PriceSCAN Blog: December 2005 Archives

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Capturing Holiday Strife As Only A Camcorder Can, And For Less

Electronics | Dec 16, 05

From barely disguised disappointment upon receiving an inadequate gift, to the airing of ancient family gripes during a festive meal, to alcohol-fueled inappropriate behavior at a holiday party, so much of this time of year cannot be fully captured by still images alone. There's no better way to preserve those precious memories than through the magic of digital moving pictures, and this brings me to the Sony DCR-DVD403 DVD Handycam Camcorder.

The buzz on this camcorder has been good since its release earlier this year, and its currently the most popular camcorder on our site. It features image stabilization, LCD monitor, color viewfinder and a remote control. What's more, it comes with something that, as regular readers of this blog know, not all top of the line electronics have right now: a holiday price drop. Now, back in June, I noted that there had been some softening of prices for new members of the Handycam line since their release earlier in the year (“Softening Sony Handycams”), but the current decline is more dramatic. The lowest vendor price on PriceSCAN for this model has dropped from $700 to under $600 over the last few weeks, a 40% discount from the list price. And if you act now you can have it in your hand in time to preserve every snide remark, uncomfortable silence, cringe-worthy public display and eruption of suppressed resentment. After all, 'tis the season.

Time Period: 3/21/2005 through 12/12/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Posted by jeffrey.trester at 9:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

iPods and MP3's: A Tale Of Two Players

Electronics | Dec 9, 05

In this critical shopping period, many of you may have been hoping for drops in the prices of what has to be two of this year's hottest items, those being the iPod Nano and iPod Video players. And in the way of holiday cheer in this regard, I can offer you this. Zilch. Nada. Zippo. The fact is that while the price of the now discontinued Mini had indeed dropped significantly (see "iPods: Less Video, Less Money"), neither the Nano nor the Video iPod showed anything but rock-solid price support through Black Friday and beyond. The fact that vendors have these models in stock and haven't seen the need to cut prices (so far) may be testament to strong demand and Apple's greater success at managing production volume.

Now some analysts have suggested that firm iPod demand was boosting sales of other MP3 players as well (on 12/8 the Wall Street Journal noted Bear Stearn's Andrew Neff as saying as much in a letter to clients). This may be true, but this supportive effect may not extend to non-iPod players' prices, some of which have been falling sharply in the lead-up to the peak shopping period. Consider the SanDisk Sansa E140 MP3 Player with FM tuner and SD card slot, currently the most popular MP3 player on our site. Back in June, this model cost as much as $200, but the low price on PriceSCAN has fallen from about $135 at that time to under $96 today.
Time Period: 6/6/2005 through 12/5/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Perhaps the bottom line is that Apple's technology and "cool" factor is insulating it from the need for price reduction that must be made to keep up demand. Or, in the case of the video iPod and its ever increasing available library of network fare, maybe a tiny screen is no deterrent to purchase when, soon, one might hold in one's hand the genius that is “My Name Is Earl.”