marketing

commentary If Google's marketing video for its in-the-works high-tech specs turned your stomach as much it did the stomachs of certain tech bloggers and editors who shall remain nameless, you'll no doubt appreciate the satirical -- and, we suspect, all too probable -- take that's embedded below.… Read more

Apple could be the first company worth $1 trillion in market capitalization as shares hit $1,000, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Somehow it's unlikely that Apple CEO Tim Cook is sending Munster any thank you notes. After all, we've seen these wild market calls before. Dow Jones Industrial Average at 25,000? Sure why not. All those dot-com stocks justified to the stratosphere in 2000. Magazine covers proclaiming bear and bull markets. You know the drill. One huge call can signal the end.

Rest assured Munster has more fundamental data backing him up. Apple is … Read more

As it did with millions of other fans around the world, "The Hunger Games" trilogy completely captured my imagination. I picked up the books about a year ago and read all three in less than two weeks. And I don't even read very fast!

Of course, as soon as I caught word that Hollywood was turning the franchise into feature films, I had to hop online to do my research. I lapped up every bit of casting news and waited with bated breath to catch my first glimpse of the trailer. And when the trailer arrived, I … Read more

Shopping on Craigslist is awesome, but sometimes it can be a pain to find the high-quality goods you're looking for. The hidden gems tend to be buried between listings for worn-down junk, and in many cases, it can be difficult to differentiate between the two. To solve this problem, the new Mint Market app promises a more targeted experience.

Much like Craigslist, Mint Market (download: Android | iPhone) covers everything from clothing and furniture to auto parts and event tickets. The difference, however, is that sellers on Mint Market only list items in new or like-new condition. What's more, … Read more

Mint Market is a mobile marketplace for preowned goods in mint or near-mint condition. Much like Craigslist, it covers everything from clothing to furniture to auto parts to event tickets, but what makes it uniquely useful, is that it focuses only on new or like-new products.

The first thing that struck me about Mint Market was its interface. While it may not be the most user-friendly thing in the world, it's certainly visually attractive. The Home screen features a long, vertical stream of listings, with each item displaying a large photo, name, and price. This layout makes it easy … Read more

Global PC shipments are expected to pick up in the second half of the year, but Windows 8-based ultrabooks will go through a period of trail and error, market researcher IDC said.

The launch of Windows 8 on ultrabooks should drive stronger second-half PC shipment growth after a weaker first half, IDC said today.

For the whole year, worldwide PC growth will be a modest five percent with most of the growth occurring in the latter half of the year.

"Many consumers are holding off making PC purchases at the moment because tablet devices like Apple's iPad are … Read more

For Android tablet owners, shopping the Google Play Store can sometimes be a pain, with tons of scaled-up phone apps hiding among the truly tablet-optimized. Sure, there's always the curated Staff Picks for Tablets section, but that offers only a tiny taste of all the delicious HD goodness that's really out there.

Enter Tablified Market--a curated market just for tablet-specific apps. The people behind it have a strict set of criteria that an app must meet in order to be included in the database, which to us means no more phone apps in search results. For one, an … Read more

While Avast dominates worldwide security suite usage, and Symantec leads in North America, Microsoft Security Essentials is rising fast, says a new study by OPSWAT, a software development tool and data service company in San Francisco.

OPSWAT's numbers confirm that free suites drive personal computer security, not surprising given the non-existent cost. From March 2011 to February 2012, Avast, AVG, Avira, and Microsoft combined for nearly half of the worldwide security suite market. While it's true that Avast, AVG, and Avira all have paid upgrades, and those companies won't reveal how many people use their free versus … Read more

With such an overwhelming number of products flooding the Google Play Store (aka the Android Market), Appreciate helps you cut through the clutter to find the apps that are tailored to your tastes. It's free, simple, and it works.

Appreciate takes inventory of the apps you have installed on your device, those you've uninstalled, and your usage habits across them all. It even takes into account your demographic and Facebook friends if you make that info available. After plugging the data into its formula, Appreciate serves up a menu of recommended apps for you to download, with new … Read more