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The Xbox 360 continues to be a bright spot in a sluggish gaming market.

Grabbing more than 42 percent of all console sales, the popular platform scored 426,000 in unit sales last month, according to Microsoft.

Xbox aficionados shelled out a total of $383 million in February on hardware, software, and accessories--the most amount spent for any gaming console.

For the month, 5 of the top 10 games in the U.S. were aimed at the Xbox, including Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, UFC Undisputed, NBA 2K12, and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Nintendo saw … Read more

At first glance, tablets seem like some of the least sensibly designed cameras and camcorders ever created.

The iPad's 9.7-inch display, for example, makes it far less portable than many digital cameras and camcorders that offer equal or better image quality and imaging features. It has no tripod mount, and using it with one hand is an invitation to capture video that could lead viewers to question whether they're watching an earthquake.

Indeed, for many tablets, imaging has been an afterthought. Apple left cameras completely off of the first-generation iPad; HP passed on a rear camera for its ill-fated TouchPad; and Amazon and Barnes & Noble have left them off their value-priced Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet.

And yet, if you live in a center of high iPad concentration (the five Manhattan Apple stores help New York City qualify), you may have noticed people using iPads for exactly that purpose. People using tablets to capture stills and video are hard to miss because of their awkward two-handed grappling of the device.

While image and video capture are far from the most popular activities on tablets, about one in five consumers use their tablets to capture photos, and one in eight use them to capture video, according to The NPD Group's Connected Intelligence research.

What's more, while satisfaction with these activities trails behind smartphones somewhat, consumers report being overwhelmingly satisfied when using their devices for these tasks. What's capturing the interest in capturing? Several factors may be at play: … Read more

Once again, another survey found Apple dominated the tablet market in both the fourth quarter and throughout 2011 overall.

First, Apple shipped 23.4 million mobile PCs in the fourth quarter of 2011 (26 percent of the global market share) and over 62.8 million mobile PCs throughout the year--both mostly filled with iPad orders, according to the latest figures from NPD DisplaySearch.

Although mobile-PC shipments grew by 12 percent quarter to quarter and by 44 percent year over year, NPD DisplaySearch senior analyst Richard Shim explained in the report that mobile-PC brands had a difficult time last year.

Mobile-PC … Read more

Apple was named the best-selling U.S. handset brand during the fourth quarter, according to a new report from the NPD Group.

However, the findings suggest that while iOS has won this battle, Android is really winning the war.

Take a look at the graph below:

Not only do 48 percent of all smartphone buyers own Android smartphones (versus a close 43 percent on iOS), there is a much bigger disparity for first-time smartphone buyers. Android is attracting more than half of them at 57 percent, while Apple is considerably behind at 34 percent.

There are several possible contributing factors … Read more

Microsoft's Xbox 360 was one of the few bright spots in a year marked by a downturn in retail gaming sales, according to data out yesterday from NPD Group.

The Xbox 360 scored almost 40 percent of physical retail sales across all product categories in 2011. Microsoft's gaming console was the top-selling platform of the year, said NPD, though Sony's PlayStation 3 also saw a jump in unit sales over 2010.

Revenue from software, accessories, and other items for the Xbox 360 and PS3 rose 5 percent for the year.

But the gaming industry as a whole … Read more

A host of smartphones already use AMOLED screens, and the prospects are good for more tablets and TVs to take advantage of these thin, fast, bright displays, according to NPD DisplaySearch.

AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) displays are ideal for tablets and TVs as they offer high contrast ratios, quick response times, and wide viewing angles. The technology also allows for such devices to be thin, flexible, and even transparent, the research firm notes.

On the other hand, AMOLED technology has faced challenges scaling up to screen sizes much larger than those on smartphones. But the latest improvements … Read more

When it comes to taking photos and videos, an increasing number of consumers are reaching into their pocket instead of a camera bag, a new study suggests.

According to new research by the NPD group, smartphones hit a major milestone this year, accounting for 27 percent of photos taken in its Imaging Confluence Study. That's up from the 17 percent that gadget class garnered at the same time last year.

What made room for that growth was a decrease in the number of photos taken by standalone cameras, the firm said. This year, those devices came in at 44 … Read more

Television vendors are selling more 3DTV sets than ever, but whether those buyers are actually using the 3D is a major question mark right now.

Research firm NPD's DisplaySearch unit reported today that 6.6 million 3D LCD TVs shipped during the third quarter, representing a gain of 27 percent over shipments during the second quarter. DisplaySearch expects 3DTV shipments to jump 30 percent in the fourth quarter. All told, the firm expects 21.5 million 3D televisions to ship this year.

That success has helped 3D televisions cut into 2D market share. In the first quarter of 2011, … Read more

At least for now, Hewlett-Packard can lay claim as the second most-popular tablet manufacturer behind Apple.

Too bad, it'll be a short-lived reign.

Despite all of the attention focused on Apple's iPad, other tablet makers have seen some adoption this year. In total, the U.S. tablet market--excluding Apple--saw sales of more than 1.2 million units and retail revenue of $415 million from January through October, according to a new study from NPD. HP stood on top of that non-iPad hill, closely followed by Samsung Electronics.

Of course, the market is still tiny when compared with Apple, … Read more