CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
 
Banned in America: The coolest tech gadgets
Every year, Business 2.0 profiles readers' favorite gadgets that aren't sold in the U.S. But that raises an interesting question: Why aren't these ultracool devices sold in the world's biggest and arguably most tech-voracious market? NewsFactor looked into the matter and found several reasons why U.S. gadgeteers are deprived.

First, the beta factor: Overseas manufacturers like to test products in their smaller, local markets so they can shake out bugs and gauge consumer reactions before dropping subpar gadgets on the huge U.S. market. Then there's the wireless-network problem: U.S. wireless-data networks aren't as robust as those in, say, South Korea and Japan. That makes some video-enabled cell phones and handhelds less useful here than abroad. As wireless networks here mature, we'll see more of those gadgets hit our shores. And then there's U.S. regulation: The FCC requires extensive disclosures on any wireless devices, which invariably get leaked all over the Web.
Posted by Owen Thomas 11:45 AM 0 Comments comment | Add a Comment

To send a letter to the editor about The Browser, click hereTop of page

Got a news tip? Send it to The Browser


© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.