Hasta La Gadget!

Guess what kiddos? That recession that harshed your mellow all last year is officially over and done with… according to the Consumer Electronics Association, anyway. Based on a new report put out today by the CEA (you know, that organization that sets up CES each year?), the average US household spent $1,380 on consumer electronics over the past dozen months, which represents an increase of $151 from last year. The report also found that the average household spent 12 percent more on CE devices over the past year, and individual consumer spending shot up 10 percent year-over-year. Other tidbits included: ladies spent more on CE wares than the did last year (but still trail the guys overall), and the average home reported owning 25 consumer electronic products, up from 23 in 2009. We’re also told that 86 percent of all US households own at least one computer, making it the third most owned CE product behind TVs and DVD players. Oh, and as for those pesky netbooks? 12 percent of US households own one of those, while 58 percent own “laptops” of some sort. Head on past the break for the full skinny — we hope you’re in the mood for good news, ’cause that’s all you’re getting.

[Image courtesy of TooMuchNick / WireImage]

Continue reading Shocker: CEA’s spending report finds Americans buying more technology

Shocker: CEA’s spending report finds Americans buying more technology originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 May 2010 17:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Need more evidence that physical media is inching towards the door? Enter this Reuters conversation with Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello. While the company — the largest publisher of “interactive entertainment” (AKA video games) — is hurting on sales during the awesome global recession currently underway, he thinks the future is digital. All digital. Riccitiello had this to say on the matter:

“When people think of games, they traditionally think, in the U.S., of what sells on the Xbox, the PlayStation, and the Wii, and they forget about all these online services that are out there… if you add all that stuff up, it’s almost half the industry now. It’s about 40 to 45 percent. Next year it’s likely to be the larger share of the total industry and it’ll be bigger than the console games all put together.”

He went on to say that if EA’s digital arm was a standalone company, “it would be like the darling of Wall Street.” Of course, he’s not just talking about XBLA and the App Store — this is an all-encompassing view of the digital market, including casual gaming, Facebook apps, and WoW transactions as well. It may not be the kind of all-encompassing push needed, but we are hoping this sort of noise rattles the industry enough to mobilize smarter, more centralized methods of online distribution.

EA CEO says digital gaming sales will overtake console numbers next year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, global economic crisis, when will you stop claiming our favorite companies? Oh, wait, it’s just i-mate folding this time? So, the company that already laid off its US staff is totally going away? We can live with that. It seems i-mate’s remaining employees in Dubai Internet City were told yesterday that they had to take an unpaid two-month leave. That, apparently, was a typo, as the people were actually supposed to take an indefinite unpaid leave. Oops. The company has already been delisted from stock markets around the world, and this abrupt closing has left a number of retailers hanging as orders for the 810F are apparently still pending. Now they, just like our hopes of a Dirty Dancing sequel, will never be fulfilled.

Filed under: Cellphones

R.I.P. i-mate, we barely knew ye originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We always knew that any company courageous enough to take a technology designed to help mega-corps monitor their inventory levels and make it mainstream would face an uphill battle, but we never envisioned Nabaztag caving entirely to the pressure. If a snippet in a recent issue of Les Echos (a French financial paper) is to be believed, the creator of the rabbit-inspired Violet RFID Mirror has filed for bankruptcy, giving any company interested in keeping the brand alive until September 4th to toss out a cash infusion. Not like we’re looking at you, Mr. VC, but we’re definitely hoping to not be sobbing about this in just under a month. Tick, tock.

[Voa Loic Le Meur]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

Nabaztag can’t make RFID cool, has to file for bankruptcy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day to lucky readers until we run out of stuff / companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got an HP TouchSmart IQ527 all-in-one PC on offer, which ought to work just fine as a replacement to that 386 you’re reading this on. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting!

Huge thanks to HP for the goods!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) HP TouchSmart IQ527. Approximate value is $999.99.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Thursday, July 30th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Filed under: Desktops

Engadget’s recession antidote: win an HP TouchSmart IQ527! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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