consumer

CES timeline--from Pong to Palm

The world's biggest technology event is just days away in Las Vegas. This year more than 2,700 exhibitors will debut some 20,000 products in less than a week at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

Of those 20,000 gadgets, at least a few are likely to become cultural touchstones that change our daily routines, like TiVo did beginning with its CES debut in 1999. Others, like Microsoft Bob from the 1995 show, quickly fade from being the next big thing to punchlines for geeky hipsters.

For a quick tour of CES history, scroll through this nice graphical timeline from Sortable.com, where its also got a full infographic with more facts about the Consumer Electronics Show.… Read more

Online holiday spending hit all-time high last week

Even though the economy is still having trouble kicking in to high gear, consumers are spending boatloads of cash on gifts this holiday season.

Between November 1 and December 18, U.S. online shoppers have spent a whopping $32 billion, jumping 15 percent compared with the same period last year, when sales hit $27.8 billion, research firm ComScore reported today. Last week's sales performance was most impressive, hitting $6.3 billion during the seven-day period ended December 18 and setting a new all-time spending record for a single week. Last year, online shoppers in the U.S. spent $… Read more

Friday Poll: Is AT&T really that bad?

It's happened again. For the second year running, AT&T has been crowned king of poor customer satisfaction in Consumer Reports' annual survey.

The findings are based on responses from 66,000 subscribers. AT&T has a healthy customer base of more than 100 million customers, so there are plenty of people who want to weigh in with an opinion of the carrier.… Read more

AT&T rated worst cell phone carrier for second year in a row

AT&T may be huge and generating boatloads of cash every quarter, but when it comes to service, the carrier has a lot of work to do.

For the second year in a row, AT&T was ranked last in Consumer Reports' annual customer satisfaction survey. The company was hit especially hard by complaints over poor voice service and phone-based customer care. Even worse for AT&T, the company's 2011 rating is slightly lower than last year's.

Consumer Reports' survey examines voice, data, and text-messaging service, as well as customer care. The specific ratings are … Read more

U.S. consumer online spending to rise 15 percent for holidays

The holidays are shaping up to be a big revenue generator for online companies, according to new research from ComScore.

According to the company, U.S. consumers will spend $37.6 billion online in the last two months of the year, up 15 percent compared to the $32.6 billion they spent last year. To put that figure into perspective, online customers in the U.S. spent $124.3 billion between January and October of this year.

ComScore has based some of its findings on the cash consumers have already spent. According to the company, between November 1 and November … Read more

3DTV sales rise, but do owners care about the third dimension?

Television vendors are selling more 3DTV sets than ever, but whether those buyers are actually using the 3D is a major question mark right now.

Research firm NPD's DisplaySearch unit reported today that 6.6 million 3D LCD TVs shipped during the third quarter, representing a gain of 27 percent over shipments during the second quarter. DisplaySearch expects 3DTV shipments to jump 30 percent in the fourth quarter. All told, the firm expects 21.5 million 3D televisions to ship this year.

That success has helped 3D televisions cut into 2D market share. In the first quarter of 2011, … Read more

Don't believe the hype: The CE biz was a dud this year

When 2011 is wrapped up, the consumer electronics industry, despite all the marketing and highly-touted gadgets, will have had a disappointing year.

That's according to market research firm IHS iSuppli, which estimates that revenue this year will total $357.3 billion, up only 1.5 percent from a year ago, and well off of the 6.4 percent growth the firm had previously expected.

It seems that despite the bluster and hype, the consumer electronics industry was just as susceptible to the downturn in consumer spending as every other industry. While the holiday season often makes up a bulk … Read more

Adobe axes Flash for TVs too

Adobe Systems' announcement today that it would abandon its work on the mobile version of its Flash Player also applies to consumer devices such as TVs.

Adobe will no longer focus on porting the Flash plug-in into Web browsers on consumer electronics devices and instead encouraged developers to build native apps for those devices, the company confirmed in a statement today to GigaOm.

"Adobe will continue to support existing licensees who are planning on supporting Flash Player for web browsing on digital home devices and are using the Flash Player Porting Kit to do so," Adobe said. "… Read more

Unlike iPhone 4, Consumer Reports recommends iPhone 4S

Although the iPhone 4 has proven to be a Consumer Reports outcast, the device's successor, the iPhone 4S, has been recommended by the organization.

"The Apple iPhone 4S is among the recommended models in our newly updated Ratings of smart phones," Consumer Reports announced today. "Apple's newest smartphone performed very well in our tests, and while it closely resembles the iPhone 4 in appearance, it doesn't suffer the reception problem we found in its predecessor in special tests in our labs."

Consumer Reports stirred up a controversy last year when it announced that … Read more

Consumer Reports finds Scion most reliable brand

Consumer Reports released the results of its annual car reliability survey today, and Scion came out as the top brand, with the fewest reported problems.

Scion cars proved the most reliable, according to owners contributing their experiences in the latest survey by Consumer Reports used to predict car reliability. The report, released today, compiles survey results for 28 brands. The least reliable cars, according to the survey, bear the Jaguar badge.

Along the Scion range, the xD scored the best, while the xB model was the worst, although all were well above most other brands. Lexus, another brand from Toyota, grabbed the No. 2 spot, and its CT200h model proved the most reliable, even more so than the Scion xD. Toyota-branded cars showed up at No. 6 in the survey.… Read more