npd

Stephen Baker, NPD Group's vice president of industry analytics, on Tuesday called the first two weeks of sales for Microsoft's Office 2010 product "a bit disappointing."

The group's findings, which stem from its Weekly Tracking Service, were posted to NPD's company blog on Tuesday, and show that both the number of units sold and the money made from Office 2010 are less than they were for the first two weeks of sales for Office 2007. However, the findings also show that Microsoft is "in line, and in fact slightly ahead of" the … Read more

Led by hot demand for the Xbox 360, the video game industry scored its third best-selling May, trailing only 2009 and 2008. Revenue was down compared with a year ago due to lower console prices, according to the latest figures released Thursday by The NPD Group.

For the month, total revenue from gaming consoles, hardware, and software slipped 5 percent to $823.5 million, compared with $865.7 million a year ago. Video game hardware took the hardest hit, dropping 20 percent to $241.5 million from $303 million a year ago. Though sales were strong, lower hardware prices added … Read more

LOS ANGELES--If the huge crowds and crowds at E3 this week are any indication, the video game industry is in a lot better shape than a lot of people thought.

All throughout the two main halls at the Los Angeles Convention Center where E3 has been going strong since Tuesday morning, throngs of people make it hard to move, and at booth after booth, if you don't have an appointment, there's little chance you're going to get your hands on any of the hot games and hardware being shown here this year.

For more than a year, there's been a hint of doom and gloom surrounding the industry as its leading analyst, The NPD Group, has reported month after month of year-over-year sales declines. In April, for example, the firm bore the bad tidings that the industry as a whole saw 26 percent year-over-year declines, and that hardware revenues were down 37 percent year-over-year.

But on Wednesday, in a confession clearly timed to hit during the industry's premiere event, NPD admitted that its longstanding methodology for measuring industry sales has ignored some significant streams of revenue. … Read more

Before the iPad, it was often said that there has never been a successful electronics device in a screen size between the cell phone and the laptop. Indeed, the form factor and functionality of such devices have been tough nuts to crack, but there have been a few successes.

While the most widely adopted of these was the so-called "portable" DVD player embraced by many top-tier consumer electronics brands, a more modest success story has been the digital picture frame.

Cleverly branded, overgrown multimedia players that had undergone battery removal surgery, the digital picture frame was a star … Read more

The video games industry in April suffered its worst monthly year-over-over sales decline since July 2009, with overall revenues down 26 percent and hardware down 37 percent, according to a report Thursday from industry analyst The NPD Group.

In April, total revenues came in at $766.2 million. A year earlier, in the second month of steady declines after appearing like an industry that was resistant to the full impact of the recession, it had posted sales of $1.03 billion. For the year, sales came in at $4.73 billion, down 11 percent from the $5.29 billion recorded … Read more

Google's Android operating system edged out Apple's iPhone operating system for the No. 2 spot in the U.S. consumer smartphone market in the first quarter, research firm NPD Group reported Monday.

According to NPD, devices running Android accounted for 28 percent of the units sold to U.S. consumers in the first quarter of 2010. BlackBerry devices made by Research In Motion, which use RIM's homegrown operating system, took the top spot with 36 percent of the U.S. market. Apple's iPhone, which had been in the No. 2 spot previously, fell to third place … Read more

As Steve Jobs announced at the unveiling of iPhone OS 4, Apple's iPad has already sold half a million units in its first few weeks of availability and in advance of the availability of the more expensive, but more flexible, 3G version.

This puts it on track to break most estimates of first-year sales. In defending Apple's entry into the space, Jobs noted that it was important for the iPad to do certain tasks better than either the smaller smartphone or larger notebook. Among those tasks were watching videos, reading books, and surfing the Web.

Indeed, the iPad'… Read more

For the first time in months, video game industry executives can exhale.

That's because, according to industry analyst The NPD Group, the video games business as a whole saw a 6 percent year-over-year increase in March, and turned in the third-best nonholiday period month on record. Industry sales had been down 14 percent and 13 percent, year-over-year, in February and January, respectively.

But not all the news was good. While revenues for video game software and accessories were up significantly in March, hardware revenues took a hit.

For the month, the industry posted total sales of $1.52 billion, … Read more

The ailing Rhapsody music service that Viacom and RealNetworks failed to revive starts going it alone this month. The newly independent company will partner with a major music label this time around as well as slash monthly music prices from $15 to $10.

In February, Viacom and Real announced they would spin off the jointly run music subscription service and that they would sell a minority share while each held on to 47 percent of the company's stock. On Monday, Rhapsody said that Universal Music Group, the largest of the top four recording companies, has acquired a stake of … Read more