Myriad's testing sales reached $71 million in the fiscal year ended June , 2005 up 75percentt from the previous year.
Publishers are releasing books electronically to test sales before putting them in print, and to adjust prices to drive demand.
Spurred by flu test sales, Quidel's revenue from infectious disease testing rose 70percentt in the second quarter from a year earlier, to $16.1 million.
Amazon.com, which began testing sales of sports items a month ago, is offering equipment, clothing and other items for more than 50 sports.
The chain has also been testing sales of coffee for as little as $1 60pp) a cup, and recently introduced sachets of powdered coffee under the brand name Via.
There have been a variety of minor withdrawals unrelated to global market disruptions, including test sales, exchanges to address minor domestic supply interruptions and even sales in 1996 and 1997 to raise $220 million to balance the federal budget.
While some of EMI's rivals have been testing sales of music in unprotected form, the company's move did not appear to prompt any immediate retreat from antipiracy software.
Steering its broadband Internet access business away from a one-size-fits-all model, Comcast said Thursday that it would test sales of Internet service based on use, with potentially higher costs for customers who use the most.
The McDonald's Corporation said that it had ended test sales of bottled beverages from PepsiCo in its eateries, a victory for the chain's fountain-drink supplier, the Coca-Cola Company. McDonald's is trying to increase drink sales and has been testing a variety of beverages in select outlets in the United States.
But "a higher incidence of postponing pregnancy in a poor economy has put a damper on home pregnancy test sales," according to a report in February by Mintel, a market research firm, which reported that sales of pregnancy tests dropped 2.5 percent in 2008 and 3.4 percent in 2009.
