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

Logitech ships its billionth mouse. Logitech introduced its first retail mouse in 1985 and reached the 100 millionth mouse mark in 1996. Sales of Logitech mice topped 500 million seven years later. Today, Logitech sells mice in more than 100 countries worldwide and makes an average of 376,000 mice per day (7.8 million every month).

"Looking to the future," says Logitech, “the gesture-based MX Air mouse and the hybrid diNovo Mini palm-sized keyboard hint at what can be expected from Logitech’s next generation of innovations".

A worldwide contest invites you to follow the travels of the billionth mouse – from the manufacturing line to its final destination – and to try to figure out where in the world "Billie" will end up.

Go Long Tail of Billie the Billionth

The world’s most successful CE giant, Panasonic has had to revise its annual profit forecast downwards by 90%. As if the Japanese haven’t had it tough enough for years, just when a hit with display technology takes them out of the rough, the world economy dumps them back in the economic quagmire..

A strong yen, sluggish sales and heavy discounting as electronics makers fight for market share…all this must sound familiar to Japan’s managers who struggled with more than a decade of national economic malaise.

Panasonic says its business conditions are "deteriorating sharply.” Sales in the top line in the last fiscal quarter slipped 4% (sales were still healthy in flat-panel TVs, DVD recorders, and home appliances). But the global downturn hits the bottom line too as it brings intensifying price competition, yen advances and the rising costs of energy and raw materials.

Sony also cut $1 billion off its profit projection for the year ending March 2009.

Go Panasonic’s Forecast is ForfeitCast