New Technology Turns Cheap Wine Into Hangover Free Vintage Plonk
The Brits are turning to space-age ultrasound technology in an effort to turn cheap supermarket plonk into vintage wine. They also say that the technology will eliminate hangovers.

Sony Boss Takes Swipe At Retailers
The consumer electronic market is still growing and while flat panel TV sales have slowed there is still plenty of opportunity and 'solid growth' for vendors and retailers said Carl Rose the CEO of Sony Australia. However he has taken a swipe at white good and AV retailers who he says will struggle going forward unless they make changes.

COMMENT: Should JB Hi Fi Sell Or Stick It Out?
The 61% increase in revenue and the 70% increase in profits by JB Hi Fi bode well for the consumer electronic industry. It also sends a clear message that consumers are changing their buying habits with many of them prepared to spend money on games, new TV?s and notebooks than over fashion items or the occasional holiday.

Resellers Angry With Apple Over Biggest Ever Store Opening
Apple resellers in the Sydney CBD and surrounding suburbs are expecting business to be sucked out of them later this month by the opening of Apple?s biggest ever store in Sydney.

GFK Aquires Information Extraction Group
In an effort to deliver deeper and richer retail sales information GFK has aquired French information extraction company Qosmos,

DAB Radio Could Be Slow Taking Off Say GFK
DAB radio is set to be rolled out in Australia later this year and according to GFK sales could be slow to start with. In the UK the DAB Market has grown by 18% in the last year, with 2.1 million units sold in the year ending March 2008, resulting in cumulative DAB sales of just under 7 million units according to GFK.

LG In Fantasy Land
LG has created an online football fantasy game for NRL and AFL fans to play for a chance to win an LG plasma and LCD TV. The move complements the company's sponsorship of AFL and NRL teams.

New ChannelNews Newsletter
During the past three weeks we have failed to syndicate the new ChannelNews daily newsletter because we were building a brand new newsletter engine and syndication service that took a little longer than we anticipated.

Why You Can Fail Occasionally
COMMENT: How many of us remember our failures more than our successes? My own divorce, the time I didn't get a research grant, the last job that I was fired from (come to think of it, there were some other messy situations that I still recall), the I time I rear-ended someone on a slippery freeway. The list goes on and on. You could say that I have had a full life.

Mass Market Retailers Love Denon But Not In Australia
Audio Products Australia the distributor of the Denon brand in Australia seems to be denying themselves sales by refusing to supply mass market resellers like Harvey Norman and JB Hi Fi. Instead the Company is sticking to the specialist channel which is in decline.

HD DVD Costs Toshiba $1 Billion Rethinking Future
Toshiba may have lost roughly $1 billion on its failed HD DVD business over the last year. That's according to an article by The Nikkei, the daily business newspaper in Japan. As a result of the report Toshiba shares have fallen 2.3%.

Digital SLR Booms Consumers Buying Online
Digital SLR Camera's are set to be big in 2008 with bottom end models set to be the most popular and while most models are purchased through stores, online purchases are growing says a leading research group.

JB Hi Fi In Restrictive Practises Strife With ACCC
Leading consumer electronic retailer JB Hi Fi is in strife with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission after allegations of restrictive practises trade practices in Victoria.

Retailers Slam Rate Rise Claiming That Spending Was Slowing
Mass CE retailers along with specialist installers are set to be hit by the recent interest rate rise claims the Australian Retailers Association. They claim that retail spending was already falling prior to the rate rise.

COMMENT: Why Marketing Is NEC's Downfall
COMMENT: NEC has some of the best technology products in the world but unfortunately very few consumers know about them because of a short sighted marketing mentality by Japanese management who believe that sales come before marketing.

Ingram Finally Take On CEDIA & CE Distributor In Oz
The world's largest technology distributor Ingram Micro has finally announced a brand new CE and AV Pro division that will sell consumer electronics, software, networking, digital signage and security products, for the home and commercial environments. The move will put pressure on several CEDIA industry distributors as well as those selling into the fast growing CE market.

Samsung Overtakes Sony And Nokia Slips In Global Brand Study
Samsung has overtaken Sony and Nokia has slipped to #10 in the latest brand rankings of the top 250 companies in the world. Yest despite this consumer technology companies have taken 7 out of the top 10 places.