Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) may be the world's largest electronics retailer, but it realizes that it faces a huge threat to a hefty chunk of its business. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is moving plenty of movies and other soon-to-be former DVD fare through iTunes, staking a claim on a business that once belonged to Best Buy. The big box store is getting ready to fight back (finally?).

Using technology it's licensing from Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC), Best Buy is opening an online store for movies and television shows. Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn says this move will expand the company's presence in services and will bolster company loyalty. That's the press release version, of course. The reality is that Best Buy needed to do something to protect this portion of its revenue and probably should have made the move several years ago.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), simply put, had a quarter to die for, the kind that all shareholders have on their wish lists. The Q3 numbers, which were released on Thursday after the bell, speak for themselves. Net sales: up 28%. Operating income: up 62%. Per-share profit: up 67% to 45 cents. Free cash flow for the trailing twelve months: up 98%. Yep, Amazon's fundamentals seem to be heading in the right direction.

According to our earnings preview, Wall Street was on record as wanting to see 33 cents per share on the bottom line. Amazon's management did a fine job of supplying further evidence to the market that the company's online business model is not only here to stay, but that it should provide shareholders with a significant amount of value over time.

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) reported Q2 earnings on Tuesday. The retailer didn't do too badly on the top line, but the bottom line could have been better. Revenues were higher by 12%, and net income decreased 23% to 37 cents per share.

There are a couple things to consider here in terms of context. Best Buy's Europe locations helped to drive the revenue performance. Best Buy Europe also was partially responsible for the expansion seen in selling, general and administrative costs (without that segment and other acquisitions, SG&A would have been down).

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), which reported earnings on Thursday, had something of a mixed second quarter. Net sales of roughly $100 billion came in below estimates, according analysts. Net income, however, fared better. The world's largest retailer made 88 cents per share from continuing operations, a figure that was two pennies ahead of analysts' projections.

The quarter produced neither significant growth nor precipitous decline for the most part. The top line decreased by only 1.4%, and the bottom line expanded by a mere 2 cents. Not terribly exciting. The metric that did decline a little more noticeably was free cash flow. Wal-Mart generated 18% less free cash during the last six months than it did in the comparable period a year ago, according to the company press release.

Electronics retailer RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH) sold off on Monday. The market wasn't impressed by the earnings beat that management delivered. According to Reuters, the 39 cents per share that RadioShack booked for the second quarter went 10 cents beyond analyst expectations.

That sounds pretty good on the surface. And, to be honest, I bet shares of RadioShack would have rallied had conditions been different. The major indexes have seen a lot of bullish action as we all know, and I think a fair amount of stocks now might run the risk of selling off on a decent bottom-line report just because of worries in the system. When you think about it, this rally has to end some time. And if you take a look at RadioShack's stock performance since early March, you have to wonder how much more buying interest is left at this point.

Now that Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is the last surviving member of the national specialty consumer electronics retail club, where can it go? Up and up. Sure, mass chains like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and others have stepped up to the plate and are greatly enhancing their consumer electronics sections, but then again Best Buy has a new CEO who is thinking differently and isn't going to give an inch if he can help it.