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Cooler Vibez Than iPod?
Electronics | Dec 20, 06
Or at least a very slick last minute gift. I'm talking about the TrekStor Vibez digital music player, a European hit now available from U.S. merchants.
The Vibez has the kind of sleek design and innovative features missing in other would-be challengers to the tyranny of white earbuds. Now if you're like most people, when you think of free-spirited defiance of oppressive conformity, you think Germany. OK, maybe not. But this product from the land of Oktöberfest is in fact both attractive and different. The scroll wheel is magnetically mounted and actually rotates, with a glowing pointer whose brightness indicates position. It's smooth, curved "soft-touch" housing looks like it could be inspired by high-fashion sunglass cases, and has a back of high-grade chrome steel. Compatible with both MP3 and Windows Media files, it automatically organizes your music library according to title, artists, album, genre and other key facts, even allowing searches for artist covers of original artist's songs. It also displays photos and cover art on its 32mm x 25 mm screen. It comes in 8 GB and 12 GB versions, which are currently offered by merchants on PriceSCAN.com for just shy of $170 and $200, respectively.
Posted by jeffrey.trester at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
zune (zōōn) v. To violently drop in price, esp. before the holidays.
Electronics | Dec 18, 06
So perhaps there's something in this world falling faster than George Bush's approval rating. The low price posted on this site for the Microsoft Zune has fallen nearly 10% since the beginning of October.
Time Period: 10/2/2006 through 12/11/2006
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
Now in fairness, even the most popular iPod on PriceSCAN.com, the mighty 30GB Updated 5th Generation iPod has fallen a bit since we started tracking it in mid September, though only about half as much as Redmond's offering. Both this iPod and the Zune stared off at $250, and now the Zune may be had for $228 versus $237.49 for the iPod. What accounts for the difference? Ah, there's that pesky supply and demand thing again...
Posted by jeffrey.trester at 2:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Rising Tech Prices... Isn't That Illegal Or Something?
Digital Cameras & Camcorders | Dec 11, 06
Recent press reports of some vendors raising prices on technology goods following a strong Black Friday highlight more than a robust tech retail environment. They're a reminder that the market for retail goods is just that – a market. And markets have a disconcerting tendency to rise as well as fall.
Many of the reported price increases have focused on highly-sought high-def plasma televisions, such as the 42'' Panasonic TH-42PX60U as well as LCD sets like the 40'' Sony KDL-40XBR3, The latter's recent price bounce can be seen in the PriceTrend graph below:
Time Period: 7/31/2006 through 12/4/2006
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
However, there are examples of this kind of recent price action in other tech markets, such as that of digital cameras. One interesting case: the Canon PowerShot S3-IS, as of this writing the most popular digital camera on PriceSCAN.com. Despite its popularity, this is a fairly mature product, having been released prior to the end of the first quarter. Its six megapixel resolution is fine for most users, but it's no longer "state of the art". This is reflected in its price history. Since we began tracking it back in mid-March, it's fallen from $500 to a low of about $300 four weeks ago. However, in recent weeks the lowest offered price of this model has risen about 10%, and the average vendor price has jumped from just north of $360 to approximately $400 (see graph below). At least one major retailer is offering this camera for almost $100 more that the March price.
Time Period: 3/13/2006 through 12/4/2006
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
The process of technological innovation tends to drive down prices of some generations of tech product as they become obsolete (the price of the state of the art is another story, as keeping up with the Joneses can be a necessity that need not drop in price. But the tech product cycle is a long and very noisy process, taking place in an arena subject to supply and demand, like any other market. As J.P. Morgan once observed, markets will fluctuate.
Posted by jeffrey.trester at 4:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
And In The Spirit Of The Season, Let's See Who Is And Isn't Cashing In
Electronics | Dec 4, 06
So Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the whole media-hyped if not invented "official" start of the holiday shopping derby is behind us. I think we'd all agree it's time to pause and reflect on what this time of year is really all about: sales volume, market share and, of course, margins.
In the music player wars, I'm sure everyone was just as shocked as I was to find that the Zune has failed to knock the iPod off its throne ("The Zune: Microsoft's Little Brown Lump Of DRM-Enforcing Digital Joy" and "The Universal Zune Tax"). At least for the moment, Redmond is said to have succeeded in becoming the leading iPod alternative; this at the expense of SanDisk, which already faced issues versus Apple ("New iPods: More Memory, Smaller Size, And A Tough Day For SanDisk"). The very fact that there is an interest out there in players of questionable competitiveness vis a vis the iPod, even with Apple's lock-in advantages in compatibility (iPod ports in cars, speaker docks etc.) and distribution (iTunes) indicates that if someone out there would make a player with a cool design and superior features, they really could give Cupertino a run for its money. But the whole "share expiring rights to your music with friends just long enough to shill for us" thing may not be the killer app to knock those white earbuds off the heads of America's youth.
Over in game-land, looks like Sony should have found a way to bang out a few more PS3s ("But If We Made Too Many PlayStations, They Wouldn't Be As Cool"). What they did build sold well, but apparently so did the year-old Microsoft Xbox 360 and the new Nintendo Wii. Sony's limited production to date necessarily limits its holiday sales. The silver lining here is that Sony is said to be taking a significant loss on each PS3 sold, owing to the expensive Cell and Blu-ray technology packed into the device (by contrast, Microsoft's Xbox is reportedly profitable). But Sony's truncated sales aren't just about video games; they represent a missed opportunity to gain a greater foothold for its Blu-ray high def standard just as the battle with Toshiba's HD-DVD technology heats up, and as Microsoft unveils an HD module for the Xbox based on the latter ("So Xbox Has An 1080p HD-DVD – Blu-ray's Still A Cooler Name (You Can Tell By The Dropped Vowel"). Meanwhile, the far less expensive Wii has proved to be a commercial success and a critical hit, with its vibrating motion-sensitive controller winning over reviewers at the Wall Street Journal. New York Magazine dubbed the Nintendo console "funky", in contrast to what it called the "clunky" PS3. Earlier rumored Wii supply problems do not appear to be acute. So if you can make that gamer on your list happy for hundreds of dollars less, why not go with the Wii? Sony may find itself caught between Microsoft's high-def rock and Nintendo's low cost and very slick hard place, and without enough production to put up a full fight.
Speaking of high def, it appears the flat screen market is heating up. lCD demand is so strong that Sony announced plans to boost LCD production by 60%, partially in conjunction with Samsung, the current leader in television sales. But plasma is hardly out of the game; indeed, Panasonic seems to have hit a sweet spot with the 42'' TH42PX60U, currently the most popular flat screen on PriceSCAN.com and available for somewhat north of a grand. So far, neither technology seems to be able to displace the other, and perhaps the war will go on until some other screen type (LED?) replaces both. For the time being, however, it looks like a joyous holiday season for everyone in the biz.
Posted by jeffrey.trester at 12:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
