With stores opening their doors on Thursday for Black Friday sales this year, our annual Black Friday retail adventure encompassed a much wider swath of time and space then we have covered in previous years. The end result was some surprising insights and some, what we hope, are interesting observations on how this change has impacted Black Friday.
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Tags: Apple, Best Buy, Black Friday, hhgregg, Office Depot, Radio Shack, Target, Toys R Us, Walmart
Consumer Technology | Stephen Baker, Vice President, Industry Analysis | 
November 25, 2011 1:43 pm | 
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The next big force in video rentals is (ta-da!) Blockbuster. Really? You ask. Not Netflix, Quikster, Vudu, Roku, Apple…? Nope: Blockbuster. The same Blockbuster tortured by financial analysts and left for dead until bought by DISH Network at a fire sale. DISH Network announced a new Blockbuster initiative that would offer discs by mail, movie streaming, and a package of value added channels. Read more »
Tags: Apple, DISH Network, Entertainment, Google, Netflix, Quikster, Roku, video, VOD, Vudu
Apple, Consumer Technology, Entertainment | Russ Crupnick, Vice President, Senior Industry Analyst | September 26, 2011 9:25 am | Comments (1)
Dear Mr. Katzenberg,
Thank you for saying what we all have been thinking. When the “art” sucks (your words apparently), we stay away. Though you were referring to 3D Movies, your comments echoed something NPD’s entertainment research has shown for more than a decade: Despite all the distractions in the entertainment business, ultimately it is content that will determine success or failure. Read more »
Tags: Apple, Blu-ray, CD, Dreamworks, DVD, Movies, Netflix, YouTube
Entertainment | Russ Crupnick, Vice President, Senior Industry Analyst | August 8, 2011 4:39 pm | Comments (0)
Hot on the heels of the opening of the 8th Microsoft store comes news that Sony has opened a new concept Sony Style location in the Century City mall in Los Angeles. While, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to visit yet, Sony offers this nice walkthrough on its blog site.
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Among the non-surprises at the launch of the new iPad was Apple keeping the “unbelievable” price points where they were for its original slate, including the opening price point of under $500. While I’d be very surprised to not see other companies – particularly HP – at least match Apple in that regard, the iPad has been able to compete on price versus even subsidized products like the Motorola Xoom that smartphone vendors have offered to their go-to channel.
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All the tech blogs and pundits are beating their drums about the potential launch of the iPad 2 on Wednesday. Assuming that is what this event will introduce it would be much more worthwhile to concentrate on what is really important to the future of the iPad, and the tablet category in general. To-date all we have heard are the typical pronouncements and concerns about new processors, thinness, or what the screen resolution is. While all these elements are important the most important things to concentrate on for the long-term success of tablets are pricing and distribution, both of which are discussed minimally at best.
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Apple has lived up to the bold claim it made in 2007 that it would reinvent the phone with the iPhone. New smartphone operating systems launched since its introduction have struggled to match or exceed its high bar, and older smartphone operating systems have all been forced to re-architect in its wake. No other handset has shown the power to pull customers to a carrier the way the iPhone has –following the introduction of the iPhone 4 in June; it became the most popular handset in the U.S., according to NPD’s Mobile Phone Track.
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The Android operating system was strolling along far below the radar of Apple and RIM in the first few quarters of 2009, after it had launched on T-Mobile with the G1 and seen Sprint hop on board with the Samsung Moment; however, its rapid ascent to the top of the smartphone market share ladder kicked into high gear, when Verizon Wireless not only adopted the operating system, launching it amidst the spendy advertising campaign for the Motorola Droid, but also began offering a buy-one-get one promotion that reached well into the following quarter.
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Tags: Android, Apple, AT&T, Droid, RIM, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Windows 7 Phone
Wireless | Ross Rubin, Executive Director, NPD Connected Intelligence | November 30, 2010 11:15 am | Comments (0)
Today NPD reported that the iPhone 4 was the best-selling handset in the third quarter, according to NPD’s Mobile Phone Track, which tracks sell-through of handsets to U.S. consumers; however, during the quarter, the Android platform surged forward in its market share gains, capturing 11 more percentage points to finish out the quarter with 44 percent of the market. Many of Android’s gains came at the expense of RIM, as the freely licensed operating system has made exceptional progress outside of the iPhone’s stronghold.
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NPD has released the second in its series of iPad surveys. While the first looked at buying intentions prior to the launch this one is more focused on what the current ownership looks like and how those owners are using their iPad. In conjunction with the press release we thought we would add some color around the iPad experience, bypassing some of the more contentious product based discussions out there. The survey provided some in-depth information on all aspects of the iPad, but today we are going to look at two distinct areas. First, is what owners like and dislike about their iPads, and second is how consumers are using their iPad.
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