“The hardware inside is more powerful than what’s in the iPad Mini, but also it offers you a lot of things like maps that work better than Apple’s maps.

Brian Tong says there is one reason why people may like the iPad Mini more than the Nexus 7.

“If you just want to read books and surf the Internet, really you don’t really need to get an iPad Mini, but if you want the largest robust group of apps that’s where the iPad and Apple’s ecosystem shines the most.”

Elman Chacon is with the electronics store Best Buy. He says another hot product this season is smart cameras. They connect to the Internet through WiFi. This makes it easy for users to email or upload photographs directly from the camera.

“You can literally take a picture, upload it into your Facebook in a matter of seconds. These things are pretty cool because they do a lot of things.”

Streaming media boxes also connect to the Internet. People are able to watch web content such as movies and YouTube videos on their televisions. Another popular item is wireless speaker systems. The newest ones work with any device that has Bluetooth technology, including smartphones, laptops and tablets.

With the growing popularity of Internet shopping, many consumers will visit a store first to look at a product, and then go online to find it at a lower price. Stores like Best Buy understand that and they want to stay competitive.