 launch last year.

Go Red-Hot Kindle Fire Blazes its Way to Second Place in Tablet Market (IHS iSuppli)

RIM is suffering from being unable to sell remaining PlayBook tablet inventory-- so, doing like HP, it slashes PlayBook prices by around $300 per model.

The reduction in prices follows the company failing reach financial Q3 2012 targets, with a pre-tax provision of approximately $485 million. Meanwhile Q3 PlayBook sales reach 150000-- down from 25000 in Q2 and 500000 in Q1.

Still, RIM is not giving up on the tablet market... yet. Together with hopes of price slashing boosting consumer adoption (as it usually does, at least on the short-term), RIM promises the long-awaited 2.0 upgrade to the PlayBook OS will be available on February 2012.

HP not only shifted remaining TouchPad inventory through heavily reduced prices, it even produced one last run of the now-abandoned tablet to "meet unfulfilled demand."

Meanwhile, RIM has even more troubles-- unruly employees. A pair of RIM employees forced a non-stop Air Canada flight from Toronto to Beijing to stop in Vancouver (disrupting travel plans for over 300 people) after downing a drink too many. The result? A pair of fines worth $35878 each and a suspension from the company.

Go RIM 3rd Quarter Provision Related to PlayBook Inventory

Go Arise From the Grave: The TouchPad is (sort of) Back

Go Drunk RIM Employees Disrupt Beijing-Bound Flight