marketing

Of the 62 million PCs shipped in the first quarter of 2007, the biggest story is a company that shipped a little over 4 million units. Taiwan-based Acer has taken hold of 6.8 percent of the global PC market, good enough for third place, according to market research firm iSuppli.

After taking the No. 3 slot in worldwide notebook sales from Toshiba in the fourth quarter of 2006, Acer has taken even more ground, this time from Lenovo. The Chinese computer maker is now 0.4 percent points behind Acer in worldwide computer market share.

Acer also turned in … Read more

Is watching an out-of-market baseball game illegal? Potentially yes, according to Major League Baseball.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Esq. a lawyer for the league's Advanced Media division said Slingbox's capability to placeshift MLB content--that is, allow owners to watch their subscription channels from a remote location--is illegal, and MLB is mulling a lawsuit.

"Of course, what they are doing is not legal," MLB general counsel Michael Mellis told the publication. "We and other leagues have formed a group to study the issue and plan our response. A lot depends on ongoing discussions. … Read more

It's Wednesday afternoon, do you know how the Zune is doing?

If not, Microsoft is happy to fill you in. The pale pink version, which hit shelves earlier this month, is outselling the white and brown shades, according to the company, which sent out an update on the music player today. It doesn't want you to forget that the Halo 3 Zune is just a couple of weeks away. w00t!

The Zune in all colors (expect to see red this summer) is holding on to its No. 2 spot in the U.S. retail market for hard drive-based … Read more

We almost passed up this item until we realized how irritating it is. At first, we thought it was just a digital advertising display mounted in a public restroom. Yawn. But it's actually a screen that doubles as a mirror, TechEBlog says, and it goes on and off without warning.

Now we're not given to staring at our reflection for long stretches at a time, but anyone would be annoyed if one of these "Magic Displays" continually interrupted the self-inspection ritual. If you have any doubt, just check out the YouTube clip below. Besides, who would … Read more

It was fun while it lasted.

Market analysts say that Intel regained large chunks of market share from AMD in the first quarter. Analyst firm iSuppli says Intel's market share jumped from 75.7 percent in the fourth quarter to 80.2 percent in the first quarter. AMD, meanwhile, sank from 15.7 percent to 11.1 percent.

Sam Bhavnani of Current Analysis, meanwhile, broke it down by type of computer for U.S. retail (about 11 percent of the worldwide market). In desktops, Intel rose from a 46 percent share to a 58 percent share while it saw … Read more

This may come as shocking and disconcerting news to a certain other Craver, but Pirates of the Caribbean isn't the only movie merchandising franchise in the known universe. It's gotten some serious competition, for instance, from the Spider-Man marketing machine.

This week, the "Spi-Dog" followed the "Spider Spud," the "Spidersapien" and other arachnid memorabilia dedicated to the man from Marvel. The latest of the "i-Dog" toy bot series, it seems to have officially pushed aside the "i-Cy" penguin--making it a doubly sad day for Caroline McCarthy (also known … Read more

MySpace quietly launched Trailer Park this morning, a new area showcasing trailers for upcoming movies. All videos are played on the in-house MySpace player and can be embedded on member pages. Trailer Park is launching with five trailers from Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Independent, and Buena Vista Pictures.

The page is designed to feel like a member's profile, with forums, a friends list, and a comment board. The dearth of actual content about a movie (actors, ratings, and so on) can be found at the movie's marketing site, which gets its own link alongside the trailer.

Unfortunately, from the … Read more

As USB drives have been reduced to greeting-card status, it's been clear that they've been destined for marketing swagdom. And now, sites such as Custom USB have made it official. But while others just slap a logo on a lowest-common-denominator model, this outfit offers more than 50 styles ranging from "Capless" to "Swivel" (pictured) with scads of colors including translucent, according to Gadgetizer. Storage sizes are available from 128MB to 2GB, priced accordingly. Personally, we think it's a better use than sending a Valentine.

When Snakes on a Plane came out, actor Samuel L. Jackson called people to promote the film.

Peter Parker, better known as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, will be doing something similar this weekend. If you visit this Hasbro site you (and your friends) can get a call from Spider-Man. Don't expect a long chat with Spidey--the call will unfortunately be automated (I guess I won't be able to discuss the whole Venom conspiracy with him).

Enter your birthday and 10-digit phone number, and you'll get a Spider-reminder to go out and get exclusive Spider-Man 3 merchandise and … Read more