American Apparel keeps pushing limits with latest campaign. 

Apple's iPad on track to sell 15M units in first year.

BP encounters shareholder resistance in Rosneft deal. 

Candie’s replaces Britney Spears with a new face: Vanessa Hudgens.

Ford is poised to report its most profitable year since 2000. 

GM anticipates quicker-than-expected ownership exit by U.S. taxpayers. 

Goldman Sachs concerned about global over-regulation of banks.Continue reading...

Associated British Foods, Coca-Cola, Kraft, Premier Foods and P&G join UK waste reduction pledge.

BBC to trim World Service.

Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld goes more casual with latest runway collection.

Coca-Cola hit by Venezuela strike.

Disney cuts back at videogame division.

Egypt continues blocking Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google and Ustream as two die in Cairo protests.

Facebook beefs up security after Mark Zuckerberg's FB page was hacked.Continue reading...

At a time when the U.S. Postal Service is fighting to survive, along comes news of the latest disruptive model: BareDeal.com, which calls itself "Groupon meets Netflix."

Founded by two recent Northwestern University grads, Justin Shapiro and Glen Andrianov, the model merges old-school direct mail with new school online deals. The service delivers scratch cards directly to consumers' mailboxes.Continue reading...

Just as Netflix is poised for aggressive international expansion, leveraging a business built the old-fashioned way — delivering DVD’s via snail mail — into a digitally diverse, button-clicking, multi-screen future, the true 800 lb. gorilla, Time Warner, is out to knock it off its perch.

Netflix has nearly leapfrogged to dominance in the online video subscription streaming service, finally besting Blockbuster, and partnering with any and all manufacturers making it virtually platform agnostic.

But can Netflix prevail against the 800 lb. gorilla incarnate, Time Warner? "It's a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world?" Bewkes commented to the New York Times. "I don’t think so."Continue reading...

Microsoft released this trailer of Steve Ballmer's CES keynote promoting Avatar Kinect for Xbox 360, one of the ways it's goosing Xbox 360 (along with Netflix streaming and Hulu).

Avatar Kinect, which brings a player's avatar to life, will be rolling out as a free add-on for Xbox Live gold-level members this spring. It aims to make entertainment "more active, more social and more fun" as Ballmer notes (and could liven up business videoconferencing, too).

With that in mind, Microsoft also showcased ESPN on Xbox Live with Kinect (after the jump).Continue reading...

In the battle for market supremacy, one approach is for a brand to become the industry standard. Once a standard is established, market development often takes the path of least resistance, i.e., it develops along with the existing standard. A standard in motion stays in motion.

History has numerous examples of how this works both ways, from how the North's victory in the Civil War led to a unified national rail system to the disastrous attempt of the US to adopt the metric system.

With that in mind, consider the timed-to-CES news that leading electronics manufacturers have agreed to place Netflix-branded one-click buttons on their remotes.Continue reading...

In year-end sales figures released today, US automakers post gains (first since the recession) as Toyota lags and Ford moves to second place behind GM. Lexus held off Mercedes-Benz and BMW to hang onto the top US luxury auto brand.

Apple's iPad is being embraced by the educational market for in-school use.

BitTorrent has more users than Netflix and Hulu combined.

BMW's electric hybrid sets $200K price point.

Consumer Reports sees packaging shrinking on US grocers' shelves.

GE unloads $6B worth of debt.Continue reading...

BP oil spill fund offers fast-track payments.

eBay and BBH part company after marketing changes.

ESPN buys PVI intellectual property from Cablevision.

Gawker Media resumes publishing, serves as object lesson in password security.

Google launches site for teaching tech to parents; Google Mobile searches grew 130% in Q3.

Lions Gate loses Carl Icahn as a bidder.

Microsoft joins Expedia, Kayak to block Google acquisition; fends off Twitter rumors.Continue reading...