Clipmarks | Npd Clips

Many iPhone Users Ditched Their Carrier

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:17:14 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: AT&T was smart to lock down the iPhone deal with Apple -- they'd be smart to hold onto it as long as possible.

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

Apple's iPhone 3G apparently created a summertime switch itch: 30 percent of all the smartphone's buyers bailed on their existing carriers in order to purchase the device, according to an NPD Group report released Monday.

AT&T has been the iPhone 3G's exclusive carrier in the U.S. since the smartphone was released in June.

According to the report, which covers June through August, 47 percent of those switching to AT&T to get the iPhone 3G came from Verizon Wireless, 24 percent from T-Mobile, and 19 percent from Sprint.

"While the original iPhone also helped win customers for AT&T, the faster network speeds of the iPhone 3G (have) proven more appealing to customers that already had access to a 3G network," Ross Rubin, NPD director of industry analysis, said in a statement.

By contrast, about 23 percent of consumers overall switched carriers from June through August.

Tags: apple, iphone, mobile phones, carriers, at&t, verizon, sprint, tmobile

Boomers Network Online and Stream Video, Ripe for Web Entertainment

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:52:06 GMT

clipped by: fuordigital

Clip Source: www.marketingcharts.com

Boomers Network Online and Stream Video, Ripe for Web Entertainment

A majority (61%) of Baby Boomer internet users in the US have visited sites that offer streaming or downloadable video, while 41% have visited online social networks, according to a report from The NPD Group.

Those figures show significant usage of online entertainment media among Boomers and make them a key demographic segment for more digital products and marketing, NPD said.

More than half of all web users (57%) visited a social-networking site, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or MySpace, in past three months:

72% of all web users visited a video streaming/sharing site - such as YouTube or a TV network website - in the previous three months. These types of sites were visited more than gaming sites, on average:

Social Nets Snare Boomers

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:15:23 GMT

clipped by: clipolicious

Clip Source: www.adweek.com

Study: Social Nets Snare Boomers

Sept 12, 2008

-By Steve Miller, Brandweek

DETROIT The widely known maxim is that if parents like what the kids are listening to, it's time for the kids to ditch that music and move on. So what happens when mom requests you as a friend on Facebook?

The notion is not inconceivable, according to a new "Entertainment Trends in America" study by The NPD Group, Port Washington, N.Y. Social networking sites used by teenagers and young adults are also being adopted by baby boomers (age 44-61). The findings show that 41 percent of baby boomers have visited social networks, such as MySpace or Facebook, and 61 percent have been to sites with streaming or downloadable video.

The study, which surveyed 11,600 consumers online, also found that over 57 percent of Web users overall have stopped at social networking sites in the past three months. Baby boomers stopped on average of eight times in that period.

Tags: boomers, socialnets

Social networking not just for the young

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:57:37 GMT

clipped by: butesch
clipper's remarks: It is certainly "more young" but not exclusively

Clip Source: www.internetretailer.com

Video and social networking sites are not just for the young, study shows

Online retailers targeting middle-aged consumers can find quite a few of them at online social networking and video sites, suggests a new report from The NPD Group.

61% of Internet users between the ages of 44 and 61 have visited video sites such as YouTube or TV network web sites, while 41% have visited social networks, including LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace. While social networks are even more popular among the young—80% of online users 13 to 34 have visited them—it’s a misperception that such web sites are only for the young, says NPD entertainment industry analyst Russ Crupnick.

“That misperception could cost the entertainment industry, in terms of lost opportunities to target valuable consumers,” says Crupnick, author of NPD’s new report “Entertainment Trends in America.”

Tags: social networking, study, age, young, internet, social

Pinching pennies like your grandparents

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:13:40 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

the skyrocketing cost of everything from cereal to eggs is prompting some Americans to turn to traditional techniques for stretching a dollar or a meal.

The food inflation is clearly affecting American lifestyles. An April survey by market researchers NPD Group found that more than half of adults who described themselves as “financially challenged” were trying to use up leftovers more often and prepare more meals at home than they did a year ago.

Americans are still eating out but are choosing cheaper restaurants

more people are choosing grain-based foods, such as pizza and pasta, over meat-based meals.

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

For those people who are trying to shop and eat more like their grandparents did, the change in behavior isn’t just a matter of time management. Accustomed to years of drive-through restaurants and pasta in a box, many simply don’t know how to cook from scratch.

Tags: economy, consumers, i-spending, i-decrease, i-consequences

PC is the Most Used Gaming Console

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:31:45 GMT

clipped by: fuordigital

Clip Source: www.marketingcharts.com

‘Extreme Gamers’ Play 45 Hours of Videogames a Week

“Extreme Gamers” spend an average of 45 hours a week playing videogames and have purchased 24 titles in the previous three months*, according to Games Segmentation 2008, the report from the NPD Group.

Of the 174 million gamers who play games on PC/Mac or videogame systems, 3% are Extreme Gamers, 9% are Avid PC Gamers, 17% are Console Gamers, 14% Online PC Gamers, 15% are Offline PC Gamers, 22% are Young Heavy Gamers and 20% are Secondary Gamers.

With over 38 million gamers, Young Heavy Gamers is the largest and one of the heaviest gaming groups in the US.

For Nintendo DS (NDS) and PlayStation Portable (PSP), six out of every 10 owners are Young Heavy Gamers.

According to the report, while the PC is used more than any single console for gaming, Console Gamers, Young Heavy Gamers, and Extreme Gamers are more likely to use consoles than a PC to play videogames.

Music Video Games Account for 32% of Industry Growth in '08

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:07:49 GMT

clipped by: tedroberson
clipper's remarks: It seems that everyone dreams of the fame and fortune of being a rock star. Even as a young boy and adult I use to take guitar and even trumpet lessons looking to embrace those dreams of being on the road, carefree and playing to thousands of fans.

As I got into video games I acted out the dreams of being a hero in games like metroid,starfox,legend of zelda just to name a few. Then all of a sudden comes guitar hero and rock band. These games have become so popular you would think that it was the beatles first trip to the United States playing on the Ed Sullivan show.

Every major department store that you go into these days you will see a video game display with 3 or 4 kids playing with a virtual guitar throwing down on the many different standard rock songs that these games have to offer. Who knew that being a rock star in your own living room would become so popular.

Clip Source: www.gamedaily.com

We all know that Guitar Hero and Rock Band are huge, and now other game companies are joining the music act, such as Disney with Ultimate Band, Nintendo with Wii Music, and Konami with Rock Revolution.

Just how important is this growing sector of the industry? According to UBS analyst Ben Schachter, music games have been a "key driver" this year, with "sales of music-themed games responsible for 19% of overall industry software dollars in July (15% YTD) and 44% of y/y industry dollar growth during the month (32% of growth YTD)."

Total dollar sales in the U.S. games industry hit $9.47 billion through July, according to the latest NPD data. That's 35 percent ahead of 2007 at this point, and Guitar Hero and Rock Band have no doubt

Tags: music video games, guitar hero, rock band

FLIP VIDEO UPDATES: HD Coming Soon

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:09:15 GMT

clipped by: cobrandit
clipper's remarks: the little camera that could...now mac compatible.

Clip Source: newteevee.com

Pure Digital is proving that simplicity sells. The company says it has now sold 1 million of its Flip video cameras in less than a year, and the NPD Group has listed the Flip Ultra as the top-selling video camera in June.

Simon Flemming-Wood, vice-president of marketing for Pure Digital, told me in an interview that 50 percent of Flip owners already had a camcorder. “The point-and-shoot phenomenon has been driving the growth,” he said. “Until we launched Flip there wasn’t such a thing as a point-and-shoot camcorder.”

So what’s next for the little camera that could? HD.

Pure Digital expects to have an HD product out by the end of the year (or at least an announcement of one), according to Flemming-Wood.

And in another bit of news that warms the cockles of people like myself, who are both Flip and Mac users, Pure Digital said that after recent updates from Apple, the Flip camera is now fully compatible with Mac video apps, including QuickTime, iMovie and iDVD.

Tags: flipvideo cobrandit

Eight for Eight... Scary

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:03:11 GMT

clipped by: bmeuppls
clipper's remarks: Anytime you click off a perfect 8 for 8 on any psychological disorder checklist, you better hope someone calls for an intervention and gets you into counseling quick...

Clip Source: ace.new.mu.nu

Obama is showing most if not all of the symptoms of someone afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He is the living embodiment of Gilderoy Lockhart, the only character in the Harry Potter series that was closely based on a real person that Rowling knew.

For example:

• Obsession with grandiosity
• Fantasies of ultimate power, ultimate goodness, or ultimate whatever
• Expecting to be treated as special or unique without having the qualifications or deeds to merit the treatment
• Taking credit for things he hasn't done
• Selective or distorted recollection of the past
• Arrogance and elitism
• Inability to respond to criticism with anything but rage
• Shallow charisma

If you've ever been around an NPD (and I was raised by one), you eventually come to the conclusion that the NPD just plain doesn't live on the same planet as the rest of us.

Tags: politics, obama

NPD zieht in alle Kreisparlamente in Sachsen ein

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:11:21 GMT

clipped by: Shugi

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

NPD zieht in alle Kreisparlamente in Sachsen ein

Die rechtsextreme NPD feiert bei den Kommunalwahlen in Sachsen einen historischen Erfolg: Zum ersten Mal hat es die Partei in alle Kreistage des Bundeslandes geschafft. In der Sächsischen Schweiz überflügelten die Rechten sogar die SPD.

Kamenz - Die rechtsextreme NPD ist nach der Kommunalwahl erstmals in allen Kreisparlamenten vertreten. Sie kam im Landesschnitt bei den Kreistagswahlen auf gut fünf Prozent, wie das Statistische Landesamt in Kamenz am Montag mitteilte. Damit hat sie ihr Ergebnis von vor vier Jahren, als sie 1,3 Prozent der Stimmen erhielt, etwa vervierfacht. Bei der Wahl vom 13. Juni 2004 hatte die NPD landesweit etwa 41.000 Stimmen erreicht. Diesmal waren es rund 160.000 Stimmen.

Nach Angaben aus den Kreisen wird die NPD in den zehn neuen Kreisparlamenten insgesamt mehr als 40 Sitze haben. Bislang verfügt die Partei über insgesamt 18 Sitze.

Smartphones are heeding the call of consumers

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:58:34 GMT

clipped by: butesch

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Smartphones are heeding the call of consumers

Apple's iPhone helps catapult interest in all-in-one devices

At a time when sales of cell phones are slowing in the United States, there's one kind of mobile device that appears to be defying the trend: smartphones.

Lower monthly prices on phone data plans, a growing consumer interest in using the mobile Internet and a wide offering and price range of devices are all also among reasons for smartphones' success.

Cell phone sales in general in the U.S. were down 22 percent in the first quarter this year, compared to the first quarter of 2007, according to The NPD Group.

However, smartphone sales represented 17 percent of all cell phone sales in the first quarter of 2008, up 10 percent from the same period last year, the research firm said.

Tags: smartphone, trends, consumers, apple, iphone

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Wed, 28 May 2008 01:01:50 GMT

clipped by: w3stfa11

Clip Source: www.nintendoworldreport.com

Of the game sales NPD numbers that are available, we can find the sales of two third party DS titles. Square Enix's The World Ends With You racked up 43,000 units in April sales and was the ninth best-selling DS title in April. Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword sold only 23,700 copies. It is rare to see handheld titles achieve the sales numbers required to make it into the top ten software sales charts. However, titles for portable platforms are much cheaper to develop and can therefore prove profitable with lower sales numbers.

Tags: vgsales

Recession Diet Just One Way to Tighten Belt

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:23:15 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Spending data and interviews around the country show that middle- and working-class consumers are starting to switch from name brands to cheaper alternatives, to eat in instead of dining out and to fly at unusual hours to shave dollars off airfares.

Though seemingly small, the daily trade-offs they are making — more pasta and less red meat, more video rentals and fewer movie tickets — amount to an important shift in consumer behavior.

In March, Americans spent less on women’s clothing (down 4.9 percent), furniture (3.1 percent), luxury goods (1.3 percent) and airline tickets (1.1 percent) compared with a year ago,

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

(In a survey conducted this month by the NPD Group, a research firm, consumers suggested that they would sooner cut spending on clothing, furniture and eating out than on video games.)

Tags: economy, consumers, i-spening, i-decrease, i-behaviour change

Make Games, Not Spreadsheets

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:24:38 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.forbes.com

Why program productivity software when you could be making games? That's the sort of thinking that's driving professionals to get into the games industry. And $18.8 billion in U.S. sales in 2007, as reported by NPD Group, doesn't hurt either.

For programmers, those sales translate into jobs. Good ones.

"This is a real growth industry," says Darryl Horne, director of development operations at BioWare. He joined up with the Edmonton, Alberta-based game developer a little over a year ago after a stint as a project manager at personal-finance software maker Intuit (nasdaq: INTU - news - people ). "It's a lot more interesting doing project review when you're watching critters move about, swords fly and blood splatter than it is when you stare at spreadsheets."

Besides, who can say no to walking into a store, pointing at a game box and saying, "I worked on that"?

Tags: games, programming, development, software

Amazon expanding digital music sales without eating at iTunes

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:59:33 GMT

clipped by: axgrndr

Clip Source: www.appleinsider.com

NPD, one of the leading market research firms, said in a report Tuesday that just 10 percent of Amazon MP3 customers surveyed in February indicated that they had previously purchased music through iTunes.

Much of Amazon's early success in digital music sales has come by way of customers who have never tried Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store, a sign of broader growth potential within the music download business.

"The fact that Amazon's early growth does not appear to be at the expense of Apple iTunes is a healthy indication that the digital music customer pool can expand into new consumer groups who have not yet joined the iTunes community," remarked analyst Russ Crupnick.

Though having launched just six months ago, Amazon MP3 recently leapfrogged Wal-mart to become the number two purveyor of a-la-carte music tracks downloads in the US, behind iTunes.

Tags: new media