The new and delicate challenge: Attracting small fries willing to pay a small monthly charge (or at least able to expense without approval) while not cannibalizing Zoom's high-end customer base.

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Just being slightly better than the cable company's garbage won't cut it for much longer -- again, the Media Center PC kicks your ass right now, and the high-end customer on which you're currently relying is going to figure that out soon.

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The high-end designer customer tends to be an older woman, Ms. Reese says, with "issues you need to address, " such as by adding sleeves to a garment.

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Earlier this month, Cisco completed deals for Procket Networks , which sold high-end, high-bandwidth routers and had a solid customer base, and Parc Technologies , a developer of software to streamline network traffic.

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Laura: We learned that it was really difficult to gain customer trust for high-end jewelry rental online.

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Retail consulting and research firm Customer Growth Partners is on the high end, saying that that holiday retail sales will grow by 4.5% this year. 2009 saw sluggish growth of 1.9%, on the heels of a 3.9% decline in 2008.

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Another customer, CC SKYE in Southern California is a high end jewelry company, which generated 805, 000 impressions in five days with more than 18, 000 peeqs.

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