May 27

DoJ making preliminary inquiries into Apple’s music endeavors while iTunes dominance continues

Posted in: amazon, Apple, business, government, industry, itunes, Music, sales, Today's Chili, us, usa

It’s all just noise right now, but the United States Justice Department is purportedly having a “very preliminary conversation” with Apple regarding the company’s music business, wondering in particular if anything it’s doing (or has done) would violate antitrust legislation. According to unnamed sources familiar with the situation, DoJ staff seem most interested in whether or not Apple’s dominance in the market enabled it to unfairly prevent Amazon’s music service from exclusively debuting new songs. Beyond that, details of the investigation are few and far between, but it’s coincidentally coming down on Cupertino when its iTunes numbers are on the up and up. The latest NPD research figures show that over a quarter of the music purchased within the US is now procured through iTunes — 28 percent, if you’re looking for specifics, which is up 4 percentage points from Q1 2009. Meanwhile, Amazon has pulled into a tie with Walmart for second place, which may or may not coerce Wally World to ditch its morals and finally start stocking that uncensored version of My World 2.0.

DoJ making preliminary inquiries into Apple’s music endeavors while iTunes dominance continues originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 26

Google Nexus One Starts Popping Up in Retail Stores

Posted in: Android, Google, nexus one, Phones, retail, sales, t-mobile, Today's Chili, web

The Google Nexus One Phone

After Google shut down web sales of the Nexus One earlier this month, the company is moving swiftly to seed retail stores with the HTC-designed smartphone.

I wireless, a T-mobile affiliate will sell the Nexus One at its 250 stores mostly in the Midwest. But in stores, the Nexus One will be pretty pricey. The device is expected to be available for $300, after a $50 mail-in rebate, and with a T-Mobile contract. That is higher than the $180 Google had priced the Nexus One at in its web store.

It’s the price that Google and customers must pay for the privilege of getting their hands on Nexus One before committing to buy the device.

Google introduced the HTC-designed Nexus One in January as a phone that would initially be available on T-Mobile’s network. But instead of being sold through T-Mobile stores, the search giant said it would sell Nexus Ones through its web site and handle customer support itself.

Though innovative and clever, the strategy didn’t resonate with consumers. Nexus One’s online store failed to catch on. Potential customers found they just couldn’t find a Nexus One in the real-world to play with, unless they knew a friend who already had the device.

“While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not,” wrote Andy Rubin, vice-president of engineering and Android czar at Google in a blog post. “It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters.”

The idea also gave rise to customer service complaints early on in the device’s life. Customers complained about the poor tech support from Google–the company didn’t offer a telephone help line for weeks, instead asking people to send in e-mails.

Now Google seems to be taking the first steps towards getting Nexus Ones to stores. The high price tag on the device at retail, though, dampens our enthusiasm. But if Google can strike deals with Best Buy or other big electronics retail chains, it could offer the Nexus One in store for the same price as it was on the web.

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Photo: (Johncatral/Flickr)




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May 24

Best Buy advertising higher than regular prices as sales?

Posted in: ad, ads, advertising, BestBuy, sales, Today's Chili
Could some Best Buy “sales” not really be sales at all? Shocking, we know, but stay with us for a minute. As Consumerist reports, the mega retailer seems to have recently begun advertising some laptops at prices that are actually higher than their regular price, and then taking things one step further by placing “as advertised” signs on the laptops in store — thereby giving consumers the impression that they’re getting a deal. A tipster to Consumerist specifically sites laptops like the Dell and HP modes advertised for $649.99 and $699.99 in the latest ad pictured above, which are apparently $20 and $50 higher than their regular price — previous laptops advertised at higher prices also now seem to have gone back to their regular price. Of course, all of this seems to technically be on the up and up, since Best Buy isn’t actually advertising the laptops as being “on sale” but, if it is indeed a regular practice, it’s definitely not doing a service to customers, to say the least.

Best Buy advertising higher than regular prices as sales? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 13:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 20

Analyst: Apple selling more iPads than Macs, at the moment

Posted in: Apple, apple ipad, AppleIpad, ipad, Mac, sales, Today's Chili
So there’s no question that Apple is selling a ton of iPads, but would you have guessed that it’s actually selling more iPads than all Mac sales combined? That’s the case, at least at the moment, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, who says that Apple is currently moving about 200,000 iPads per week, compared to 110,000 Macs — though it still trails the iPhone, which is apparently racking up sales of 246,000 per week. Of course, we are just talking about analyst estimates here, and things could potentially swing back into the Mac’s favor once the quarterly totals are added up. If true, however, it’d sure be a whopper of a milestone — one that we’d no doubt be hearing plenty more about in, say, three weeks time.

Analyst: Apple selling more iPads than Macs, at the moment originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 15:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 19

Apple now accepting cash for its cold hard iPads (video)

Posted in: Apple, ipad, retail, sales, Today's Chili, us, video

Nothing like a little bad press to change corporate policy. Diane Campbell made US national news this week (seriously) when her attempts to purchase an iPad with cash were rejected. Apple’s no-cash policy (credit cards and debit cards only please) was put in place by Apple as a means of ensuring that customers were sticking to the two-device limit — a policy that was originally put in place in October 2007 in order to deal with high demand for the iPhone and, some would say, to keep the devices off the grey market. Well, some members of the US media got so feverish with affect rage that they lashed out at Apple with chants of “anti-American” and “anti-disadvantaged” (Diane is described as disabled and on a fixed income). Apple has reversed the policy: it now accepts cash just as long as customers sign up for an Apple account while in the store at the time of purchase. As for Diane, she got a free iPad and “changed a little piece of the world.” We feel safer already. Check the local news report video after the break if you must.

Continue reading Apple now accepting cash for its cold hard iPads (video)

Apple now accepting cash for its cold hard iPads (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 01:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 19

Barnes & Noble to open ‘PubIt!’ self-publishing portal this summer

Posted in: barnes and noble, BarnesAndNoble, Books, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, ebooks, nook, sales, Today's Chili

Self-publishing has long since been possible through Amazon, but you won’t catch us kvetching about a little competition in the market place. In an attempt to do for indie writers what InstantAction has done for indie game developers, Barnes & Noble has just announced its intentions to open up a self-publishing portal this summer. We wouldn’t say that the PubIt! name is the greatest of all time (for a variety of reasons, frankly), but the world’s largest bookseller is hoping to expand its importance in the digital realm by giving wannabe authors the ability to upload and sell their material through B&N’s website and eBookstore. Details on the compensation model (read: profit split) will be announced “in the coming weeks,” but the real kicker here is this won’t be limited to the Nook; pretty much any e-reader, tablet or PC will be able to tap in and make purchases, so the potential audience is quite large. Hit that source link if you want to be notified when invitations are going out, and given just how close we are to this mythical “summer” thing, we’d suggest you start putting pen to paper — and fast.

[Thanks, Victor]

Continue reading Barnes & Noble to open ‘PubIt!’ self-publishing portal this summer

Barnes & Noble to open ‘PubIt!’ self-publishing portal this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 10:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 19

IDC and Gartner award smartphone growth prizes to Apple and Google

Posted in: market share, marketshare, sales, smartphone, Today's Chili

Get ready to rumble, the latest Gartner and IDC smartphone numbers are out to give us a pretty good idea of how things shape up globally. Remember, IDC measures vendor shipments while Gartner measures actual handset sales to end users. So what does the data tell us? Well, to start with, in terms of smartphone devices, Gartner claims a 48.7% increase in smartphone sales of 54.3 million units in Q1 2010 compared to Q1 2009 — IDC pegs growth at 56.7% on 54.7 million units for the same period. Both estimates easily outpace the 17% or 21.7% growth in worldwide units of mobile phones moved according to Gartner and IDC, respectively.

IDC’s list of top 5 smartphone device makers (pictured after the break) has Nokia at the number one spot repeating its 39.3% share as it did in Q1 of 2009 while RIM is down slightly from 20.9% in 2009 to a 19.4% market share in 2010. Apple (up from 10.9% to 16.1%) more than doubled its device shipments in the last year as HTC (up from 4.3% to 4.8%) and Motorola (up from 3.4% to 4.2%) all managed to increase their shares on higher volumes.

Regarding smartphone OS market share, Android’s global numbers echo its success in the US jumping from a 1.6% market share to 9.6% in just one year. Gartner claims that sales of Android-based phones increased 707% year-on-year to displace Windows Mobile in the top 5 for the first time. Apple’s iPhone OS also saw growth from 10.5% in 1Q09 to 15.4% in 1Q10 as both RIM (down from 20.1% to 19.4%) and Symbian (down from 48.8% to 44.3%) dropped. See the OS numbers broken down into a no-nonsense table after the break.

Continue reading IDC and Gartner award smartphone growth prizes to Apple and Google

IDC and Gartner award smartphone growth prizes to Apple and Google originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 04:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 06

Shocker: CEA’s spending report finds Americans buying more technology

Posted in: awesome, business, Gadgets, industry, recession, sales, Today's Chili, us, usa

Guess what kiddos? That recession that harshed your mellow all last year is officially over and done with… according to the Consumer Electronics Association, anyway. Based on a new report put out today by the CEA (you know, that organization that sets up CES each year?), the average US household spent $1,380 on consumer electronics over the past dozen months, which represents an increase of $151 from last year. The report also found that the average household spent 12 percent more on CE devices over the past year, and individual consumer spending shot up 10 percent year-over-year. Other tidbits included: ladies spent more on CE wares than the did last year (but still trail the guys overall), and the average home reported owning 25 consumer electronic products, up from 23 in 2009. We’re also told that 86 percent of all US households own at least one computer, making it the third most owned CE product behind TVs and DVD players. Oh, and as for those pesky netbooks? 12 percent of US households own one of those, while 58 percent own “laptops” of some sort. Head on past the break for the full skinny — we hope you’re in the mood for good news, ’cause that’s all you’re getting.

[Image courtesy of TooMuchNick / WireImage]

Continue reading Shocker: CEA’s spending report finds Americans buying more technology

Shocker: CEA’s spending report finds Americans buying more technology originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 May 2010 17:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 06

Best Buy breaks opening weekend sales volume record with UK debut

Posted in: sales, Today's Chili, uk, united kingdom, UnitedKingdom

As it turns out, last weekend wasn’t just momentous for the fact it put Thurrock on the map (any map!). Best Buy got in touch with us today to tell us its first UK store has racked up the highest number of opening weekend sales in the company’s history. During our own visit to the store, we saw thousands flooding in and out, no doubt attracted by the novelty and deep discounts on offer from Best Buy. Notably, while this is a record in terms of volume, no such claims are mentioned relative to revenue or profit, suggesting the company was shooting to attract as many customers as possible, in hopes of recouping any opening day losses in repeat custom down the line. Given the feedback from one shopper, who came in for an Avatar Blu-ray disc and left with a pair of Wii consoles and a hard drive, that might not be such a bad strategy. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Best Buy breaks opening weekend sales volume record with UK debut

Best Buy breaks opening weekend sales volume record with UK debut originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 May 2010 09:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 06

Nintendo net profit declines for first time in six years, panic remains inadvisable

Posted in: DS, financial, financials, gaming, nintendo, nintendo wii, NintendoWii, sales, Today's Chili, wii

Nintendo’s 2009 financial results have just been released and, shockingly enough, the company hasn’t been able to break its profit record yet again. In fact, annual net profit dipped — for the first time in six tenths of a decade — to $2.44 billion, a 12 percent drop from the previous fiscal year’s $2.79 billion. Sales of the Wii were down 21 percent year-on-year, but Nintendo still managed to shift 20 million units globally, so it’s not exactly all doom and gloom at Mario HQ. And while Microsoft and Sony are working on their own motion-sensing offerings, Ninty is reloading the only way it knows how — bringing the noir Wii to fashion-conscious Americans, and an all-new 3D portable console for the rest of us. Anyone willing to bet against Nintendo’s income sheet improving next year?

[Original image courtesy of Anarkyman]

Nintendo net profit declines for first time in six years, panic remains inadvisable originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 May 2010 06:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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