Belkin, Amazing Star At RetailVision

By Doug Olenick -- TWICE, 4/29/2002

Anaheim, Calif. — There was a bit of the new and the old at RetailVision with long-time attendee Belkin taking home two best of show awards and newcomer Amazing Technology also doubling up.

Comedian Wayne Brady, star of the improvisational comedy TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" replaced the usual retail and industry executives as emcee of the dinner. Brady improvised his way through the 10 awards poking fun at the vendor personnel who received the dubious honor of accepting the statuette on behalf of their firm.

Belkin took home the Best Vendor and Best Retail Merchandising awards beating out Logitech and Palm for the former award and Roxio and Altec Lansing for the latter prize.

Amazing Technology, a maker of Bluetooth based home networking products, won for Best Hardware Product, besting Altec Lansing and Archos, and Best New Technology, edging out finalists Logitech and, again, Archos.

Altec Lansing made up for its two close calls by winning the Best Retail Presentation award, beating Linksys and Palm, while Palm ended up taking home the Best Retail Strategy trophy.

Targus won for Best Product: Accessory over Logitech and Belkin. Logitech did not go home empty-handed snatching the Best Product: Peripheral award from runner ups Visioneer and Belkin.

The two software category winners were Fonix and Dreamcatcher Interactive. Fonix won for Best Product: Productivity Software over Internet Security Systems and Roxi. Dreamcatcher Interactive won for Best Product: Edutainment/Entertainment nudging out Broderbund Software and Micro Research Institute.