Out of the Box

Let’s all wish a slightly belated birthday to Out of the Box, which had its first post on March 17, 2006 about a simple Sony radio simply dubbed “the radio.” Indeed, even today, with all the excitement around Internet radio services such as Pandora and Slacker on the PC, televisions, and smartphones, FM continues to rule the roost in vehicles. While Sirius XM may now be half the number of companies they once were, that had little to do with competition from Internet radio in the car although the forces of IP are mounting there.

In any case, I won’t go through all the stats on this anniversary. There have been hundreds of posts, and I’ve blogged every month, if sometimes just barely, particularly in the era of microblogging. The record month was March 2008, when I blogged 35 posts, in part to see if I could blog more than an average of once per day for such a period. If you’re ever feeling deprived, feel free to check out my columns Switched On, Tech on Deck, Volume Up and Reserve Power, read me on the NPD Group blog, or catch the odd post on Out of the Box’s even less frequently updated companion blog . And thanks to all my readers.

Each week, The WIRE tracks my contributions to other publications and Web sites.

Engadget
Switched On: A new spin on external hard drives, part one, 5/6
In my weekly Switched On column, I started a discussion of Seagate’s new GoFlex line of drives, connectors, docks and enclosures, including the PogoPlug-powered GoFlex Net and the GoFlex TV that succeeds Seagate’s FreeAgent Go Theater competitor to WDTV..Seagate has essentially converted its entire consumer branded line to GoFlex, which separates the drive from the connector by way of a more durable SATA connector Next week’s column will go into more details about GoFlex usage scenarios.

Each week, The WIRE tracks my contributions to other publications and Web sites.

CNet
No Flash flood in iPad Avoidance, 4/28
In my Volume Up blog, I shared one of the findings from NPD’s recent iPad perceptions and attitudes study (PDF), in which the lack of Adobe Flash was not a leading inhibitor  among those who said they were not interested in the iPhone. The day after, Steve Jobs published his Thoughts on Flash essay, reinforcing the reasons why Apple’s mobile products will continue to ban both Flash and Flash cross-compilers.

Engadget
Switched On: Revamps in Motion, 4/27
In my weekly Switched On column, I discussed the approach RIM is taking toward evolving the BlackBerry OS, contrasting it to the overhauls that Microsoft and Palm opted for. Given the news this week that HP will be acquiring Palm, the handset company’s gamble was not sustainable given its resources, but was a valuable asset to HP. Given RIM’s position in the marketplace, an evolutionary approach that keeps it competitive without risking much may be a winning strategy.

Foxnews.com
Gadgets and Games 4/30
I was a guest on Clayton Morris’s Gadgets and Games, where we discussed many of the big stories of the week with fellow guests Andy Ihnatko and Seth Porges. These included the war of words between Adobe and Apple, HP’s acquisition of Palm, and the release of the Sony Dash, which we had on the program.

NPD Group Blog
Tunnels to the Television, 4/26
My first post at the NPD Group Blog this week was a response to my colleague Paul Gagnon’s post on the DisplaySearch blog regarding the future of Hulu and the television. In the post, I discussed the increase NPD has seen in networked content devices that stream music and video around a home network and across the Internet.

E-Reader Distribution Deals Kindle Sales Beyond a Nook, 4/28
This post discussed the implications of the broadening distribution of e-readers with the Nook landing at Best Buy and the Kindle landing at Target. My colleague Steve Baker had an insightful follow-up.

There’s another new feature being debuted at Out of the Box that’s being dubbed The WIRE (It’s an acronym, but I’ll let you guess what it stands for.)  The idea is to track other writing I’ve done around the Web. I’m getting a bit of a late start on the first one, but will shoot for same week coverage moving forward. In case you missed them, here were the two columns I wrote last week:

Engadget:: Switched On: Kin dread spirit
Following Microsoft’s criticism of Google competing with Android handset makers with the Nexus One, this Switched On column examined Microsoft’s decision to offer its own branded handsets, the Kin One and Kin Two, and how they compete with their OEMs more directly than Google did.

ABCNews.com: Portable Scanners Blaze a Paper Trail
Surprise, in the era of multifunction printers, there’s still a market for scanners, particularly portable ones  that focus on a particular purpose. My Tech on Deck column covers scanners from The Neat Company, Plustek, and Apparent’s Doxie, which recently started shipping after being launched at Macworld Expo.

For those who didn’t see the announcement on Twitter, I’m excited to share that I’ve started a new column for CNet called Volume Up that will discuss trends in NPD information and how they relate to consumer technology. It will be anchored in longer monthly posts but may include shorter pieces for updates and color as well.

My first post on the future of portable navigation devices (such as those from Garmin and TomTom) in light of rising smartphone penetration and the free availability of turn-by-turn directions via Google Maps.

i extend many thanks to my colleagues at NPD and those at CNet who worked to make this happen.

Once again, Out of he Box has been named a top analyst blog by Technobabble 2.0. The site held up pretty well in the rankings considering that Jonny Bentwood now lists the top 400 analyst blogs, that there have been far more blogs launched since the last ranking, and that the ranking now takes a more liberal definition of what an “analyst” is. (And based on at least one spot check, may take a somewhat liberal definition of what a blog is as well.)

Out of the Box was ranked #125, exactly one ahead of DisplaySearch Blog, which captures the thoughtful output of my colleagues. I’m also represented elsewhere in the rankings. The NPD Group blog, to which I am a frequent contributor, came in at #108.

Congratulations to my colleagues at The NPD Group and DisplaySearch, and thanks to all Out of the Box readers, subscribers and fans.

As noted on this blog’s About page, Out of the Box is written independently of my employer The NPD Group, and I haven’t delved too deeply into NPD research findings here.

But as this blog starts gearing up for its fourth year, launching today is another source for my industry commentary that more directly considers the context of NPD’s information. The official blog of The NPD Group begins this week with coverage of Black Friday and will continue to focus on holiday electronics sales and other issues relevant to the consumer technology. I smashed the champagne bottle of a first post against the hull of her template just a few minutes ago.

Joining me on the NPD blog will be my colleagues Steve Baker and Liz Cutting while NPD’s consumer technology PR manager Sarah Bogaty will be managing things behind the scenes.

I’m pleased to share that my esteemed NPD colleague Steve Baker, who has been an astute follower of the PC market for decades and has great insights into technology retail (he was an original employee at Staples), is now guest-blogging at TWICE.com. He joins a number of friends there, including the erudite Stewart Wolpin and his excellent grousefest Harmonic Distortion. Also, speaking of industry trades in the blogosphere, I recommend Audrey Gray’s blog at E-Gear. She posts only about once per month, but she makes the most of it.

Just wanted to take a moment to wish my friend Ryan Block well on his future endeavors now that he will be leaving behind. Yes, it’s well-known that Ryan really gets a lot of posts written at Engadget these days because he’s Veronica Belmont‘s boyfriend, but some of us remember him from the days before he reached such heights of Stedman-like blogebrity.

Seriously, though, whether it was in the days where Peter and Ryan were the dynamic duo that dove Engadget’s early days or during his master stewardship of the site since becoming its editor-in-chief, it has been a pleasure working with Ryan throughout Switched On‘s run. I am looking forward to continuing to work with incoming editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky, who has written some of my favorite Engadget posts.

So, I just tried posting something, and got back the error message, “No! No! No!” and then the blog sat on the floor, threw a huge tantrum and said it wanted a lollipop.

It’s been a fun year. Awards were won. Readership is growing. Twitter updates are allowing even more granular commentary. There are other things in the works, but the imminent release of WordPress 2.5 has provided a procrastination excuse window for measured consideration. Thanks for reading.