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Xbox 360 outshines Wii U in November, NPD says

Microsoft's Xbox 360 has once again topped the U.S. game hardware market.

During November, Xbox 360 was the top-selling hardware platform, research firm NPD said yesterday. That was somewhat surprising, considering the Wii U, which is sold out nationwide, made its debut on store shelves last month. However, it's worth noting that the Wii U was launched about halfway through the month, giving it fewer days to rack up sales.

According to Microsoft, it sold 1.26 million Xbox 360 units in November, giving it the top console spot for the 23rd-consecutive month. According to NPD, the … Read more

Total gaming spending hits $2.87 billion in third quarter

The game industry suffered through a down period during the third quarter, new data from research firm NPD has revealed.

During the third quarter, total spending in the U.S. on video game products and services was $2.87 billion, down 1 percent compared with the $2.9 billion the industry generated during the same period last year. Physical sales, which includes game discs, hit $1.07 billion during the period, representing a 16 percent decline year over year. Consumer spending on used and rental titles hit $399 million.

Luckily for the industry, digital gaming helped prop companies up, with $… Read more

Web radio growing faster than on-demand services (study)

Music listening patterns continue to evolve and not just from analog to digital but from downloads to streaming, according to findings from Internet research firm, NPD.

For the quarter ending in June, the audience for Internet radio services in the United States, which include companies such as Pandora Media, grew 27 percent from the same period a year earlier, NPD reported. In comparison, on-demand services such as Spotify, YouTube and Rhapsody, grew 18 percent over the same period.

Web radio stands to be an important money maker and it's not hard to figure out why the music sector and … Read more

13-inch Retina MacBook Pro on track, says analyst

A 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display is on track for production, according to an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch.

DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim has been telling CNET for a while now that a 13.3-inch Retina version of the MacBook Pro (MBP) is slated for production in the fourth quarter. And today Shim reiterated that he sees no change in those production plans.

What's not clear is when Apple would release the new MacBook. Shim speculates that it would happen after the iPad Mini announcement -- which is expected to be released in the coming weeks -- though … Read more

NPD: Cable dominates Web in VOD rentals

Cable companies accounted for 48 percent of all on-demand movie rentals for the first half of the year, research firm NPD said in a press release Monday.

NPD said that the fastest growing segment in VOD are telcos, which grew 24 year-over-year. Telcos outpaced Internet video-on-demand rentals, which saw a 15 percent increase.

Paying an upfront fee for an individual movie rental is different from services like Netflix and Amazon's Prime service, which offers unlimited renting for a flat monthly price.

Grain of salt time: NPD notes that its numbers are strictly for VOD and did not include subscription … Read more

Gaming industry suffers tough July as hardware, software slumps

The video game industry had a tough July, new data from research firm NPD has revealed.

During the month, total video game sales across the U.S. hit $548.4 million. That figure, which includes hardware and physical software sales, was down 20 percent compared with the same period last year when the industry hit $686.3 million in revenue.

It was a similarly bad story for the gaming hardware market, which saw revenue fall by 32 percent to $150.7 million. According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, every console saw sales decline year over year last month. Only the … Read more

iPad Mini display production slated for August, says analyst

The gears could start to turn as early as this month for the production of a smaller iPad.

Production of the 7.85-inch display slated for use on a smaller version of the iPad should begin in August, an analyst told CNET.

"We expect panel production to start in August, with production ramping up to high volumes (more than a million units per month) in the fourth quarter," said Paul Semenza, an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch, in response to an e-mail query.

Semenza said this is DisplaySearch's "understanding of the activity for the 7.85 [inch] … Read more

Retail sales of pricey ultrabooks up, vie with MacBook

Sales of pricey ultrabooks are up at retailers, a market research firm said, indicating that skinny laptops may be competing directly with Apple's MacBook line.

First, the bad news: the overall Windows market for notebook PC sales at retail fell by 17 percent in the first five months of the year, according to Stephen Baker, an NPD Group analyst, who published a research note Thursday.

The good news: sales of ultrabooks -- thin, light laptops that compete with the MacBook Air -- are up in the premium market segment. Those priced at more than $900 jumped 39 percent compared … Read more

Uh oh: LCD TV shipments fall for the first time ever

The television market hit a rough patch during the first quarter of 2012, according to new data from research firm NPD DisplaySearch.

During the period, total television shipments worldwide hit 51.2 million units, representing an 8 percent decline compared with the first quarter of 2011. LCDs took up the major share, tallying 84.2 percent ownership of the television market. Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) televisions took 10 percent of the market, followed by plasmas with 5.8 percent share.

The big news, however, was that for the first time ever, LCD shipments were actually down year over year. According … Read more