The world around us

Rising sales of music downloads and mobile ringtones on mobile phones is bringing cheer to the music industry, especially when sales of CDs have been declining. According to research firm, eMarketer, the high level of competition in the music and consumer technology has made it an extremely competitive and even hostile environment for the entertainment industry, in its report “Mobile Music” Mixing It Up”. Sales of downloaded songs to mobile phones and handhelds reached $390 million in 2006 and sales of ringtones and ringback tones reached $1.7 billion.

“An increasingly plausible scenario is that the mobile handset, long considered to be a personal cash register for paid downloads, might instead evolve into a marketing channel for brands and artists,” Gauntt says. “In that sense, the future business model of mobile music might start looking a lot like the radio model.”

I find it quite interesting to notice people’s mailboxes as we drive by them. While the majority of consumers still have just the regular traditional mailboxes, there are some really stylish ones out there as well. The trend for stylized residential mailboxes is catching on and becoming more common. A lot of consumers just don’t bother too much about their mailboxes, and leave it as it is. I did some research on companies that provide such products and found mailboxixchange to be one of the most popular sites on the internet.

With a wide variety of residential and commercial mailboxes on offer, the company has created quite a niche for itself. The trend for home decor, interior as well as exterior has been ongoing for a while and people are finally paying attention to their mailboxes as well. It’s more important for businesses and consultants to have a stylish mailbox system, since it’s usually in a spot that all customers can see as well.

In a report called “Men in Grocery Stores”, it was found the men are increasingly doing grocery shopping, but retailers are not really doing anything special to make the trip more exciting for them. According to Mandy Putnam, vice president at Retail Forward, one of the most prominent retail consulting firms, “Men do represent a large part of grocery shopping dollars and they aren’t being very well accommodated … sales are being lost,” due to inefficient shopping and promotions.

The problems men face when grocery shopping are difficulty in finding items, at which point they rather not buy it at all rather than take a substitute product. Men are also more hesitant to ask for assistance in locating an item. According to WSL Strategic Retail, 41% of men said that they did some grocery shopping in 2002, a number that increased to 61% in 2004, and in 2006, 71% of men said that they did some grocery shopping, though the increase from 2004 to 2006 cannot be directly co-related since the variables of the study were different.

Some of the most common reasons for more men doing grocery shopping, include, getting married later, an increase in the number of households where both husband and wife work etc. Men shoppers are said to focus on convenience and price more than women, so retailers need to keep that in mind when targeting men shoppers.

Tenerife has come to be one of the most popular destinations from the UK, for its proximity, its great beaches and resorts and for providing a super holiday experience. There are lots of travel agents that specialize just for planning holidays in Tenerife and the one I checked out in detail is called Holiday Hypermart. I tried out their feature that lets you Build your own vacation package with cheap flights Tenerife and a hotel room, transfers from the airport etc so that you create an all-inclusive vacation package. It is possible to book a regular pre-packaged vacation with them as well. My vacation for 7 days at a four-star hotel came to GBP540 for two people, which is a pretty good price. Their self catering holidays are pretty good too, I found a vacation package for GBP95 per person, which again is a great deal for a vacation.

Gamers are serious about their game and according to a new study two-thirds of casual gamers are playing online games. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has the maximum number of users with 54% of online gamers playing it and Sony’s PlayStation comes in second with 45% of users. Interestingly, 42% of online gamers are female, a figure higher than most people’s expections. The average age of most online gamers is 25-44 and their median household income ranges from $35,000 to $75,000. About 44% of online gamers prefer to play card, puzzle, arcade and word games

“The audience for online games is still largely the casual player,” says NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “Understanding exactly who is playing what and where is crucial for the industry to realize the potential revenue that online games represent for future growth.”

As clothing trends go, this one has been around for a very long time and is likely to continue to do so for a while more. There is something quite fascinating about this trend, that has caught the attention of college students and other young adults. The number of stores selling such merchandise in and around college towns is quite high. ArmyNavyMall.com is one of the popular stores online to buy camouflage merchandise. With nature activities and camping high on everyone’s list for the summer, it’s no surprise that this merchandise is in such high demand.

Although the number of hunting enthusiasts are reducing with each passing year, there still is a substantial demand for footwear, clothing and survival equipment that can be used for hunting trips. As it always happens, the moment the media show a celebrity wearing something different, it becomes the latest fashion, and with several celebs being photographed in camouflage wear, it definitely is a popular choice for the season.

Just signed up for a service called Pageflakes, where you can create your own personalized page. I haven’t made too many changes as yet, and it’s showing my local events, weather news etc on my page as yet. I have selected the sports news that I want as golf, so I can abreast with all the latest golfing news and tour stats. You can create multiple pages, add your email and password so your mail automatically comes there and lots of other fun things. Not sure how much use this has, since I already have this information accessible elsewhere, but it’s definitely worth a try.

I have kept a list of all the books that I have read, on a month-to-month basis, and all the books I want to read and buy for the past 5 years. I write my list in my list book of sorts, not really a journal, but a book that has a lot of my favorite stuff. While my method of keeping track of books is relatively old-fashioned, there is a new online version of this and it’s called goodreads. Here you can keep track of all the books you’ve read and want to read, see what friends are reading, reccomend books and lots more. It kind of reminds me of another site, that I am a member of already but haven’t used for over a year. Can’t remember the name of it, but will search for it and add it here later on…In the meantime, I’m heading on over to goodreads to make my own list.

My anti-virus is to expire soon and I’m considering switching to a different company. I currently use McAfee, which has worked out quite fine for me, except that it is a bit bureaucratic and has too many sub sites for different currencies etc. Like when I tried to buy an antivirus, it wanted me to buy it in Singapore Dollars or Great Britain Pounds, and I don’t live in either of those countries. Their local service is really bad too. I’ve heard that Grisoft’s AVG antivirus software is much better. And it’s free, which is always a great incentive to try it out, right? Think I’ll head on over to do some research about them.

When we make our next move, we’re not going to be able to take our furniture or electronics with us, as it works out as the same cost as buying new products there itself. So, we’re going to equip ourselves with an entirely new house. While on one hand it is exciting, on the other it is quite a daunting task. We already have done it before, so have some experience with it, although this time it will be in a new country. What I’m really looking forward to buying first and foremost is an oven and stove, such as a Maytag oven. My current oven is a bit too small and I really have wanted to go in for a larger one, but it didn’t make sense while we were living in this apt as there is no space for it. I’ve already started surfing to see where I can buy the best products and get the best deals and found AbtElectronics, which has all the electronic appliances one needs to set up a house.