Revenue from U.S. consumer technology plunged about 5% last year, but tech items still raked in $106 billion, according to NPD Group’s Consumer Tracking Service which follows consumer electronic trends. Sales of units  went up, which means the public still wants its electronics — to the tune of over one billion gadgets, devices and accessories.

But that bump in the number of units didn’t make up for the the decline in average prices. And that created an overall revenue drop.

Average prices slid about 6% from 2008 to 2009. Average for each piece of electronics bought in 2009: $92.

The drop in revenue began in the last quarter of 2008, when it slumped 7%. By comparison, it seems consumers are getting more eager to spend — revenue in the last quarter of 2009 was down just 1.5%.

In fact, fourth quarter 2009 revenue growth represented the best quarterly results since the second quarter of 2008.

For the fourth year in a row, brick and mortar retailers boosted their share of consumer technology sales.  The big drivers: computers and TVs.

Best Buy once again sold the most electronics products in 2009 and gained more revenue share than any other retailer. Walmart, Staples, Target and Apple’s retail followed Best Buy’s lead.

Online, the big players were Dell, Amazon, Best Buy, HP and Apple.

The winners in online sales were third party retailers, like Amazon and Newegg.  Third party online-only retailer sales increased 9% over 2008.

While consumers did part with less money, they didn’t do it across the board. Middle income consumers cut back the most. Folks with the highest incomes denied themselves least — those who make $100,000 or more cut back just 1%.

Consumers with incomes from $30,000 to $100,000 reduced their outlay 8% from 2008.  Lower-income consumers dropped tech shopping by 3%.

“The industry lost ground this year but in light of the overall economic conditions it was a performance that could have been much worse,” said Stephen Baker, NPD vice president of industry analysis.

“By retailers and manufacturers being aggressive on consumer electronics pricing that kept the consumer engaged and shopping, an important success story to remember in such a dismal year.  Categories like computers and flat-panel TVs, despite very high selling prices, were able to see significant increases in unit volume through this tactic.  The up-tick in fourth quarter results, while partly the result of a weak year-over-year comparison was also due to strong results from these categories, results that point to increased momentum as we head into 2010.”

In other words, while the year started out slow, things seem to be picking up again. And all in all, it could have been a whole lot worse.

It may be a better fit for most companies than ever before.

Here are two big reasons why taking a look at your bank’s online offerings is a great idea now:

• They’ve scaled for your size. Banks have gotten throngs of individuals to long on and bank over the last 10-15 years. Business customers? Not so much. The reason: Financial institutions have been trying to fit a square peg into a round hold by expecting commercial clients to use consumer-style accounts. That’s no longer the case. In fact, many banks — including community banks — have set up three tiers of online banking platforms for small-to mid-size and large businesses. That means you won’t be paying for services your company isn’t ready or equipped for yet.
• They’ve ramped up on RDC. One service you will want to inquire about no matter what your size: Remote Deposit Capture. This helps streamline operations and it’s a cash flow booster that’s now more readily available. For example, now 50% of community banks offer RDC, as opposed to a mere 4% in 2005. Even more encouraging is that 60% of banks say they have a pilot program in place for RDC, specially for small-biz customers.