Trender Awards™ Announced: Apple, VidTel, and Sling Media Lead Honors with Nods in Multiple Categories

Iconic Apple iPhone wins "Mega Trender Award"; Microsoft Windows Vista wins "Trender Pretender Award"

Westford, MA, March 5, 2009 — Trender Research™ Inc. (www.trenderresearch.com), a unique market research and consulting firm that combines expert analysis with the voice of everyday people, announced today the winners of the Trender Awards™ “Best of 2009”. The Trender Awards were created to honor gadgets and services that are not only novel and technologically advanced, but also improve people's lives in some way and have appeal to everyday folks. Apple’s iPhone claimed the highest honor with the Mega-Trender Award for “Best Overall New Product for Everyday Folks” and also won for “Best Mobile Product” and “Best User Interface”. VidTel and Sling Media also won multiple award categories. VidTel’s video phone service won for “Best Communications Product”, the Trender-Blender Award for “Best Convergence Product”, and for “Best Hoped-For Upcoming Product”; while Sling Media’s SlingBox won the Trender-Gender Award for Men and its SlingCatcher earned Trender-Mender honors for “Most Improved Product Line”. Click here for a complete list of winners.

Almost 100 tech products and services were considered after nomination by the Trenders™ or submitted by the vendors themselves. Awards were given for several tech categories including video, audio, photo, security, robotics, HDTVs, communications, mobile, GPS, and accessories, among others. All finalists are listed here.

“It is our view that these products have a good chance of becoming mainstream, have already been embraced by everyday consumers, or have what it takes to be adopted by customers in their intended target markets,” said Brian Mahony, Trender Research CEO and Chief Trender. “We tried to look beyond products and services that would only appeal to tech-savvy consumers and early-adopters. We looked at factors such as price, ease of installation/use, and customer support; but also psychological and marketing factors such as understandability, branding, appeal to a wide demographic set, and accessibility of channels.”

Also awarded were several specialty honors including the Trender-Gender Award for Women (Lok8U’s Nu.M8 GPS watch for keeping track of the kids) and the Tender-Trender Award for Kids (Nintendo’s Wii game console). Microsoft’s Vista operating system won the dubious Trender-Pretender Award for most overrated product. Also, the Trenders gave the Trender-Ender Award for “Death of a Product Category” to dedicated fax machines as the product category most likely to become obsolete.

About Trender Research, Inc. Trender Research is a market research and marketing consulting firm focusing on the use of technology-based products and services by everyday people. Trender Research is dedicated to capturing the voice of various demographic groups with different levels of technical proficiency. Trender Research's expert analysis is supplemented by the contributions of bloggers, called Trenders, who write about their use of tech gadgets and services. The Trenders, who come from all walks of life, share unique perspectives about how technology helps or hinders them in their everyday lives. Through virtual focus groups and surveys, Trenders also serve as a source for quick and candid feedback for clients looking for input on new or existing products or services. For more information, visit www.trenderresearch.com.