Despite the stories that the U.S. Black Friday had record sales thanks to price cuts, it turns out that they were all PR spin. Research from NRP reports that for the first time in at least seven years, consumer electronics sales fell from the previous year at the start of the holiday shopping season.

This dashed hopes that the category would hold up despite the weak economy. Sales were down 8.4 percent for the week ending the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which is the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving.

In actual fact it looks like the consumer electronics category was a loser compared to the overall market. Total sales in all categories of products rose 0.8 percent for the week, according to another research firm, ShopperTrak RCT. Flat-panel LCD TVs and laptop computers were the strongest categories, with sales up 8 percent in each, although the same number of units were sold as last year. However, the rest of the electronics industry slumped.

The question is why most of the electronics companies released statements saying that Black Friday sales were really good.