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Saving On Summer Gas With GPS
Electronics | May 21, 08
Oil broke above $134 per barrel today, so this summer you won't want to waste a drop of black gold lost and wondering about. Fortunately, GPS prices are plunging.
Back in December of last year, when oil was only about a hundred bucks a barrel (ah, the good old days) I suggested that both budgetary and ecological imperatives might motivate the use of a GPS unit ("Why Al Gore Should Want You To Buy A GPS").
Since then, oil has continued to rally while the price of many popular automotive GPS devices has only continued to fall. The Garmin Nuvi 650 Personal Travel Assistant I mentioned in that piece was going back then for over $350. It may now be had for well under $250. Garmin's Nuvi 660, currently the most popular auto GPS on PriceSCAN, is going for under $340, a staggering 66% drop since we started tracking it in late 2006.
Time Period: 9/25/2006 through 5/19/2008
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
Similarly, the lowest vendor prices on the Tom Tom One XL, that firm's most popular car model on this site, have also plunged, from around $250 at the time of my blog post (and $400 in April of last year) down to under $190.
Time Period: 4/30/2007 through 5/19/2008
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
With oil up by more than a third since late last year, even hybrid-haters who care not a wit for melting glaciers and drowning polar bears may find themselves impelled to ease their hydrocarbon-based assault on the earth. Knowing where one is going is perhaps one of the easiest ways to save gasoline, and in an era when energy, food and even some tech goods are rising in price (see "Blu-ray Prices Spike, Give Oil A Run For Its Money", "Digital Cameras Capture Picture Of Emerging Inflation?" and "Flat-Screen Prices Still, Well, Flat; Some Even Rise") it's nice to know that one technology is dropping in price that just might help you save gas, and even make the world a slightly better place.
Posted by jeffrey.trester at 7:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Blu-ray Prices Spike, Give Oil A Run For Its Money
Electronics | May 10, 08
With Toshiba's HD-DVD ambitions now a shattered dream, press reports have Sony having difficulty supplying enough Blu-ray players over the last month or so. This may well be contributing to the sharp increase in Blu-ray vendor pricing we've been witnessing over the preceding ten weeks or so.
To be sure, the market seems to have anticipated Blu-ray's conquest of HD-DVD even before Toshiba threw in the towel, as was noted in the space at the end of February (see "Blu-ray Boosts Inflation As HD-DVD Dies"). Since then, the Blu-ray price rally has become only more dramatic. PriceSCAN's Blu-ray index has been in bullish mode since the end of the year, rising from 75 to 90, with over a third of the gain occurring since the above-mentioned blog entry.
Specifically, consider the most popular Sony Blu-ray Player on PriceSCAN, the BDP-S300, whose lowest vendor offer price on this site has risen from $275 to $370 over the last four months, with about half that gain coming in the last eight weeks (see chart below).
Time Period: 6/4/2007 through 5/5/2008
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
Going to a non-Sony player provides no relief, with the Samsung BD-P1400, the most popular Blu-ray player listed here, having seen its lowest vendor offered price jump from around $270 to $400 in the same time frame, with about $110 of that increase coming in the last two months.
Time Period: 9/3/2007 through 5/5/2008
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
Consumers used to relentlessly declining prices of tech goods may find increases of more than 33% in a matter of just a few months more than a little disorienting. But hey, to make that gain seem more familiar, just consider what you're paying for a tank of gas, or a loaf of bread, or some copper pipe, or…well, you get the idea.
Posted by jeffrey.trester at 10:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
