Consumers -- Engadget

consumers posts

Motorola and SE pinpointed, may face tough time "weathering the storm"

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 17th 2008 at 9:24AM

No, not that Storm silly -- that storm. As cellphone users around the globe put off that once imminent upgrade purchase in order to make the mortgage and feed the family, (most) handset makers are obviously feeling the pinch. A fresh report from The Wall Street Journal pretty much reiterates much of what we've already heard, but still dives deeper into which companies are best positioned to escape the madness. As predicted, HTC, Apple and Nokia were all pinpointed as being able to make it through tough economic times without losing their proverbial hats, but both Motorola and Sony Ericsson could be facing insurmountable odds. Granted, it's not like either firm has really been killing it of late, but it's a pretty bad time to be struggling, regardless. The takeaway? Don't be shocked to see some wild stuff go down in the mobile space -- all bets are off at this point.

[Image courtesy of DayLife, thanks JagsLive]

Analysts say HDTV sales could decline in current economy, snow could fall in Montana

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 14th 2008 at 11:26AM

Hey, the analysts have to find something to talk about, right? As the Blue Chips rise and fall like the tides, so have bobbed the reports regarding how this economy will affect HDTV sales. Just a week ago, one survey found that 73% of non-HDTV owners were still forging ahead with plans to pick up an HDTV within the next 12 months, and given the record low prices we're apt to see on Black Friday, we don't half blame 'em. Merely 24 hours later, out popped another report backing the claim. Now, however, Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., is suggesting that the current credit crunch could already be eating away at TV sales. Or, you know, maybe all these intelligent souls out there understand that massive sales are just over a month away. How's that for analysis?

[Image courtesy of StarTribune]

Edgar Bronfman admits to "inadvertently" going to war with music consumers

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 15th 2007 at 8:26AM

By now, we're pretty certain you know how Warner Music's head honcho feels about DRM and its necessity in the digital download space, but apparently, the man behind not one, but two CE-Oh Noes has experienced some form of epiphany. MacUser has it that Edgar Bronfman admitted that the music industry "used to fool itself" by thinking that its content was "perfect just exactly as it was" while speaking at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau. He went on to say that it was widely believed that the business would "remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding." He also noted that it essentially went to war "inadvertently" with consumers by "denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find." The conversation was used in part to urge mobile operators to not make the same mistakes again, and while we applaud such a figure for coming forward with a bit of hard truth, it remains to be seen if these sentiments will reverberate further or simply fall on deaf ears.

[Via mocoNews]