The Holiday Gadget Blitz Is On

The Halloween displays can't be tossed aside fast enough as the Christmas and other holiday displays go up. Daylight savings is over and the smell of wood smoke is in the air.  I enjoy this time of year, mainly due to the increased time spent with family and friends. The other reason is the release of new Gadgets and Geek stuff leading up to the holidays. Just to name just a few popular categories this year:

• Operating systems (OS X Snow Leopard, Microsoft Windows 7, Ubuntu 9.10)
• SmartPhones (The Droid, Samsung Moment)
• Netbooks (Dell, Toshiba, Asus)
• ebook Readers (Sony Reader, Barnes and Noble Nook)
• Multi-function Media devices (MS Zunes, Apple iPods, Tablet/Slate PC's)

With many people craving content on the go and looking to reduce costs, one of the biggest trends this year has been an impressive jump in mobile device sales. For example, Netbook sales are up 40% since this time last year. In case you’re not familiar with the term netbook, a netbook is basically a smaller version of a standard laptop. Many netbooks now come with built in cellular modems (with cellular plans) that allow users Internet access anywhere they can get a cell tower signal. Netbooks are great for people on the move, who want something a little larger than a cell phone for browsing, or those who don't want to pay for Internet both at home and on the go.

Another example is the rise in ebook reader sales. These are also up by as much as 50% by many estimates, and sell very well in November and December. Amazon's release of the Kindle last year seemed to be the catalyst that really sparked the growth in the ebook segment. There have been many new ebook readers introduced this year, and the options for getting content to the readers, and the types of content, have been growing steadily.

So, what are the best gadgets and brands to buy and how does one keep track of all these things? There’s a relatively new website that can help. Take a look at: http://www.gdgt.com. This website has product descriptions on almost every gadget both new and old. Plus, it's a social site that allows users to find friends, build lists of the gadgets they want/have, and share their experiences. However, the true geek may not find everything on this site. For the truly odd/fun geek stuff, head over to: http://www.thinkgeek.com. Enjoy...

Have something to share, leave me a comment below.

Matt (Technovation)