Enter an electronics store, and you can’t help but be slightly overwhelmed by the level of choice and diversity in product. This is great for the average consumer, except that some of what’s sitting on store shelves isn’t really ideal for your hard-earned cash. Here are some products and categories that you should probably avoid leading up to the holidays.

$600 netbooks
The value proposition of a netbook is that it gives you computing power and functionality in a smaller form factor. Rather than lug around a huge 17” laptop, you can stroll along with a 10” netbook and do basic tasks. This is great if the netbook is between $300-$400. But when you start seeing price tags in the $600 range, consider avoiding those netbooks and either buying one that’s cheaper — or if you have the funds — opt for a thin-and-light laptop with a 13” screen and more powerful processing for a couple hundred dollars more. The thin-and-lights are gaining in popularity, so you will have a slew of choices to consider.

Home Theatre in a Box
The Home Theatre-in-a-Box (HTiB) might seem appealing in that you can get surround-sound for your living room or basement at one low base price. No matter how cool or useful this may seem, avoid this entire category and save your money. After spending thousands on a new HDTV, spending a couple hundred on a HTiB just doesn’t do it justice. If you’re a student, have limited funds or are looking to set this up in a very small room, then maybe you can opt to go this route. But if you’re looking for good sound, even if you are on a budget, you’re better off going to a Hi-Fi or audio shop and letting them help you get something better.

Satellite Radio for the home
If you want access to the considerable number of shows on satellite radio for the car, then that could be a viable option for you long commuters out there. But in the home, it’s just not as enticing as Internet Radio is. Satellite radio requires a monthly or annual subscription, whereas Internet radio is a one-time hardware purchase. Satellite needs line-of-sight to get a good signal, whereas Internet radio can be set up anywhere in a home that has a Wi-Fi network (or wired Ethernet). Satellite gives you plenty of content, a lot of which is specialized. That’s got upsides, but with Internet radio, over 11,000 stations from around the world are at your fingertips, and you don’t pay a cent for lifetime access.

Apple TV
Apple CEO Steve Jobs describes the Apple TV set top box as just “a hobby”, and it certainly seems that way since it hasn’t evolved very much from its inception a couple of years ago. While it does a nice job of playing back high-definition content from your iTunes library, it’s also too restrictive in playing other file formats, and has virtually no customization options. You can’t use it as a PVR (personal video recorder) to record programs from your TV, nor can you use it as a hub to display your computer screen on the TV. If you want a small home theatre centre from Apple, the Mac Mini is a better — albeit more expensive — option for you.