While consumer intent to buy electronics products remained unusually weak industry-wide through the first half of November, consumer interest in HDTVs, digital cameras, laptop computers and GPS receivers jumped significantly heading into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, according to the Retrevo data. By Black Friday, interest in HDTVs had surged by more than 250 percent compared to what it was at the beginning of November.

The products and retailers with super-aggressive pricing were drawing the most interest from consumers. For HDTVs, Sony and Sharp HDTVs at Sears, Samsung and Sharp HDTVs at Circuit City, Emerson TVs at Wal-Mart and Dynex TVs at Best Buy were among the products garnering the most attention on Retrevo. Kodak and Olympus had a good showing in digital cameras, while Apple got the most interest in the laptop category, followed by HP and Lenovo.

“The sudden late surge in interest in consumer electronics heading into the holiday weekend was a positive sign for the industry, given the poor overall outlook for CE products for the season and low demand earlier in November,” says Vipin Jain, president and CEO of Retrevo. “While people are clearly looking for the biggest discounts, hopefully the research and deal hunting they are conducting using Retrevo will translate into a merrier-than-expected holiday season for the consumer electronics industry.”

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