CE Forum

"This business is a drop in the bucket for Wal-Mart, but it could represent a significant opportunity for Netflix both in initial gains by converting Wal-Mart subscribers but also with the advertising value of having the Netflix brand in front of millions of Wal-Mart shoppers," said Dan Hess, senior vice president of ComScore Networks, a consumer analysts firm.
John Fleming, Wal-Mart.com's chief executive, said the company's decision stemmed from a desire to focus its efforts on Internet sales, which is far more profitable than online renting and more easily drives in-store shopping.
...In response to the Wal-Mart/Netflix deal, Dallas-based Blockbuster announced it would offer both Wal-Mart and Netflix online rental subscribers who switch to Blockbuster two free months of service, a free retail DVD of their choice and a new subscription at their current rates.

LA Times 5/20/05

More important, he is hoping that Yahoo--just like Apple Computer and its iTunes Web site--will prod growth in the nascent digital music business, and that will be good for MusicNow.
...The service was one of the earlier entrants in digital music but it's still a small player, generally seen as trailing online competitors like Napster and RealNetworks' Rhapsody service.
...The digital music business is expected to grow quickly, with sales rising from just 1 percent of the $12 billion global music market in 2003 to an anticipated 12 percent by 2009, according to Jupiter Research.
...In the year since the Circuit City deal (Circuit City bought MusicNow), legal digital music sales have gotten a big boost from Apple.
...MusicNow and other sites offer paid downloads, like iTunes, but their business model is predicated on a subscription song rental service.

Chicago Tribune 5/19/05

Canada's first Apple retail store will finally open its doors this Saturday, May 21st at 9:30 am in the Yorkdale Shopping Center. The first 1500 people to visit the store will receive a free Apple Commemorative T-shirt. Additionally, customers can enter the Grand Opening Contest to win a Digital Lifestyle Collection valued at $2985. ...

Apple Insider

On most weekends, Apple stores located in highly trafficked shopping malls are barely able to accommodate the foot traffic of the purchase-happy patrons.
"Frankly, after a couple of hours on a busy weekend, our store starts to smell because of the masses of bodies flocking in and out," one Apple employee said.... In many malls across the US, Apple is looking to upgrade the size of its store locations or secure a lease for an adjacent store in order to expand into adjacent areas.
The company currently categorizes its existing stores into five distinct footprints: mini-small, mini-large, 30-foot, 45-foot, and flagship.... But the ordinary 30-foot second-floor location, Apple Store #37 (or R061), often ranks amongst the top 10 US-based Apple store locations in terms of volume sales; it will soon give way to a store double its size.
Estimated to be at least 60-feet wide, the new Westchester location will open directly adjacent to the existing Apple retail location, occupying the former retail spots of both The Body Shop and KB Toys.

Apple Insider 5/17/05

We tested Kodak's new $150 EasyShare Picture Viewer, which will hit store shelves on May 20, and Apple Computer's $29 iPod Camera Connector, which came out in March and works with the iPod Photo music player -- either the 30-gigabyte ($349) model or the 60-gigabyte ($449) version.
...It's just a small, white adapter that plugs into the base of your iPod Photo on one end and has a USB port on the other end, therefore allowing you to attach your digital camera via a USB cord.
...Then, after she attached our camera's USB cord and turned on the camera and iPod, the iPod's screen showed the number of photos on our camera's memory card (21) and the total size of those files (38.1 megabytes).
...Unlike the way Apple's Camera Connector works with the iPod Photo, you cannot directly offload images from your camera or memory card onto the Picture Viewer.

Walt Mossberg (WSJ) 5/11/05

I came across an article propposing that Apple add the ability to connect the iPod to cell phones and cameras via an SD memory card slot. Summarizing:

"Hadley's statement on Nextel, Verizon blocking the iTunes mobile version got me thinking - if the smartphone market is going to be so crucial, what can Apple do to bypass these wireless companies but still have a presence in the smartphone market ?
...Thanks to IDC's IdaRose Sylvester who opened up the iPod Shuffle and identified the key components - a Sigmatel STMP3550 chip (costs $7.50 volume pricing) and a Samsung 512MB/1GB Flash memory chip.
...If the iPod SDIO really existed it could instantly be added to a Smartphone (based on Palm OS or PocketPC OS) with a SD slot with SDIO capability, and iTunes mobile software could take advantage of the GPRS/EDGE or EVDO services so that customers could directly access the iTunes store and download songs completely bypassing the wireless company but using the data service offered by the wireless company.... Also if the Smartphone is like the latest Samsung with 3GB storage (although Samsung uses Transflash slot, this idea could be extended), the iPod SDIO could use its internal flash chip just for buffering but store the tunes on the smartphone's internal hard disk."

Note: This looks to me like it could be done by a third party.
Read the full proposal at: http://sastwingees.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/5/15/861385.html

The three dominant makers of videogame consoles revealed details of their next-generation systems this week in press conferences leading up to Wednesday’s opening of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo.
...The three dominant makers of videogame consoles, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, revealed details of their next-generation systems this week in press conferences leading up to Wednesday’s opening of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo, a gaming extravaganza that is rapidly evolving into a showcase for future home entertainment technologies.
Appropriately, given its overwhelming leadership in game console market share, Sony went first with a dazzling introduction of its PlayStation 3, scheduled for release early next year.... 2, followed a few hours later with details on the Xbox 360, a sleek white tower that Microsoft insists has a chance to topple Sony’s PlayStation 3 as the world’s most popular interactive gaming platform.
...Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is the only one vowing to be ready in time for Christmas this year, with PlayStation 3 and Revolution following in spring or summer of 2006. A lot can change in the 180 or so days before Xbox 360 becomes a reality, and none of the players has revealed pricing details. All three systems represent a huge advance in realism, features and performance compared to the current generation of game consoles, but that means software developers have a tougher job bringing new games to market.

Fortune 5/19/05 - Requires Subscription for full article

Inside the airy 10,000-square-foot StoreOne -- four to five times larger than a regular RadioShack -- displays are set fashionably far apart, and there's a Starbucks in one corner.

...New Chief Executive David Edmondson, who officially took over the CEO title at the annual shareholder meeting Thursday, said StoreOne could be copied in a dozen or so prime big-city locations, but nothing is certain.

...Walking through the store this week before the official opening, Edmondson gushed about the displays, including a build-it-yourself robotic toy and a motorcycle helmet with a Bluetooth wireless device that can be used to make cell phone calls.

...Store employees will hand out cards containing a radio-frequency identification chip, allowing them to track which displays patrons visit, how long they stay in each part of the store, and whether they buy anything.

...RadioShack aims to sell more products that aren't widely available elsewhere, including a $1,300 front-projection television it developed with Texas Instruments Inc., an all-purpose gadget-charging system called iGO, and a $300 high-tech erector set called Vex.

...Edmondson said Sprint kiosks average $5,000 in annual sales per square foot and those inside Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Sam's Clubs average $3,000.

Business Week 5/19/05

The American Cancer Society plans to build a "Hope Lodge" at the University of Minnesota to provide free housing for cancer patients and their families, officials announced today. The organization said it received a $7.5 million grant from the family of Richard Schulze, chairman of Best Buy Inc., to help build the new lodge, and to expand a similar one at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.... Schulze, who lost his first wife to cancer in 2001, said his family offered the grant "as our way of helping cancer patients deal with some of the stress related to this life-threatening disease."

StarTribune 5/19/05

The spat began last year when RadioShack filed suit in a Texas district court to end a licensing arrangement with Ontario-based InterTan Inc., which Circuit City acquired in May 2004.
...Circuit City, based in Richmond, has since announced plans to rename more than 800 company- and dealer-owned stores to The Source by Circuit City.
...Circuit City's filing Tuesday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice accuses Fort Worth, Texas-based RadioShack of trying to harm its Canadian business and misrepresenting costs of products offered to dealers under contracts with InterTan.
The suit also claims RadioShack has intentionally misrepresented the current state of the U.S. litigation "by claiming to have won the litigation when, in fact, the interim ruling of the court in Texas remains subject to change or appeal," Circuit City said.


TheState.com

TORONTO (CP) - InterTAN Canada Ltd. said Tuesday it has filed a $10-million lawsuit against RadioShack Corp., alleging interference with its operations and "unfair competition."
"InterTAN is committed to protecting our dealers, our employees and our good name in Canada," stated Brian Levy, president and CEO of InterTAN Canada, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Circuit City Stores Inc. "Nearly all of the dealers, approximately 300, have signed new multi-year contracts with InterTAN, and we want the harassment by RadioShack to stop."...
Other allegations include "intentionally misrepresenting the current state of litigation in the United States" and "unfair competition" by allegedly seeking to lure dealers to terminate their relationship with InterTAN....
The litigation is the latest twist in a year-long legal battle between the Texas-based electronics retailer and InterTAN, based in Barrie, Ont., but owned since last year by Circuit City, a Fortune 500 retailer based in Richmond, Va....
The company had not been directly involved in the Canadian market since 1987, when it struck a licensing deal with InterTAN to sell RadioShack products and use the brand name north.
RadioShack has extended an offer to Canadian RadioShack dealers who wish to continue operating under that name after June.

Canada.com

Hewlett-Packard reported on Tuesday that its net income increased 9 percent to $966 million for its first quarter under the management of Chief Executive Mark Hurd, results that lifted the printer and computer maker just ahead of analysts' expectations.
...Excluding unusual items, the company reported earnings of 37 cents per share for its second fiscal quarter, which ended April 30. That was a penny more than the average expectations of analysts surveyed by First Call and 3 cents more than last year's earnings per share.
HP's revenue of $21.57 billion was a 7 percent increase from the year-earlier period, also ahead of analysts, who expected $21.36 billion on average.
...However, for the fiscal third quarter, HP said it expects earnings per share of 29 cents to 31 cents, lower than the 32 cents analysts had expected.


News.com

Oh, and instead of working from a corporate campus in Cupertino, Calif., with nearly 12,000 employees, Misterovich is a stay-at-home dad, creating his Pez MP3 player from the basement of his Springfield, Mo., home.
...Instead, they’re simply finding a way—in this mass-produced, Wal-Mart world—to take power back, prove that they can make the products that they want to consume, have fun doing so, and, just maybe, make a few dollars.
..."Before, only the rich had access to tools and so only the rich were professionals, and the rest were amateurs," says Noah Glass, the co-founder of Odeo, which offers a free service for making, hosting, and distributing podcasts. "But now, as the creation tools have become easier to use and more freely distributed through open source, through the Internet, through awareness, more people have more access to more tools, so the whole amateur-professional dichotomy is dissolving."
...The infrastructure is there: Yahoo Groups make it easier for people to trade ideas and learn quickly; free or cheap computer-aided-design (CAD) programs allow users to cobble together blueprints; and inexpensive manufacturing in China allows the idea to go from file to factory. There are even websites like Alibaba.com that will help these small-timers find Chinese factories eager for their work, meaning that the amateur nation has its own Match.com.
...Do-it-yourselfers of all stripes will be able to go to the site to trade ideas and work together, get easy access to programs for manipulating materials, and eventually use it to pool their resources for buying raw materials from suppliers.
...Microsoft is also talking about working with things like Phidgets, inexpensive, easily manipulated electronic parts like RFID components—a radio chip expected to supplant the bar code—that would allow you to, say, make your own keyless home-entry system.... Brian Keller, product manager for Visual Studio, says he looks forward to the day when "my mom can sit down and watch a video and learn how to build an RFID reader for herself."
...It features page after page of geeked-out—but not unachievable—how-tos; the latest issue details the finer points of crafting your own printed circuitboard or building your own teleprompter (anticipating the inevitable rise of video blogging).


Fortune

That means the cyclical worker/employer power dynamic - chocolate pedicures and "bring in the pooch" when times are flush, extra hours and that be-glad-you're-working pall when the economy flags - may be in for its first real tilt since the end of the 1990s era of exorbitant expectations and little-guy clout.
..."All things being equal, you can attract, retain, and motivate the best and the brightest by recognizing that what motivates me might not motivate you," says John Putzier, author of "Get Weird," a book about creative practices that firms can embed in their cultures.
..."For young people, it might be looking at flexible hours in order to have long weekends; for others, it might be flexible arrangements that allow for the care of aging adults; and for others, it might be child care," says John Peoples, managing partner at Global Lead Management Consulting in Baltimore.

Christian Science Monitor

"A lot of low-income people were practically begging the city to let Wal-Mart in," says Dr. Stone, an Iowa State University emeritus economist and 20-year researcher on Wal-Mart's national impact.
...But he has found what other economic researchers have seen as well: Discount retail is a complex business with more winners, losers, and tough ethical tradeoffs than public debate routinely acknowledges.
...Some recent research suggests the low prices and job opportunities offered at a new Wal-Mart store don't alleviate a community's struggles with poverty over the long term. Wal-Mart workers in California, for example, annually seek $86 million worth of public assistance, according to a 2004 study by the Labor Center at the University of California at Berkeley.
...This "race to the bottom" in labor costs also seems to rub off on a surrounding area, according to research from economists Stephan Goetz and Hema Swaminathan at the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development at Penn State University.
...Goetz, for instance, acknowledges that low prices on goods from food to hardware bring a valuable social benefit: "The standard of living is up for poverty-stricken people.... For Bruce Weber, codirector of the Rural Poverty Research Center at Oregon State University, research on discounters' social impact is still too scant to warrant firm conclusions.
...If saving American jobs in textiles and other labor-intensive industries is a top priority, discounters who rely on outsourcing to overseas manufacturers might not offer the best investment option.

Christian Science Monitor