One potentially alarming trend is banks pulling back consumer credit lines, says Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney.
The big risk here has to do with the Federal Communications Commission's decision to stop forcing the Baby Bells to lease out their consumer phone lines at discount prices.
Docomo was the first to have done well with a complete cell-phone system and Japan was the first to invest in fibre lines for consumer households.
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As a leader in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and digital technologies, Sharp offers one of the broadest and most advanced lines of consumer electronics, information products and electronic components, while also creating new network businesses.
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The Consumer Services segment represents the company's branch network, including consumer banking products and services related to residential first mortgages, home equity lines and loans, indirect loans, consumer credit cards and other consumer loans, as well as the corresponding deposit relationships.
Now most of the revenue at the consumer products division is generated from lines like Pirates of the Caribbean and Toy Story.
TBM's founder, Anand Sharma, is convinced that the car industry will gradually move to a pattern where most of a car will be made in modules that are simply snapped together in small assembly lines close to the consumer, where details can be adapted to local tastes.
Ballmer told ReadWriteWeb recently Microsoft will now become a consumer hardware company, building its own lines of tablets and game machines.
To understand the marketing implications of this collaborative consumption trend, our Campbell Mithun team both talked to marketers on the sharing front lines and conducted a quantitative consumer survey for insights about consumer attitudes.
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With demand well above expectations already for the iPhone 4, Apple will have to stockpile parts in an effort to meet consumer demand and this could add the the bottom lines of a few tech companies around the world.
They'll continue to push sales of interest-only refinancing loans, home equity lines of credit, as well as venture into other consumer-lending activities to soften the sting of falling revenue from making mortgage loans.
Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smart phones.
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The reporting is generally along the lines that Apple has been pressed into doing it by NGO and consumer action: the NGOs going on to point out that while improvements are good not enough is being done, there is still further to go.
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Working collaboratively across state lines and international borders to fight human and drug trafficking, money laundering and consumer fraud is a far better use of law enforcement resources than arresting landscapers and nannies.
The clothing retailer, which has seen trends increase in the U.S. in recent years with its unique clothing lines aimed at young adults, has been especially resilient to a downturn in consumer spending.
Rather than avenging angels protecting the American consumer from harm, opportunistic plaintiffs can easily become 21st century robber barons looking to pad their bottom lines and crush their opposition.
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Sony and other consumer electronics makers can focus, say, on a pricier PC-TV that can download videos through phone lines.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Ofcom (the consumer watchdog and media regulator) are in a somewhat delicate position as they already approved the deal along competition law lines.
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