It is always great when you can find a Monty Python reference that has direct applicability to the technology world. As any Python fan knows this title refers to a rather ironic song performed during the movie “Life of Brian.” And the idea of looking through the darkness of your current situation to see the good side of today’s events is not a new concept. I have sometimes been accused of offering a decidedly glum outlook on the future of consumer technology. For the most part I am guilty as charged; however, I am always looking for those little tidbits that let me look on the bright side of life. One such tidbit is, counter intuitively, the success of the liquidation sale at Circuit City.
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Today’s announcement of Circuit City being forced to liquidate is the end of a long tale and should prompt a lot of soul searching on the part of all of us with an interest in selling technology to consumers. Clearly today’s result was much more the product of the financial morass we find ourselves in as a country than anything to do with the specific worsening of Circuit City’s situation. This result was likely preordained once they were forced to go into Chapter 11 in the middle of the worst credit crisis in the last 70 years.
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Today is Black Friday, November 28, 2008 - the traditional start of the holiday shopping season - and for what seems like the 100th time (although it is only about 10 times) I awoke early and trudged off to the shopping malls and power centers of Northern Virginia to check on the health of the electronics business. While we won’t know how successful these sales were until December 8th, when NPD’s weekly data is released and we deliver our annual Black Friday shopping report later that week, as well as update everyone through our joint Black Friday webinar with DisplaySearch, I am here to tell you that, based on my shopping this morning, and other reports already trickling out, that our fears that Black Friday would fall flat are likely overblown.
The collapse of sales and consumers’ expectations over the last eight weeks (as well documented in NPD’s weekly tracking service data and the NPD Consumer Technology Holiday Snapshot Report) has been swift and scary. The key question for today is whether that decline can be arrested by the deep discounts and shopping excitement that Black Friday has traditionally brought.
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Hi everyone. It’s my pleasure to welcome you to NPD’s official blog with this inaugural post. As some readers may know, I’ve been blogging for a few years now and am delighted to see NPD proper join the conversation alongside our DisplaySearch colleagues.
My fellow analysts and I will use this forum to offer our perspective on issues affecting our dynamic industry. Our viewpoint is shaped by NPD’s unique point-of-sale and consumer information resources, which help our clients and us understand what is happening in the world of consumer technology and why. It seems appropriate to use Black Friday, the most disruptive day in electronics retailing, as the catalyst to launch our entry into this disruptive medium.
The Consumer Technology Holiday Spotlight Report, now going out to some NPD clients, included the results of a fourth-quarter survey that asked consumers about their holiday plans. Questions focused on popular holiday categories, including flat-panel TVs, notebook and desktop PCs, portable navigation devices, digital cameras, MP3 players and digital picture frames. NPD also asked consumers about what would most motivate them to shop for doorbuster specials or to shop later in the day on Black Friday.
NPD found that the largest segments of likely buyers said they definitely or probably would completely abstain from categories they intended to purchase due to the economy. I’ve already shared some thoughts on the results of this research in my most recent Tech on Deck column.
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Consumer Technology | Stephen Baker, Vice President, Industry Analysis | 
March 25, 2009 1:02 pm | 
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