ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

The "iPhone 4" goes on sale on June 24th in UK, France, Germany in 16GB and 32GB versions.

iPhone 4 features more than 100 new features including a better still camera (5 megapixel), improved battery life (40% more time) and a screen with significantly higher resolution (326 pixels per inch, 4X more pixels than before).

But what everyone will be watching is the front-facing video camera for WiFi-only video conferencing. Will iPhone owners develop video chat habits with Mac owners or iPhone to iPhone?

Probably users will "record HD video and edit it on a device you carry with you everyday" but to popularize video chat would be the major breakthrough that Apple wants.

Go Apple iPhone4

Lance Armstrong tries for a come-back, taking 3rd place on the winner's podium at the 2010 Tour of Luxembourg. Riding for Team Radio Shack, Lance is not the only one trying to make a come-back these days.

Radio Shack wants to sell out by end of summer. After an initial round of bids last week, U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group is one of the interested parties. Blackstone's portfolio includes The Weather Channel, Hilton, SeaWorld, Freescale, Nielsen, CentreParks and lots others including Merlin Entertainment that owns London Eye.

Radio Shack could net more than $3 billion. The granddaddy of electronics retailing, the new "Shack" is emphasizing mobile products these days.

Go "Shack" Commercial with Lance Armstrong

According to GfK, the good news is that retail business is getting better this decade. The bad news is that the market is changing (again) and retailers will have to jump a new "Valley of Death" to prosper.

GfK's Dr. Rudi Aunkofer told delegates at RetailVision the global financial crisis created cautious retail behaviour, lower stock levels and much more retail/vendor driven price competition.

But besides the "crisis" (and we use quotation marks as the crisis really affected many other areas of business far deeper than consumer IT), there were underlying cycles that typically drive our IT business.

A study by GfK asked consumers across Europe in what ways were they saving day-to-day to cope with the financial crisis. Consumers named buying food and drink for less as their Number one strategy. Spending less on clothes and shoes came next. Going out to eat was number 3 and postponing larger purchases of furniture or car ranked the 4th most important way they were saving money in the recession. What is remarkable is that cutting back on high tech products did NOT make the Top 10 Ways We'll Cut Costs. Not at all.

Sure, sales of high tech dropped as economies dropped but we, as an industry, were not a direct target as consumers consider us a necessity (or at the very least a sacrosanct luxury).

More important to the state of our business are the underlying cycles that typically drive our IT business.

Created using the flexible Em-ITX form factor, VIA launches 6.5" and 15" VIA VIPRO touch screen panel PCs for next gen Human Machine Interface applications

The 6.5" VIA VIPRO VP7806 and 15" VIA VIPRO VP7815 are both fanless and durable with IP65 compliant LED backlit panels that can withstand temperatures of -20°C to 60°C.

With touch panel navigation, 2 megapixel autofocus IP camera, microphone and speakers, the VIA VIPRO series looks good for next gen panel apps that include hospital patient terminals, home and building automation and advanced multimedia-rich security ecosystems.

Both VIA VIPRO VP7806 and VIPRO VP7815 are based on the VIA ART 3000 embedded box PC.

Go VIA VIPRO VP7806