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The rise of 'conspicuous waiting': The 19th-century economic theory that explains why Gen Z posts their place in line

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The rise of 'conspicuous waiting': The 19th-century economic theory that explains why Gen Z posts their place in line

2

Millennials say they’ll refuse to care for aging boomer parents—but they’ll be forced to as their inheritance shrinks to 40 cents on the dollar

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Tim Cook signed off on his final Apple earnings call with a warning about a ‘100-year flood’ in memory chip pricing
TechApple

Tired: Apple Watches. Wired: Samsung TVs.

By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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November 29, 2015, 1:54 PM ET
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You know you’re paying too much attention to Internet analytics tools when you find yourself checking them several times a day.

That’s why I’m swearing off Watson Trend, IBM’s (IBM) much-talked about artificially intelligent “gift guide” for plugged-in parents.

I was dubious last week when Team Watson reported that the Apple Watch was a more talked-about tech gift than the iPhone—by a factor of 50 to 1—on the thousands of social networks, blogs, forums, comments, ratings, and reviews monitored by its supercomputers.

Sunday’s results, which show Samsung TVs pinned at 100 and the Watch dropping to 77 (on a scale of 0 to 100), conform more to what I’m seeing on the ground.

The clerk at the local BJ’s Wholesale Club who carried my new television set to the car Saturday said that big flat-screen TVs were the store’s Black Friday best-sellers. He’d personally sold 11 that day and 16 the day before.

That’s more like it.

Watson’s top 10, as of Sunday afternoon:

Samsung TVs (100)
Apple Watch (77)
Sony TVs (65)
Beats by Dre (33)
LG TVs (29)
Canon Cameras (22)
Nikon Cameras (21)
Vizio TVs (20)
Sennheiser Headphones (20)
Star Wars Legos (20)

See also: Will This Be an Apple Watch Christmas?

Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.

For more Fortune coverage of Apple, watch the video below:

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