Hasta La Gadget!

Apple may be a small player in terms of overall PC market share, but in the premium price segment, the Macintosh is king.

In June, nine out of 10 dollars spent on computers costing $1,000 and up went to Apple in the U.S. market, according to research company NPD Group. That spells out to 91 percent of the “premium” price segment gobbled up by Macs — up from 88 percent in May.

Granted, Windows PC systems still own 90 percent of the U.S. PC market share. Still, this is a victory for Apple, a company whose focus is on quality products with premium price tags.

These numbers make it crystal clear why Apple continues to avoid stepping into the netbook market with a $400 to $500 offering: Even in a recession, it doesn’t need to. This also illustrates that the recent price cuts made to the MacBook family were indeed an effective move.

Apple has 91% of market for $1,000+ PCs, says NPD [BetaNews]

See Also:

• Survey: Microsoft’s ‘Laptop Hunter’ Ads Are Hurting Apple …
• Microsoft’s ‘Laptop Hunter’ Ads Made on Macs?
• MacBook Price Cuts Highlight Tough Choices for Apple as Growth …
• Spoof Microsoft Ad: Even Bums Won’t Buy a PC
• Apple Debuts Aggressively Priced iPhone 3GS, MacBooks

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Truth be told, SSD prices have been declining at a noticeable tick since way back in 2007, but the reality is that the average consumer still can’t afford one — or, at least they aren’t willing to pay the lofty premium for the decent increase in speed. If a bold claim from JMicron is to be believed, all that could change in the run-up to CES 2010. A new report has it that the aforesaid company will be demonstrating its new NAND flash controller next week at Computex, with the JMF612 aimed specifically at a “new generation of NAND flash chips built using smaller process geometries that will be entering the market soon.” If all goes well, the cheap single-chip controller could lead to SSD prices falling by around 50 percent by Christmas, but after years of waiting for these things to really get priced for Joe Sixpack and his gaggle of siblings, we’re still cautiously skeptical. Not that we wouldn’t love to be proven wrong or anything.

[Image courtesy of HotHardware]

Filed under: Storage

JMicron NAND flash controller could lead to significantly lower SSD prices originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 08:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’d already heard that Vizio has vaulted back into first place among LCD TV manufacturers, but a new series of numbers compiled by the folks at DisplaySearch is now shedding a bit more light onto how much the flat-panel TV market as a whole has surged over the past year. Apparently, about 7.2 million flat-panel sets were moved during the first quarter of 2009 alone, which represents a sizable 23% increase over the numbers from the first quarter of 2008. DisplaySearch also expectedly reconfirms Vizio’s number one status, although its figures are a tad more conservative and peg Vizio’s market share at a still impressive 18.9% (as opposed to the 21.6% found by iSupply), which is well above the 8.5% earned by the likes of rival Funai (producer of TVs for Sylvania, Emerson and other low-cost brands). As you might expect, higher-end brands like Sony and Samsung weren’t as able to buck the economic downturn quite so easily, and they actually saw their sales decrease compared to the same period last year.

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

Flat-panel TV sales jump 23% over last year, Vizio leads the way originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 17:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We already heard that the Big N managed to lighten its DSi inventory by 300,000 during the handheld’s first full weekend in America, and apparently another 135,000 procrastinators swooped in to grab one as the week finished up. Potentially more amazing, however, is the overall impact of Nintendo in the month of March. Last month, Nintendo systems accounted for just south of 60 percent (58.4 percent, if you must know) of all video game hardware sold in America. And yeah, that’s even despite a shocking 17 percent drop in Wii sales during the same 30 day window. Have we mentioned lately that things seem to be going quite well in the Mushroom Kingdom? ‘Cause they definitely do.

[Via Joystiq]

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Nintendo moves 435,000 DSi handhelds during first week in US originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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