PB Jung Crustless & Crunchy, not Smooth

AlphaBit v6 – CES + TV Edition

Hope everyone is have a great start to the New Year! New Year, New name

A)     Advertising

• Super Bowl to be streamed online for first time
• The biggest event on television will now be available to those wanting to view them from their computer screens for free on NBC.
• Interesting to see how this will affect advertising, and if it will draw people away from the television experience or be more of a compliment to the viewing experience of television. Either way, a win for the digital space, next step is how to capitalize on enhancing the viewers’ experience
• Hulu lands exclusive digital syndication rights to TV comedy ‘Community’ 
• As digital syndication continues to grow, coupled with the growth of Smart TVs that include wifi, will more people cancel their cable subscription for online?

B)      Best Buy

• Brian Dunn’s Comments to recent media coverage*****
• If you haven’t seen the article (more of a rant) ran by Forbes, which went viral (2MM pageviews). Brian Dunn concedes that Best Buy made some significant mistakesover cancellation of  some internet orders just before Christmas but says BBY is strong, profitable.
• But Dunn has less patience for predictions of Best Buy's demise. "Some believe the Internet has made physical retailing (i.e., stores) irrelevant. There's no doubt that the Internet, and the mobile web in particular, have changed the way people shop, but there is strong evidence that consumers continues to value the experience of shopping in stores.”
• Also today, Best Buy released its December sales results. It said its same-store sales fell 1.2 percent and customer traffic was lower than expected. (Greg)
• Nevertheless, the Richfield-based consumer-electronic giant said its December revenues totalled $8.4 billion, with online revenues up 26 percent. And it still expects to meet analysts' earnings expectations for the full year.
• Trend for connected ‘smart’ homes contines to grow at 2012 consumer events
• One of the already ‘leaked’ buzz trend for CES this year is smart appliances, with home technology being one of the fastest growing trends by businesses in the past few years. Will this be the year it finally takes off?

C)      Competitiors

• Walmart acquires app maker
  • Walmart purchaces Small Society, a mobile and social network based business. The move is a response to ‘scan and scram’ shoppers who search brick-and-mortar stores for products they like, but then use barcode scanning apps like Ebay’s RedLaser or Amazon’s Price Check to locate them at lower prices elsewhere.
    • It will be interesting to see Best Buy’s mobile strategy in-store, considering that many pundits call us ‘Amazon’s showroom’.

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