May 16 - 10:40am EDT   The top-ranking online electronics stores continue to be dominated by Apple and other specialized sites, according to a new study by ForeSee Results. Both Apple and hobbyist computer store Newegg have tied each other for the highest satisfiaction scores in an examination of the top 100 shops in the US, each reaching the 80-point threshold ForeSee says is necessary to be considered "superior." The company doesn't provide specifics as to why these two topped the charts but notes that its rankings are based on both the actual ease of use of the site as well as the ability to find stock and get it at the right price. [full story]

May 8 - 9:10am EDT   Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse on Thursday announced that they would create a new, jointly-run company to exploit each other's strengths. The total investment will equate to $4.2 billion and will see both the American electronics retailer and the British phone reseller take 50 percent stakes in the new venture, including both a financial stake as well as equal share in the 2,400 stores that make up the combined effort. Carphone Warehouse will continue to keep its landline businesses, while Best Buy will continue to own just under a three percent direct stake in its European counterpart. [full story]

April 30 - 4:50pm EDT   The subscription-based digital music retailer, eMusic, launches today in Canada online and in over 80 Best Buy stores and Avis car rental locations. This marks eMusic's first expansion into other markets, as the service has been in operation in the US since 2003 and recently surpassed 200 million downloads, making it the second biggest online music retailer next to iTunes. eMusic offers 3.5 million DRM-free MP3-format songs and audio books, allowing users to burn them to CDs, transfer them to personal MP3 players and make multiple copies for personal use. [full story]

April 22 - 3:50pm EDT   Apple is expanding its retail presence in two drastically different locations. China Tech News states that the company has partnered with Best Buy to open its first Chinese store-within-a-store, located in a shop in the Xuhui district of Shanghai. Apple's section occupies 538 square feet, and contains a typical assortment of products, excluding only a few notable items such as the iPhone. Though Apple has expressed its desire to sell the device in Asia, it has yet to announce any formal deals with carriers. [full story]

April 15 - 10:35am EDT   Amazon's highly-touted MP3 store has had little to no effect on the success of iTunes, according to a new analysis by The NPD Group. A study conducted by the group reveals that just 10 percent of all purchasers at Amazon MP3 are converts from Apple's service, with the rest either switching from other stores or else are new to direct-download music. This comparatively new audience is a "healthy indication" that other stores don't necessarily have to draw customers away from iTunes to grow, says NPD entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick. [full story]

April 10 - 11:15am EDT   Dell this morning revealed that Canada would be the next to see the fruits of its retail initiative. Beginning late this week, the company will sell several of its desktop and notebook models in multiple large retailers for the country, including Best Buy, Future Shop, and Staples. The exact mixture of systems will vary by store but should include the Inspiron 530, its slimline 530s equivalent, and the XPS 420 for desktops; notebooks will include both the Inspiron 1525 as well as the XPS M1330 (pictured) and M1530. [full story]

April 8 - 12:35pm EDT   Bargain retailer Wal-Mart has joined the ranks of corporations attempting to appease buyers of HD DVD players, which are now obsolete and faced with an increasingly dwindling movie supply. The company is offering refunds to anyone who bought an HD DVD player on or following November 1st of last year, with or without original packaging. People must, however, return the player by April 30th, and bring with them their original receipt. [full story]

April 7 - 5:00pm EDT   Europe's Carphone Warehouse is coming to the US, reports say. The company is an independent cellphone vendor, and has some 2,300 stores scattered throughout European countries. It is now planning to open almost 1,000 stores in America, thanks to a partnership with big-box retailer Best Buy, which owns a 3 percent stake in Carphone. Some of these will be boutiques within Best Buy shops, but others will operate separately in different locations. The first American outlets should launch later this year. [full story]

April 1 - 5:10pm EDT   HTC today said it would its Touch DUAL smartphone to the US, signaling the first change to the phone in the country since the original Touch. The Americanized slider will be HTC's first confirmed phone for the country to use Windows Mobile 6.1 out of the box, providing the improved navigation and (in summer) web browsing without the need for a software patch. Typing will also be easier, HTC promises: versions will be available both with a conventional keypad and with double-letter buttons similar to RIM's SureType keypads on the BlackBerry Pearl line. [full story]

March 30 - 2:50pm EDT   A Windows version of the Eee PC will be available early next month, according to statements by ASUS to Laptop magazine. The company now expects its Americanized version of the 4G-X to appear within the first two weeks of April, when it will start selling at Best Buy retail shops; the system will be priced at the same $400 as the 7-inch Linux model and will share the same 4GB of flash storage, 512MB of RAM, and 900MHz Celeron as the months-old original. [full story]

March 19 - 11:50am EDT   Best Buy hopes to satisfy disaffected buyers of HD DVD players by offering them a $50 coupon, the retailer announced today. Worth $10 million, the deal will hand out the in-store discount to anyone who bought either a dedicated HD DVD reader or add-ons such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 HD DVD drive on or before February 23rd, the Saturday that followed Toshiba's discontinuation of the format. The decision was made to head off concerns from customers who unknowingly bought into the now-obsolete format and will help them make their own decisions, whether to switch to Blu-ray or something else altogether, Best Buy claims. [full story]

March 19 - 9:50am EDT   American spending on electronics is about to take a sharp slide, suggests a study by ChangeWave Research. In a survey of over 4,400 Americans conducted between February 18th and the 25th, a full 33 percent said they would be spending less on electronics in the next 90 days, versus only 19 percent who said they would spend more. Although "spending less" responses tend to dominate in most months of the year except for the run-up to Christmas, the gap is now the largest it has been since 2002, a factor which may both reflect and harm an already damaged US economy. [full story]

March 3 - 4:20pm EST   Apple is expanding its iTunes compilation card collection, offering themed collections through Best Buy, and supposedly other locations as well. iLounge reports that the cards are available in 15- and 30-song versions, offering bundles such as "Classic Rock Hits", "80's Super Hits", "Love Song Classics", and "R&B Hits", among others. The compilation cards are available from $10 to $20 for the 15- and 30-song versions, at a price of 67¢ per track. [full story]

February 25 - 12:35pm EST   Apple may finally be preparing to update its MacBook Pro notebooks, leaked information suggests. While the regular MacBooks shipped late last year, and the Mac Pro desktops were updated in early January, some shoppers have been waiting impatiently for an upgrade to MacBook Pros before buying a new computer. Three upgraded systems are said to be listed in the inventory management systems of Apple and resellers such as Best Buy with new SKUs (i.e, Apple model tracking numbers): MB402LL/A, MB403LL/A, and MB404LL/A. [full story]

February 22 - 9:05am EST   Apple's Time Capsule backup drive, initially announced at Macworld last month, is behind in shipments but will officially hit store shelves on Sunday, February 24th. Although Apple's online store only lists the device as shipping in "February," a Best Buy circular for next week lists the 500GB and 1TB Time Capsules as shipping on February 24th. "Most" Best Buy outlets will have three or four Capsules in stock, the tip says. [updated] [full story]