Demand for media tablets is picking up ahead of the holidays according to a recent survey, with Amazon and Apple in particular looking like they will emerge as leaders this holiday season. According to data from market research firm ChangeWave, demand for tablets this holiday season is three times higher than it was last year during the same period. Holiday shoppers are most interested in Apple’s iPad 2 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire according to the results of a ChangeWave survey, preliminary results of which were released earlier this month. Read on for more

When asked if they intended to purchase a tablet in the next 90 days, 14% of the 3,043 North American consumers surveyed by ChangeWave said yes. Only 6% said they intended to purchase a tablet in a similar survey conducted in August, and just 4% intended to purchase a tablet in November last year. ChangeWave’s new survey also found that 65% of respondents intended to purchase Apple’s iPad 2, while 22% were eying the Kindle Fire. Only 4% of respondents intended to purchase a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and no other tablet vendor garnered more than 1% of interest among those polled.

“The launch of the Amazon Kindle Fire represents a shot across the bow at Apple, who until now has almost completely dominated the tablet space,” ChangeWave said. “But the most immediate impact of the Amazon device is on the rest of the competition, where the survey shows it wreaking a devastating blow to a range of second tier tablet manufacturers, including Motorola, RIM, Dell, HTC, H-P and Toshiba.”

Another recent survey conducted by Retrevo found that tablets will be in high demand among Black Friday shoppers this year, and the iPad and Kindle Fire top consumers’ lists as the gadgets they would most like to receive as gifts. A separate Retrevo survey found that sales of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet could top Apple’s iPad 2 this holiday season.

ChangeWave doesn’t see the Kindle Fire as much of a threat to Apple, however. Instead, Amazon’s tablet may end up helping Apple in the long run. “The ChangeWave survey shows the Amazon Kindle Fire is going to leapfrog the competition and become the number two product in the tablet market, as long as it can provide a quality user experience,” ChangeWave said. “But the Amazon surge may also contain a silver lining for Apple, by damaging the tablet market hopes of the remaining competitors in the field.”

Amazon’s upcoming Kindle Fire could be the hottest tablet on the market this holiday season, with demand that may even surpass Apple’s blockbuster slate, the iPad 2. Results from a recent survey published by electronics shopping guide Retrevo.com suggest that more consumers are interested in purchasing Amazon’s upcoming tablet than Apple’s tried and true iPad. As a result, the site speculates that the Kindle Fire represents Apple’s first real competition in the tablet space. Read on for more.

Of more than 1,000 consumers polled by Retrevo last month, 12% said they plan to purchase an Amazon Kindle Fire tablet this holiday shopping season. 10% said they would purchase an iPad ahead of the holidays. Among those polled who already owned a tablet model of some kind, 27% said they would upgrade to a Kindle Fire and 20% said they planned to purchase an iPad.

When asked if they would consider purchasing the $199 Kindle Fire over Apple’s iPad 2, which starts at $499, 44% of respondents said yes and only 12% said no. 44% said they didn’t know enough about the Kindle Fire to decide.

“Operating System confusion and lack of ‘tablet’ apps on the Android side may have helped keep Android tablets at bay however, the iPad 2 is starting to show its age and the new Kindle Fire is about to make the scene with a very attractive $199 price point,” Retrevo’s Andrew Eisner wrote on a company blog. “As popular as the Kindle Fire appears in this study, whether it lives up to expectations on things like battery life, performance, image quality, etc, the picture could get brighter or less bright for the Kindle Fire.”

A separate survey recently conducted by ChangeWave found that pre-launch demand for the Amazon Kindle Fire exceeded demand for the original iPad before it launched in 2010. Apple isn’t sweating the Amazon tablet, however, and CEO Tim Cook reportedly thinks further Android fragmentation brought about by the Kindle Fire will drive consumers to the iPad.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire will go on sale November 15th, and analysts believe fourth-quarter shipments could total as many as 5 million units.

T-Mobile announced on Tuesday that it will offer the HTC Radar 4G in time for the holidays. The HTC Radar 4G is a Windows Phone 7.5 device and we recently had a chance to go hands-on with the international version, which we said felt like the “perfect Windows Phone for budget-minded buyers.” It is equipped with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 3.7-inch display, a 5-megapixel camera with a single LED flash, 512MB of RAM and support for T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network. T-Mobile has not yet announced pricing for the HTC Radar 4G. Read on for the full press release.

T-Mobile announces the HTC Radar 4G – Our first Windows Phone capable of 4G Speeds!

Today, T-Mobile announced the upcoming availability of the HTC Radar™ 4G, our first Windows® Phone capable of 4G speeds on America’s Largest 4G Network®. The completely customizable smartphone pairs rich mobile entertainment features with the top-notch communications experience delivered by the latest version of Windows Phone, code-named Mango. This intuitive new operating system update will keep HTC Radar 4G customers connected and entertained just about wherever life takes them with its new and innovative communication features centered on people, along with preloaded entertainment applications and the ability to multitask between apps.

The HTC Radar 4G is elegantly crafted with an aluminum unibody design for a sleek and stylish appearance. Sporting a large 3.8-inch LCD touch screen display with a virtual QWERTY keyboard and powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon™ processor, the HTC Radar 4G delivers an efficient mobile communications experience at 4G speeds. The smartphone provides a comprehensive productivity experience with fully integrated Microsoft® Exchange and calendar as well as Microsoft Office Hub and Internet Explorer® 9 for a fast, beautiful Web experience.  Additionally, the new smartphone is equipped with dedicated camera button for easy access to the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash so you never miss a photo opportunity, even if the phone is locked.

The HTC Radar 4G is expected to be available at T-Mobile in the U.S. in time for the holidays. More information will be available at http://www.t-mobile.com/.

Over five years after the Xbox 360 launched in November 2005, the console powered through the 2010 holiday season — racking up its biggest sales month ever and capping off the biggest year in the console’s history. Microsoft sold 1.9 million Xbox 360 units in December according to NPD Group, providing more icing on Microsoft’s gaming cake following news that the company sold over 8 million Kinect sensors in 60 days. Year-over-year growth came in at 42%, making Xbox the fastest-growing console in 2010. NPD also says consumers spent more money on Xbox 360 than any other game console in 2010 — a whopping $6.2 billion. The top three games for Xbox in 2010 were Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Kinect Sports.

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During Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show this evening, Microsoft confirmed some pretty outstanding sales figures for the Kinect sensor. The company’s initial projections at launch time set Kinect sales goals at 5 million units by the end of 2010. Today, Ballmer confirmed that Microsoft not only exceeded that projection — the company crushed it. Over the Kinect sensor’s first 60 days of availability, over 8 million units were sold. Xbox 360 users have spoken… Kinect is a smash hit.

SpendingPulse, a MasterCard Advisors service that monitors national retail and services sales, has an early Christmas gift for all of us this year. According to tallies of MasterCard payments along with survey-based estimates for other forms of payment, MasterCard Services estimates that online spending this holiday season hit $36.4 billion in the U.S. The massive number represents a 15.4% increase compared to the holiday season in 2009. “Today eCommerce accounts for a much larger share of overall retail sales compared to a few years ago. And during this holiday season, it registered double digit growth for 6 out of 7 weeks,” said Michael McNamara, VP for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, in a statement. Daily online spending in the U.S. topped $1 billion six times during the holiday shopping season this year, compared to three times in 2009. Hit the break for the full press release.

SpendingPulse 2010 Holiday Full-Season eCommerce Report: eCommerce Spending Up 15.4% Reaching $36.4 Billion

2010 Season Saw Six Days with More than $1 Billion in Sales

PURCHASE, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–MasterCard Advisors: A macroeconomic indicator, SpendingPulse reports on national retail and services sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not represent MasterCard financial performance. SpendingPulse is provided by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide.

MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, a macroeconomic report tracking national retail and services sales, today provided summary results for eCommerce sales over the full 2010 holiday shopping season. During the period October 31 to December 24, U.S. consumers spent an estimated $36.4 billion, a 15.4% year-on-year increase over the 2009 holiday season.

“Today eCommerce accounts for a much larger share of overall retail sales compared to a few years ago. And during this holiday season, it registered double digit growth for 6 out of 7 weeks,” noted Michael McNamara, Vice President, for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. “In terms of sub-categories, apparel was the clear leader, helping increase the channel’s overall lift. In terms of share, online apparel sales during the holiday season accounted for 18.8% of total sales in that category, compared to 16.9% in 2009. As for some of the other sub-sectors, online electronics, not surprisingly, also recorded significant gains, while Jewelry, although still in positive territory, lagged behind.

In terms of highlights, there were 6 days in the 2010 season that surpassed $1 billion in sales compared with 3 days in 2009. Top days included Tuesday November 30, which registered $1.16 billion in sales, and Wednesday December 1, registering $1.13 billion. The Monday after Thanksgiving generated $999.3 million in sales, a 25.3% increase compared to the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2009.

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The Amazon Kindle’s position as one of the top electronics gifts of the 2010 holiday season is reaffirmed today as Amazon notes that the Wi-Fi-only version of its popular eBook reader is currently sold out. New orders will not be delivered until after Christmas, and Amazon suggests interested parties purchase the more expensive Kindle 3G instead, if delivery by Christmas is desired.

Due to overwhelming customer demand, Kindle (Wi-Fi) is temporarily out of stock. Orders placed today will arrive after December 24th. Order now to reserve your place in line. Our Kindle 3G for $189 is still available in time for Christmas.

Amazon’s Kindle Wi-Fi is very affordable at $139, and it currently sits at No. 2 on Amazon’s list of best-selling products. The Kindle 3G — which, at $189, costs $50 more than the Wi-Fi-only version — is No. 1 on the list.

Thanks, Mike

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‘Tis the season to spend money, and the countless sales that continue to pop up across the country make it oh so easy for us to part with our hard earned cash. One of the latest in a long line of enticing sales comes from Electronic Arts, which is offering a massive collection of iOS games for just 99¢ each. In fact, 68 of EA’s popular titles for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are on sale right now. Hit the break for the complete list compiled by Touch Arcade, which shows all of the games on sale along with links to each title’s App Store page.

iPhone/iPod touch Games

• Battlefield: Bad Company 2, 99¢
• Cause of Death: Can You Catch The Killer?, 99¢
• Heroes Lore III, $1.99 → 99¢
• High Caliber Hunting, $2.99 → 99¢
• Pictureka!, $1.99 → 99¢
• Reckless Racing, 99¢
• Mirror’s Edge, $4.99 → 99
• Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, $4.99 → 99¢
• Need For Speed Shift, $4.99 → 99¢
• Need For Speed Undercover, $4.99 → 99¢
• NBA Elite 11 By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99¢
• MMA By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99¢
• Fifa 11 By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99¢
• Fifa 10 By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99¢
• Madden NFL 11 By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99¢
• NCAA Football By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99¢
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour By EA Sports, 99¢
• The Sims 3, $6.99 → 99¢
• The Sims 3 Ambitions, $4.99 → 99¢
• The Sims 3 World Adventures, $2.99 → 99¢
• SimCity Deluxe, $2.99 → 99¢
• Spore Creatures, 99¢
• Spore Origins, 99¢
• Lemonade Tycoon, 99¢
• Monopoly, $2.99 → 99¢
• Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition, $2.99 → 99¢
• Risk: The Official Game, $4.99 → 99¢
• Battleship, 99¢
• Connect 4, 99¢
• Boggle, 99¢
• The Game Of Life Classic Edition, $2.99 → 99¢
• Clue, 99¢
• Trivial Pursuit, 99¢
• Yahtzee Adventures, 99¢
• Scrabble, $2.99 → 99¢
• R Type, $1.99 → 99¢
• Star Trek, 99¢
• Skate It, 99¢
• The Simpsons Arcade, $2.99 → 99¢
• Dragon’s Lair, 99¢
• Surviving High School, 99¢
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert, 99¢
• Zombies & Me, $1.99 → 99¢
• Mass Effect Galaxy, $1.99 → 99¢
• Wolfenstein RPG, $1.99 → 99¢
• Anytime Pool, $1.99 → 99¢
• Tetris, $2.99 → 99¢
• Sudoku, 99¢
• American Idol: The Game, $1.99 → 99¢
• Littlest Pet Shop, $2.99 → 99¢
• Pandemonium, 99¢
• Snood, 99¢
• Mystery Mania, $1.99 → 99¢
• Jewel Quest Mysteries, 99¢

iPad Games

• SimCity Deluxe for iPad, $6.99 → 99¢
• Need For Speed Hot Pursuit for iPad, $9.99 → 99¢
• Need For Speed Shift for iPad, $9.99 → 99¢
• Madden NFL 11 By EA Sports for iPad, $12.99 → 99¢
• Mirror’s Edge for iPad, $9.99 → 99¢
• Reckless Racing HD, $4.99 → 99¢
• Pictureka! for iPad, $4.99 → 99¢
• Tetris for iPad, $7.99 → 99¢
• Yahtzee HD, $4.99 → 99¢
• Boggle for iPad, 99¢
• Scrabble for iPad, $9.99 → 99¢
• Command & Conquer Red Alert for iPad, $4.99 → 99¢
• Clue: Secrets & Spies – A Hidden Object Game, $4.99 → 99¢
• Snood for iPad, $4.99 → 99¢

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In a note to investors Monday, JP Morgan analyst Imran Khan wrote that online shopping during the holiday season is up 22% so far this year compared to the same period in 2009. Khan cites a Chase Paymentech survey of 50 online retailers as his source. Online shopping during the same period in 2009 was up 15% compared to 2008, so this year’s positive trend is good news for Amazon.com and other popular online retailers. Khan also noted that the heaviest days for online holiday shopping have historically been December 15th through the 21st.

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Big box retailer Best Buy has announced a new promotion aimed at potential smartphone purchasers this holiday season. Citing the success of its Free Phone Fridays campaign, BB will be offering “a minimum of four free smart phones (one from each carrier) in all Best Buy stores, in all Best Buy Mobile specialty stores and online” through the holiday shopping season. Currently, Best Buy’s website has fourteen smartphones listed with a $0 price tag, including HTC’s DROID Incredible and Aria, LG’s Optiums S and T, BlackBerry’s Curve 9300, and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10.

“We were excited by the amount of consumer interest we received around our ‘Free Phone Fridays’ promotion in October, so we wanted to do it again only bigger,” said Best Buy Mobile’s president, Shawn Score. “People want smart phones and we couldn’t think of a better way to end the year for our customers than to offer free devices every day in December.”

As with most free phone promotions, a new or upgraded activation with a signed two-year contract is required.

Read [Press Release] Read [Free Phone Site]

Reaffirming a note sent to investors last week by RBC Capital Markets, DigiTimes now reports that iPad production has been increased ahead of the 2010 holiday season. iPad builder Foxconn Electronics has purportedly begun manufacturing iPad units at its new plants in Chengdu, China. These new plants are each capable of assembling 10,000 iPads each day, which is expected to meet demand when added to totals already being built in Foxconn’s Shenzen plants. Foxconn is currently able to build 2.5 million iPads each month at its Shenzen locations.

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Oops. It looks like someone running Microsoft’s Windows Phone Twitter account got a little excited and spilled the beans on a 2010 Windows Phone 7 launch at Verizon Wireless. In response to a tweet from Twitter user @joeyjoyjoy asking Microsoft to “get on some CDMA networks already,” an official Microsoft-run Twitter account replied. The response, which came as a surprise considering no official announcement has been made, stated that “WP7 devices will be rolling into Verizon stores this holiday season.” Microsoft’s Windows Phone Twitter account went on to say more devices would launch on Verizon Wireless in early 2011. The Microsoft tweet has since been pulled, but no correction was issued in its place. As a result, we can only presume Verizon will indeed be getting its Big Red mitts on at least one Windows Phone 7 device before the year is through.

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One of the most highly anticipated accessories among gamers may now be one of the most highly anticipated accessories among Microsoft investors as well. Microsoft’s Don Mattrick told Bloomberg News in an interview that the company is raising its holiday season Kinect sales projections from 3 million to 5 million units. According to the executive, that would make Kinect Microsoft’s biggest Xbox product launch in company history. Microsoft Kinect, which goes on sale November 4th, is a new type of gaming accessory that will allow players to use their bodies to control functions within a video game. Kinect’s sensor bar includes a series of cameras that observe players’ movements and then translate those movements into commands. The sensor will be sold as a stand-alone accessory or as part of a bundle with either a game or the Xbox 360 console itself.

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In line with rumors that surfaced over the summer, Apple has introduced free engraving with all new iPad orders. The service, which affords buyers two lines of text that can be engraved on the rear case of an iPad, adds 1-3 days to the estimated delivery time of iPad orders. Rumors from over the summer suggested that Apple wanted to offer free iPad engraving from the start but demand had been too high to offer the service, which would have delayed production. Just like Apple’s free iPod engraving service, those hoping to get their iPads engraved will be able to do so during the ordering process.

[Via Mac Rumors]

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We know how frantic things can get during this time of year: it’s almost Christmas and you’re wondering if you forgot anyone on your list, or whether everything you ordered will be arriving on time. For those who ordered the Barnes & Noble Nook in advance, units were promised to arrive on or before December 24. However, B&N is saying that there might be a very small percentage of customers who won’t be receiving their pre-ordered units in time. Those unlucky few will be receiving $100, almost 40% of the cost of the device, from the mega-bookseller for the inconvenience. It’s a nice gesture just in case things don’t work out, but we’re sure many of those customerss would be much happier watching their loved ones unwrap a new Nook under the tree on Christmas morning.

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