consumers

I'm a big fan of Sonos, thanks in part to the loaner Play:5 in my kitchen. I use it more than the beautiful Marantz receiver and classic Tannoy speakers in my living room, not just because it's in a more convenient location, but because it gives access to much more music. My Sonos plays my music library from a networked hard disk, as well as Spotify, Pandora, and local and global radio stations. It's really a fantastic audio device.

With the introduction of the lower-end Play:3, it appears that Sonos is steadily moving down the market. Perhaps, I thought, the company is going to lower its prices even more, so I could afford put a Sonos box of some sort in my living room. Perhaps, even, when it's time to upgrade my receiver, I'll be able to get one with Sonos built in. I called Sonos co-founder Tom Cullen to ask when that would be.

The answer was not what I wanted, but it led to an interesting look at Sonos' and home audio in general. In short, according to Cullen, "We don't believe receivers are long for this world."

Cullen says that audio receivers made sense "before the digital world," when you needed a box for big amps and for switching between a lot of sources. As more entertainment comes over the Net, Cullen says, "We think the notion of switching between physical sources will be seen as quaint. Instead of putting Sonos into receivers, we're going to make receivers unnecessary."

He adds, "We play in a market full of companies that haven't made meaningful changes to how they do sound in 20 years."

This Sonos vision certainly makes sense, as a vision. At the moment, home audio (and video) users do have to deal with multiple hardware sources: DVD players, game consoles, television or satellite or cable signals, and so on. Granted, more of the content is going to the Internet, to both remote cloud services like Spotify, Pandora, and Netflix, and to local network storage. But you can't yet run a full entertainment system without having some way of switching between physical signals in addition to your IP streams.

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iPad leads in brand satisfaction among U.S. consumers, though a relatively obscure tablet maker came in a close second, according to IHS iSuppli.

Rivals face a steep challenge in the U.S. because consumers are fixated on Apple's tablet to the detriment of other brands, according to the "U.S. Tablet Consumer Preference" study released today by iSuppli.

"Apple's competitors in the tablet market already are facing major challenges in offering products that can match the iPad's combination of optimized hardware, software, operating system, applications, content and app store," Rhoda Alexander, an … Read more

Despite concerns over the major carriers switching to limited data plans, most smartphone users don't consume nearly as much data as expected, according to a Consumer Reports story yesterday.

Analyzing information obtained from 23,000 consumer cell phone bills, Consumer Reports found that the average bill from February 2010 to February 2011 did show a fair amount of data consumed per month--274 megabytes for T-Mobile subscribers, 360MB for AT&T users, and 449MB for those on Verizon.

But that average was pulled higher by a small percentage of heavy data users and so doesn't give a truly … Read more

Utilities stand to save money in operational costs after an initial large investment in smart-grid infrastructure, but the rest of the savings will depend on consumers.

That's according to a 38-page white paper (PDF) released this month by the Institute for Electric Efficiency.

The IEE group did a cost-benefit analysis using real-world numbers for things like equipment costs, energy prices, and usage statistics to estimate the costs and benefits to four different types of prototypical utilities managing a service territory of one million residential electricity consumers.

Implementing smart grids, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and associated energy management technologies would … Read more

A public interest group called Consumer Watchdog has filed an antitrust complaint with the Federal Trade Commission about Facebook Credits, arguing that the virtual currency used for purchases such as assets in online games is anticompetitive.

Specifically, the group objects to new terms for using the credits that go into effect Friday. The group argues in the 28-page complaint (PDF), "The new Facebook Credits terms will enable Facebook to maintain and extend its monopoly power over the market for virtual goods purchased in social games."

In addition, the complaint argues, the new terms prohibit game developers from charging … Read more

Google has been fined for selling apps in the Android Market in Taiwan without offering a seven-day refund period, as local regulations dictate, and has responded by halting sales of apps in the country.

According to a statement from the Law and Regulation commission of Taipei City Government, the California company was fined NT$1 million (about $34,596) for failing to comply with Taiwan's consumer protection law. The law states that consumers should be given seven days to evaluate purchases and decide whether to request a refund. Google currently gives Android owners just 15 minutes to evaluate apps … Read more

The case of the energy-hogging set-top boxes and DVRs highlights the challenges of changing existing industry and consumer practices to boost energy efficiency.

The New York Times yesterday ran an in-depth look at the issues surrounding set-top boxes and DVRs, which have become the biggest energy consumer in many homes. The National Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, published an analysis two weeks ago which found that set-top boxes consume more energy than the TVs they're connected to, and more than EnergyStar refrigerators. Because they're on all the time, they cost consumers $2 billion a year when … Read more

Gary Shapiro, the head of the Consumer Electronics Association, is frustrated by TV broadcasters' lack of innovation, and he isn't shy about voicing what he thinks they should do with spectrum licenses that have been give to them for free.

Shapiro and the CEA, which lobbies in Washington, D.C., on behalf of gadget makers and retailers, support a controversial proposal from the Federal Communications Commission, which calls for TV broadcasters to voluntarily give up some of their spectrum to be auctioned off.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has proposed the incentive spectrum auctions as a way to free up … Read more

More Americans are checking in on their favorite shows this year, a new report from Nielsen has found.

According to Nielsen, the average American spends 159 hours watching television in the home, along with 4.5 hours of content on the Web. They watch another four hours of video on their mobile devices. Those aged 65 and older spend the most time each month watching "traditional television," tallying nearly 221 hours of total viewership. Kids between the ages of 12 and 17 watch the least amount of television programming each month, viewing just 107 hours of content.

All … Read more