Staples.com/tablets will offer side-by-side feature and price comparisons, photos, videos and business apps.

*Videos such as “Why Buy A Tablet?” and “Tablet Specs to Consider”

*Business tools and benefits of new tablets on the market

*Recommendations on tablet protection and storage accessories

*Key features of each tablet and a glossary of terms

Staples said tablets will be available in all of its retail locations and online starting this spring. Initially Staples will offer Motorola XOOM, BlackBerry PlayBook and Dell Streak. It will also offer new tablets from Acer, Dell, HP, Toshiba over the next few months.

“Tablets are the hottest new technology and Staples continues to be at the forefront with a wide assortment of tablets and EasyTech and Staples Advantage associates to help consumers and businesses get the most from their tablet purchase,” said Peter Scala, Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager Office Technology, Staples.

“The majority of us turn to the internet to learn and understand new technologies. The Staples tablet microsites provide information to help customers make informed decisions and, once they decide on the product best for them, the ability to purchase with fast and free delivery.”

Allen first sued these companies in late August, claiming they’d violated four patents generated by another firm (Interval Licensing) he’d cofounded.  A judge threw out the suit because it wasn’t specific enough.

Now Allen’s resurfaced with a 35-page amended complaint (provided courtesy of Brier Dudley).  The four patents still cover "Browser for Use in Navigating a Body of Information, With Particular Application to Browsing Information Represented By Audiovisual Data," "Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device," and "Alerting Users to Items of Current Interest."

As for what products and services allegedly violate Allen’s patents, they include AdSense, Android, the Facebook News Feed, Flickr, Gmail, iTunes, Yahoo Finance, and a whole lot of other stuff.

Allen’s seeking unspecified damages, interest, and enough money to cover his legal costs as a result.  Plus – and this is important – he wants either a permanent injunction to prevent further infringement or royalties.

If Allen manages to win the lawsuit (and doesn’t lose following the inevitable series of appeals), this will turn out to be a major case.  Most onlookers agree that the odds are more than stacked against him, however.

Staples said it will sell the $139 version of the Kindle, the Kindle 3G ($189) and the Kindle DX ($379).

“As part of our efforts to offer customers a wide range of top technology products and services at amazing values, the new Kindle is a natural fit,” said Jevin Eagle, executive vice president of merchandising and marketing at Staples.

The Kindle Store features more than 670,000 books, including new releases and New York Times Best Sellers. Over 550,000 of these books are available for $9.99.

Staples said it will also carry a variety of Kindle assortments and will allow its customers to test the device via in-store interactive displays.

Amazon began selling its Kindle’s in Target stores in June. Prior to that the Kindle was only available from Amazon. Amazon boasts the Kindle is its “best selling” product but has never released sales figures for the device.
 

ClickZ reports on the office supply giant’s efforts to help kids help kids. Of course there is a tremendous display of altruism here but let’s also remember the good business sense that a campaign such as this makes. This one smells of a win / win which is cool.

The office and school supplies retailer tapped New York agency Mr Youth to create a Do Something 101 Facebook page and an “Adopt a Pack ” Facebook application where participants can tag friends, virtually “fill” a backpack with school supplies, and then go to a Staples store t “o buy the supplies they selected and have them donated to other students who are living in poverty.

How is this good business? Let us count some of the ways:

1. Helping kids in poverty is a good thing all by itself
2. Helping kids in poverty is great PR for your brand
3. Helping kids to help kids in poverty is good for society
4. Helping kids who do have money to know your brand for something other than office supplies is just plain smart

Staples did something similar last year through DoSomething.org (who is still involved) but changed things up a bit this year to focus on the social networking habit of kids and, in many cases, their parents.

Mr Youth Managing Partner Doug Akin said the campaign will be publicized through outreach to youth bloggers and some online media. He declined to say how much the campaign will cost and he said it’s too early to provide metrics about its early success. “There’s definitely been strong adoption of it and users are tagging many friends and creating multiple images,” Akin said.

Of course, the hope is that there is a high participation rate and lots of kids learn good lessons and get the supplies they need to succeed in tough situations. While this type of activity to help young people is not unique to Staples by any means it certainly can give the company a chance to cut through the clutter of a noisy marketplace and tell a story that might influence someone come to them instead of their competition. Good cause, good business and I wish them good luck.

A side note: Have a great weekend and Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there. Your role in helping to shape the future with kids who would take part in something like this could have impact far beyond your own little world. Make sure you hug your kids this weekend. They need you.

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Amazon was the top ranked site for search satisfaction, and one of the top ranked sites in six of nine categories including price satisfaction, product research and site navigation and organization.

Best Buy had the biggest improvement in online customer experience over the past year and was the top ranked site for customer satisfaction. It also ranked in the top for ease of purchase and customer support. Best Buys most significant gains were in search satisfaction.

The Dell Web site also saw improvements in customer experience and satisfaction in the past year, with solid gains in product interest and the overall perceptions of the visual appeal of its site.

In the Keynote Service Level Rankings studies Circuit City had the most reliable Web site with little or no downtime and Staples Web site was fastest in downloading pages and completing transactions.

The study examined 2,200 consumers online retail experience and was conducted during May and June 2007.

The reviews on Staples.com cover products including printers, laptops, ink, paper, furniture, office supplies, shredders and more.

"Staples is always looking for ways to make it easy for our customers, and we see product reviews as a key step in making their buying experience faster and better informed," said John Giusti, vice president of Staples Business Delivery, a division of Staples that delivers to small businesses.

"We chose to work with PowerReviews because we believe they offer the most helpful, informative and personalized customer reviews for our diverse customer base."

PowerReviews uses a tag-based approach to provide "at-a- glance" Review Snapshots that make it easier for users to find, compare and make a purchasing decision. PowerReviews identifies reviews written by "Verified Buyers."

Staples is the second major retailer to add customer reviews to its Web site, last week Wal-Mart launched customer reviews for its Web site using Bazaarvoice.

"We are excited to be working with Staples to harness their customer’s voice to help provide a more credible, more personalized shopping experience, and engender greater trust and confidence in their purchase decisions," said Andy Chen, CEO of PowerReviews.

I respect and like most of the Edelman bloggers, and give them the benefit of the doubt on this. I do not know what goes on internally at Edelman, I do not know the facts – not that this does not stop Steve from blogging on FedEx or Staples or Kryptonite – but the benefit of the doubt is what you give your friends (and we all know who I consider my friends).

One thought, though – it does not matter who works or does not work on an account. It’s an agency, and saying “I had no personal role” is not acceptable. You fall on the grenade, and take one for the team. It is our job to push internally, and sometimes push back on the client. It is not like the blog was a big secret – someone should have known what was going on, and Jeremy Wagstaff at the WSJ says it best.

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Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and founder of POP! Public Relations, a public relations firm based in Arizona, USA.

He authors the popular Musings from POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy’s opinions and views – on public relations, publicity and other things.

While the points of the suit aren’t anything unusual, the venue they stem from, Internet and key word ads, are. The Internet is still a place that’s been mostly left alone in lawsuits and legality but as it becomes more and more relevant to daily life, that will change.

The jist of the issue, as Wall Street Journal (WSJ) explains, comes down to a subsidiary of Office Depot, Viking Office Products. The company is being shift to the European market by Office Depot. Staples wanted to pick up some of that possible lost traffic and purchased keywords tied to the word “Viking.” Office Depot claimed it misrepresented Office Depot, Viking and the intentions of the companies proceeded to file charges.

This suit could be quite significant because while it won’t define what Google or Yahoo might do but it will define how companies deal with the key word ads and more specifically, what type of tactics they use to grab traffic on the Internet. Whether all these charges stick is unknown, but either way, it could be a major point in the direction of key word advertising.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Sargent, who was named CEO in February 2002, succeeds Tom Stemberg, who has resigned from the board and will now become Chairman Emeritus of the company. Independent director Martin Trust continues his role as the lead director of the Staples board.

“In the past three years, Ron Sargent has stepped up to lead Staples to record performance,” said Tom Stemberg. “Under Ron’s leadership the company has delivered outstanding results for our customers, associates and shareholders. As I look to new ventures, the time is right for me to move on and for Ron to assume the role of chairman.”

“Tom is an industry icon who had the extraordinary vision to found Staples in 1986 and create the office products retailing industry,” said Ron Sargent. “Tom is a great mentor to me and many people throughout the Staples organization. We will continue to embrace his vision and his legacy as we make Staples the world’s best office products company.”

“Staples management team is the best in retail,” added Stemberg. “A founder’s greatest legacy is to leave a company as a market leader that is positioned for continued growth, and that is certainly the case with Staples.”

Stemberg recently joined Highland Capital Partners, a leading venture capital firm as a venture partner. In his new role with Highland, Stemberg will help identify new entrepreneurial investment opportunities and lend his expertise to assist Highland portfolio companies. He serves on the board of directors of CarMax, PETsMART, Polycom, and The NASDAQ Stock Market.

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For fiscal year 2004, sales reached $14.4 billion, an 11 percent increase compared to 2003. Full year North American Retail comparable store sales increased four percent. The company reported 2004 net income of $708 million, or earnings per share on a diluted basis of $1.40, an increase of 41 percent on a GAAP basis from 2003. The company incurred a $62 million non-cash adjustment (net of taxes) as a result of the application of EITF 02-16 in the first quarter of 2003. On a pro forma basis, excluding the impact of EITF 02-16, net income increased 28 percent and earnings per share increased 25 percent versus 2003. Total company operating margins for the year rose to 7.8 percent.

Total company sales for the fourth quarter grew 13 percent compared to the same quarter of 2003 to $4.1 billion. North American Retail continued its strong performance, with sales increasing eight percent and same store sales rising four percent versus last year. North American Delivery quarterly sales increased 19 percent with double-digit growth in each of its three business units. International operations grew sales 22 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2003. Total company net income of $251 million, or earnings per share on a diluted basis of $0.50, rose 19 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2003.

The company also announced that its board of directors has approved an annual cash dividend of $0.25 per share payable on April 14, 2005, to shareholders of record on March 28, 2005. This represents a 25 percent increase over the dividend of $0.20 per share paid in 2004. The board also authorized a three-for-two stock dividend effective to shareholders of record on March 29, 2005, with a payment date of April 15, 2005.

“Our 65,000 associates had a great year in 2004, delivering strong results, differentiating Staples’ brand and advancing our market leadership around the world,” said Ron Sargent, Staples’ president and CEO.

“We’re starting off 2005 on rock solid footing,” said Sargent. “Trends are strong, our team’s execution has never been better and we are driving improvements in all areas of our business.”

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