Executive Insight
Expert Insight on the latest consumer electronics from the editors of TWICE Magazine
How Smart is Your Smartphone Strategy?
There are quite a few surprising findings from our recent quarterly TraQline study of both prepaid and postpaid (contract) wireless phones. The most surprising thing isn’t that prepaid handset purchases now represent 17 percent of the market. And, no, it isn’t even that Android OS has significantly higher market share than iOS (and both are still gaining share). What we f ...... Read More
Comments (0)It's Not The Size Of The 'Big Box"
My last post was only one of many similar recently debating the role store size plays in a retailer’s financial performance. If you missed that, let me summarize my position: It’s not the size of the box, but rather what you do with it.Sometimes it helps to put aside everything you think you know and look elsewhere for inspiration, and what could be more different from CE retail than ...... Read More
Comments (6)Best Buy Reconstructed
For Best Buy, and big box retail in general, the past few weeks have been filled with “doom and gloom” comments circulating throughout the Web. While it is always easy (and popular) to make blind assertions about failure and dissolution these assertions almost always end up being “fact lite” with little beyond a bloggers’ poor experience, marginal understanding o ...... Read More
Comments (0)Best Buy’s Challenges Echo Those Of Specialists
It is fascinating that specialty stores were a leading indicator for what is now happening to Best Buy. The real issue we had was the inability to drive people into our stores. That is now Best Buy’s core issue as well. Best Buy used software very effectively to address this in the past, and there are a few bodies left on that trail, such as Tower Records, and of course all the special ...... Read More
Comments (2)Long Live Best Buy
There has been considerable banter about the imminent demise of Best Buy. Custom retailers and integrators should rue the day that this would happen. We cannot deliver the volume necessary to keep specialty suppliers in business. The outcome would be the manufacturing of more commodity products, less consumer awareness of new technologies and gear, and the strengthening of our true enemy, Amazon.c ...... Read More
Comments (2)The Bawl Of The Smartass TV
A customer walks into a showroom and the TV says, “Hey, big spender. Come spend a little time with me.” The customer replies, “Of all the TVs on the wall, why should I spend any time with you?” The TV answers, “Because I’m not just any TV. I’m really smart. I not only tune channels but I can stream, surf, download, Skype and text, all at the same ti ...... Read More
Comments (1)End Of The Big Box?
Bloomberg.com recently weighed in on CE retail with an article whose title summarizes the reporter’s contentions regarding the future of Best Buy, Walmart and a few other companies that do business in large stores (”The Era of Big Box Retail is Coming to an End“). So what’s next? Bloomberg cut to the chase in the first sentence of the second paragraph of their article, ...... Read More
Comments (0)Going Social: Enabling a Collaborative Workforce
Competition in the consumer products and appliances industries is causing all of us to rethink how we do business and ways we can work smarter and faster. This has spurred many companies to work across geographic boundaries and enable employees to work on the go - whether it’s from a client site, on a train or in a home office.As a result, most companies nowadays are grappling with the real ...... Read More
Comments (0)The Impact Of ‘Showrooming’ In Retail
There is a new word floating around in the wonderful world of retail and that is “showrooming.” In case you have not heard about it, allow me to explain. Showrooming is the practice of researching a product in-store and then buying it elsewhere, most likely at Amazon.com or eBay. With the increasing proliferation of data-enabled devices such as smartphones and tablets, showrooming is ...... Read More
Comments (7)The Impact of the Splintered Consumer on Evolving Marketing Trends
Since the 1980’s, the consumption of mass media in the typical American home has splintered from three broadcast networks into thousands of entertainment and media channels, including cable TV, Web content, games and user generated content. Thirty years ago, with just three networks, marketers could easily reach a large audience and leverage many significant shared experiences. But today, t ...... Read More
Comments (0)The (Really) Long-Term View
The March 3 edition of The Economist included an article describing some of the management philosophy of Amazon’s founder/CEO Jeff Bezos (“Taking the Long View”). It also tells us that he has invested $42 million of his own money in a 10,000 year clock being built in west Texas that measures time one tick every year (”10,000 Year Clock“). Bezos described the proj ...... Read More
Comments (0)Clarifying Display Issues On The New iPad
Apple announced on Wednesday the next generation of its iPad tablet. The new iPad will start at $499 for the 16GB version and $629 with high-speed cellular connectivity starting March 16. The new iPad has several new noteworthy features including an A5X processor, iSight 5-megapixel camera (similar to the one used in the iPhone 4S), voice-dictation capability, 4G LTE cellular connectivity and ...... Read More
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