Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

Apple has just released their most recent set of earnings figures, detailing how the MP3 player, phone and computer manufacturer performed over the Christmas season. The answer? Strikingly well. In the middle of a global financial meltdown, Apple managed to turn in record breaking revenues ($10bn) and profits ($1.6bn).

Reevoo’s own figures back up Apple’s success story. Reevoo measured traffic to all Apple products across 61 British retailers’ websites, and saw Apple’s share of the market increase dramatically during the Christmas peak, from 1.3% in September to 3.0% in December.

This has everyone wondering whether Apple can continue to thrive selling high-end electronics while lesser manufacturers fight to survive in a race to the bottom of falling margins and lower sales. Of course, what’s driven Apple’s success over the past few years has been its continuing innovation - think of the iPhone, the iMac or the iPod Nano. So some pundits are asking whether this pace of innovation can continue or whether Apple will soon be running out of ideas.

A closer look at Reevoo’s numbers suggests that it might not be wise to bank on Apple performing as well in future. For one thing, the company’s market share has been pretty flat throughout the year, slipping back through the summer after popularity increased in the spring with the release of new iMac models.

This time around, it looks like Apple has gained most of its increase from the one area where it is truely king: MP3 players.

No-one needs to be told that by far the most popular range of MP3 players is Apple’s distinctive iPods, but amazingly Apple has managed to increase iPod popularity from 60% of MP3 players through the year to 80% during November and December, leaving all other manufacturers to share just 20% of the market over the Christmas peak. Apple released a highly-praised refresh of its bestselling Nano during September and a smaller update of the iPod Touch. Shoppers responded with a thumbs up, giving the new Nano a rating of 9.1 out of 10. But popularity only really rocketed in November, perhaps highlighting their appeal as Christmas gifts.

In addition to their overwhelming popularity, Apple also manage to sell iPods at a premium - only Portable Media Player specialist Archos has a higher average cost per MP3 player sold.

Putting this together suggests that Apple has benefited from a strong run on its impressive MP3 players this Christmas, putting it in position to report those eye-popping revenue revenue figures.

So why the caution? There are two worries about iPods for 2009.

The first is that other manufacturers are improving their products. Samsung and Creative, in particular, saw much-increased ratings from shoppers over Christmas. So if you’re looking for a new MP3 player, it would be a good idea to keep your eye on what these two brands have to offer.

The second worry is that the number of people looking for a new MP3 player seems certain to decrease as smartphones improve and start to reproduce more and more features of MP3 players. With only 4.4m iPhones sold in the last quarter compared to 23m iPods, Apple will have to do a lot of work to make sure iPod fans stick with the brand.

If you’re all done with your Christmas shopping, you might be holding out for the sales so that you can grab some bargains. But instead of braving the crowds in search of that TV you’ve been after or that MP3 player that’s just a little too pricey at the moment, why not let us do the hard work?

If you have a particular product in mind, just find it on www.reevoo.com and click on the price drop alert to the right of the product or the one on top of the pricing table:

Then just enter your email address and click submit. It’s as easy as that.

If you’re still looking for Christmas gifts for your loved ones, take Reevoo with you to the shops so that you can make sure you’re spending your money on something good.

In our newsletter last month, we asked you all to let us know how the credit crunch was affecting your shopping. The results are in and amazingly, all of you had the same attitudes towards shopping and money saving:

If you’d like to subscribe to our newsletter, just go to the Reevoo homepage and put your email address in the box in the bottom right, then click “submit”:

After our best mobile phones of 2008 post last week, we’ve moved onto digital cameras.

Whether you’re after a nice compact or a DSLR packed full of features, we’ve got the highest rated and the most popular in both categories on Decide What to Buy.

All ratings are by consumers who have all bought the products. They voted the £182, 13 megapixel Sony CyberShot DSC-W300 as the top compact digital camera of 2008.

There are great reviews on this camera with comments like:

“the picture quality is amazing”

“Brilliant little touches to the camera, like the musical slide show playback and the photo doctoring within the view back, love this camera!!”

It also gets great scores for categories like image and build quality:

And the compact that everyone’s looking at in the run-up to Christmas? It’s the 10 megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS5. It came out a few months ago but people still love the fact that it’s packed full of features. It’s currently around £125.

When it came to SLRs, the highest rated was the £478 Canon EOS 450D. With the same image quality score as the CyberShot DSC-W300, this camera really impressed its owners. One reviewer said it was “outstanding”.

The most popular SLR is the Olympus E-420. It’s a nice upgrade from last year’s E-410 and has face detection, shadow adjustment technology, 3.5fps continuous shooting rate for up to 9 Raw images and a one-touch white balance function. It’s around £350.

Here are the rest of the favourites:


TOP COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERAS

TOP FIVE MOST POPULAR COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERAS IN LAST 30 DAYS:

1. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS5

2. Nikon Coolpix S710

3. CASIO Z200

4. Olympus FE-350

5. Canon IXUS 980 IS


TOP FIVE HIGHEST RATED COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERAS OF 2008:

1. Sony CyberShot DSC-W300

2. Canon Digital IXUS 90IS

3. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5

4. Fujifilm Finepix Z20

5. Fujifilm Finepix F100

TOP SLR CAMERAS of 2008

TOP FIVE MOST POPULAR SLRs IN LAST 30 DAYS:

1. Olympus E-420

2. Canon EOS 50D

3. Nikon D300

4. Sony Alpha A700

5. Canon EOS 1000D


TOP FIVE HIGHEST RATED SLRs OF 2008:

1. Canon EOS 450D

2. Sony Alpha A350

3. Nikon D90

4. Sony Alpha A300

5. Nikon D60

Just in time for Christmas, Reevoo has launched its own iPhone web application. This means that all you lucky folks who own iPhones will be able to take Reevoo with you to the shops. If you’re looking to buy an MP3 player, camera, laptop or any other product that is available on Reevoo.com, you can check out what people have said about it before you buy. Not only that, but you will also be able to see how much it is online! Very useful for saving some valuable pounds over Christmas.

If you’d like to have price comparison and helpful reviews in your pocket this Christmas, just follow these three simple steps and Reevoo will guide you through all your Christmas shopping.

To add the Reevoo iPhone app to your home screen just take your iPhone:
1. Open Safari
2. Go to http://www.reevoo.com/iphone
3. Tap the + button in Safari and choose ‘Add to Home Screen’

And to use it:
1. Simply tap on the Reevoo icon on your home screen

2. Tap search and enter the product name - you’ll get a list of search results with scores and the cheapest price available online from over 100 retailers

3. Tap on the product itself and you’ll be taken through to read the 10 most useful reviews (as voted by our community) on the product.

We’d love to hear your feedback on this app. If there’s anything else you’d like to be able to access or if you’d like to see something done differently, just let us know at feedback@reevoo.com.

Mums can be tricky customers when it comes to Christmas presents. It’s very easy to find them gifts that they’ll need but will they be something they actually want?

We’ve come up with a few suggestions to help you out on your quest to find Christmas presents for Mums:

For Mums who like to look their best - These Babyliss 2099U straighters (£28) have great reviews and they’re pretty cheap too. One reviewer even claims “i have tried expensive straightners..such as ghds and since trying the babyliss, i will never go back to any others”.

For DIY mums - Let’s face it, some Dads are useless at DIY so in some households, it will be Mum who does all the handy work. Make it a little more fun with this Rolson 25 Piece Pink Tool Kit (£20).

For Mums who love to cook - they can create hundreds of different types of breads and cakes in this Morphy Richards 48245 (£50) bread maker. It’ll save them loads of time as it mixes and does all the kneading too - that leaves more time for extra cakes in my book!

For Mums who love to take photos - Get this Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS3 (£87) compact digital camera. It’s not too expensive, has great reviews and owners say it’s especially easy to use. So even if your Mum isn’t a tech whizz, she shouldn’t have many problems with this.

For Mums who need a break - All that housework can be such a bore. Treat your Mum to this Domotec Roomba 560 Robot Vacuum Cleaner. It’s a little pricy at £199 but it will single handedly tackle all the rooms in your house, switch from carpets to hard floor mode and even take itself back to its charger to be charged up before getting back on the case again!

For Mums who love pink - If your Mum is still girly at heart, there are loads of pink gifts from pink laptops and MP3 players to pink mobile phones and cushions. Find them all here: www.reevoo.com/pink

For Mums on the go - Get them a mobile so that you can always keep in contact. With all the free minutes deals around at the moment, you could even talk for free. This Nokia 2630 phone is not only stylish but it’s also user-friendly (prices vary according to contract). One reviewer says, “Everything is easy to use and the design is very nice and compact”.

For Mums who like to be organised - Why not invest in this family calendar (£8)? There are five columns which can be used for different members of the family so she’ll never have to miss a football or music class again.

For healthy Mums - All Mums want to make sure their families eat healthily. With this Philips HR 1861 juicer (£63), she can make tasty juices and ensure everyone gets their daily intake of fruit and veg. This juicer has great reviews too. One reads, “Best juicer around for the money. Powerful motor and large feeding tube. Looks great on your worktop…Highly recommended.”

Presents on a budget - Everyone likes music, get her a CD that she’ll love. At the moment, the Mamma Mia Movie Soundtrack is particularly popular and it’s a bargain at £7.

Right, hopefully that’s helped you out a little bit. If anyone else has any other ideas, just leave a comment.

Following on from our Christmas present guides, we’ve decided to focus on a popular gift - mobile phones. There are so many on the market these days that it can be a nightmare to read up on each one. But don’t worry, we’ve done it all for you.

We’ve read all the reviews for over 200 mobiles and picked out the most popular - the ones people are looking at in the run-up to Christmas, and the most highly rated phones of 2008 - focusing on what people think after they have bought and tried out their phones. We’ve also got our recommendation for the best value for money mobile.

So, I bet a lot of you will be thinking that the iPhone must be a key player in this year’s favourite mobiles but surprisingly, it’s not in the top 10. Problems with application crashes and battery life meant that people rated this year’s 3G iPhone lower than you might have expected. It gets a score of 8.2/10 which is even beaten by its predecessor, the original iPhone, which scores 8.3/10.

The UK’s favourite phone of 2008 is actually the BlackBerry Bold 9000. Here’s what some reviewers had to say:

+ Great keyboard for e-mailing and texting. Cracking screen which is nice and bright and videos look lovely on it. The sound from the internal speaker is really good. Just a great phone overall.

- Out of the box battery life is bad but gets better with regular charges.

+ The Bold is undoubtedly the most impressive Blackberry yet. One of its greatest advantages is that in spite of many new features, it feels very familiar. Web browsing is almost broadband speed.

But what about the most popular phone? The phone that everyone’s looking at in the run-up to Christmas this year is the Nokia N96. But although it’s created a lot of hype, it actually gets marked down by reviewers for poor battery life and software problems. It’s also a little expensive at around £500 for Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) customers, but it does do the business with its design and features. One reviewer writes “great picture and video quality, very easy to find your way around, fantastic features…looks good”.

So let’s take a look at the most popular phones, which are getting lots of atention, and those that actually get rated the highest when consumers take them home:

TOP TEN MOST POPULAR MOBILE PHONES IN LAST 30 DAYS:

1. Nokia N96

2. Samsung F480 Tocco

3. Blackberry Storm

4. Sony Ericsson C902

5. Samsung Omnia

6. Samsung J700

7. Samsung Soul U900

8. BlackBerry Bold 9000

9. Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

10. LG KF750 Secret

TOP TEN HIGHEST RATED MOBILE PHONES OF 2008:

1. BlackBerry Bold 9000

2. Sony Ericsson W980i

3. Apple iPhone 3G 8/16GB

4. Samsung F480 Tocco

5. Sony Ericsson K660i

6. Fly SL600

7. Sagem my411C

8. Samsung J700

9. Samsung Steel

10. Sagem my300C

If you had your heart set on buying someone, or yourself, a stylish yet affordable phone this Christmas, we think the Samsung F480 Tocco is the one to go for. Whilst other phones with similar features tend to get poor scores for battery life, the Tocco impresses with 7.7/10. Here’s what some other phones score for battery life:

Nokia N96 - 5.8

iPhone original - 6.8

iPhone 3G - 5.6

BlackBerry Bold 9000 - 6.3

The Tocco also impresses with its design and features and is £150 for PAYG customers or free on some contracts.

It’s time for another installment in our What to buy series. We looked at What to buy Dads last week and this week it’s the turn of another tricky customer…the teenage boy.

If you need inspiration, just take a look at these:

For the music lover - Everyone loves music. Get them an MP3 player and they can take music with them wherever they go. The top rated MP3 player on Reevoo at the moment is the 8GB iPod Touch. It’s currently around £100. If you were looking to spend a little less than that, the second highest rated player is the £70 Sony NWZA816 4GB. And for a complete bargain buy, grab some CDs. Prices start from as little at £2.

For the gamer - Why not go for a games console like the PlayStation 3 (£289)? If they already have a console, they might like a gaming chair (£100). It’s comfortable for extended gaming sessions and you can feel the action through it. It can also be used to listen to music and watch films. There are also lots of console accessories, like this PS3 charging station for £15. For smaller gifts, you could go for a video game (prices start at £2).

For Mr Sociable - A mobile phone so that they can keep in contact with all their mates. For a phone packed full of features, how about the Nokia N95 or N96? Or for a more classy option, how about the Samsung Tocco or the new iPhone? (All phone prices vary according to contract)

For the sporty ones - Some tickets to a football or rugby match will make a great gift. For something more original, why not try this Garmin Forerunner 405 (£169) GPS-enabled sport watch, which tracks your training and sends the data to your computer or for trips to the coast this fishing starter kit (£32)?

For gadgety types - A Wind-Up Torch with Mobile Phone Charger (£7) or some travel speakers for your iPod (£9).

And for the boy that has everything? - Give them this Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock (£24) - guaranteed to wake the laziest of teenagers.

All done. Pretty painless, just as shopping should be.

If you’re purchasing online, follow our top tips for online shopping this Christmas.

There are only 49 days left until Christmas. That’s only 8 more weekends. If you’re the type of person that hates venturing into shops at Cristmas, save yourself some hassle and get your stuff online. Not only will youI be free from crowds and car parks but you’ll also save yourself some petrol.

There are a few things you should be careful of and watch out for when shopping online but follow our top tips and it should all be peachy:

Write a list - Write a list of the people you need to buy for and what you want to get them. This will not only ensure that you don’t forget anyone but you will then be able to work out what will be easy to buy online and what you will need to go into a store to buy. For example, a games console is a product that’s easy to choose online by reading reviews, whereas clothing is something that you might want to see and feel in-store.

Always read reviews - you wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive so why not read reviews from people that have test driven the product you’re about to buy? Reviews from people who have actually bought a product can give you a much better idea of what it will be like than journalist or ‘expert’ reviews - who might have only spent a few minutes looking at the product. And funnily enough, there’s over 400,000 real reviews from people like you and me on Reevoo : )

Read up about the retailer if you’re not familiar with the company - look for and check the phone number on the site so that you know you can get through to them if you have any problems. Also search for the company in a search engine to check other people’s experience with the company.

Check the returns policy - although reading reviews makes it less likely you’ll need to return products after Christmas, it’s worth checking out what it would entail if you had to return a gift to the retailer. You may have to pay a restocking fee or shipping costs or you may be able to return the item to a store.

Check all special offers - Christmas is the time all companies will be offering deals on their products but don’t just look at the product price when you’re comparing deals. Also check delivery costs, returns policies (see above) and make sure they are exactly the same products with all of the same features. Reevoo has prices from over a hundred retailers so it’s a good place to start, especially if you’re buying electricals.

Shop early and check delivery times - Companies will stock up on popular items before Christmas but it’s worth shopping as early as you can to avoid the “out of stock” nightmare. Also ensure that the company will be able to deliver your products in time for Christmas.

Payment and secure sites - Be safe online. Consumer Direct, the government-funded advisory service, recommends that before you enter any details into a seller’s site, make sure you can see the closed padlock in the status bar at the bottom of your browser. The web address should also change from http:// to shttp:// or https:// - this indicates a secure purchase. If you’re paying by credit card, this offers some security online from non-delivery and fraud although it’s usually only for transactions worth more than £100.  Offers are great ways to save some money but just beware of the ones that seem too good to be true, because they usually are. And if you don’t trust the company completely, it’s probably best if you don’t hand over your card details. Oh, and if you’re buying from an auction site such as ebay, be sure to use a service like PayPal which offers some purchase protection.

Ensure your computer is secure - you should have a firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware software on your computer. Read more about how to make your computer secure on http://www.getsafeonline.org. Also make sure you turn your computer off after use to keep it safe from scammers and malicious software.

Keep records - Keep receipts and any email exchanges. Alsodo a print out of the product you are buying and ensure it includes the price and description of the product.

Now you know all that, happy online shopping!

Last week, I was lucky enough to talk to Pat Foley, Marketing & Operations Manager at Dixons. Dixons is part of DSG international plc, which is one of Europe’s leading specialist electrical retailing groups.

We?re seeing a bit of a slowdown in the economy at the moment so I asked Pat a few questions about what?s happening in the retail industry…

What are you responsible for at Dixons?
At Dixons.co.uk I am responsible for Marketing and Operations which includes the generation and management of all customer traffic to the site, looking after the customer experience while they are shopping on the site, ensuring the site is functioning as it should, site design, 3rd party partner relationships and our customer contact centre for sales and aftersales customer contacts. All of this means that every day presents exciting new challenges and opportunities.

What are the biggest challenges facing on-line retail?
The biggest challenges are ensuring that we continue to manage our costs effectively to allow us to continue to give our customers excellent value for money.

Are you ready for Christmas?
Yes we have already started to formulate our plans for Christmas and expect this Christmas to be another bumper season for on-line.

What?s been your proudest moment at Dixons?
One of my proudest moments was working with the team at Reevoo to develop the customer-generated product content on the Dixons.co.uk site. I really do believe that the impartial customer content adds value to the customer experience and helps our customers make the right decisions. (we didn’t even ask Pat to say this - honest!)

Has the credit crunch changed buying habits?
If anything our experience is that the credit crunch has benefited on-line as more and more customers are turning to Dixons.co.uk for the best value, service and prices.

Will off-line retail still be around in 20 years?
There will always be a place for retail stores- they will sit alongside on-line etailers for many years to come. DSGI operates a multichannel strategy with a mix of on-line and retail businesses offering customers a choice of options from pure on-line, to retail stores, to reserve and collect. Many customers use all three options at different times and for different purchases.

What websites do you admire and why?
I am very proud of what we have achieved with the Dixons.co.uk website over the last two years. It was brave and exciting move taking one of the best known brands off the high street and turning it into a successful pure play on-line e-tailer. I also admire the BBC i player because of its ease of use and interactivity.

What?s the last thing you bought on-line?
I shop on-line almost every week and the last thing I bought was an sd memory card, purchased from www.dixons-entertainment.co.uk which was exceptional value!