Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal as the holiday shopping season approaches. People are leaning toward buying smaller stuff. They’re less likely to replace a TV and more likely to try something they don’t already have like a smart phone or an iPad.

Best Buy (CEO Brian Dunn) said smartphone sales continued to rise compared with a year ago, as did portable computer totals, buoyed by the iPad.

However, television sales fell despite the rollout of new 3D models, with both average prices and total volumes notching “low-double digit” declines compared with last year. Mr. Dunn also said internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50%.

50%! So the combination of a slowly recovering (?) economy and lots of innovation in the small device market explain why Best Buy is pushing iPads and started selling the Kindle. Staples says they plan to start selling Kindles in time for holiday as well.