Hasta La Gadget!

We’re seeing reports pop up that discounting — some of it heavy — off the full retail prices of Windows Phone 7 handsets by third-party retailers this early in the game could be a sign of trouble for Microsoft, but realistically, you can’t use that yardstick for guesstimating how well a phone (or a platform, in this case) is doing. Guys like Amazon, Wirefly, Simplexity (which runs a number of mobile stores, including Walmart), and Best Buy Mobile regularly undercut carriers’ first-party pricing on handsets immediately following release — or shortly thereafter — because it’s effectively a win-win: they’re given multi-hundred-dollar commissions for each new contract they bring to the network, giving them the wiggle room to apply some of that cash to the sticker price. The retailers win because they’re earning sales by offering phones for less than the carriers, and the carriers still win because they’re pushing on-contract units either way — and that means they’ve captured another long-term revenue stream, which is where the real money’s at. Popular Android devices like the Epic 4G and the Vibrant (among countless others) were handled the same way in the retail channel as these Windows Phone 7 devices are being handled.

Of course, that’s not to say we know Windows Phone 7 is selling well — Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore dodged questions about numbers this week at D: Dive into Mobile, which seems shady at best for a platform that’s now been on the market for a solid month. We are saying, though, that you can’t use third-party discounting to steer the conversation either way. Call us when AT&T or T-Mobile starts blowing out Quantums and HD7s for a penny directly when they’re not tied up in some sort of holiday BOGO promotion, because that’s when you have to worry.

Correction: Walmart’s mobile store is actually operated by LetsTalk, not Simplexity as we’d originally reported.

Windows Phone 7 devices are being discounted by third parties, but it’s business as usual originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The new Google Phone is here: The Nexus S. Built by Samsung, it’s got a 4-inch Super AMOLED “Contour Display,” 1GHz Hummingbird processor, NFC support, and most importantly, it’s running a completely clean version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. More »

If free Android phones on every US carrier weren’t enough to entice you into a Best Buy Mobile store this month, maybe a deeply discounted Droid Pro will be. Motorola’s Android 2.2 handset, which launched at $179.99 with the usual two-year Verizon tie-in, is now available for purchase for exactly $130 less at Best Buy’s mobile outlets — both the online and brick-and-mortar varieties will let you walk away with one for $49.99 and a 24-month commitment. We don’t know where all these crazy deals are coming from, but we ain’t complaining.

[Thanks, Tony]

Update: Amazon.com is undercutting Best Buy with a $19.99 price for those opening new Verizon accounts when buying the Droid Pro.

Droid Pro dropped to $50 on contract by Best Buy Mobile (update: $20 at Amazon) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everything is somewhat more gargantuan in Texas, so its only natural that Houston has its eye on having the largest network of electric vehicle chargers in the country. The plan is a privately funded brain-child of power plant operator NRG Energy, which hopes to install 150 charging stations in the 25 mile vicinity of downtown Houston starting in February. Chargers will be placed at common retail locations such as Walgreens and Best Buy, but given that 80 to 90 percent of charging will occur in homes, an $89 all-you-can-juice monthly plan will also include the installation of 240-volt charging systems in residences. NRG doesn’t expect to turn a profit on its $10 million investment for several years, but hopes that taking the proactive step will create a lucrative business in the future as electric vehicle prices (hopefully) hit the skids. The company also wants to build a similar network in Dallas in early 2011, and perhaps San Antonio and Austin in the future as well. Still, while the plans are admirable for the home of big-oil, compared to London’s government-backed 1,300 station plan, NRG’s Houston aspirations still seem positively Rhode Island-sized.

Houston will be home to America’s largest car charging network, identity crisis originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Nov 2010 10:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The $249 Nook Color has decided its November 19th shipping date wasn’t soon enough so it’s jumped ahead of it with pre-order deliveries starting today. Barnes and Noble’s Nook-with-a-hook will be cheering those who reserved or pre-ordered it as shipping ramps up through this week, and there’ll even be some “very limited” quantities that you’ll be able to buy at retail locations like B&N, Best Buy, Walmart, and Books-A-Million stores. All of them should be getting live units for the curious to try out the Nook Color as well. As to the older, less chromatically able Nooks, B&N is promising a firmware update next week. Skip past the break for the full PR.

Continue reading Nook Color now shipping to early birds, limited retail

Nook Color now shipping to early birds, limited retail originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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