Best BUY Co., Inc.

In September 2007, Apple upstaged rival electronics retailers with a new product available only at its 180 stores. Billed as the world's smallest laser printer, the SCX-4500 offered all the must-have features of an Apple blockbuster: sleek good looks, buttonless touch controls, and easy set-up. The logo on the front, though, wasn't Apple's. It belonged to Samsung Electronics -- one of the biggest suppliers of flat-panel televisions, cellular phones, and refrigerators in retailing -- which created the stunning, piano-black printer.

In yet another move to get Apple's iPhone into more retail outlets, Best Buy on Tuesday became the first retailer to offer refurbished iPhone 3Gs at stores nationwide.

The news follows two similar moves in December. That's when AT&T began offering refurbished iPhone 3Gs even as Wal-Mart inked a deal with Apple to sell brand-new iPhone 3Gs at a $5 discount at its stores.

Earlier this year, I sat with Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson in a typical meeting with a roomful of managers. He did something that fellow CEOs might find unusual. He let a 23-year-old employee, Adam Mulder, speak passionately and at some length about changes he thought would improve sales of media products for the consumer electronics retailer. Throughout Mulder's speech, Anderson took notes and asked thoughtful questions.

An under-$100 price for Apple's iPhone remains a wish, but the buzz about the iPhone being available at Wal-Mart may be true -- for $197.

Calls to several Wal-Mart stores in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island confirmed that the iPhone will be available at the end of the month. One sales representative who handles wireless products said stores haven't been given an exact date, but the iPhone will be available by the end of the year.

You see them on tables in coffee shops, under the arms of college students and on the laps of travelers waiting for a flight. Called "netbooks" or "mini-notebooks," these small, lightweight and relatively affordable computers are one of the hottest tech toys of the year.

Popularized by Asus Eee PCs, which start at $269, netbooks are designed for basic tasks -- Web surfing, e-mail and word processing. That's just fine for some folks.

Apple's products are poised to be among the holiday winners. But could the shortages that plagued the Amazon Kindle and Nintendo Wii in their early days of production put a damper on Apple's sales?

According to a research note from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu on Wednesday, Apple is tasked to keep up with the strong demand for iPods. That could lead to shortages during the holiday shopping season.

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and now CyberMonday. Launched several years ago by shop.org, an organization that promotes online retailers, CyberMonday features special sales and free shipping to complement the discounts in brick-and-mortar retailers on Friday.

Apple Inc., facing a tight U.S. consumer spending environment, is gearing up for a one-day sale on Friday and at least one analyst expects the company to offer discounts of up to 15 percent.

The day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, is the traditional kickoff to the U.S. holiday shopping season and one of the biggest buying days of the year for consumers.

The outlook for the computer and consumer electronics industry is universally grim, with shoppers widely expected to cut back on purchases as a recession looms.

So you want to give a desktop computer to a kid? [In a past article], I wondered whether to go used, new from a major manufacturer, or new (and relatively easy to assemble) from parts.

Before I go any further, it's worth pointing out that the price of laptop computers has fallen so low that you really don't save much money -- as used to be the case -- by opting for a desktop system.

If you're buying new, by the time you add a flat-screen monitor to your desktop PC box, you're taking about $450 minimum from Dell, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard or Acer.