Daily Marauder

TECHNOLOGY

Best Buy, the country’s leading consumer-electronics retail chain, is preparing to pump up its use of private-label brands. But, according to this article, the move can be a two-edged sword if products offered up under the company’s private labels do not meet the high-quality expectations that Best Buy has worked hard to cultivate. The Wall Street Journal (4/27)

Revenue from home-video rentals was up just under 1%, to $1.7 billion, in the first three months of the year, according to Rentrak. Revenue from video purchases, however, was not as strong: That category was down 11%, to $3.1 billion, according to Video Business research. Total spending on DVD and Blu-ray sales and rentals fell 7% during the period. Variety (4/26)

The overwhelming majority of teens are worried about the economy and are cutting back spending by about 14%, research shows. While they’re spending less on clothing, beauty, food and trips to movie theaters and concerts, video game, music and DVD sales have been less affected. Advertising Age (4/27)

A U.S. District judge in San Francisco will hear arguments in the MPAA’s lawsuit against RealNetworks‘ RealDVD software this week in a case that could determine whether consumers get to legally copy movie discs. The RealDVD software, which enables users to copy DVDs to a computer hard drive, came under fire from the Hollywood industry group, which said it bypasses DVD copy protection and violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. CNET (4/24)

The newest telecom device on the market — home media phones such as Verizon‘s Hub and AT&T’s HomeManager — could grow from 1.4 million units shipped this year to 14.3 million by 2013 if carriers continue to subsidize their costs to consumers, according to research company In-Stat. “The media phone represents a new category of broadband multimedia device that has the potential to become the fourth screen in the home, complementing the PC, TV and mobile handset,” In-Stat predicted. TWICE (4/24)