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All the entries posted on July 25, 2008.
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Friday, July 25, 2008
TiVo and Amazon teaming up so you never have to leave the couch
One more reason not to move from the couch.
TiVo, the digital video recorder maker, is teaming up with Amazon.com to provide consumers the ability to buy products using their TV remote controls.
The idea is to give people the opportunity to impulse-buy an item, like a DVD, CD or book, that’s being hawked on a talk show like the Daily Show or Oprah. No getting up to go to the PC and missing what’s on the tube.
Using TiVo’s Universal Swivel Search, a search feature for both broadcast TV and broadband downloads, the digital couch potato will be able to buy an item immediately or put it in Amazon’s shopping cart for purchase later. Advertisers will also be able to target audiences through TiVo, using interactive tags, Gold Star sponsorships and program placement, the company says.
It’s interesting this is coming from TiVo, when the whole purpose of the machine was to eliminate the commercial advertising.
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Gateway dropping direct sales
As goes the mothership, so goes Gateway.
The company said this morning it will stop selling computers directly to end users. Like Acer, its parent company, Gateway now will sell products solely through retailers, partners and other online sites.
In a release, Acer’s U.S. general manager Mark Hill said the company is “shifting Gateway’s distribution method to better align with Acer’s successful global strategy, which was built upon an indirect model.”
Over the past three years, Acer has been one of the fastest-growing computer makers on the planet. While it ships far fewer PCs than Hewlett-Packard and Dell, its volumes have grown much more quickly.
Analysts have attributed much of the growth to a strong lineup of notebook computers and its presence in retail stores.
Acer continued to gain ground in the most-recent quarter, according to two research firms that track PC shipments. However, its growth has slowed in the U.S. as it digests its October 2007 acquisition of Gateway.