Industry News & Views

John Koetsier of VentureBeat reported this morning that according to NPD Group, 32% of phones sold in the U.S. are prepaid and that Samsung and LG own over half of that market (54% -- see above photo).

“In a quarter without a major product launch from either of the two market leaders, consumers refocused their attention away from the postpaid wars and toward finding the best value for their dollar," said NPD's Stephen Baker.

Today, we came across a video on TechCrunch that took MakerBot 3D printing in a completely different direction.

"Makerbot has released an inspiring video about how a group of hackers built 3D-printed hands for children and adults who are missing fingers or entire hands," wrote TechCrunch's John Biggs. "The project aims to take the cost and complexity associated with hand prosthesis out of the process. It is working."

Here's the video, below:

Amazon has been testing an online grocery delivery service (called AmazonFresh) in Seattle since 2007, wrote RetailWire's Tom Ryan, in Forbes (May 1), and even though it hasn't been highly profitable or displayed flawless execution, Amazon isn't worried.

"It's all about helping Amazon attain the scale to support its ambition to build a national same-day delivery shipping model."

"Imagine walking down an aisle at Target and casting a glance at a big orange bag of Cheetos on the shelf. Next thing you know, an ad featuring Chester Cheetah pops up on a video monitor in the aisle," wrote Meghan McDonough of Digital Trends (April 29). "A new eye-tracking device called SideWays is responsible."