Circuit City Closes Its Doors, Who Benefits

March 27, 2009 | Bob Snyder | Retailer NewsPDFPrintE-mail

Circuit City Closes Its Doors, Who Benefits?

After 60 years in business in USA, Circuit City is gone. Billions of dollars in sales are up for grabs as Circuit City liquidates.

Circuit City closes

Approximately 55% of consumers who have purchased tech products at Circuit City say Best Buy is where they will shop now. Walmart was a Circuit City alternative for only 11% of consumers. Price, product selection, and store location convenience are the top three criteria for choosing a new store (40%, 29%, and 22%, respectively.)

Global manufacturers will need to consider the future if volume potentially re-concentrates in just the two largest retailers. For more insight on how Circuit City’s closing will impact the industry.

Go NPD on Circuit City Closing

OnLive Makes a 5th Game Platform

March 27, 2009 | Bob Snyder | GamingPDFPrintE-mail
And OnLive Makes a 5th Game Platform…

But this one could threaten to kill the other four…It’s a thin-client box that streams HD games in real time over the Internet. Pay a subscription fee and it can run the latest games at reasonably high resolutions on your TV, PC or Mac. It's called OnLive.

The box fits in the palm of your hand and comes with USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth support, optical audio and HDMI out jacks. OnLive lets you play at 720p on HDTV with minimal hardware. It's ultra-fast Cyberdyne systems-type servers (currently set to launch in late 2009) uses cloud computing so you can play your games anywhere you can log in.

OnLive could be the future of video game distribution. And it could cost Game Group (and other retailers) much of their revenue…If you can’t beat them, join them?

Go OnLive

PC Makers in Handset Business?

March 27, 2009 | Bob Snyder | Mobile (Phones)PDFPrintE-mail
Acer and Handset Market; Dell Needs an Acquisition

Acer wants to “establish Acer as the world’s leading mobile solutions company,”and be “one of the top five in the smartphone market in the next five years”.

At the top end of the range, the Acer M900 has a 3.8” touchscreen with a slide out keyboard, a five megapixel and a fingerprint sensor. Some of the devices also feature a “widget based” interface, which will allow users to customise their devices.

The first eight devices feature Windows 6.1, while more will be launched in Q3-Q4 with Windows 6.5. And rumors of Android abound…

Dell meanwhile found its attempt rejected by carriers as…well, too Dell-like. Time to buy some expertise, guys…

Go Acer Mobile Handsets

Universal Charger

March 27, 2009 | Bob Snyder | Mobile (Phones)PDFPrintE-mail
Mobile Phones to Standardize Power Supply

Connections on mobile phone networks passed 4 billion worldwide, says GSMA who forecast further growth to 6 billion by 2013. One user may have two mobile phones and in W. Europe about 1 out of every 5 connections is estimated to be due to one user having more than one device.

So a universal charger would make life much simpler for many consumers, who could then use the same charger for multiple handsets, as well as charge their mobile phone from any available charger.

Now the mobile phone industry will fit phones with the same power socket by 2012. By 2012, a universal charging solution (UCS) will be widely available in the market worldwide and will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface.

GSMA says energy-efficient chargers will reduce standby energy consumption by 50%, eliminate of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers and help consumers by simplifying charging.

Too bad computer laptop makers won’t have the sense to do the same.

Go Mobile Phone Universal Charger

Consumer Tech Falls

March 27, 2009 | Bob Snyder | Retailer NewsPDFPrintE-mail
Consumer Tech Sales in USA Fall 4% in 2008

Consumer tech revenue in USA declined 4% in 2008 to $112.3 billion, according to NPD Group. The decline follows a 4.5% gain in 2007 (so really minus 8.5%)

Notebook PCs generated $20.2 billion and LCD TVs increased 37% to $19.9 billion. Desktop PCs, inkjet cartridges, and MP3 players are in the Top 5 products.

Best Buy, in-store and online sales, once again won the most consumer technology dollars. Walmart remained second and Dell third. The now defunct Circuit City’s was the fourth. Apple finally made the top 5, just edging out Staples for fifth.

HP took the top spot among the OEMs. Second place was a tie between Apple, Sony, and Dell. Samsung came in next.

Online-only retailers had a good year, growing 37% to $4.8 billion and retailer web site sales were also up, gaining almost 3% to $ 7.6 billion. Retail brick and mortar sales fell 3% to $83 billion.

Go Consumer Tech in USA

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