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.

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.

Online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is looking to extend the reach of its Kindle -- a wireless reading device -- into the hands of consumers, and hopes that cutting the price will speed adoption in a price-sensitive world. Formerly priced at $359, the Kindle will now be sold for $299, though the more advanced Kindle DX will still maintain its $489 price tag.

Amazon, known mainly for selling books online before branching out into other areas, has made the Kindle a focal point of creating new growth for the site. The company has been offering generous 10% payouts via its affiliate program for creating sales, compared to the typical 4% paid on other items. A June 30 research report from Cowen & Co. obtained by DailyFinance estimated that 800,000 Kindle units had been sold so far; the company estimates that more than 2.6 million will be sold by the end of 2010.

"Though I've long believed Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN) was easily the best managed firm in the GPS space, it continues to feel the sting from competitive forces," says Paul McWilliams.

Here, the technology stock specialist and editor of Next Inning reviews the company and the prospects for its new entry in the cell phone market -- the nuvifone.

"As you would expect, the nuvifone is very GPS-centric with all sorts of Geo-tagging features for email, SMS and pictures. It also includes an Opera browser and is fully capable of viewing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and working with both personal and enterprise email systems.

"While I've not seen one in person yet, what I've heard from those who have and from what I've seen on the GRMN web site, I think the product has potential.

"The key, however, will be how the nuvifone is marketed and how well GRMN does in building an applications store, a factor that I think will be a huge differentiation driver as we move forward in the Smartphone sector.

Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN), which makes GPS-enabled consumer devices, is a new buy recommendation from value investor Charles Mizrahi. Here's his long-term outlook from his Hidden Values Alert.

"Garmin a leading worldwide provider of navigation, communications and information devices, most of which are enabled by Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.

"It designs, develops, manufactures and markets a diverse family of hand-held, portable and fixed-mount GPS-enabled products and other navigation, communications and information products for the automotive/mobile, outdoor/fitness, marine and general aviation markets.

"Aaron Rents (NASDAQ: RNT) is a new addition to the focus list that carries both fundamental and technical strength," says Michael Vodicka, an analyst with Zacks Elite Investment Research.

"The company is a specialty retailer of consumer electronic goods like stereos and televisions that owns or operates 1,545 stores in the United States and Canada. Aaron Rents was founded in 1955 and has a market cap of $1.38 billion.

"In spite of a short-lived drop in mid October, this stock has held up well in an environment where consumers are pulling back on discretionary spending. The big share-price rebound was predicated on the company's solid third-quarter results, reported in late October.

"While I've watched video game maker Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) for many years, I've never felt it was cheap," says growth stock specialist Nate Pile.

In his Nate's Notes, he now says, "I am thrilled to see the stock price finally experience the sort of pullback that justifies a buy rating; indeed, I wasn't interested at $50 four months ago, but at $17 today, I can't help but get excited."

"Over the years, Electronic Arts has amassed an impressive library of titles. In particular, you may be familiar with the entire Sims collection, as well as the company's extensive lineup of sports games (including Madden NFL and Tiger Woods PGA Tour, for example).

"In addition, Spore is a recently introduced hit, and some other titles you may be familiar with (or at least seen in TV commercials) include Need For Speed, Medal of Honor, and Rock Band.

"Our December revenue results were in line with our expectations. Soft domestic customer traffic in January, coupled with our near-term outlook, now indicate that our fourth-quarter revenue will fall short of our planned targets," Brad Anderson, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Best Buy, said in a press release.

Phillip Schoonover's performance as Circuit City Stores Inc (NYSE: CC) CEO has not been terrific. Last March he canned 3,400 of the highest paid people in the company -- many of which were top sales people who took their customers to Best Buy (NYSE: BBY). Circuit City's financial performance has faltered and its stock has lost 80% of its value in the last year.

As I posted here, I can't understand why Schoonover continues to occupy his position as CEO. A Circuit City spokesman denies a rumor I received this morning from an anonymous tip via e-mail suggesting that Circuit City's stockholders hounded the board into agreeing -- Schoonover will be out by the end of this month, the tipster alleges. Two e-mails from different addresses, which apparently were fake, contained the rumor. The senders didn't identify themselves. I called the company and the two executives mentioned in the e-mail for comment.

Here's one of the e-mails:

MoneyCNN reports that Circuit City Stores (NYSE: CC) lost 64 cents a share and a sales dropped 3.1%. Circuit City CEO Philip Schoonover said: "We underestimated the financial impact from the disruption of our transformation work."

Schoonover is clueless about his "transformation work." As I posted earlier this year, last March Circuit City laid off 3,400 workers experienced and higher paid workers and replaced them with lower paid ones. Customers who liked the knowledgeable sales staff followed them to Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) which reported that its third quarter profits and sales beat estimates.

Schoonover thought that he could lower his costs and keep sales strong. Now it's time for Circuit City's board to complete its "transformation work" by canning Schoonover.

Update: Circuit City stock is down 22% this morning and 73% since March when it announced its 3,400 person lay off.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Best Buy or Circuit City securities.