Best Buy (BBY) retails consumer electronics, home office products, entertainment software, appliances and related services through its retail stores.

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Mr Merloni was a pioneer in the use of electronics and software in domestic appliances.

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Margins on software embedded in the appliances will be skinny.

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The hardware-software synergy needed for appliances plays to their strengths.

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The ITAA and its member companies contend that the Broadcast Flag would hurt their business by closing out new markets and limiting the kinds of appliances and software they can sell to consumers.

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Consider that rivals primarily rely on appliances and on-premise software.

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To that end, Technicolor has developed Qeo, a software system designed to allow TVs, handheld devices, intercom systems and appliances to all have one big confab.

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NGFWs such as those offered by Check Point, Dell SonicWALL, Juniper, Palo Alto Networks and others are extremely high-performance, turnkey appliances intended to stop threats before they reach a computer network and long before the anti-virus software on the individual computer even gets triggered.

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In addition to providing software, which is where Google's expertise lies, the technology giant is looking to design connected hardware and appliances for the home.

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