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NOTEBOOK PC PC : DISCUSSION

5 Consumer Electronics Trends to Watch in 2010
Posted in Notebook PC | January 19, 2010 10pm

This year promises to be a very interesting one for consumer electronics.  Revolutionary leaps are potentially on the horizon in the computing, video gaming, television entertainment, automobile, and mobile sectors.  From tablet computers to motion-tracking game controllers, from 3D everything to social television, from smarter cars to an open source mobile operating system that is taking the electronics world by storm, this year will have many story lines.  Here are five hot trends to pay attention to in consumer electronics as we move deeper into 2010.1. Here Come the TabletsThe biggest story in consumer electronics in 2010 may just be the rise of the tablet computer.  The tablet form factor is nothing new (raise your hand if you remember the Apple MessagePad), but it could be argued that it has begun to gain popular support with the success of the Amazon Kindle e-book reader over the past few years.  Recent advances in solid state memory, battery, and touch screen technology have 2010 poised to be the year that tablets truly come of age.From HP and Microsoft, to Dell, to the folks at the OLPC project, to Asus, to smaller upstarts, it seems that everyone is debuting a tablet this year.  They're all overshadowed, however, by the elephant in the room: the persistent rumors that those smart people in Cupertino are working on a tablet computer of their own.  Talk of a tablet from Apple has been coming fast and furious for months, and though no such device yet exists officially, most tech pundits believe it is on the way. Though Apple would clearly not be the first to market with a tablet form factor computer, many people believe that when (and if) they do release their mythical machine on the world it could be a game changer.Tablets clearly have caught the attention of the technology press this year, and further, they're beginning to seep into the mainstream consciousness as well.  HP, in an effort to promote their tablet computing endeavors, has even outfitted all of the contestants on this season's Project Runway television show with tablet-sized digital sketchpads.2. Your Body Becomes the ControllerWhen the Nintendo Wii launched in 2006 with its innovative motion sensitive controller, it redefined video gaming.  The revolutionary console shattered the image of video gamers as lazy, jaded couch dwellers who sat around all day staring at a screen and mashing buttons.  While in the past, innovation in video games was mainly limited to better graphics and faster processors, the Wii won the most recent round in the console wars by introducing a whole new style of game play -- one that introduced full body motion and a new level of active participation.But the Wii's innovation is just the beginning.Scheduled for release in November 2010 and already named one of TIME Magazine's 50 Best Inventions of the Year (2009), Microsoft's Project Natal is set to revolutionize gaming yet again, this time by ditching the controller completely.  Using motion and sound sensors, Project Natal turns your entire body into a controller -- want your onscreen character to jump? Then actually jump.  Want to throw a ball?  Then make a throwing motion.  Save your progress in a game?  Use voice commands to tell the console what do to. 







 
Not content to let the competition pass them by, Sony is also planning the introduction of a motion-sensitive controller this spring.  And the Wii already has a controller-free product on the market: the Your Shape fitness game uses a motion-tracking web cam to watch movements and make sure players are correctly executing certain exercise moves.  Expect this space to heat up in 2010.3. TV is Getting Social ... and 3DThere's no doubt that the web is wholly and completely a social medium now, and Yahoo!, through its ConnectedTV platform, is aiming to bring that social mentality to the TV as well.  Yahoo!'s widget platform, which allows people to interact socially around television programming, has a number of hardware partners that plan to bring ConnectedTV-ready devices to market this year (or already have).







Meanwhile, set top boxes like the Boxee Box, Popbox, and the Roku are bringing web video to the television, and with it a slew of social applications. Widgetizing television and making it on demand and social are major entertainment trends in consumer electronics this year.  But perhaps the biggest TV trend for 2010 is the emergence of 3D television.  While the innovative 3D box office hit Avatar storms across the film record books, 3D technology is also about to storm into your living room.  3D was everywhere at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, one of the industry's biggest annual trade shows.  3D glasses, 3D games, 3D screens, 3D movies, 3D channels -- clearly, consumer electronics companies are angling to make 3D one of the hottest trends of the next year.  Whether consumers will respond favorably to the new technology is unknown, however. 
4. Cars Get SmarterThe theme of the last few years in consumer electronics has been that the Internet is finding its way onto everything, and cars are no exception.  The just recently revealed MyFord Touch SYNC system from Microsoft and Ford brings new levels of web connectedness to the road.  The voice-activated system replaces the standard car dashboard, allowing easy, hands-free operation of things like music playback, navigation, climate control, and diagnostics.  Further, the system has its own application platform with support for popular web apps like Pandora (music), Stitcher (podcasts), and Twitter (tweets are read to you in a computerized voice).  The Ford system can even turn your car into a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Ford isn't the only one making cars smarter, though -- Kia plans to introduce its own, competing system in 2011 based on the same Microsoft technology called UVO.5. Android Spreads EverywhereOne of biggest tech stories of 2009 was the rapid rise of the Google Android mobile operating system, which found its way onto a growing number of mobile phones -- including the much talked about Motorola Droid and Google Nexus One.  But in 2010, Android will break out of the mobile phone mold and begin to make its way onto all sorts of consumer electronic devices.  From netbooks to tablets to e-book readers, Google's operating system will be found on a huge number of consumer electronic devices by the end of 2010.

NOTEBOOK PC PC : DISCUSSION

5 Cyber Monday Trends to Look Out For
Posted in Notebook PC | November 25, 2009 10am

Coined in 2005 to describe the first Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, Cyber Monday is the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season.  When it first started, the New York Times reported that Cyber Monday "grew out of the observation that millions of otherwise productive working Americans, fresh off a Thanksgiving weekend of window shopping, were returning to high-speed Internet connections at work Monday and buying what they liked."  While the notion that people only have high-speed Internet access at work may be a bit dated, retailers still think of Cyber Monday as an important day on the shopping calendar. And that's because shoppers still come out in force on the first Monday in December.  Last year, according to ComScore, Cyber Monday pulled in over $846 million in the US, to kick off a $12 billion two and a half week run leading up to Christmas, and sales for online retailers totaled over $300 million more on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday.Here are some trends to watch for Cyber Monday 2009.1. Most People are Still Shopping from Work Even though home broadband is more ubiquitous, consumers are still planning to shop from work.  A recent survey found that almost 70 million people in the US, or more than half the adult population, plan to do their shopping from work this holiday season. That number is even more profound in the influential and highly coveted 18-24 year old demographic, where nearly 75% of shoppers plan to shop online from work.   With so many people making purchases from work, away from prying eyes, it's a safe bet that Cyber Monday will be a big day for online retailers as it has been in the past.2. Find Deals on Social Media, but Email Still Rules
Retailers large and small, from Staples to Etsy sellers are turning to social media to push their Cyber Monday deals.  2009 is the year that social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook began sending retailers significant amounts of traffic, so in addition to traditional online marketing channels, expect retailers to take to social media in force to advertise their Cyber Monday deals. However, for many retailers email marketing still rules the roost, "Email drives the most revenue at the lowest cost.  Period," said Stephanie Miller of the National Retail Federation's Shop.org.  Still, expect retailers using email to try adding a social conversation component to their email campaigns by doing things like encouraging sharing, tying email promotions to social media accounts, and attempting to engage consumers by utilizing themed marketing.

3. Retailers Will Hit Black Friday Hard, Too
While the biggest holiday shopping days fall in December, don't count retailers out for Black Friday -- which occurs a few days before Cyber Monday.  While some online stores may save their biggest and best deals for Monday, there will be deals to be had on Friday as well. In 2008 some web retailers actually saw bigger sales bumps on Black Friday, and a Yahoo! study that looked at over 2.6 billion ad impressions of retail advertising clients delivered during the month of November 2008, including on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, found that conversions were up 147% on Black Friday, versus just 73% on Cyber Monday.Certainly, both numbers are impressive, but the research would suggest that retailers are likely to push out online deals for both retail holidays this year.  In 2008, Black Friday and Cyber Monday were together the busiest traffic days for retailers, according to Compete, and they led the holiday shopping season in raw sales numbers. That means savvy consumers will be able to score great prices over the entire weekend.

4. Additional Deals for Social Media Users With social media so important as a distribution and marketing channel, retailers are eager to build up their presence on sites like Twitter and Facebook.  While they'll certainly be encouraging shoppers to share their deals, it is very likely that some retailers will incentivize the sharing process by giving additional discounts to social sharers.  "Sometimes 'Tell A Friend' doesn't work on its own. You need to say, 'tell a friend, and get x amount off the next purchase,'" said e-commerce blogger Eric Leuenberger. "Some [retailers] may balk at offering yet another discount, but in the end, you get two people buying instead of one, so you can still profit."Sharing is extremely important for retailers because almost two-thirds of shoppers rely on the advice of their friends when making purchasing decisions, and 1 in 10 cited Facebook as an information source (slightly less cited Twitter).  Buyers should look out for special deals aimed at those who share information on social media.5. Deals Could Be Centered on "Extras" Though the most popular deals will be centered around single products, at least 15.7% of retailers plan to offer free shipping on all purchases on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  That makes a lot of sense given that 75% of customers would rather shop with a company that offers free shipping, and 90% of online consumers say free shipping will entice them to spend more money, according to a pair of recent research studies.Four out of five consumers this season say they hope to see free shipping offers on retail holidays, and 25% would be enticed to shop by looser return policies, and free, no-questions-asked return shipping.  Numbers like these virtually ensure that many of the Cyber Monday deals in 2009 will be centered around "extras" like reduced shipping and handling costs.