Stephen Baker

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Ten Years Is A Long Time

News comes today that Apple retail chief Ron Johnson has decided to leave the company to head up department store retailer JCPenney. Those of us in tech always question the wisdom of anyone who leaves the industry, especially for one that most tech folks would consider mundane and boring. The gulf in perception between selling iPads and iPhones to the technological elite and the... More

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The Tyranny of the Street

Today’s news that Cisco will shutter Flip Video is a bad decision on so many levels that it is difficult to fit them all into one discussion. But for the sake of this blog, let’s focus on two. When Cisco first purchased Flip, many analysts, including me, questioned whether the buy was a good fit. But abandoning it now seems a cowardly act, and one that flies in the face of... More

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It’s Time For an Upgrade

Hot on the heels of the opening of the 8th Microsoft store comes news that Sony has opened a new concept Sony Style location in the Century City mall in Los Angeles. While, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to visit yet, Sony offers this nice walkthrough on its blog site. Certainly, the store looks revamped, with more focused product areas and a more inviting in-store... More

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What’s Really Important In Apple’s iPad Announcement?

All the tech blogs and pundits are beating their drums about the potential launch of the iPad 2 on Wednesday. Assuming that is what this event will introduce it would be much more worthwhile to concentrate on what is really important to the future of the iPad, and the tablet category in general. To-date all we have heard are the typical pronouncements and concerns about new processors,... More

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Further Confirmation

Best Buy’s poor results today are not a glimpse into the future but a mirror into the past. As we have been saying for much of 2010 this year is likely to be a very difficult one for most consumer electronics categories. Very high penetration rates and the effect of two years of growth above the overall retail economy have put consumer electronics ahead of the curve. It is now... More