Amazon.com

An ecommerce giant eBay is looking for more acquisitions to tap into the image recognition and augmented reality market as it is significantly losing to its rival Amazon.

Amazon.com has already adopted image recognition which allows users to shot an object with their camera or phone and send image to the website and find a match in the online store and buy it within seconds.

According to a new report from Milward Brown consumers rated Amazon.com as the top performing brand in the United States.

Milward Brown conducted the research in association with The Futures Company. The report which was titled "Beyond Trust: Engaging Consumers in the Post-Recession World" introduces "TrustR," a new metric for understanding the relationship between consumers and brands.

Amazon.com announced another version of its Kindle application, now for BlackBerry phones. Users of RIM manufactured devices now can read their electronic books without a Kindle reader.

The application is at the moment available only for US users and there is no information provided by the company whether it plans to launch the software for BlackBerry users in other countries.

Wednesday, Nokia assured it will close its two flagship North American retail stores, in New York and Chicago, on the heels of a similar plans to close its store in London.

 Nokia didn't still unveil when the US stores to be closed, but the store on London's Regent Street reportedly will be closed in the first quarter next year.

 Since the majority of consumer purchases in North America are made through wireless operators, Nokia will focus on working with those operators and with retailers like Amazon.com and Best Buy.

 Spring Design, a maker of electronic readers, is bringing a lawsuit against Barnes & Noble Inc, accusing the bookseller of illegally copying dual-screen design of newly launched Nook reader after the negotiations between two companies about a possible partnership. Spring Design is suing for damages and injunctive relief. According to Spring Design statement, Barnes & Noble used its proprietary design for better competition with Amazon.com's market-leading Kindle. At the same time the company did not disclose its intentions to make its own device.

 Forrester Research Inc. predicts this holiday season to be successful for U.S. online sales with its expected 8 percent growth, with mass market retailers who can offer discounts performing best. It is estimated that online retail sales in November and December are expected to reach $44.7 billion this year, compared with $41.4 billion a year ago. Forrester stated in its report that despite the lingering effects of the global financial crisis, the online space remains the retail industry's growth engine.

Amazon.com announced Sunday the implementation of a new private-label collection of consumer electronic “basics” created for customers seeking for exceptional value, AmazonBasics.AmazonBasics supplies users with a growing assortment of blank DVD media, cables and accessories, which are available now in the US on www.amazon.com. In the coming months the company intends to add extra accessories and other items.

Amazon.com Inc. was affected with a growing movement to collect taxes on Internet transactions, and so could happen with other online retailers, but consumers have grown so comfortable with e-commerce that any impact on sales would likely be small. Over the past few weeks, Seattle-based Amazon has protested legislation in North Carolina and California that would require e-commerce companies to collect