PriceSCAN Blog

An even more impressive drop has occurred in the price of the TomTom One XL, falling from a minimum of about $400 to under $250 today.

Time Period: 4/30/2007 through 12/10/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

These and many other GPS units have seen price declines in the days since Thanksgiving, but the magnitude of these reductions may be limited by margin-shrinking price cuts earlier in the year (we could be seeing a similar phenomenon in the flat-screen television market – see "Saving Green on Flat-Screens, After Black Friday"). Following twenty or thirty percent drops over the last eight months, you have to wonder how much lower prices can go this holiday season.

In any case, this is an excellent time to combat rising fuel costs with a newly inexpensive GPS. Then, the next time your environmentally conscious friends start talking about drowning polar bears and barren penguin rookeries while wearily eyeing that Panzer sitting in your driveway, you can point out that you get from point A to point B with all the twelve mile per gallon efficiency modern global positioning technology will allow.

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November 23, 2007

Saving Green on Flat-Screens, After Black Friday

Electronics | Nov 23, 07

At the risk of contributing to the annual post-Thanksgiving media driven retail sales hype, I thought I'd take note the severe price cuts we've already seen on LCDs and plasmas as we moved into the holidays.
The most popular flat-screen television on PriceSCAN is currently Sony's KDL-52XBR4 52 inch BRAVIA XBR High Definition LCD WEGA, which in early August was going for at least $4,500 and is currently offered for under $3,000.

Time Period: 8/6/2007 through 11/12/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

It's a similar story with the Panasonic TH-50PZ700U, the top plasma and second most popular television on this site. Back in April this set was going for at least $3,400; today you can get one for under $2,500.
Time Period: 4/16/2007 through 11/12/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Going down the list of televisions on our site, you’ll see the same pattern of 25%-33% price reductions among many of the most sought-after models.
As summer passed into autumn and concern over an end of year slump reached fever pitch, prices on flat screens were slashed repeatedly. These early cuts may limit downside price action as the holiday shopping season progresses, since profit margins may have already been sharply compressed. But come what may, those buying now can be assured they're getting into the flat-screen market at deep discounts to introductory prices.

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November 11, 2007

What Brown Has Done For Zune

Electronics | Nov 11, 07

Right now you can buy a first generation brown Zune – that's brown, not any other color – for less then a hundred bucks.

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October 23, 2007

A Shopper Without The PriceSCAN Toolbar Is Like Bill Gates Without A Monopoly

Electronics | Oct 23, 07

Sometimes, in this wacky free market world of ours, you could use a little competitive advantage, and that’s why we created the PriceSCAN Toolbar.

The PriceSCAN Toolbar is a quick download that integrates with your IE 7 browser. Once installed, if you’re on any web page and see the name of an item you’d like to check on PriceSCAN, all you have to do is highlight that text, right click and choose “search PriceSCAN for selection”. You’ll see displayed the same result you’d get had you come to our site and searched for that term. It’s as simple as that. You also get a browser search bar that allows you to check our site for the price of any item you enter
Because it’s from PriceSCAN.com, there’s no spyware, adware, malware or any other evil weaselware that some sites hide in their toolbars. It’s just a straightforward consumer aid that will level the playing field this holiday season. Who knows – maybe it will foster greater competition, thus holding down prices and giving the world’s central banks more leeway to cut interest rates and alleviate the current credit crisis.
The PriceSCAN Toolbar – just doing our part to help save the global economy.

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October 18, 2007

"But Blu-ray's An Amazing Technology… OK, What If We Cut The Price, Let You Pretend To Shoot People And Throw In Spiderman 3?"

Electronics | Oct 18, 07

Sony will reportedly release a $399 PlayStation 3 with a Blu-ray player and, yes, a free copy of the afore-mentioned "Emo-Boy As Arachnid" cinematic masterpiece.

Right now the new 40 GB PlayStation would tie for the least expensive Blu-ray player on the market, selling at the same price as Samsung's BD-P1000. To be sure, it is more expensive than Toshiba's HD-A2 HD-DVD player (at a bit less than $250), but of course neither this unit, the Samsung or other high-def players offer the PlayStation's game functionality (which, incidentally, is said to not include the ability to play PS2 games).
Perhaps as significantly, this brings the cost of a PlayStation into near parity with that of typical Wii system "bundles" (which generally include games and accessories)and in the middle of the Xbox 360 range (indeed, the Microsoft Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Limited Edition System is going for $399.99). Thus, Sony has moved to put serious price pressure on both high-def video players and game consoles, including Nintendo's spectacularly successful offering. To further drive the point home, Sony also dropped the price of its 80 GB PS3 by a hundred bucks, to $499, a price already reflected in the market place by vendors on PriceSCAN.com
This may well be the first shot in a price war that will grip the video game and high-def video player markets throughout the holiday shopping season, which, judging by this move, now begins just after Columbus Day.

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October 5, 2007

"Good Morning Mr. Gates – The Functionality Of This Zune Music File Will Self-Destruct After Three Plays. Good Luck, Bill!"

Electronics | Oct 5, 07

Sounds like Microsoft's own version of "Mission Impossible", doesn't it?

Yes, songs shared between Zune users will still be playable only three times by the receiving device. Even those sold without copy protection.
The redesigned, slimmer Zune will reportedly be available with 4 GB and 8 GB of flash memory (for $150 and $200, respectively) while an 80 GB hard drive version will sell for $250. But Redmond has social-networking dreams - and hey, who doesn't? Thus, Gates & Co. intend to seduce the Facebook generation with a musical taste-driven profile site, imaginatively dubbed "Zune Social", presumably to facilitate the sharing of those only three times playable files.
In the wake of the relatively lackluster response to the first generation Zunes ("zune (zōōn) v. To violently drop in price, esp. before the holidays.") one could be forgiven for hoping Redmond would come up with a more attractive value proposition. And indeed, the firm making one million or more DRM-free MP3s available via Zune's Marketplace is a welcome development, and the touch-activated Zune Pad and wireless PC-synch features are at least interesting. But the Zune's pricing offers no discount to Apple's iPod line, millions of songs are now available without copy protection from other online retailers, and Facebook and others are already facilitating music sharing. One has to question how attractive the new Zune will be to anyone save committed foes of white earbuds. And these Zunes will be more costly than many offerings from Creative, SanDisk and others, placing in doubt its ability to penetrate the market niches of these players.
Which brings up one other change. The new Zune's will not be available in the original's signature color of brown. ("The Zune: Microsoft's Little Brown Lump Of DRM-Enforcing Digital Joy"). Try to get over it.
Now, on the other hand, if there was some way to play "Halo 3" on the thing…

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September 11, 2007

iPhreaks

Electronics | Sep 11, 07

The announcement of the "iPod touch" highlights iPhone issues that seem ironic given Apple's founders' reported early careers.

Readers of this blog could have learned much of the feature set of the “touch” back on Jouly 27th ("iGroans and Vist-ful Thinking"). Noting difficulties with slow web access via AT&T's Edge network versus rivals using 3G technology, I wrote: "Rolling out an iPod with iPhone screen and Wi-Fi technology would allow users to sidestep a contractual obligation to a lesser technology, one Apple may now be finding a barrier to sales." That's pretty much what Cupertino has done, with an accompanying price cut on the iPhone and a rebate to that product's early adopters (there's also a new iPod nano, and like the iPod touch this release was foreshadowed by vendors dropping older models ahead of the news – see "Retailers Drop iPods Ahead of Apple's "Surprise" Announcement").
While a cheaper iPhone without the "phone" is one answer to an undesirable carrier, the other logical alternative is an iPhone with a 3G carrier. While Apple is for the time being contractually unable to offer this option, some programmers and/or hackers seem to be taking it upon themselves to do so. Depending on one's interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) it may or may not be legal to sell solutions allowing the unlocking of an iPhone so that it may be used on other networks, but an exception to the act is said to allow individuals to do on their own. Several firms are currently vowing to provide unlocking products to the public.
With Cupertino allied with AT&T in an effort to squelch these renegade efforts, one can't help but marvel that Apples co-founders and its current leader reportedly got their start in business together as members of the legendary "Phone Phreaks". This early '70s band of paleohackers notoriously hijacked Ma Bell's long distance network for fun (Steve Wozniak is said to have phoned the Vatican pretending to be Henry Kissinger; he was told the Pope was sleeping at the time) and, occasionally, profit .(Jobs and Wozniak reportedly had a short-lived business manufacturing "blue boxes" that permitted users to avoid toll charges on calls).
That AT&T, in defending its exclusive rights, should find itself depending on a firm created and lead by those who were once the scourge of its existence might seem ironic enough. Yet perhaps there is one more twist to this scenario. Suppose the Edge network is in fact proving a drag on iPhone sales. If users and/or unlocking solution providers cannot legally or practically be stopped from liberating the iPhone from AT&T, then it's not beyond imagination that this new form of "phreaking" might actually be a boon to iPhone acceptance. And, albeit through no action of his own, Steve Jobs might find himself in common cause with those who, it might be argued, are the spiritual heirs of his youth.

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September 5, 2007

Retailers Drop iPods Ahead of Apple's "Surprise" Announcement

Electronics | Sep 5, 07

Here at PriceSCAN.com we've noted that several major retailers have stopped selling key iPod models during the two weeks before Apple's "mystery" announcement, which is to be made later today.

Jobs & Co. have been tight-lipped about exactly what the new hotness is, but a huge clue is to be found in PriceSCAN's data on the decline in the number of merchants selling some of the most popular iPods. This withdrawal has been particularly acute in the case of the 80 GB Video iPod and the 30 GB iPod, but we're also seeing a significant drop-off in the number of sellers offering Nanos, particularly the 2 GB and 4 GB models. This may reflect some awareness in the retail community of the imminent release of new iPods, especially in the video-enabled, large hard drive category. If more advanced models are coming, retailers may prefer not to be caught with a lot of older inventory they might have to mark down after the new releases, and thus may not have replenished their supply of current models in the wake of summer and back-to-school sales. And of course Apple itself could have chosen to throttle down production of the outgoing models to make way for the next generation, thus preventing retailers from restocking and possibly sending them a signal that new models are forthcoming.
In any case, it appears the lack of current model availability has resulted in something of a price squeeze in some cases. For example, as the PriceTrend graph below demonstrates, the lowest price offered by vendors on this site for an 80 GB black Video iPod has risen from around $325 to just shy of $350 in recent weeks.

Time Period: 9/18/2006 through 8/27/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Perhaps we'll see a new Video iPod incorporating the iPhone's touchscreen technology; something like what I dubbed the "iPhod" back in July (see "iGroans and Vist-ful Thinking"). And in light of the exit of some large sellers from the Nano market, there may well be a new version of this model as well.
In the minutes before a tsunami hits the shore, the tide tends to recede in an ominous retreat. I suspect Cupertino is treating us to a similar phenomenon, and around 10:00 am west coast time that big wave of Jobs-driven hype should crash down on us all and may well confirm at least some of this hypothesis.

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August 24, 2007

The Long, Slow Death of Digital Rights Management

Electronics | Aug 24, 07

Universal's decision to offer music downloads free of DRM, and, incidentally, of iTunes is just the latest sign of an emerging trend to eliminate copy protection.

The sans-Apple angle to Universal's move comes despite Steve Jobs' call for dumping DRM (see "How Steve Jobs Could Show He's Sincere About Eliminating DRM"). Jobs' herald has already been answered, however imperfectly, by EMI in its decision to offer at least some of its catalogue on iTunes without DRM, albeit at a slightly higher price ("So The Whole Digital Rights Fight Is Over A Lousy Thirty Cents?"). By offering DRM-free music through e-tailers like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Real and so forth – but not iTunes – Universal Music Group appears to be turning Jobs' initiative against him, using the persistence of DRM on UGM's iTunes downloads to engineer a competitive disadvantage for Apple, presumably to undermine the supremacy of the dominant player in internet music sales. Perhaps the intent is to acquire leverage in ongoing iTunes royalty negotiations with Cupertino.
Between the rather low value placed on copy protection by EMI and Universal's seeming use of the technology as a tool for corporate jousting, one has to question the anti-copyright violation arguments for DRM as put forth by the RIAA and others. Perhaps to truly appreciate this, one has to frame the issue historically. Remember when dubbing to cassette destroyed music sales, or when the VCR annihilated the market for VHS movies, or perhaps when the copy machine made book purchases a thing of the past? No? That, of course, is because these calamities, all darkly prophesied by the content industry, never occurred. I doubt these facts are lost on anyone, including the Cassandras of the music industry.
Thus, as indie labels and artists, having occasionally produced music someone might actually want to listen to, freely sell without DRM, the majors and the media colossi that own them may be realizing their flagging sales have more to do with lousy product than piracy. With high-def video downloads potentially threatening the DRM models of HD-DVD and Blu-ray ("High-Def Disks? We Don't Need No Stinking High-Def Disks"), I suspect the HD video market may be next to experience the death of DRM. But fear not, all ye DRM proponents; for a new recording technology will surely emerge and engender new calls for copy protection.
Foolish ideas, like the Phoenix, tend to rise from the ashes.

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July 27, 2007

iGroans and Vist-ful Thinking

Electronics | Jul 27, 07

So initial iPhone sales came in well below many Wall Street estimates, even as Apple moved a whole lot of Macs and iPods. What gives?

Apple says it sold 270,000 iPhones in the 48 hours after its release, while AT&T claimed it signed up 146,000 new iPhone accounts. Apple's number was at the low end of estimates; by contrast, some Street analysts were looking for around 700,000 units sold in this period. Now Apple pointed out that broad acceptance of the iPod was a multi-quarter affair, and excellent sales of that product and of the Mac tempered any disappointment.
Yet the disparity in results may say something more about what is and isn't working, not only for Cupertino but for Redmond as well. The less than ecstatic reception afforded Vista by the market ("Vista And The Vox Populi") has engendered a willingness among buyers to take a fresh look at the Mac, vaulting Apple to the number two slot among computer manufacturers. One has to believe there's a fair chance synergy with the iPod/iTunes model is helping as well. As for the iPhone, reviews seem pretty strong when it comes to the device's form factor and touchscreen display ("Apple Takes iPhone Developers On Safari"). Less enthusiastically received is the speed of web access through AT&T's Edge network, which is slower than rivals using 3G technology. And of course there's the matter of that $499-$599 price range, considerably richer than the cost of many high-end cell phones, and, for that matter, a lot more than iPod.
Given what are said to be fat margins on iPhones, Jobs & Co. may have room to cut prices, and indeed that may be Apple's next move. But the web is rife with rumors of a more intriguing stratagem: a next-generation iPod that sports a screen interface similar to the iPhone's, and perhaps Wi-Fi connectivity as well. Unbundling the phone functionality in this way would still leave users of such a new iPod able to surf the web at a hotspot, and would presumably lower the price. While having the phone feature is great in principal, Apple's execution and choice of carrier has made it costly, not simply in terms of the unit itself but the required two-year commitment to Edge. Rolling out an iPod with iPhone screen and Wi-Fi technology would allow users to sidestep a contractual obligation to a lesser technology, one Apple may now be finding a barrier to sales.
Maybe they could call this new hybrid the iPhod?

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July 2, 2007

The Supreme Court Thinks You Should Pay Higher Retail Prices

Electronics | Jul 2, 07

Apparently, the Supreme Court believes less choice is good for you.

In a 5-4 decision, the sharply divided court just overturned a 96 year-old ban on agreements requiring retailers to sell at or above minimum prices fixed by manufacturers. Previously, such "minimum advertised price" (MAP) agreements were held to be violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, restricting retailers from competing to offer consumers the lowest price.
Now, however, the Court has eliminated the ban on such price-fixing, meaning that even if a retailer is willing and able to cut prices, the manufacturer may forbid such discounting. And, rather incredibly, the majority argues that such price floors benefit you, the consumer.
How can this be? The reasoning goes like this: low-priced vendors (like many internet sellers) might be offering a more bare-bones sales process and less service, and without hand-holding and the soothing environment of a brick-and-mortar retailer, you might not come to fully appreciate the wonders of a given product. Thus, the product's manufacturer should be able to mandate a higher price, to insure you don't "make a mistake" and save money by buying from a discounter, only to have the enjoyment of your purchase diminished by poor retail support.
Of course, many of us have come to appreciate the superb technical knowledge and personal charm that the sales reps of high cost physical chains possess. Heck, most would probably be designing mission-critical systems for NASA were they not also such compulsively helpful "people persons". And who would deny the delightful, inviting atmosphere of most big-box retail fortresses?
Now, fortunately, if you're foolish enough to want to pass on all that just to save some silly money (about $750-$1000 per year for the average family of four, according to estimates noted by dissenting Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for a minority that included the pro-business David Souter), the Supreme Court has stepped in to save you from yourself. A manufacturer may forbid a retailer from offering you a discount as a condition of carrying its products.
How has the Court ill-served the consumer? I'd say let us count the ways, but they are so numerous that space here only permits me to hit the highlights:
Under minimum price agreements, small retailers who compete on price will lose their edge, no longer able to offer the choice of a discount versus the higher-touch service of giant chains. Large manufacturers and big-box retailers are free to legally collude on price, crushing competition. Unable to cut prices and with no other way to hedge against poor sales, many smaller players may be unable to take the capital risk of carrying such items, leaving consumers with only the large, high price stores to buy from. You're no longer free to choose the lowest possible price.
Some might argue that competition between manufacturers will save the day, as firms cut minimum retail price on similar goods to gain advantage. There is some truth in this, but serious problems as well. The ability to control retail pricing makes it far easier for manufacturers to effectively collude on price; the economic literature has long included studies of the ability of firms to establish de-facto pricing agreements between one another through behavioral signaling, eliminating the need for explicit (and potentially illegal) agreements. Further, for producers that enjoy effective monopolies on their products, through either intellectual property (e.g. patents, copyright) or compatibility/lock-in effects (e.g. operating systems) little or no such inter-manufacturer competition exists, so with discounters eliminated, the retail price stays high.
Speaking of academic studies… so as to justify minimum pricing agreements, defenders of this decision appeal to arguments of the so-called Chicago school of economics. Full disclosure; I got my doctorate from Wharton, where these theories are not unknown. I find much to admire in this rubric, and have published papers partially motivated by such reasoning. But it must be said that misapplication of Chicago logic lead some to defend indentured servitude and contracts requiring buyers of real estate to agree not to sell to people of certain ethnic and/or racial backgrounds. Milton Freidman's noble "free to choose" shibboleth has been sadly vulnerable to Orwellian distortion, so that some claim the "freedom" to oppress others. The legalization of monopolistic predation may not have quite the dark moral connotations of those other examples, but surely to defend the elimination of consumer choice in the name of free markets smacks of rank hypocrisy.
Adding insult to injury, the new policy is also inflationary. Breyer noted that only one thing is certain under this decision: higher prices, and, while many other factors may bring prices down, all things being equal (ceteris paribus, for all my econ pals), the dissenting justices are correct – this should not come as welcome news to a Federal Reserve fighting ongoing inflationary pressures.
Lastly, in what some might call a last, cynical coup de grâce, the majority acknowledged the possibility of harm to the consumer, and invited aggrieved parties to prove such damage by suing on a case by case basis. Can you imagine small-fry vendors spending years and millions in legal fees to sue some Fortune 500 manufacturer or retailer every time they are confronted by this newly-legalized price-fixing?
Before this decision, manufacturers could choose to control sales by opening their own retailers, and for those that provided some genuine benefit, this model allowed them to charge more when selling through such channels (think Apple, for example). There was nothing wrong with this, But to forbid discounting by third-party retailers tramples the rights of consumers and runs roughshod over fundamental rights of property and fair trade.
There’s some small irony that this insult to freedom occurs just before the anniversary of American independence. Now as then only Congress can remedy the situation, so if you value your freedom in the marketplace (not to mention your money), call or write your elected representatives and demand a ban on these anticompetitive manufacturer's minimum price agreements.

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June 14, 2007

Apple Takes iPhone Developers On Safari

Electronics | Jun 14, 07

Apple's new release of its Safari browser for Windows should trigger a bumper crop of applications for its new iPhone. Why?

Cupertino has decided that independently developed iPhone apps will be web-based, meaning they can be created, tested and demonstrated on almost any computer the can run Safari. This now includes XP and Vista machines, immediately and vastly broadening the potential pool of developers. Further, legions of iPhone users surfing the web with Safari will only encourage site designers to optimize their pages for Apple's browser, which in turn could allow Safari to gain market share among all web users, especially given the availability of Safari for Windows. That greater Safari adaptation makes iPhone web surfing more attractive, spurring sales, and thus the virtuous circle Jobs & Co. surely dream of becomes complete.
There are a few challenges on the way to realizing this rosy vision. The iPhone uses AT&T's Edge cellular, which is slower than competing 3-G networks. The iPhone's Wi-Fi capability may not completely make up for this; handheld browsing seems a bit less untethered if a hotspot must be sought out to speed one's downloads. And there's the issue of the iPhone's touchscreen. Slick and innovative, to be sure, but early word indicates it takes some time to get the hang of typing on the flat screen. (My guess is, if the screen works well, at least the texting young masses will adapt. After all, typing on a clamshell cell is no joy, and using your finger in place of a mouse opens up a whole new spectrum of potential applications).
Perhaps the biggest question regarding the iPhone's impending launch is the effect of its steep price, reportedly $499-$599 in addition to the signing of a two-year contract with AT&T. How many people will kick their Blackberry addiction to take that deal? How many parents will indulge their tech-savvy offspring?
Jobs has been known to launch products whose high price point outweighed impressive technology and design – I'm showing my age here, but remember the Lisa? The NeXT? To justify a multi-hundred dollar premium over existing cell phones, the iPhone is really going to have to bring it, and that means being a lot more than an iPod with a dial tone. The Safari strategy seems more than sound, and early iPhone buzz is quite good, though slow Edge-based data transfer is said to be a fly in the ointment, Yet until consumers are actually presented with the opportunity to buy, the viability of Apple's pricing will be uncertain. In the weeks following the iPhone's scheduled June 29th launch, we'll again explore the question Steve Jobs has been putting to the marketplace for more than two decades:
What price cool?

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June 6, 2007

The Blu-ray Premium: Has The Wii Taught Sony How To Say “Pyrrhic Victory” In Japanese?

Electronics | Jun 6, 07

A few days after Toshiba's HD-DVD price cuts, Sony is marking down Blu-ray, and its PS3 may well be next.

Last week I noted that, in the wake of Toshiba's re-pricing, entry-level HD-DVD players were selling at steep discounts to similar Blu-ray machines ("We Still Refuse To Pay You To Own An HD-DVD Player!"). At the time I noted the Blu-ray premium could be indicative of reported greater demand for the Sony standard, though neither Blu-ray nor HD-DVD can yet be said to have gained widespread acceptance. Now Sony has cut the list price of its BDP-S300 from $599 to $499, crediting improved efficiencies of production and a drop in component costs for its ability to do so. Does this mean Sony is blinking in the face of Toshiba's aggressive pricing?
Not necessarily. First, it's worth noting the new Sony pricing brings the BDP-S300 more in line with that of other firm's Blu-ray players, notably Samsung's BD-P1000, now offered for slightly less than $430. But there may be more to it than this. Compared to Sony's Blu-ray equipped PS3 unit sales, Microsoft's has sold three times as many Xbox's and Nintendo has sold twice as many of its newer, white-hot Wii consoles. Currently, the PS3 is offered for no less than $599 by merchants on PriceSCAN.com, compared to $299 to $480 for various Xbox models. The Wii goes for around $250. These price differentials may well have cost Sony considerable market share. Even if the PS3 is regarded as a kind of "sacrifice play" to enhance Blu-ray acceptance (see "Blu-ray May Avoid Betamax's Fate…Even If The PS3 Isn't So Lucky") that stratagem would be blunted by unit sales constricted by a high price point. If Sony can now make Blu-ray players for less, it might behoove the firm to pass on that savings to prospective PS3 buyers, and indeed the web is rife with speculation such a move is imminent.
But Microsoft is offering an HD-DVD drive for the Xbox, and the cheap and popular Wii raises the question of whether many gamers even care about high-def. In this environment, a Blu-ray-driven PS3 discount may be the first shot in a tech and price war that could run right through the summer and into the holidays.

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May 31, 2007

“We Still Refuse To Pay You To Own An HD-DVD Player!”

Electronics | May 31, 07

At least Toshiba can still say this about its pricing, following the firm's latest round of price cuts.

Back in March I noted that introductory-level Blu-ray players were selling at a substantial premium to similar HD-DVD models (“Blu-ray May Avoid Betamax’s Fate…Even If The PS3 Isn’t So Lucky”). I argued then that this could be related to reports of Blu-ray sales far outstripping HD-DVD. Now, with Toshiba’s previous intro unit, the HD-A1, now phasing out in favor of the HD-A2, we’re seeing a repeat of the sharp discounting the A1 experienced. Back in October this model went for at least $500; Toshiba recently reduced the retail price to $399, but vendors on PriceSCAN.com are already listing the unit below $300, a stunning 25% further discount. The A2 still does not provide full 1080p output, however. For this, you’ll need at least the HD-A20, which has also seen a sharp reduction in price, from at least $500 in late March to as little as just under $380 today.

Time Period: 10/2/2006 through 5/28/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

To be sure, Blu-ray players have seen significant discounting as well – the entry level Samsung BD-P1000, had dropped from $1000 at its introduction about a year ago to $450 when I wrote about it in March. It’s slipped slightly since then, offered for just below $430, still significantly more than the cheapest HD-DVD player (and it can output 1080p). Of course you can also get a Blu-ray player through the purchase of a PS3 game system for about $599, and Playstation sales have surely helped to catalyze the Sony products market penetration. Either way, it appears a significant segment of early adapters are willing to pay up for Blu-ray.
What could change this? One word: content, and Toshiba is getting a little help here from Warner Home Video and. the Wachowski brothers. With the Matrix Trilogy in HD-DVD, Toshiba may garner the ultimate proof-of-concept release. Now time will tell if the combination of this kind of eye-popping demo and sharp price cut will get consumers to plunge into the HD-DVD world, or if they’ll choose to take the “Blu” pill, as it were.

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May 24, 2007

Flat-Screen Inflation?

Electronics | May 24, 07

We're getting used to rising oil prices, but higher-cost flat-screen televisions are another matter.

In the wake of reported remarks by a Philips exec to the effect that seasonally high demand might spur rising flat-panel prices later this year, I thought I'd revisit my March 11 post ("Are Large Flat Screen Makers And Retailers Taking A Break From Price Cutting Each Other Into Oblivion?") and see if the price stabilization/increase I discussed back then has continued. As can be seen from our PriceSCAN Plasma and LCD television indices, the rate of price decline had continued to moderate, especially for wider screen models. And in the case of some best-selling sets, we are already experiencing modest price increases. Some examples are more dramatic than others; the most popular Panasonic plasma on PriceSCAN.com, the 42" TH-42PX600U, was selling for around $1000 three months ago while the current lowest in-stock vendor price on this site is now just under $1600.

Time Period: 7/3/2006 through 5/14/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Yet even the number one flat-screen television on PriceSCAN, the 46" Sony KDL-46XBR2 Bravia XBR High Definition LCD WEGA, saw its price flatten out months ago, with a modest increase in the lowest offered price over the last couple of weeks.

Time Period: 7/31/2006 through 5/14/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

To be sure, this is still mainly a story of newfound stability as opposed to a steep across-the-board price hike. But, following the steep declines of last year, this is still quite a shift. Sharply falling tech prices have been one of the factors holding back inflation in recent years, and one has to wonder about the macroeconomic implications of an end to this trend. Meanwhile, if you're spending this Memorial Day weekend sitting on a beach contemplating the purchase of a flat screen, consider that with the coming of summer, some of the sharpest near-term price declines may be behind us.

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April 26, 2007

iPhone Hangs Up On Leopard Development

Electronics | Apr 26, 07

In other news of Cupertino, Apple reportedly pulled developers off its new Mac operating system in order to finish development of the iPhone. That new version of OS X, code-named "Leopard" (presumably using the predatory cat moniker to distinguish it from Windows Vista, formerly code-named "Longhorn" as in the cud-chewing bovine) is thus said to have had its release date pushed back to October.

Missed OS launch dates might bring to mind the travails of Vista, whose oft-delayed birth may have foreshadowed a somewhat troubled youth, albeit with decent, if discounted, sales (see "Vista And The Vox Populi," "Vista Achieves Touted "Wow" Effect, Albeit Through Massive Price Drop," and "So I'll Take Vista, And Guess I'll Need More RAM, And Some New Peripherals – Aw, Just Give Me A New System…" ). And indeed, as a colleague of mine quipped, letting the world know all your programmers are preoccupied with what may well be the hottest new product of the coming months would be great cover for slipping the target date on a bug-plagued OS. The iPhone is reported to be slated for release in late June.
However, Apple is in a very different position then Microsoft when it comes to the next generation of its operating system. In a sense, Jobs & Co. are blessed with the strength of the weak, in that Apple's low single digit slice of the market represents a relatively closed ecosystem of peripherals and applications. This make issues of back-compatibility far more tractable, with fewer third parties to accommodate. And if Apple decides not to support a particular legacy technology under the new regime, well, the firm's loyalists have learned to live with some adversity as the price of the Mac's elegance. Indeed, older Mac zealots were hardened under harsher conditions, before web browsing and internet applications indifferent to one's operating system made OS selection less critical. And, of course, it's not like the competition is free of back-compatibility issues.
But the decision to put what seems like maximal effort and resources behind the iPhone may signal the strategic importance of the new product. If Apple is for real in stepping away from digital rights management ("So The Whole Digital Rights Fight Is Over A Lousy Thirty Cents?") and if it is successful in persuading content providers to follow its lead, then a great deal of emphasis is placed on the quality of the Apple hardware/software experience. Further, and in contrast to the firm's paltry OS market share (compared to Windows), the firm enjoys a commanding lead in portable music players. If they can leverage that position into dominance in computing-enabled wireless communication devices, Apple could present a competitive threat to cell phone makers, Blackberry and the already challenged Palm. Indeed, with Mac sales already rising faster than those of the overall PC industry, it's not beyond imagination that an iPhone with Mac OS might produce a stronger catalytic effect on the acceptance of Apple's operating system that the current iPod line has generated.
Of course, it's all in the execution, and for all the difficulty of making the iPhone live up to expectations, it's still possible that it's just a lot easier to turn an iPod into a phone than it is to debug Leopard.

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April 23, 2007

So The Whole Digital Rights Fight Is Over A Lousy Thirty Cents?

Electronics | Apr 23, 07

That's one way of looking at the deal Apple and EMI group recently announced, in which the latter will allow distribution of its music by the iTunes store without Apple's FairPlay or any other digital rights management (DRM) measures. The DRM–free tunes will go for $1.29 per download, a premium of three dimes over the standard $0.99 for a DRM-laden track. Full albums will be sold for the same price as before.

So for an extra $0.30, you get a download that will lack any copy-prevention feature and is said to be playable on most non-iPod players and non-Mac computers. The music is sold in AAC format encoded at 256 Kbps, double the rate of previous iTunes (though this is still far "lower res" than either standard CDs or Audio-DVD).
To be sure, not all of EMI's catalogue may be available under the arrangement (EMI's Beatles tracks will not be included, for example), nor is it clear if other labels will follow suit and cut similar deals with Apple or other download stores (EMI is said to intend to distribute DRM-free through other e-tailers besides iTunes). But this does appear to be a step in the direction I called for in February of this year, in which Apple would offer to sell without DRM for any label or independent artist desiring such distribution (see "How Steve Jobs Could Show He's Sincere About Eliminating DRM"). The initiative also demonstrates Apple's faith in the excellence of its Mac and iPod designs and in the security of the market position of the iTunes store.
Yet perhaps most interesting of all is the fact that this transaction begins the process of pricing the elimination of digital rights management. The thirty cent price tag may represent an acknowledgment by both Apple and EMI um, that the technical and legal environments don't bode well for the long-term elimination of copying and file sharing. Then again, the seemingly modest DRM-free track premium may be telling us something else. It may just be that the level of interest in a lot of the music out there is so low that you practically have to pay someone to share it with a friend. After all, what does the zero premium for a DRM-free album say about the value of the "non-hot" tracks, and the likelihood that anyone would care to share them?

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March 30, 2007

High-Def Disks? We Don't Need No Stinking High-Def Disks!

Electronics | Mar 30, 07

Microsoft's decision not to include an HD-DVD drive in its Xbox 360 Elite isn't good news for Toshiba's high-def standard, nor does it necessarily portend good things for Sony's Blu-ray or Apple TV.

The Elite has a 120 GB hard drive for expanded media storage, and its HDMI interface allows high-def output. But if they want to play HD-DVDs, consumers still have to shell out an extra $190 or so to purchase a separate Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive – see "So Xbox Has A 1080p HD-DVD – Blu-ray's Still A Cooler Name (You Can Tell By The Dropped Vowel)". However, Microsoft's gamers have another high-definition alternative, as they can simply download HD movies via the Xbox Live Video service. The larger hard drive of the Elite should come in handy for this application since high-def is a disk pig, taking up four to five GB per two-hour movie. Perhaps as or more important, note the Xbox 360 Elite can be used as an IPTV set-top box/digital video recorder, so it's conceivable that phone companies could ally with Redmond to use this Xbox to supply HD content and compete with traditional cable firms.
What does this mean for Toshiba, Sony and Apple? One might think Sony would be pleased to see Toshiba's putative HD-DVD partner eschewing a built-in HD-DVD player, but in doing so Microsoft has backed a technology that could threaten all disk-based distribution, including Blu-ray. With the Elite to be priced at under $480, it's still cheaper than the PS3 line, despite its large hard drive. I've argued in this space that, with the PS3's Blu-ray-driven high price, Sony may be sacrificing video game market share in order to promote its high-def standard ("Blu-ray May Avoid Betamax's Fate…Even If The PS3 Isn't So Lucky"). It would be ironic if Sony blew its video game market position to back a type of HD disk only to see the Xbox help to make all HD disk technology less relevant.
As for Cupertino, to be sure, Apple TV at just under $300 is considerably cheaper than the Elite, but of course it does not double as a top of the line game console. Further, Apple does not currently offer high-def downloads.
Needless to say, there will be a response from Microsoft's rivals. Already there's talk of an 80 GB hard drive version of the PS3, and of course Apple can move to HD content at some point. As for Toshiba, in the face of wide content availability in Blu-ray format press reports have it implementing April 1 price cuts for its line of HD-DVD players, down $100 for the HD-A2 and HD-A20 and $200 for the HD-XA2 (these would then list at $399, $499, and $799, though vendors on PriceSCAN.com are already pricing these models at or below the new lists). But with the Elite, Microsoft has undercut not only the PS3's price but the rationale behind the high def models of both Blu-ray and HD-DVD. It's been apparent for a while that HD downloads could negatively impact the high-def disk market, particularly in a world where DRM restricts the ability to record on disk (see "Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: Lock-In, Co-Existence, Or Irrelevance?"). I'm not saying Microsoft's move or high-def downloads in general eliminate the logic of portable HD media, but neither of Japan's high-definition powerhouses can be very pleased. And with a high-def march stolen on Apple TV, the release of the Elite is not likely welcome news in Cupertino, either.

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March 20, 2007

Blu-ray May Avoid Betamax's Fate…Even If The PS3 Isn't So Lucky

Electronics | Mar 20, 07

Press reports have sales of Sony's Blu-ray high-definition DVDs selling at about twice the rate of Toshiba-backed HD-DVDs over the past two months, yet Sony itself cautions the inclusion of a Blu-ray player in the PS3 could limit the latter's market share.

Why Blu-ray sales are outstripping HD-DVD is a matter of some debate, as is of course whether this situation will persist. Right now Blu-ray is backed by half of the "big eight" studios; three others are putting out content in both formats, with Universal being the only large player solely backing HD-DVD. With the Blu-ray partisans including Fox, Disney and Sony itself, Sony claims that the lion's share of current high-def DVD hits are available exclusively in Blu-ray format.
Yet Sony CEO Howard Stringer has reportedly made remarks to the effect that the cost of Blu-ray functionality in the PS3 is such that any failure of the new model would be attributable to its price point. That price, richer than Microsoft's Xbox 360 and the very successful new Nintendo Wii, reflects the cost of including Blu-ray in the PS3. Stringer still predicts success for the new PlayStatiom, but it's worth noting that even if sales of the PS3 fall short of those of its rival, they still increase Blu-ray market presence and could enhance that standard's competitive position versus HD-DVD (see "PS3 Postmortem?"). This strategy increases in significance to the extent that Microsoft's offering of an HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 aids Toshiba's standard – see "So Xbox Has A 1080p HD-DVD – Blu-ray's Still A Cooler Name (You Can Tell By The Dropped Vowel)".
Interestingly, at least in the player market, it appears some consumers are willing to pay up for Blu-ray. For both standards, as of this writing the lowest-priced players on PriceSCAN.com are also the most popular, these being the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray Player and Toshiba's own HD-D1 HD-DVD Player. Last May, shortly after its introduction, the Samsung was priced at $1,000; it now goes for a little less than $450 (see graph below).

Time Period: 5/8/2006 through 3/12/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

That corresponds to the introductory price of the Toshiba late last year; this HD-DVD model may now be had for less than $280.

Time Period: 11/13/2006 through 3/12/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

If introductory-level Blu-ray players are selling at a premium to HD-DVD, it may be a reflection of greater demand driven by superior content availability in the Blu-ray format. As noted in this blog before (see "Can Wintel Make Blu-ray The Next Betamax?" and "Blue-Ray Vs. HD-DVD: Lock-In, Co-Existence, Or Irrelevance?"), this can lead to a runaway lock-in effect, where greater market penetration by a particular standard incentivizes the release and purchase of more content and hardware conforming to that standard. This can amount to a vicious circle for any rival technology, driving alternate standards into oblivion.
Sony was on the receiving end of this phenomenon when it lost the Betamax-VHS war of two decades ago. Unless Toshiba quickly persuades more studios to release content on HD-DVD and/or its current backers produce more popular fare, Sony may finally have its revenge. Perhaps that scenario could be partially catalyzed by the costly inclusion of Blu-ray in the PS3. Then, even in the face of lost videogame market share, Sony may find victory in the high-def standard war worth the sacrifice.

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March 11, 2007

Are Large Flat Screen Makers And Retailers Taking A Break From Price Cutting Each Other Into Oblivion?

Electronics | Mar 11, 07

Months of intense competition in the flat-panel television market have resulted in sharply lower prices. It now appears that, at least for the moment, prices of the larger sets may have entered a period of relative stability.

Last year, a take no prisoners contest for market share was the inevitable consequence of a plethora of set makers combined with fierce competition between online and physical retailers. The result was a dramatic price drop. Now, however, with a market perhaps constrained by supply and the fundamental costs of manufacture, some kind of equilibrium may have been reached.
Consider the Sharp LC-65D90U AQUOS Widescreen Liquid Crystal Television and the Panasonic TH-65PX600U, the most popular 65-inch LCD and plasma televisions on PriceSCAN.com, respectively. As can be seen from the charts below, each underwent a period of substantial price reduction during 2006, yet over the last few months the rate of decline has diminished significantly, with the low price actually rising at times.

Sharp LC-65D90U AQUOS Widescreen Liquid Crystal Television
Time Period: 12/5/2005 through 3/5/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Panasonic TH-65PX600U
Time Period: 10/9/2006 through 3/5/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

It's a similar story for many of the larger flat panel televisions.
Innovation and competition being what they are, it's a good bet prices will fall further over time, but it appears that in the near term the big declines may be behind us. This is good news if you've been waiting for large flat screens to find some kind of temporary price floor. Apparently, even in the consumer electronics market, you can't beggar thy neighbor all of the time.

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February 12, 2007

How Steve Jobs Could Show He's Sincere About Eliminating DRM

Electronics | Feb 12, 07

If Apple wants to show it sincerely desires a world without digital rights management (DRM), it could offer to distribute DRM-free downloads right now, for any act or label that wishes to avail itself of that option.

Steve Jobs' recent call for record labels to eliminate DRM on music downloads would undermine a key competitive advantage of CDs, and that may be why many in the music industry are so resistant to the idea. So long as music bought over the Web is saddled with anti-copying software, it remains an inferior product to music purchased on DRM-free CDs. To understand why the labels prefer a CD-based world, you have to go back to the 1970s, when the industry discovered the amazing economies of scale inherent in promoting the albums of a handful of "superstar" acts, particularly in the wake of "Frampton Comes Alive" (the architects of this strategy and their effect on creativity are chronicled in Fredric Dannon's appropriately titled "Hit Men" ). In this model, the album format forces the purchase of many songs just to obtain the one track the consumer might actually desire (in fairness, some artists also prefer the album format as a way to offer an integrated vision over more than one song). Further, the costs of vinyl and, later, CD album production, coupled with the distribution relationships between the labels and physical store retail chains, presented formidable barriers to entry for independent record companies and musicians. This gave the majors the ability to restrict the number of artists they released. By eliminating the need to back a wide range of acts, promotional monies could be deployed more efficiently, at least from the standpoint of profitability.
Now contrast this situation with a market dominated by downloadable music. Songs are purchased a la carte, and distribution is controlled by internet retailers with potentially weaker ties to the labels. Production barriers to entry are sharply lower, a factor amplified by the emergence of inexpensive studio technologies and software like GarageBand. Consumer choice is expanded across a wide spectrum of artists, resulting in a highly segmented, even atomized market. A lot more artists may make a living, but at the expense of the economies of scale associated with the star system. In short, not a great deal for a major label.
However, as Jobs points out, only a small fraction of music residing on iPods are actually purchased downloads; much of the rest has been ripped from DRM-free CDs. If DRM-free music becomes available for download, eliminating the competitive advantage of CDs, it's likely the slowing rise of this mode of distribution will begin to accelerate again, at the expense of disks. This may explain the RIAA's counterproposal of having Apple make its FairPlay DRM standard available to other manufacturers and e-tailers, thus preserving the DRM-crippled nature of downloaded music.
As of this writing Apple has not embraced this suggestion, let alone the proposal I made at the beginning of this piece. Jobs has reason to try to turn attention from Apple's own DRM to the industry's policies, as members of the European Union are objecting to the inability of consumers to use music purchased from iTunes on non-Apple players (the EU also has issues with Apple offering less favorable royalty terms to independents versus the majors). Yet there are tentative signs that Cupertino's vision may carry the day. Late last week came word that the RIAA's united front may be crumbling, as EMI was said to be soliciting bids from online sellers for the right to deliver music from its catalogue free of DRM. It's possible that the majors see the handwriting on the wall, as they watch CD sales decline as even DRM-hobbled download purchases continue to grow. The rise of indie bands promotion on MySpace through downloads free not only of DRM but of any cost whatsoever must surely give these firms pause. In the end, they may have to adapt to a world of greater choice, trading the star system's efficiencies for the benefits of Web-enabled viral marketing.
As I said at the start, Apple could go a long way to making a DRM-free world a reality if they would allow artists and labels to go DRM-free right now. It could do this in the MP3 format, thus allowing use by non-iPod consumers. And, while they're at it, they could offer indies the same royalty sales deals they offer the majors.
Steve?

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January 10, 2007

Apple Inc.? – Doesn't That Have Something To Do With The Beatles?

Electronics | Jan 10, 07

Apple's announcement that it's dropping "Computer" from its name does more than tweak the house that John, Paul, George & Ringo built. It's an acknowledgment that Apple has become a technology lifestyle company, aiming to put its operating systems and media formats into all aspects of the personal electronic environment. No product introduction has made this point more apparent than that of the iPhone

The iPhone sports a 3.5 inch color screen that constitutes most of the face of the 11.6 mm thick "smart" phone (Jobs claims it's the thinnest such device on the market). In addition to being a phone and a two megapixel camera, it's also an iPod and fully web-enabled internet device, running Safari on OS X. To be available in June, the iPhone is slated to start at $499 for the 4 GB version, and stepping up to 8 GB will run you $599. Cingular plans to offer its service on Cupertino's new offering, which by virtue of its use of the GSM standard is a so-called "world phone", hence Apple's plans to sell the unit in Europe and Asia later this year. This phone has the same proprietary interface as other iPods, meaning it's compatible with all the speaker systems and auto adapters that utilize that feature. Thus the iPhone can only help extend the iPod's lock-in effect from media players to the broader consumer electronics market. However you feel about Apple, you have to admit this is a masterstroke, both in terms of product creativity and strategic thinking (for a contrasting example, see "zune (zōōn) v. To violently drop in price, esp. before the holidays.").
Right now about a third of music player sales are non-iPod, and some competitors are trying to out-slick Cupertino in the design wars (see "Cooler Vibez Than iPod?") But by extending iPod hegemony to the phone space, Apple has taken a quantum leap in terms of its competitive position. Fold in iTunes and you have to wonder what all this might mean in terms of overall dominance of media technology. Remember those "1984"-themed Mac ads? We may yet find out that the closest thing to a corporate Big Brother wears a black turtleneck.

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December 20, 2006

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.

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December 18, 2006

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...

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December 4, 2006

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.

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November 17, 2006

Maybe Sony and Microsoft Could Start A Back-Incompatibility Support Group

Electronics | Nov 17, 06

It appears that both Sony and Microsoft have some issues making products that are compatible with other stuff made by Sony and Microsoft, respectively.

First, Sony has admitted that its PlayStation 3, just launched last weekend in Japan, cannot play some games available for the PS and PS2, while others play with various glitches and bugs (this on top of supply problems – see "But If We Made Too Many PlayStations, They Wouldn't Be As Cool"). Apparently they've got a Japanese web page up to tell buyers which of their legacy games are to be consigned to the dustbin of PlayStation history.
Meanwhile, Microsoft revealed that the Zune doesn't work with Vista. Not that Redmond needs to make the Zune a more attractive value proposition ("Just 'Cause We're Monopolists Doesn't Mean We're Not "Street"...", "The Zune: Microsoft's Little Brown Lump Of DRM-Enforcing Digital Joy"). But having two new marquee products behaving like oil and water can't help the roll-out of either.
Now let's cut these two firms some slack - and I'm all about giving a break to corporate citizens with a history of hiding rootkits on CDs (Sony) or of running afoul of anti-trust laws (the other one). Sony says they'll try to put out fixes on some older games, though others will likely never work properly on the PS3. As for Gates & Co., Vista is still in beta and the company says they'll remedy the compatibility problem shortly.
As of this writing, consumers are reported to be lined up around the block to buy those PS3's that are made available. And Microsoft has the near-monopolist's edge in driving the Vista upgrade, Zune or, as may be the case for many users, no Zune.
To some extent, these kinds of issues are the price of innovation. The PS3, with its Cell processor and Blu-ray functionality, does represent genuine technological progress. Vista's millions of code lines constitute a programming effort of historical proportions (I'll leave the market to decide what the Zune represents). Asking for new tech to emerge without running into backward compatibility issues is not entirely realistic. So if you want to be in with the new, you probably will have to throw out some of the old. Or at least download a fair number of fixes.

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November 14, 2006

The Universal Zune Tax

Electronics | Nov 14, 06

Microsoft's agreement to pay Universal a fee for every Zune it sells basically means that, to the extent this cost is passed on to the consumer, Universal gets to make you pay just for owning a player, regardless of whether you actually listen to their music.

The reasoning here seems to be that Universal must be compensated by Zune owners for the music they will, on average, inevitably steal (this despite the DRM-friendly nature of the device – see "The Zune: Microsoft's Little Brown Lump Of DRM-Enforcing Digital Joy"). Don't particularly care for the artistry of 50 Cent or ABBA? Too bad – pay up. Needless to say, Universal's rivals are most interested in this deal, and are vowing to impose similar terms on Apple when it comes time for renegotiations on distribution via iPods
You can't blame them. Taken to its logical extreme, the labels wouldn't even have to sell any music to get paid, or even have anyone listening to their product. They get paid simply for existing, a privilege usually reserved for people with titles like "god-emperor". Not that the world isn't clamoring for their product; surely plunging CD sales are the result of music piracy and not general lack of interest in soulless psuedo-music utterly devoid of creativity.
However, there's a slight difference between squeezing Microsoft and Apple: Redmond doesn't have a near monopoly in this space, while Cupertino does (can the Apocalypse be far behind?). It's not at all clear that the Zune is an attractive enough player to make a dent in iPod hegemony. This leads to Zen-like koans like "If there is a tune and it's not available on iPods, does it really exist?" or "What is the sound of a music that's not playing on an iPod?"
When John D. Rockefeller consolidated Standard Oil's grip on the petroleum industry, he did so partly by gaining influence over railroads, allowing him preferential shipping rates and payments for competitor's shipments. Effectively, he raised the shipping rates for his rivals, aiding him in driving them into submission or out of business. To be sure, Rockefeller's power over distribution arose because he controlled an outsized portion of the distributed good, but control of the means of distribution itself proved at least partly decisive
There's no analogue to Standard Oil among the music companies. It's not clear any single content provider is significant enough to impact iPod sales by withholding its product, especially, given the massive market acceptance of those little white earbuds and the afore-mentioned tepid enthusiasm for major label music. Ganging up on Jobs might be more effective, but the DOJ tends to have issues with cartels, and there's often that pesky member that defects. So Apple might be in the position Standard enjoyed, not in terms of production itself but in having that crucial control of distribution.
The labels may hate digital music, but when it comes to the iPod, one wonders whether they can live without it. And as downloads grow, there's always the risk that artists will get serious about independent web distribution, cutting the record firms out completely (some popular indie acts have already done this successfully). Apple need not mind, as this product can still be distributed through iTunes – indeed, Cupertino might want to consider encouraging indies so as to reduce any leverage the majors have over it.
If that happens, there are some suits that can stop worrying about downloads and start contemplating downward mobility.

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November 9, 2006

Panasonic Rolls Out 65'' Of 1080p Plasma Holiday Joy

Electronics | Nov 9, 06

Until recently, buyers of really big flat screens often settled for 720p resolution in order to obtain plasma's truer blacks and freedom from LCD angle-dependent "fade". That began to change over the summer, when Panasonic introduced the Elite 50'' PRO-FHD1 (see "Panasonic Puts "p" In 1080p Plasma").

Now, that same firm has begun selling a 65'' model, the Panasonic TH-65PX600U. It's a 1080p set sporting a 5000:1 contrast ratio, three HDMI interfaces, built-in ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuners, a SD memory card slot, and PC input. Listing at $9,999.95, vendors on PriceSCAN.com are already offering in-stock units at double-digit percentage discounts.

And as for the Elite PRO-FHD1, which went for around ten grand only three months ago, it now may be had for less than six thousand dollars (see graph below). When it comes to plasmas, deflation seems to be alive and well.

Time Period: 8/14/2006 through 11/6/2006
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

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October 27, 2006

Just 'Cause We're Monopolists Doesn't Mean We're Not "Street"...

Electronics | Oct 27, 06

Recent reports that ultra-hip music site Pitchfork turned down a Microsoft overture to form a Zune-promoting alliance highlight a key challenge the software firm faces in challenging the iPod: its hard to be cool when you're a corporate behemoth with a death grip on the operating system market.

Apple gets a pass here because a) it long ago screwed up its own plans to subjugate the computer industry, and b) the company's current efforts to control content distribution are forgiven in light of the fact that iPods are just so darn neat. And there's always been something about that Apple logo that says "hey, we're just ex-hippies trying to stick it to the man" (just like the Beatles' label of the same name – you remember when these two nonconformist icons retained white-shoed corporate counsel so they could engage in multi-million dollar trademark litigation).
Now Microsoft seeks to seduce the world's youth into accepting the Zune's DRM-throttled vision of music-sharing (see "The Zune: Microsoft's Little Brown Lump Of DRM-Enforcing Digital Joy"). They may be forgetting more than the fact that many young people don't live to beam limited play promos to each other so they can shill for major labels. At the end of the day, Microsoft has been most successful when it can leverage its control of the operating system to gain dominance in other markets and thus crush early innovators (e.g. Netscape and the Apple of yore). If Redmond finds a way to integrate its content sales directly into Vista, for example, then iTunes could actually face its first serious rival. Now given the iPod's lock-in effect (consider all the cars out there with iPod-proprietary docks) knocking Jobs off his throne is a very tall order. But he more than anyone should know how dangerous Microsoft can be when it kicks off its Birkenstocks and gets in touch with its inner Death Star.

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October 21, 2006

Media Center Peace Initiative In Blu-Ray Vs. HD-DVD War

Electronics | Oct 21, 06

In another attempt to allow consumers to rise above the petty strife of the high-def disk player wars, VidaBox LLC has introduced two new media centers with the capacity to play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD disks.

Now this comes hard on the heals of a patent application for dual-format HD disks (see "Could Multi-Format Disks Allow Blu-ray and HD-DVD To Peacefully Coexist?"). The good news for early adapters is that by going dual-mode they can reduce the risk of investing in a losing technology (both standards could still fail to catch on, of course). Dual capability may accelerate HD disk acceptance yet early adaptation is often costly, and dual-mode alternatives are likely to further increase expense. VidaBox's machines are no exception; the LUX starts at $3,499 and the MAX starts at $4,399. To be sure, the firm's new LUX and MAX Dual HD systems combine their ecumenical approach to HD standards with a suite of sophisticated features. These include 7950GT video cards and up to 3000 and 3750 GB of storage, respectively. There's also dual analog and dual HDTV tuners for up to four-show simultaneous recording (I have trouble finding one interesting show to watch) and the availability of AMD 4600+ dual processors.
Now unlike dual-mode disks, dual-mode players do not increase costs for content providers, so there's no extra content expense to be past on to consumers. If dual players become available at more mass-market-friendly prices, the Blu-ray and HD-DVD consortiums could each choose to pump out their content in their chosen format, knowing a broad audience can access both. And if Blu-ray and HD-DVD disk creation prove to have similar cost structures (and equally attractive content) then maybe, just maybe, the single victor "lock-in" effect can be postponed, perhaps even indefinitely.
But as even a small price edge can result, over time, in great competitive advantage, such multi-standard equilibria can be difficult to attain. Meanwhile, if you've got the cash, it seems you can buy your way out of the Blu-ray/HD-DVD dilemma.

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October 18, 2006

Creative To Customers: Give Back That FM Recording Feature

Electronics | Oct 18, 06

So reports have Creative's latest firmware update disabling FM radio recording functionality for two products in the firm's Zen line. Apparently Creative caved into pressure from the RIAA, which has now set its sights on reigning in MP3 broadcast recording.

Content creators fought similar battles against the VCR and cassette recorders, resulting in blank tape fee payments to those firms. Perhaps a similar mechanism can be worked out for MP3s on a per recorder basis, but for the moment the fees per song demanded by the RIAA are said to have been prohibitive. Meanwhile, any owner of the Creative Zen Vision M or Zen MicroPhoto who chooses to download this update faces the loss of a feature offered when the item was sold – one wonders what the class action implications of this are. And while we contemplate this, there's also the issue of products from iRiver (such as the H320 and H340), SanDisk (e.g. the Sansa e280R) and others that record off the air. Some court decisions have upheld various fair use rights for broadcast recording. Those of us who care about those rights are left to hope that manufacturers (and consumer advocacy groups) either cut a deal allowing MP3 recording or else have the stomach for a fight that could go all the way to the Supremes.

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October 6, 2006

Could Multi-Format Disks Allow Blu-ray and HD-DVD To Peacefully Coexist?

Electronics | Oct 6, 06

The battle between Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD high-definition digital recording formats has seen manufacturers and content providers lining up in shifting alliances. I've commented before on the potential for a "lock-in" effect favoring one standard over the other, similar to the one that allowed VHS to eclipse Betamax in the VCR wars of old (see "Can Wintel Make Blu-ray The Next Betamax?" and "Blue-Ray Vs. HD-DVD: Lock-In, Co-Existence, Or Irrelevance?"). But now some folks at Time Warner seem to be saying to their fellow HD warlords: "Can't we all just get along?"

The New Scientist's website and the Wall Street Journal recently reported an application from employees of Warmer Bros. for a patent on disks that can simultaneously accommodate recordings in Blue-ray, HD-DVD and standard DVD formats (the data is encoded in layers at different depths in the disk). Content providers could thus release their product in all formats on a single disk, and they have significant reasons for wanting to do so. By eliminating the need for a buyer to bet on a format, offering content on a multi-format disk removes a significant deterrent to making a purchase and trying one of the HD formats. Further, current DVD users could buy and use one of these disks and decide later to adopt one (or both) of the new formats.
So does this mean all will be sweetness and light in HD land? Much of this will depend on the cost of multi-format disks relative to single format ones. To the extent that studios can pass on the higher costs of multi-format to buyers, the new disks could ameliorate the lock-in effect. But if few consumers are willing to pay a premium for flexibility, multi-format will not fly and the market might be forced to choose a winner. For at least one of the format alliances, the inability to give peace a chance could mean a great deal of pain.

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September 26, 2006

Last Month's iPods Don't Fade Away –They Get Discounted

Electronics | Sep 26, 06

With the release of its new line of iPods, Apple lowered some price points and instantly reduced the cool factor of existing inventory. The effect on older model pricing has been dramatic.

Consider the 30 GB iPod with Video – 5G, which went for at least $275 two weeks ago. It now may be had for as little as $239. Note, however, that much of that drop is probably attributable to the lower price of the "Updated" 30 GB – 5G, which is selling for $249 (one wonders if Cupertino's pricing strategy could have been influenced by new SanDisk and Microsoft – see "Can SanDisk Sandbag the iPod?" and "The Zune: Microsoft's Little Brown Lump Of DRM-Enforcing Digital Joy"). An even more dramatic effect can be seen in the case of the 60 GB iPod with Video – 5G. There is no 60 GB model in the new line (instead Apple is offering a 80 GB model for $349). The result is that the 60 GB iPod has fallen from a minimum price of $360 before the new release to as little as $299 today (see graph below).

Time Period: 10/17/2005 through 9/18/2006
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Indeed, it's a similar story across the entire iPod line, as you may observe by checking out the PriceSCAN Price Indices for these products. The bottom line is that if your ardor for the iPod hotness of two weeks ago has not been cooled by Apple's announcement, you can now get that same player at a sharp discount to what you would have paid earlier in the month.

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September 19, 2006

The Zune: Microsoft's Little Brown Lump Of DRM-Enforcing Digital Joy

Electronics | Sep 19, 06

The iPod's many colors have been said to evoke thoughts of ice cream and candy. Verizon's appeal to the taste buds is apparent in the dark mocha hue of the Chocolate. Now, Microsoft has produced the Zune, available in white, black, and brown, or as my colleague David Cost put it, "a turd or pooh-like color". David went on to add that he thought "the odd choice of color was prophetic". Current web buzz has the rumored Xbox tie-in a red herring. Further, the vaunted Wi-Fi capability is now said to allow Zune users to share DRM-protected songs wirelessly just three times or for three days (whichever comes first) before the man shuts the party down. To be sure, the Zune comes with a three-inch screen, larger than the iPod's 2.5-inch display. Yet it's unclear what Microsoft will do to make video content available. There's an FM tuner (can't anyone but PoGo! put an AM radio in one of these things?) It's got a 30 GB hard drive and has been said to have a suggested retail price of $299. That may be a problem in itself, since the 30 GB iPod is now priced at $249. Microsoft is now rumored to intend to lower that SRP before release, making it more competitive with Apple. But the Zune, which comes pre-loaded with major-label music, is already said to be priced as a loss leader for Microsoft's music download service. There's some innovation here, in that Zune Marketplace will allow unlimited downloads for an as-yet unknown set fee. If that fee were low enough (and the buyer's rights don't expire too quickly, if at all), perhaps Redmond can find a business model here.

Look, folks, I'd really like to see some serious competition for Cupertino in the digital player market. But a sepia-toned player that narcs on music-sharing kids? Late night comedians are already making jokes about giving Junior a non-Apple MP3 player so he can let the world know you don't love him enough to get him an iPod. Microsoft's response seems to be a device that tells you to get off your ass and virally promote that new track (not more than thrice!) before it closes you down. Beyond this, paying 20% more for a slightly larger screen, a radio (there are cool-looking FM iPod modules) and some very limited music-sharing capability hardly seems like a value proposition truly threatening to Apple.

As for the colors, the black has a hint of blue, while the brown sports bits of green. I wonder if that last touch is a harbinger of profits or just a way to give Microsoft's new offering that "undigested" look.

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September 14, 2006

New iPods: More Memory, Smaller Size, And A Tough Day For SanDisk

Electronics | Sep 14, 06

Well, you could see it coming. Back in August, the Wall Street Journal reported that SanDisk would challange the iPod Nano with its new Sansa e280, an 8 GB MP3 player priced at $249.99, thus offering twice the storage of what the Journal calls the "comparably priced" Nano.

Writing of the Nano (the 4 GB version of which was already selling at a 10% discount to the e280's reported price) I noted that "Further discounting of this mature product is entirely possible, and so is the addition of a few more gig of flash." ("Can SanDisk Sandbag the iPod?"). Well, it turns out the new, thinner, 4 GB Nanos are to be priced at $199.99, a 20% discount to the e280. And in addition to these brightly colored new 4 gig players, Apple is introducing an 8 GB Nano. The price? $249.99, precisely the same as the SRP of the new e280. So, like Sansa, Apple apparently knows where to buy flash memory. Interestingly, the 8 GB models come only in black (always cool), a color the 4 GB Nanos are not available in. Could this be an attempt to allow instant visual recognition of a superior Nano, allying style, greater capacity and snob appeal in an attempt to get consumers to step up to the more expensive model? Nah, Steve just wouldn't do something like that.
Also added to the iPod lines are iPods with Video said to be 30% thinner than those of the last generation. There's now a 80 GB model, whose greater storage capacity should help accommodate movie downloads from iTunes (note that while a 30 GB model will still be produced, the 60 GB version is being discontinued). And in the continuing war on fingerprint-covered music players, Apple is also introducing a 1 GB version of the Shuffle, billed as the "world's smallest digital music player". Using a clip, it attaches to one's belt, lapel, or who knows what else. The new Shuffle features an anodized aluminum case. At $79.99, it should prove a cheap, low-smudge way to rock your workout.
Look for all these iPods to be offered by vendors on PriceSCAN.com, and use our site to keep an eye out for bargains on older models as the new line rolls out.

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August 21, 2006

Can SanDisk Sandbag the iPod?

Electronics | Aug 21, 06

SanDisk, which tripled its MP3-player market share to 9% this year, is apparently hoping that superior price/performance characteristics will allow it to grab market share from Apple. The Wall Street Journal reports SanDisk's new Sansa e280 will be priced at $249.99, and with its 8 GB capacity, it offers twice the storage of what the Journal calls the "comparably priced" Nano.

However, there may be a few problems with this analysis. First,"comparably priced" is a relative term. That 4 GB Nano is currently offered for just under $225 by merchants on this site, a discount of 10% to the e280's proposed price. Further discounting of this mature product is entirely possible, and so is the addition of a few more gig of flash. More significantly, for just under $275, vendors are offering the Apple iPod Video 30 GB – 5G, the fifth generation video iPod. True, that 30 GB isn't flash memory, and form factor is, well, a factor. But that iPod has almost four times the storage capacity of the e280, and, if its cult status is any indication, few seem to regard it as overly bulky. And of course that 30 GB buys you a lot more squinting at tiny videos. Much as I might like to see some robust competition in the MP3 player space, if SanDisk's new value proposition is as reported, it hardly seems to blow Cupertino's offerings away. And indeed, the Journal notes that SanDisk's gain in market share has come at the expense of other non-iPod MP3 players; barely a dent has been made in Apple's sales, which stand at just over three quarters of the market.

It's worth noting that SanDisk is reportedly cutting the prices of its other MP3 players, presumably including the Sansa e260 (top image below), by almost 30%. That will make an already attractive line more appealing to consumers in the approaching holiday shopping season. And in a time of gas-constricted budgets, a lower price point can only help SanDisk's competitiveness.

In the final analysis, Apple's iPod, elegantly supported by the firm's online content distribution, presents a formidable citadel, the storming of which may require much more than marginal, let alone debatable, discounts. Yet SanDisk's moves, and the potential emergence of competitors to iTunes, do raise the question of how long Apple's market position and/or profit margin can withstand the forces of commoditization in the portable player market. But in a world where many of next year's new car models will sport built-in proprietary iPod connectors, Cupertino seems to have a fair bit of "lock-in" effect on its side.

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August 4, 2006

Sharp Price Cuts on AQUOS LCDs

Electronics | Aug 4, 06

Significant discounting of LCD screens prior to the holiday season has been widely expected, but it appears the race to the bottom just got an early start. Reports have Sharp Electronics dropping suggested retail prices on some of their AQUOS line by as much as $700.

Even with those cuts, the new SRPs aren't anywhere near as low as the prices for those LCDs offered by many vendors tracked by PriceSCAN.com. For a case in point, consider the 37 inch LC-37D40U, the most popular AQUOS on our site and the one for which Sharp reportedly instituted its largest SRP cut. Yet Sharp's $700 SRP drop, from $2.999 to $2,299, is easily bested by PriceSCAN.com's vendor price of less than $1,400. Similarly, Sharp lowered the SRP on the 45-inch LC-45D40U from $3,999 to $3,799, but the lowest price on PriceSCAN has to fallen to a little shy of $2,300. It's worth noting that these are not full 1080p resolution sets, and it may be that Sharp is focusing reductions in this area as that higher HD standard becomes more widely available in the LCD market.
To be sure, lower suggested retail prices are likely to mean even lower vendor prices in coming weeks. But the lesson here is that discounting often runs way ahead of SRP reductions. Before paying full retail, best to price compare online, lest you experience a rather "sharp" case of buyer's remorse.

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July 24, 2006

Zune Is Real, Apple Worries Microsoft, Man Bites Dog

Electronics | Jul 24, 06

Microsoft once pointed to Apple as proof that it wasn't a monopolist, thereby providing the oft-tense tech world with a bit of comic relief. Lately, however, this whole iTunes thing seems to have gotten out of hand – heck, some people are even said to be buying Macs to go along with their iPods. Further, those visually pleasing machines can now run Windows and (yikes) Linux – see "Linux And Tiger And Leopard – Oh My!" So now Gates & Co. have decided to do something about all those pesky white earbuds, finally acknowledging the existence of the Zune music and video player.

Not many details yet, but, in Billboard and the Wall Street Journal, Redmond confirms that the Zune will feature a hard drive and Wi-Fi. No mention of Bluetooth or the Xbox-related game angle featured in early rumors ("J Allard And The Argonauts", "Zune Loons"). Perhaps the policy of engendering "FUD" (fear, uncertainty and doubt) that Microsoft has often been accused of does not extend to the makers of the PSP and Game Boy.
Or does it?
Cue "Toccata and Fugue" and Vincent Price's evil laugh.

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July 19, 2006

Panasonic Puts "p" In 1080p Plasma

Electronics | Jul 19, 06

While Sony and other manufacturers have of late walked away from plasma in favor of LCD and various DLP-like technologies, Panasonic has reaffirmed its commitment to these visually stunning but pricey panels. The latest evidence of this is the Elite 50'' PRO-FHD1, said to have just begun shipping. With over two million pixels (1920 x 1080) it offers full 1080p HDTV on a 50'' screen, at a suggested retail price of $10,000.

The long-term viability of plasma may well depend on the ability of manufacturers to produce larger sets at more consumer-friendly prices, as has been done for DLP and LCD (though in the case of the later rarely above this size). Panasonic's new model, though not cheap, is a step in the right direction, and its higher 1080p resolution, also rare in larger plasmas, could prove compelling if Blue-ray and/or HD-DVD actually catches on.

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July 18, 2006

Zune Loons

Electronics | Jul 18, 06

Rumors keep flying regarding Microsoft's new "iPod killer", including talk of a new name: "Project Zune" Perhaps Gates & Co. felt the previous code-name, "Argo", was too vulnerable to mythological mockery ("J Allard And The Argonauts"). I understand billionaire monopolists can be very sensitive to classical Greek lit-inspired parody, seeing as how they tend to view Zeus as a role model.

Be that as it may, the new buzz includes whispers that 1) the Bluetooth-enabled Xbox-related game player functionality may be only a figment of Sony and Nintendo's nightmares, 2) there will be WiFi functionality 3) the unit will feature XM and/or Sirius satellite radio capability 4) 30 GB & 60 GB hard drives may be included 5) it will run Windows Mobile on a 400 Mhz processor 6) it will sell for around four hundred bucks, and my own personal favorite 7) the entire project does not exist.

Oh, and if it does exist, it has a control wheel and a real big screen...

Anyway, the Zune may or may not be available this holiday season with some, all or none of the features mentioned above. And if it's on the kind of development track that the new version of Windows is following, the Zune should be released around the time children not yet born see white earbuds removed from a time capsule.

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July 12, 2006

J Allard And The Argonauts

Electronics | Jul 12, 06

Microsoft's hopes for an iPod killer currently take the form of a media player code-named Argo, and if rumors floating about the blogosphere are true, it will have some features that could cause headaches from Cupertino to Tokyo.

Unlike iPods, the new player is said to be Wi-Fi enabled, allowing wireless networking and content downloads, as well as interaction with other players. This last point is significant because it should also allow Argo to compete with the Sony PSP and Nintendo Game Boy Advance. Indeed, J Allard's xBox group is developing Argo, and the project is said to be focused on more than just music. For example, an oversized display should further enhance the device's game playing functionality, and of course a big display would also be advantageous for viewing video content. Look for tight integration with Microsoft's Vista-borne Urge music service, developed with MTV.
The Argo is still a gleam in Microsoft's eye, but the firm is said to be planning a launch in time for the holiday season. Time will tell if this device really has the specs (and pricing) to make consumers remove their little white earbuds and take notice.

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June 20, 2006

Screens So Flat And Cheap They May Sell Them On Giant Rolls, Like Toilet Paper...

Electronics | Jun 20, 06

...well, not quite yet (they're still a bit brittle for spooling). But the folks at iFire have apparently taken a step in that direction. The New York Post reports that the Canadian firm has produced sets less than two inches thick, suitable for hanging on the wall and expected to cost less than a grand. Based on thick film dielectric electroluminescent (TDEL) technology, iFire has unveiled 34" and 37" prototypes. Further, iFire claims flat-screen manufacturers could have TDEL models on the market by next year.

To give you an idea what kind of a price shock iFire's innovation could produce if pricing is as advertised, consider that, right now, the cheapest. 37" LCD set on PriceSCAN.com, the Syntax Olevia LT-37HVS, goes for just under $1,100. Many other models sell closer to $1,500. It's a similar story with plasmas. Now at the rate screen prices have been falling, it would not be surprising to see larger LCD and plasma sets selling for significantly less in 2007, so the degree to which iFire impacts the market will depend sensitively on just how far below the $1,000 level TDEL can be priced. And as the Post points out, with many manufacturers already committed to other technologies, persuading firms to adopt TDEL may be problematic, especially in the face of the falling price of LCD and plasma. Still, if iFire's technology pans out, it represents a very compelling value proposition.
The very existence of new technologies with the potential to produce flat screens substantially cheaper than current levels puts downward pressure on prices, lest a manufacturer employ that innovation to undercut the market. The bottom line is that whether or not TDEL flies, its potential may well speed the rate at which the price of other technologies sink.

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May 6, 2006

Amazing Deal On Sony Digital Living System

Electronics | May 6, 06

Digital Living System – sounds like some creepy concept out of "The Matrix", but it's actually a PC that rides herd over your home theater and all the content it plays. And right now one highly rated vendor is selling it for about 35% less than any other merchant on PriceSCAN.com.

TigerDirect.com is offering the Sony VAIO VGX-XL1 Digital Living System for $1,099.99, six hundred dollars less than the price asked by Tiger's nearest rival. A fully-operational, 200 GB hard drive PC running Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, the VAIO® XL1 can organize your digital photos, recorded TV shows, music and movies with a 200 CD/DVD disc changer. You're the master of it all through a display on your TV, browsing your content via wireless keyboard or remote control.
So if your mogul fantasies have gone unfulfilled of late, pick up this jewel of the VAIO line and make yourself the god-king of your home theater room. And do so without breaking the royal treasury.

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April 26, 2006

Spring LCD Television Price Slide

Electronics | Apr 26, 06

We're approaching the season of graduation again, and what better way to reward the scholarship of the young than with a flat panel television capable of displaying the kind of mind-numbing drivel sure to counter-act any solicitous effects of education?

After a period of relative price stability (as I described in "For Flat Screens, Popularity Equals Price Stability"), LCD televisions have undergone significant price drops in the last couple of weeks. Consider the most popular such item on PriceSCAN.com, that currently being the Sony KDL-V40XBR1 40 inch BRAVIA XBR High Definition LCD WEGA. As can be seen from the graph below, this 720i HD model was going for at least $2.900 around the beginning of the year, and now may be had for about $500 less. That's a decline of approximately 17% in less than four months. Many other LCD models are showing similar dramatic price declines, perhaps indicating a desire by manufacturers to make this technology more competitive versus cheaper plasmas and other televisions (see "Big Panasonic Plasma At Sharp Discount To LCD").
So now, it's far more affordable to give your newly minted diplomate a panel of pabulum to hang on the wall along with that sheepskin.
Time Period: 9/19/2005 through 4/17/2006
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

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April 23, 2006

Psst! Wanna Buy A Soon To Be Obsolete iPod or Playstion?

Electronics | Apr 23, 06

Rapid innovation makes the purchase of technology an investment in approaching obsolescence. In the spirit of that realization, it's worth noting some recent news from Apple and Sony. Last week, Apple's CFO reportedly said his firm expected this quarter's average iPod price to fall from the prior quarter's level, and Sony announced a $20 cut in the PlayStation 2's suggested retail price, to $129.99.

Now Cupertino rolls out new iPod models with such frequency that, even in the absence of explicit new product announcements, the market might be expected to "price in" the coming replacement of the top of the line. And indeed, we've been seeing a noisy process of iPod price decline for the last few months – see for example the PriceTrend graph of the iPod Video 60 GB-5G below.

Time Period: 10/17/2005 through 4/17/2006
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

By contrast, Sony's introduction of the next generation PlayStation 3 has been put off until November (see "Sony To Offer Cheaper PlayStation Portable As PlayStation 3 Release Delayed"). Curiously, this development stall may have helped Sony hold the line on PlayStation 2's price, with the lowest price offered by vendors on PriceSCAN.com hovering close to the old suggested retail price. But the PS2 must compete against Microsoft and Nintendo systems, and Sony may have felt it needed to reduce the price of its aging system to preserve market share ahead of its delayed new product.
In any case, if you buy either product now, you'll be getting a discount. And, at least for a little while, you'll own the state of the art.

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April 13, 2006

Now Solve The Puzzle And You Can Watch A Few More Minutes Of "Lost"

Electronics | Apr 13, 06

Continuing Big Media's program of using the web to offer inferior versions of its existing products, Disney's ABC has announced they'll stream much of their television content for viewing by broadband users. The shows are free, but you'll have to watch mandatory commercials that you can't fast-forward through, as you could if you simply recorded the show on a VCR, DVR or Tivo.

Further, the ads (three of them, all from the same advertiser), may take the form of an interactive game. This raises the possibility of the viewer as lab rat – navigate the maze of this little game and you can have the cheese that is "Desperate Housewives". Sort of a Marshal McLuhan meets B.F. Skinner thing. And ABC intends to set up online chat rooms where viewers can share their thoughts on the edifying experience that is primetime television. Will these chats be monitored, I wonder? Then they'd have a Margaret Mead angle as well ("fascinating to watch them socialize, isn't it, Doctor?"). Not that there aren't scores of such sites around as it is, which makes you wonder just how much free time the average American really does have on his or her hands.
Now having a season available on demand does have its advantages, but then many cable services provide this service for the offerings of HBO, Showtime and the like, and without making you a part of their Orwellian experiment. Over all, there's something kind of familiar about all this, kind of like the rather lame movie download schemes Hollywood has bee proposing of late (see "Hollywood's Download Model: Less Content, Less Versatility, Higher Cost"). Sooner or later, I suspect the media conglomerates will have to learn to embrace the web's strengths, rather than continuously attempting to use it to turn back time and take back advantages long offered by older technologies.

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April 3, 2006

Still Shuffling, Loudly

Electronics | Apr 3, 06

Reportedly facing a chorus of consumer complaints and legal threats louder than anything that ever came out of a pair of earbuds, Apple released software updates for its most recent iPod models that allow the user to limit volume to safer levels. Parents can now use a code to lock the device's maximum volume below a pre-set level. The free upgrade is available for the Nano and Video iPods.

The curious omission here is the iPod Shuffle, and one has to ask why. Is the possibility of hearing impairment just part of the wacky randomness that makes Shuffling so darn funky, or, as users of an older model, are Shuffle owners not cool enough to deserve ear protection? In fairness, it's not at all clear that iPods are any louder than some other portable music players. And Apple may be the victim of its own popularity, its huge sales numbers attracting the interest of class-action attorneys in the way that chum lures sharks. And, after all, Cupertino has been shipping its product with warnings against excessive listening at high volume. But can iPod users really be expected to read cautionary language in some dry manual when there are iTunes to be downloaded? And hey, how hip is reading, anyway? I mean, maybe if they posted that warning in a blog or something...

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March 9, 2006

Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: Lock-In, Co-Existence, Or Irrelevance?

Electronics | Mar 9, 06

Last September, when Microsoft and Intel announced that they would back Toshiba's HD-DVD standard over Sony's Blu-ray technology, I speculated on whether this would be enough to create a "lock-in" effect, guarantying the former's dominance and consigning the latter to the fate of another Sony product: Betamax (see "Can Wintel Make Blu-ray The Next Betamax?"). Of course, Sony had its own backers at the time, including Apple, Dell, H-P, Disney and News Corp's Fox, and of course Sony promised to put its own offerings in Blu-ray format. This was always going to be a fight, but now, a variety of other factors may determine whether this turns out to be the VHS war redux.

First, a format-neutral method of obtaining content could dampen the ability of either standard to drive the other out of existence, that being downloadable video purchased online. During the videocassette recorder battle, home movie viewers were obtaining their movies from video rental stores, especially big chains like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Shelf space was and is at a premium in those stores, and thus they were heavily incentivized to see a single standard picked by the market, thus avoiding the need to carry duplicate inventory. Today, however, many cable services offer video on demand, and some have begun offering HD-VOD. If these offerings become as broad as the inventory of the video rental stores, than recorders with either the HD-DVD or Blu-ray standard might be used by the consumer. I say might because DRM issues remain to be worked out. But if the implementation of the HDCP DRM standard allows recording of HD-VOD (and this could entail single-player and/or single copy rules for burning disks) then your cable, satellite or phone company becomes your video store, the format for transfer works with either standard, and the lock-in effect driven by physical video sales and rentals goes away. This could also be true if video downloads with secure DRM become available along the iTunes model in music. Carrying multiple standards would become a matter of a little more server disk space, and while even a small difference in marginal cost could have an effect, it might not be enough to motivate online video stores drop a standard if each of these achieves significant market share early on.
Of course, the other side of the coin here is that cable companies are already offering Tivo-like HD-DVR recorders. You can't burn disks with them, but if the DRM associated with Blu-ray and HD-DVD should prevent the recording of VOD anyway, than the incentive to buy these new machines versus using HD-DVR is reduced significantly. Difficulties using these devices with much of the existing installed base of HDTV sets (they require a DVI or HDMI connection to facilitate HDCP, and many of the sets sold to date simply don’t accommodate this) already present impediments to a rapid acceptance of these new technologies. Toshiba and Sony may find that DRM issues, compatibility issues and competing technologies make their new products irrelevant in much of the market place.
On the other hand, maybe the DRM issues get worked out in such a way that cable, phone and satellite firms can support HD-DVR devices with Blu-ray or HD-DVD burners. Then those content conduits could take the place of the video stores of the VHS war, proving decisive in determining which standard survives. And of course there's always the possibility that the technical superiority of one format over the other could prove crucial: for example, there have been claims that Blu-ray disks are less durable than their HD-DVD counterparts. Add to this mix the distinct possibility that Congress and the courts could ounce again wade into the DRM debate, and you can appreciate how difficult it is to predict how all this will play out. With all this uncertainty swirling about Blu-ray and HD-DVD, don't be surprised if the initial rollouts of these technologies are met by a relatively small set of early adopters, and many consumers choose to simply sit on their hand and wait for greater clarity. After all, these machines are supposed to burn disks, not their owners.

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February 27, 2006

China's Totalitarianism: What's In It For Us

Electronics | Feb 27, 06

As Google and its brethren accede to Chinese government demands for censorship and information on dissidents, the debate in this country has centered on the tension between the need to do business in the world's most populous nation and the desire to, well, "do no evil." What's been lost in all this is the competitive advantage the PRC is ceding to the U.S. as it pursues its strategy of repression. Indeed, what China is doing may well mean that more of the high-tech items you find on PriceSCAN.com will be designed in the United States, if not actually made here.

As low-skill, low-pay jobs migrate to China and other vast foreign pools of cheap labor, America finds itself locked in a global battle for brainpower with the rest of the world. This is a struggle for which we are well armed, sporting an arsenal of research universities second to none and an economic system that handsomely rewards entrepreneurial innovation. Yet rising nations can build excellent schools; consider the Indian Institute of Technology system, for example. China itself is investing massively in an effort to pull its research universities into the first tier, and has announced plans to increase R&D spending from 1.4% of GDP in 2004 to an estimated 2.5% of GDP by 2020. Further, the blistering growth seen in emerging economies (when they're not going through one of their periodic bust phases) presents a fertile and tempting environment for the gifted and ambitious. Nowhere is this more true than in China, which combines ferocious growth with a gargantuan internal market potential and a ready supply of inexpensive workers.
So where is the United States to find an added competitive advantage? Where it always has: in the repressive policies of its rivals. Numerous academic studies demonstrate that, throughout our history, U.S. economic expansion has been powered by immigration. Those waves of newcomers invariably include some of the most talented, creative minds in the world, driven from their homelands by noxious governments strangling freedom of inquiry and expression.
And that's where China's "Google policy" comes in. Censored searches can restrict more than just what the government sees as ideologically unacceptable, since its not so easy to separate such information from discussion of policy and technology that impacts business decisions and competitiveness. Monitoring of searches can have a further dampening effect on commerce, since now one has to worry one's inquiries might be seen as subversive, or perhaps even passed on to a competitor with superior government connections. And, even beyond the merely pecuniary, as people become better educated and wealthier, their appetite for new knowledge and experience tends to sharpen, and it is precisely this desire which the PRC’s restrictions will make difficult to satisfy.
Search censorship is just one facet of barriers to the free flow of information that makes life less pleasant for China's best and brightest, and frankly, that's great for us. Because the less attractive China makes itself for such people, the brighter the prospect of coming to this country shines. And every time a Chinese grad student in Cambridge or Palo Alto considers sticking around here, the U.S.'s potential GDP growth rate rises. A calculation of this nature was in the mind of most of America's forbearers, save for the fact that the oppression they faced was often more acute, if not life threatening. There is, after all, a reason economics is called the dismal science, and political economy tends to be more dismal still. China's actions may violate human rights and basic decency, but the fact is that a formidable competitor is voluntarily handing us a rare advantage. And just think: we didn't even have to impose protectionist tariffs or mess around with the WTO.

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February 9, 2006

iPod Shuffles To The Cheap Side

Electronics | Feb 9, 06

Back on 1/18 I noted that Apple iMacs were selling at surprising discounts to Sony VAIOs, indicating an apparent willingness on the part of Cupertino to compete with other high-style manufacturers on the basis of price, as opposed to charging a premium for Apple’s unique design (Apple Cool Selling At Surprising Discount To Sony Style). Now, Apple may be extending that strategy to music players as well. The firm has just cut the price of the iPod Shuffle 512 MB to a mere $69. As of this writing, only SanDisk 512 MB MP3 players are offered for less by vendors on PriceSCAN.com. One of these, the SanDisk Sansa M230, does have an FM tuner (another player, Creative Lab’s MuVo Micro N200 512 MB Digital Music Player Recorder with Radio, offers FM with in-line recording for $69.99).

Now I happen to be a big fan of being able to listen to radio on a portable, but something tells me its going to take more than the ability to listen to the local "morning zoo" broadcast on a digital player for consumers to forsake iPod "sleek and cheap" formula (not to mention iTunes). Of course Apple may be cutting the Shuffle price partially to overcome cannibalization of its own line – the new smaller Nano and the iPod with Video are the new hotness, after all. Rival manufacturers had best come up with something cooler if they want to survive. And the record labels should also be wary, lest they find themselves subject to a new commandment: thou shalt sell no music without the consent of Steve Jobs. Perhaps we're to be treated to that most entertaining of contests: a conflict between a monopoly and a cartel.

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February 6, 2006

For Flat Screens, Popularity Equals Price Stability

Electronics | Feb 6, 06

Now that the Super Bowl is behind us, will we finally see the most popular flat-screen television models fall in price? Late last year many pundits predicted that increased production would lead to significantly lower post-holiday prices, and a casual inspection of vendor prices on PriceSCAN.com appears to confirm such a decline. However, when it comes to more popular models, demand seems to be strong enough to overcome any supply issues and we are actually seeing some price increases. Going into the holidays I noted that some Panasonic plasmas were actually rising in price, and for some models this trend has continues – see the chart of the 50 inch Panasonic TH-50X50U below.
Time Period: 4/18/2005 through 1/30/2006
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

However, we're also seeing firmness in the price of the most popular LCD set on PriceSCAN, namely Sony’s KDL-V40XBR1 40 inch BRAVIA XBR High Definition LCD WEGA, with the lowest offer price creeping up around $200 over the last few weeks (though the average price has fallen by about that much). So watching those soon-to-be-Clio nominated beer ads on the most sought-after high-def panels cost you at least what it would have before they dropped that ball in Times Square.
(Editor's note - this graph has been updated - see "Spring LCD Television Price Slide")
Time Period: 9/19/2005 through 4/17/2006
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

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December 16, 2005

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

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December 9, 2005

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.”

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November 30, 2005

Panasonic Plasma Pricing Preserved

Electronics | Nov 30, 05

Last weekend's press coverage of Black Friday was chock full of crazed shoppers storming big-box retailers, driven to a slobbering frenzy reminiscent of the zombie film "24 Days Later" by the deep discounting of retailers desperate to avoid a holiday bust. A similar story was reported on "Cyber Monday", as online shoppers scoured the web for even deeper discounts, particularly in electronics. And indeed, regular readers of this blog are familiar with the steep declines we've seen over the last year in the prices of digital cameras, flat screen televisions and other chip-and-pixel goodies. So it may come as some surprise that the plasma televisions of one leading producer have actually seen a firming in price over the weeks prior to the biggest shopping day of the year.

Consider the Panasonic TH-50PX50OU and TH-42PX50U, currently the third and fourth most popular television sets on this site, respectively. As you can see from the graphs below, in recent weeks each of these units has seen a price increase in the lowest price offered by vendors on PriceSCAN.com of between ten and twenty percent. To be sure, both televisions are still down twenty to thirty percent since their introductions earlier this year. Yet to see a price rise in the lead-up to the holiday shopping period is intriguing. Perhaps, for some products, the demand is a bit stronger, and/or the supply a drab tighter, than the "you have to cut prices to the bone to drive sales" school of thought would suggest.

Time Period: 6/20/2005 through 11/14/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Time Period: 4/18/2005 through 11/14/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

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November 8, 2005

iPods: Less Video, Less Money

Electronics | Nov 8, 05

You can say one thing for the new iPods with Video: they've precipitated a huge drop in the price of non-video iPods. Many vendors still have significant inventory of discontinued models, and are now slashing the prices of iPods that only a couple of months ago seemed to be the “must-have” items of the year.

Consider the Apple iPod 60 GB with Color Display. As shown by the graph below, at the beginning of the year this item went for at least $550, while today it may be purchased for less than $330.

Time Period: 12/20/2004 through 10/31/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

That's also more than $50 less than the lowest price on a 60 GB iPod with Video (notice that even the video iPods were released far cheaper than comparable-memory non-video iPods were at the end of last year). Now this is only a good deal if you're not into paying for otherwise free network television so you can watch it on a one-inch screen. But if what you're really looking for in an iPod are features like music, picture display functionality and the kind of memory you can't get with a Nano, you might consider picking up one of these "obsolete" models before supplies run out.

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November 2, 2005

Bradbury's Big Screen Nightmares Now Available - Cheap!

Electronics | Nov 2, 05

In his classic novel Fahrenheit 451, the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury imagined a future in which books were banned and burned. The principal weapons of mass distraction in this dystopia were wall-mounted, large-screen televisions displaying a constant stream of mindless entertainment, including "Cops"-like programs in which society's dissidents were hunted down and eliminated. Of course, Bradbury penned this tale in the 1950's, and back then the technology necessary to place these giant glowing monsters in every American home simply did not exist. But what a difference a half-century makes! Now you can cover the walls of your house with all the media oligopoly product your cerebrum can handle, and at prices that are dropping by the day.

For example, back on 8/15/2005 I told you about LG Electronics' MW-71PY10, a 72-inch plasma with 1080p resolution. Back then it was going for $50K, and its available now for under $28,600. Quite a drop in two and a half months, but perhaps you'd still rather take that money and buy a car. Have no fear; you can paint the room with HDTV for only a fraction of the LG's price. The 46-inch Samsung LT-P468W, currently the largest LCD set on PriceSCAN, would have run you about nine grand at this time last year, and today will cost you only $3,500.
After the Watergate scandal, Bradbury remarked that he'd now realized television could be used as a mechanism for the governed to keep tabs on the government, and not simply as a method of mass control. With this in mind, why not take advantage of plummeting prices and observe the new holiday season of fiascos, indictments and filibusters in room-filling high def?

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October 17, 2005

Video Podcasting: Cure For Apple and Disney's Pocketful Of Pabulum?

Electronics | Oct 17, 05

When Apple announced its new video-capable wonder, the firm knew it would take content to persuade consumers they need to pony up three to four hundred bucks for an iPod with a hard drive, especially when the company's own flash-based Nanos and Shuffles are available for much less. Cupertino's answer was to partner with Disney to make ABC's primetime programming available the day after broadcast, at a cost of $1.99 a show. So now, you can pay for content you couldn't be bothered to view or TiVo for free, and then watch it on a two-inch screen of inferior resolution. The two shows they're counting on to drive sales have the words "Desperate" and "Lost" in their names, and those terms would accurately describe that state I'd have to be in to take this deal. But wait, there's more. Apple will also make available a host of music videos. You remember music videos. MTV used to broadcast them until they found viewer interest so low they couldn't sell advertising with them. Viacom's gift to culture then switched to more edifying, cerebral fare, such as "Jackass" and "Punk'd".

So does this mean Steve Jobs has a loser on his hands? On the contrary: the new iPod is likely not only to be a hit this holiday season, but could be the innovation that will usher in the next phase of the democratization of media access that began with websites and evolved into blogs and podcasts. As the Internet has turned countless PCs into publishing houses and radio stations, the new iPod and its likely imitators will give rise to a new era of desktop television and movie studios. Interestingly, the iPod accommodates the open H.264 standard (Quicktime is more of a memory hog) which should facilitate content creation by third parties. With broadband as a catalyst, video podcasting is the next logical step, and you can count on many players to jump on this bandwagon, from the Matt Drudges of the world to the pornographers. Independent filmmakers may also find this a new channel for distribution, perhaps tailoring their work for diminutive screens. Media behemoths like Fox, Disney and Viacom are already tinkering with “mobisodes”, brief episodes and shorts that look good on the displays of mobile phones (e.g. Verizon's V-Cast) and presumably such fare will soon be seen on iPods. And of course the ability to play home movies on these devices will give an entire generation of flyers a new way of annoying the poor soul trapped in the neighboring seat.
To be sure, there are other reasons to want a 30 GB or 60 GB hard drive in your portable media player, as they can store far more music than their flash-based brethren. But the latter can still hold a thousand or more songs, and flash is cheap. Battery life is another challenge for the iPod, in that a full charge is good for about three hours of video playback, barely enough for a single film, if that. To reach its full potential, Apple may have to improve on this.

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September 29, 2005

The iPod Nano: Now With Auto-Personalizing Feature!

Electronics | Sep 29, 05

Apple's admission of breaking screens in what they claim are a small number of Nanos comes amid widespread reports that those screens are also highly susceptible to scratches. Cupertino says the former problem is covered under warranty but the later is not, and suggests those concerned about random etchings invest in a protective case.

Sure, because when you give up extra storage for the convenient slimness of the Nano, what you're looking to do is add some bulk with a nice, padded shell. Or maybe we should stop whining about that engraving on the screen and look at it as a kind of automatic personalization feature – after all, you haven't really "made it your own" until the display is obscured by your unique pattern of specks and gouges.
But if you're not enough of an iconoclast to express yourself in this way, and if you're so closed-minded as to insist that a product marketed for its small size not have to be lugged about in a foam and leather sarcophagus, here's one constructive suggestion: the Apple iPod Nano Armband. Makes jogging with the little guy easier and keeps it away from those keys and change in your pocket. Just don't bump into anything sharp.

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September 27, 2005

Can Wintel Make Blu-ray The Next Betamax?

Electronics | Sep 27, 05

Microsoft and Intel's announcement that they will back Toshiba's HD-DVD standard for high-definition digital video is a blow to Sony's competing Blu-ray format, in a war eerily reminiscent of the VHS-Betamax battle of the early VCR era.

In a theory pioneered by economist W. Brian Arthur, increasing returns to scale can lead to a so-called "lock-in" effect in which a particular technological standard is picked out from a set of plausible alternatives. Ephemeral and even random factors may govern the choice, but once this happens, the cost to consumers and manufacturers of switching to any other standard becomes quite high, and any contending alternative must now present advantages far in excess of what it took to get in the game during the initial standard selection period. (For those into theoretical physics - and hey, who isn't! - the mathematics describing lock-in looks a bit like symmetry breaking.) Oft-quoted examples include the QWERTY typewriter keyboard, rail gauges, and yes, the selection of VHS over Sony's Betamax standard, even though many contend that Beta was the superior technology.
Many feel that when a critical mass of content became available on VHS and not Beta, the fate of Sony's standard was sealed. This time around, however, Sony has lined up half of Hollywood behind its gambit, as well as two of the largest PC makers. Plus, you never know what Cupertino will come up with, though currently putting more than brief HD video rips on a portable player may require a Blue-ray enabled iPod "Macro" that no one is going to be dancing around with, even in those cute silhouette ads. If Microsoft and Intel can pressure the PC makers to switch sides, they may tilt the balance of power to Toshiba. In the end, however, people watch DVDs for the content, not the supporting chips or operating system. With two so well armed alliances staring each other down, it's difficult to say what small factor of timing or technology might tip the balance, let alone who the victor will be.

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September 24, 2005

Palm Embraces Windows For Treo, But Still Lacks Blackberry’s "In Your Face" Factor

Electronics | Sep 24, 05

So the word is that Palm has decided to license Microsoft's Windows Mobile for its new Treo, available with Verizon Wireless. But at least initially, the Treo with Windows will still require the user to download e-mail, as opposed to allowing senders to push e-mail onto the recipient's screen, as with Research In Motion's Blackberry.

And there's the rub. In the Blackberry world, you get to ram your thoughts down the throat of your clients, employer, employees (and of course your friends and loved ones) exactly when you want to, and without that oh so inconvenient time sink of having to listen to the other person's thoughts, as you must with a conventional phone call. By making the other person's Blackberry demand "read me, READ ME!" you get to hurl your typed thunderbolt with impunity, at least your chosen target retaliates with his or her own brilliant missive. Not to be confused with the nearly lost art of letter-writing, the Blackberry replaces conversation with a series of curt, "in your face" volleys, and a generation for whom "Crossfire" and "The McLaughlin Group" are formative examples of interlocution has naturally accepted this mode of "communication".
Of course one wonders what Palm's decision portends for its PDA offerings (and other PDA makers who license the Palm OS), assuming of course that people still want PDAs without wireless telephony - see "Are Falling Handheld Prices A Sign Of PDA Obsolescence". But RIM still has a winner until Palm and their new friends in Redmond succeed in accommodating push (shove? jam?) technology. I'd be interested in the thoughts of others on this subject, especially those whose organizations compel them to experience the joys of the Blackberry.

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September 8, 2005

iPod Prices Keep Dropping As New Models Released

Electronics | Sep 8, 05

In the weeks leading up to the release of Apple's ultra-thin iPod nano, we've seen significant price drops for Cupertino's higher storage capacity models.

For example, take a look at this PriceTrend graph of the iPod 60GB with Color Display, currently the most popular iPod model on PriceSCAN.com.
Time Period: 12/20/2004 through 9/5/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

As you can see, back at the end of last year, this model would have run you at least $550, and today it may be had for less than $370. One wonders whether at least some of this decline is related to the iPod nano's introduction. For many users, the 1000 song capacity of the 4GB, $249 flash-based nano may be sufficient. To be sure, hard disk based models offer far more capacity (the 60GB holds 15,000 songs), but will the typical users pay more, and carry more weight, for that extra storage? My colleague David Cost suggests the answer may be no, at least until players with video display capability make those extra gigabytes worth buying and hauling around. Stay tuned.

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August 15, 2005

A Huge Plasma Television With True 1080p HDTV

Electronics | Aug 15, 05

While there are LCD, LCoS and other types of televisions capable of displaying 1080p, the highest resolution HDTV standard, plasma sets generally operate at the 720p level. But now there is at least one exception to this rule, and, at 72 inches, it's a pretty big exception.

LG Electronics is rolling out its MW-71PY10, with 1920 x 1080 native resolution and 1200:1 contrast ratio. And, oh yes, it carries a price tag to match it size: just under $50,000. Vendors are taking pre-orders now, so if you want plasma, size and resolution you can now have it all, assuming of course you're willing to part with fifty grand to make your video dreams come true.

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August 11, 2005

Are Rear-Projection LCoS Televisions The Affordable Alternative To Giant Plasmas?

Electronics | Aug 11, 05

If you're in the market for a large, state of the art TV, you face a dilemma: Right now, the largest flat-screen LCD set is a 46-inch model from Samsung; there are also a handful of 45-inch models. You can get a lot bigger with plasma; up to 84-inches in the case of Akira’s PK-8401, for example, but that extra size is going to cost both money and resolution, the later because these televisions only display HDTV at the 720p level, as opposed to 1080p on the LCD sets. So what's a big-screen junkie on a budget to do?

One alternative to consider would be a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) rear-projection television. Thinner and lighter then traditional CRT-based rear-projection models, this advanced technology offers big size, and, in some cases, 1080p resolution at a significant discount to plasma. For example, the Sony KDS-R60XBR1 60 inch SXRD Rear Projection TV (SXRD is Sony's "refined version" of LCoS) is available for under $5,000, while the Sony KDE-61XBR950 61 inch Plasma WEGA runs for well over twice as much. That's a lot of money for an extra inch of diagonal, and you trade the 1080p resolution of the SXRD model for the 720p of the plasma.

To be sure, LCoS/SXRD technology does not solve another key size problem, as these sets are considerably thicker and heavier than comparable plasmas and thus not generally wall-mountable. However, if you can live with your set "off the wall", you might find higher resolution and lower cost with LCoS.

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August 4, 2005

1080p HDTV LCD Televisions Begin To Drop In Price

Electronics | Aug 4, 05

There are a handful of LCD televisions that feature the maximum high-definition digital resolution, that being the 1080p standard. It's therefore fascinating to discover that even these truly state of the art models are falling in price.

For example, consider Sharp's 45GD6U AQUOS, a 45-inch set with 1920x1080 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio. It feature's Sharp's Super ViewBlack TFT Panel, providing an 800:1 contrast ratio and 170° H x 170° V viewing angles. It would have cost you at least $5,800 back in December of last year, but right now vendors on PriceSCAN.com are offering it for under $4,000.

Time Period: 12/13/2004 through 8/1/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

If that's still a bit rich for you, you might take a look at the Westinghouse LVM-37w1, with a 37-inch diagonal, 1920x1080 resolution and 600:1 contrast ratio. It's available for under $1,900.

You can check out the rest of the maximum HD LCD sets here, and see for yourself how the best of breed is already getting cheaper.

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July 11, 2005

New Brands, Inexpensive LCD Televisions

Electronics | Jul 11, 05

Recently, the LCD television market has been invaded by a group of new manufacturers offering sets at considerable discounts to their more established rivals. Many are Chinese or affiliated with an Asian manufacturer, and can avail themselves of low labor costs. As a result, these firms make many of the least expensive LCD sets on PriceSCAN.com.

Consider that of the ten cheapest flat-screen LCD sets 30 inches or larger, six are made by companies of the type described above, including the two cheapest, the Syntax Olevia LT-30HV and the SVA VR-30, both priced under $950. Sytax is partnered with Taiwan Kolin Company (of, yes, Taiwan) and SVA is one of China’s largest tech concerns. Interestingly, even the venerable Westinghouse name is now attached to a firm manufacturing in China through is partner, Chi Mei Optoelectronics.

For the most part, the buzz on these manufacturers isn’t bad, but we’d be interested in hearing about the experiences of PriceSCAN users in this regard. If the quality of these new makes is up to snuff, one has to wonder what their entry into the market means for the more established players.

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June 23, 2005

LCD Television Price Crash

Electronics | Jun 23, 05

It has been repeatedly reported in this space that we're seeing a stunning example of a technology price decline in the flat screen television market, particularly for LCD sets. But in the last couple of months, some LCD televisions have dropped so sharply they merit special mention.

Consider for example the Polaroid LCD-2000, a 20-inch model with with HDTV 720 and native resolution of 1280 x 768. At the end of 2004 it was going for about $800, but that price has now been cut by more than 50%, and right now its offered by vendors on PriceSCAN for less than $400.
Time Period: 10/18/2004 through 6/20/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Or check out a rather more up-market model, the 45 inch Sharp LC-45D4U AQUOS Widescreen LCD Television, with HDTV 1080 and 1920 x 1080 native resolution. In this case the drop is from about $5,500 to under $4,250 currently, a decline of about 23%.
Time Period: 11/29/2004 through 6/20/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

There are scores of similar cases you can find just by exploring LCD televisions here. We seem to be seeing a lot of buying at these price levels, so one wonders if these price declines will continue at this same breakneck pace. So this begs an obvious question – how cheap do LCD's need to get before you'd pick one up?

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June 13, 2005

Cheaper GPS For Father’s Day

Electronics | Jun 13, 05

One of the technologies whose price decline has been most impressive over the last couple of years is that of Global Positioning Systems. When you consider that a navigation capability once intended for military and high-end commercial use can now be held in the palm of your hand for less than the cost of many MP3 players, you realize just how dramatic technological deflation can be.

Given that Father’s Day is coming up on Sunday, if you were thinking of helping Dad find his way on that next road trip or camping expedition, you can give him the gift of GPS for a lot less than last year. Just one example, the most sophisticated of Garmin’s ultra-lightweight Geko line, the Garmin Geko 301. It's waterproof and includes an electronic compass and barometric altimeter. It even comes with five interactive games to keep anyone riding shotgun occupied while stuck in traffic. Back in January of last year you would have paid at least $230 for this compact GPS, but it can be purchased today for less than $170, representing a price decline of 26% in about a year and a half.

Time Period: 1/5/2004 through 6/6/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Many other popular GPS units have seen sharp price declines in the last few months, so even if you sometimes feel like telling your father where to go, you can now give him a gift that will show him exactly how to get there.

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May 16, 2005

Turning Your Computer Into A Digital Video Recorder For Under $70.

Computers | May 16, 05

If you don't feel like paying hundreds of dollars for a stand-alone digital video recorder, you should know how cheap its gotten to give your computer the same functionality, assuming your machine already has a DVD-RW drive.

Video-capture packages consisting of a TV tuner card and software can turn your laptop or desktop into a DVR. Further, you can do so for surprisingly little money. For example, the AverMedia UltraTV USB 300 External USB 2.0 is such a device. Designed to fit in your laptop case, its power is drawn from its USB connection so no separate transformer is required. The UltraTV software works with free TitanTV program scheduling and allows pause and replay of live shows, much as TiVo does. And what's really remarkable is the price – now available from vendors for less than seventy bucks.

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May 10, 2005

iPod Loss Of Cool Noted By NY Times

Electronics | May 10, 05

Back in March I speculated that as the iPod became more ubiquitous it risked losing its cache, and now Ken Belson of the New York Times is wondering the same thing.

You can also check out my earlier blog piece here, where you’ll find some interesting iPod alternatives as well.

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April 28, 2005

Burning DVDs With TiVo, Without Burning Money

Electronics | Apr 28, 05

It's difficult to beat TiVo for ease of use in recording television, but it's when you combine that service with a DVD-R recorder that you get to experience the full potential of both technologies. Freed from a hard drive and burnt on a DVD, your TiVo recordings are now more permanent (you don't have to loose them to free up disk space) and portable, ready to be replayed on any DVD player.

What's really interesting is that TiVo enabled DVRs have of late become far more affordable. Consider the Pioneer DVR-57H DVD-R with TiVo and an 120 GB hard drive, which at the beginning of last year would have run you over $1,200 and today can be had for under $600 (see graph below.

Time Period: 10/20/2003 through 4/25/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

You get a lot of sophistication for that price, including 2:3 progressive scan and Faroudja directional correlation de-interlacing. In the same price range you can pick up a bit more hard disk space with the Toshiba RS-TX60, a 160 GB model that will allow up to 200 hours of recording. Both models come with TiVo Basic service right out of the box, allowing entry-level manual recordings by time and channel. The TiVo Plus (essentially the service currently enjoyed by TiVo's existing subscribers, with Search by Title, Season Pass and WishList functionality) is available for $12.95/month or $299 for the life of the product.

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1080p DLP TVs Coming Soon

Electronics | Apr 28, 05

Texas Instruments announced that its 1920 x 1080 High Definition DLP chips have begun volume production. Manufacturers who have announced 1080p DLP TVs include LG, Mitsubishi, Samsung, and Toshiba. These TVs are scheduled to appear in retail stores as early as July.

If you can't wait here are some currently available 1080p LCD TVs:

Samsung LT-P468W
Sharp LC-45GD4U
Sharp LC-45GX6U
Sharp LC-45GD6U

Posted by david.cost
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April 21, 2005

Who is Syntax Groups?

Electronics | Apr 21, 05

Syntax Groups is an up and coming manufacturer of LCD TVs. In the fourth quarter of 2004, Syntax ranked third in market share behind Sharp and Panasonic. They beat Sony which ranked fourth. Marketshare data was reported by research firm iSuppli.

Check models and prices of Syntax LCD TVs
Link to iSuppli
Link to Syntax Groups

Posted by david.cost
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April 20, 2005

Upgrade your iPod Headphones

Electronics | Apr 20, 05

Interesting article from Forbes.com reviews the E Series Headphones from Shure. The E3c model sounds like a great upgrade for any audiophile who owns an iPod or any other Digital Music Player.

Check current prices of Shure E3c and E5c
Link to Forbes.com article
Link to Shure

Posted by david.cost
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April 19, 2005

Today's Top Deals – A New PriceSCAN.com Feature

Electronics | Apr 19, 05

We've just rolled out a great new feature: Today's Top Deals. We'll be featuring the most extraordinary deals we find as we continuously scour the marketplace for unusual bargains. We'll be posting deals for all kinds of goods, from computers and electronics to music and fashion. It's a great place to check if you're looking for gift ideas at low prices, or if you just feel like treating yourself and don't want to overspend. But the deals change daily, so if you don't want to miss out, check Today's Top Deals every day. You just might find the deal of a lifetime.

Posted by jeffrey.trester
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April 8, 2005

Falling Rear-Projection TV Prices

Electronics | Apr 8, 05

Previously, when we've discussed the drop in large-screen television prices, we've generally been talking about flat-screen plasmas and LCD sets. However, I couldn't help but notice that the Sony KDF-50WE655, a fifty-inch, 16:9 aspect ratio, high definition rear projection model, is currently the eighth most popular electronics item on PriceSCAN.com. The reason may have something to do with the graph below.

Time Period: 9/20/2004 through 4/4/2005
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

As you can see, the lowest price on PriceSCAN.com (green line) has dropped in price by about a third since September of last year, and now can be had for just slightly north of two grand. That's impressive given it's part of Sony's Grand WEGA Integrated LCD-based rear projection line. Yet casual inspection of all types of flat screen and rear projection television prices on this site reveals that the large price drops predicted ahead of 2004's holiday season have come to pass. For big screens, the future is now, and it's cheap.

Posted by jeffrey.trester
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March 18, 2005

An MP3 Player That Records AM and FM

Electronics | Mar 18, 05

I like the idea of using a digital music player to listen to, and possibly record, radio broadcasts, but I also like to listen to AM news. This has been a problem because no MP3 player on the market had an AM feature (not even an iPod!), and I don’t want to lug around a separate device just to get the news. Now my good buddy Thomas informs me that Pogo! is releasing its new Radio YourWayLX, an MP3 player that records live or via a timer feature.

It comes in 128MB and 512MB versions for 8.5 and 34 recording hours, respectively. The models should go for around $200 to $250, which is reasonable enough for news junkies to tolerate buying something from a company with an explanation mark in its name. Watch for even lower prices on these items from vendors on PriceSCAN.com in coming days.

Posted by jeffrey.trester
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March 9, 2005

Have iPods Lost Their Cool?

Electronics | Mar 9, 05

When something gets too hot, it just isn't cool anymore. That truism may be illustrated by the comments of one of our very hip early twenty-something employees, who informed me the other day that he was "against all things iPod". He's looking for a new digital music player; one that can play downloads from sources other than iTunes, which iPods can't because they only play files protected by DRM schemes Apple recognizes, notably its own FairPlay. That means an iPod won't play downloads from BuyMusic or any other source using a DRM method Apple does not recognize. Formats like WMA are not compatible with iPods, either.

I suspect, however, that the issue may be more than just digital rights management, per se. Apple has always tried to associate itself with rebellion, to be the brand of the nonconformist. But how can the purchase of a product everyone else is buying be an act of separating oneself from the crowd? And when item is bought from a company that would keep you from buying your music from anyone in the world but themselves, it doesn't just make you feel bad about your decision from an economic perspective, It also places you in opposition to the right to sell art as the artist sees fit. To people who really care about music, as my afore-mentioned young colleague does, that position is just not acceptable. As David Ness points out to me, this is a far cry from the ethos of those "1984" ads for the Mac. Cupertino can't really "stick it to the man" when its trying so hard to be him.

So if not the iPod, what? I'm reliably informed that the anti-iPods of choice are the iRiver H320 and Digital Networks' Rio Karma 20GB. The iRiver H320 plays up to 600 hours of music stored on its 20GB hard drive, and, with a rechargeable battery that lasts 16 hours, you'll have plenty of time to listen to those tunes. It sports a large, vivid color display that allow you to view digital photos in JPEG or BMP format – take that, iPod Photo! The H320 also includes a built-in FM tuner and supports USB 2.0 file transfers and MP3, WMA, ASF and OGG music file formats. You can pick one up for under $280.

As its name suggests, the Rio Karma also has a 20 GB hard drive allowing playback of 660 hours of WMA or 330 hours of MP3 music. Likewise, it supports USB 2.0, and its LiIon battery will go 15 hours of playback between charges. It also supports Ogg Vorbis and FLAC, has a backlit display with visualizations and even comes with a docking station for RCA Line-out and Ethernet connectivity. It's a bit cheaper than the iRiver, going for a bit less than $200.

Either way, you get alternative geek-chic at a low price. And Apple won't be able to tell you where you can and can't get your music.

Posted by jeffrey.trester
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February 25, 2005

Droppin Pods - Huge iPod Price Cuts

Electronics | Feb 25, 05

Apple just dropped price across its entire iPod product line, and the savings are already reflected in much lower vendor prices on PriceSCAN.com. Even more interesting, after rebates the price may be even lower than what you see on our site.

For example, today the iPod Photo 40GB is being offered by the highly rated Buy.com for $374. Now that's already a $65 drop from the low price on PriceSCAN.com last week. But if you click through to their site, you'll see that after further discounts and a $20 rebate, the price is only $339.99 - a hundred dollar price drop in a week, and that's with free shipping! Similar further discounts may be found throughout the iPod universe, so run a price comparison on PriceSCAN and click through to the vendor site. You may get an even better deal than you expected.

Posted by jeffrey.trester
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February 9, 2005

LCD Screens Are Getting More Affordable

Electronics | Feb 9, 05

New production facilities are pouring LCD screens into the market, and that increased supply is pushing down prices. As we moved into the New Year, this effect has become even more pronounced. Consider the Sony LF-X1 LocationFree TV, a 12.1-inch model that allows you to roam wireless up to 100 feet from its base or connect to any Wi-Fi hotspot. Back in early December of 2004 the best price for this model was almost $1,200, today you can pick it up for just over a grand.

But the price drops aren't just on the low end; the big screen prices are dropping too. For example, the JVC PD-42V475 is a 42 inch HDTV-ready screen that last September would have cost you at least $2,700 and today will run you about $2,100.

These are huge percentage drops over a very short period of time, and you can find scores of similar cases by poking around PriceSCAN. If you've waited until after the holidays to pounce on a bargain, feel free to pounce away.

Posted by jeffrey.trester
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January 31, 2005

Big Plasmas at Small Prices

Electronics | Jan 31, 05

Back on 11/30/2004 I told you I expected plasma television screen prices to continue to fall significantly as we move through the holidays and into the New Year (see that article here). Well, it does look like that prices are falling. Click on one of our PriceTrend graphs for almost any plasma or LCD set listed on this site and you'll see what I mean. Just a couple of random examples: Consider the Sony PFM-42V1/B, a 42 inch plasma that at the end of 2003 was going for around three grand, and which you can now pick up for a little north of $1500. The graph below is for 11/17/2003-1/24/2005, and the lowest vendor price on PriceSCAN.com is the green line (the red and blue lines are the high and average prices among vendors, respectively).

Or how about LG's DU-50PZ60, 50 inches of 1365x768 native resolution HD-ready plasma, price around $5000 before the holidays and today goes for about $3980. Here's the price graph from 3/22/2004 to 1/24/2005

Remember, you can always click the PriceTrend Graph link on each of our price comparison pages to see how prices have changed over time.

Interestingly, a casual inspection indicates some of the biggest screens haven't fallen as much, which is to say there has not been as much downward price pressure on plasmas of size 60 inches or greater. So if you want one of those monsters on your wall, it'll still generally cost you 5K or more.
Coming soon – a look at the LCD market. Stay tuned.

Posted by jeffrey.trester
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January 14, 2005

E-I-E-Io?

Electronics | Jan 14, 05

On the whole, I'm a Logitech fan. I have a Logitech wireless (Bluetooth) Keyboard and Mouse on one of my systems, and it has the best 'look and feel' of any of my keyboards and mice. It is a bit expensive, perhaps, but the feeling of the mouse and keyboard make up for that, and it seems to work well.

Apparently as a registered Logitech user I just recieved a promo for the Logitech Io2, and I must say that the description of this device leaves me---for the most part---bewildered.

If I understand the description properly, the Io is sort of a pen-scanner that, working in conjunction with some form of special paper, allows me to write stuff and get it entered into my machine "directly". That is to say that the information I write is remembered in the pen, and when I place the pen in a docking station on my computer, the information will be transferred.

What bewilders me, I guess, is that I can't see anything superior to this scheme than to just using a normal ball-point pen and then scanning the information in to the computer. Indeed, the Io seems to me to be inferior to that very simple scheme on several fronts:

I'm unclear what accepting these restrictions buys me. If it's the recognition software, one would have to believe that this software would do just as well with things scanned in as with data entered via the pen.

But maybe I'm really missing the point, and I should be happy to pay $200 for my pen. It sure better fit my hand well to be worth that kind of money, and at the rate that I lose pens, it might become an expensive propostion if I were to find the device useful.

At the moment, though, that doesn't seem likely.

Posted by david.ness
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January 13, 2005

It's A Camera! A Camcorder! An MP3 Player! (Huh?)

Electronics | Jan 13, 05

It's the DXG-305V, and of all the new digital photo technology rolled out at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas this week, this one stands out as than the usual "Look, we've hiked resolution by another tenth of a megapixel" fare.

It's a 5 in 1 combo: camcorder, 3.0 megapixel camera, MP3 player, voice recorder and PC camera, and it comes in a case of credit card width and length (and it comes in cool colors like iridescent blue, hot pink, lime green, and sleek silver). It should be available in February and it'll run you $129. Now perhaps you never thought you needed to listen to music on your camcorder, but then again there was a time when we were all silly enough not to realize we needed to take photos with our phones.

Posted by jeffrey.trester
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January 7, 2005

TV Software: Gates' Guys don't know how to do that either!

Electronics | Jan 7, 05

I have two systems that run Windows Media Center. So far in their short life (about 7 months for one, 3 months for the other) they have managed to screw up much more often than all of the physical TV tape recorders that I have had over the last couple of decades. This isn't an impressive record.

And I can say, without qualification, that if my (hardware) TV recorder screwed up as often as this software, it would either have been returned, tossed out of a second story window, or used as a target to help release my anger and frustration.

I would be happy to tell you what is wrong. But I'm afraid that I can't. I can safely say it has nothing to do with time shifts in the schedule of TV broadcasts. I am willing to accept them, although in an Internet Age really smart software should be able to even deal with them. But, I'm willing to accept that neither the hardware or the software is quite ready for that.

When the screwups that I am talking about occur I am generally left with a little red dot that has an exclamation point in it on my toolbar. If I try to inquire further about the difficulty, the gist of the message that I get is "Something went wrong. You're screwed." Not much more than that. I have no clue what it is that went wrong, or why I have lost some TV hours that I was at least interested enough in to try to record them.

Sometimes it looks like the problem arose because the software couldn't reach the net. Since I have already told it what to record, it is not clear to me that any interaction with the net should be needed. Other than that, all that I can imagine is that the software truly screws up in the sense that it has memory leaks or other problems that cause it to eventually fail after being 'on' for some time.

All I can say is that this whole mess makes me lust after TiVo or some other nice hardware solution. The software just ain't up to it.

Posted by david.ness
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January 3, 2005

TiVo a Go-Go

Electronics | Jan 3, 05

I do my Media work with a standard cable hookup which feeds an HP Media Center and, at another site, a Sony equivalent. Thus I can't comment specifically on TiVoToGo, a new TiVo facility. However, since this product, and others like it, share a "problem space" with existing Media Centers, it is at least possible to discuss them philosophically.

All of these new capabilities seem to be zeroing in on the general problem that we might call portable TV access and storage. While this general capability has actually been around for years, until recently costs prevented the individual consumer from being able to afford any of these systems. Now that it is simple and cheap (say $1) to write disks that hold an hour or two of TV, this has all become quite a practical thing.

First, let me say that I think that this stuff deals with a real problem for which there is a broad market. It is curious that I have had conversations in real life that happen to be reflected in the advertisements for the TiVoToGo product (the topic was getting access to some episodes of "Desperate Housewives", an example they happen to use in their ads.)

Second, the broad acceptance of this technology would certainly create a nightmare for some copyright issues. At the moment only a relatively small proportion of the population has all of the necessary capabilities available. But computers are now dropping below $500, which should increase their presence in households dramatically. As cable or satellite TV becomes more and more available the interest in these capabilities might grow quiickly. If people find them useful and, more important perhaps, comfortable to use, they may actually begin to fuel the growth. While no one may really be concerned with copyright when the numbers of users are small, one can expect the equivalent of the RIAA to begin to take a real interest if the number begin to rise to any significance.

However, there are at least a few "flies in the ointment". Most of these have to do with cross-system compatability and DRM issues. While it is certainly conceptually straightforward to move these files around from system to system, I can say that at this point I have failed utterly to be able to get disks I write on one of my Media Centers to play on the other. There could be at least two reasons for this.

One is simple ignorance. To which I will plead guilty. In my defense, though, I have decades of experience with computers and a technical education that was substantial. If these systems require that kind of background, then we are talking about a very limited market indeed. It is surely not the target of the major computer manufacturers, who will have to make this equipment work simply enough to satisfy the needs of people who don't care about the technology, they only want to use it. So even if it is my ignorance that is interfering with my use, one has to expect it.

It is difficult to guess what economic impact the existence of this technology will have. It would seem that in many cases the existence of iPods and MP3 players have increased people's interest in purchasing music, rather than the reverse. The same might well be the case here. Indeed, as I think about it, it occurs to me that I might rather have a local "DVD" store do the long-run storage task for broadcast TV. Each night the five major networks produce about 15 disks. That's 100, or so, disks per week or about 5,000 per year. Even given their density, I don't really want to bother to store all that much.

So TiVoToGo offers some tantalizing prospects. I don't think it will take long for them to either fizzle out or to become very important. By this time next year I'd expect to know a lot that is only material for speculation today.

Posted by david.ness
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December 29, 2004

Socket it to me

Electronics | Dec 29, 04

For the last trip I took on an airplane I had to pack:

A Transformer and cable for my laptop;
A Transformer and cable for my PDA;
A Charger and cable for my digital Camera battery;
Two transformers and plugs for my two cellphones;
A car charger for one of my cellphones;
A download cable for my GPS;
A power cable for my GPS; and
A transformer and cable for my iPod.

That's enough to start a small electronics outlet. And therein lies a story.

First, in days of terrorism, this is a bewildering load of stuff. There is no way that any average agent at a check-in station could have any reasonable idea of what all of the electronics are. It's tough enough for me to understand and I have 50 years of experience with computers. I can only be sympathetic with how difficult it would be for someone untrained in the electronic arts. If there is any serious threat that could be delivered (I'm not sure there is) I'd expect this kind of stuff to be banned if anti-terrorist departments ever get their act together.

Second, there are some much more mundane and practical considerations that have nothing particular to do with travel and/or terrorism. These have to do with the simple activity of plugging in devices in your home. The number of devices that I have that need to be plugged in seems to have grown dramatically in the just the past few years.

Those of you who are old enough might want to think back a few years. If I remember correctly, my first PC had just one major power cord. The display also had a power cord, but there was a socket on the backplane of the computer that fed this and so there was only need to use one wall socket to power the whole thing. By contrast the computer I am using as I write this has separate power cables for:

1. the computer,
2. the sound system,
3. the master display,
4. the support display,
5. an auxillary storage unit,
6. a joystick,
7. the cable modem,
8. my network hub,
9. and the printer,

not to mention any of the support equipment which also shares my desktop with the computer. To handle it I now have a twelve socket power cable to supply the necessary local connections. It's nearly full.

It's nuisance enough just to manage the plugs. What makes the problem worse is that these days it is not uncommon for plug heads to be imbedded directly in transformers which are not only ugly, they are huge and unwieldy. This often means that a single plug will cover two or three sockets, and I am lucky if the plugs mentioned above will even fit in a twelve socket power distribution strip.

Even Apple, which normally gets such high marks for human design, often fails on this front. Their equipment almost invariably looks good, but runs into the same kind of problem. For example, the head of the power train for my iPod is a nice looking little box that often has to be plugged into a wall in such a way that it covers more than one socket. This makes an unnecessary problem in lots of situations.

One must guess that proprietary plugs are a real profit item for the companies that insist on them. They surely aren't in the interest of most of us as consumers. It would be nice for all of us if there could be some decent standardization in this area, but I suppose that will have to await a time when the profits from the proprietary aspects of the current situation dwindle sufficiently that the customer's good can become the driving force.

Posted by david.ness
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December 21, 2004

Steve Jobs: Lord of the Dance

Electronics | Dec 21, 04

...and just about any other form of music, if he has his way. With Apple’s iPod the 'must-have' item this holiday season, Jobs is once again humming his own favorite tune, that being of course the song of proprietary standards. To wit, Apple's new iPod Photo has been released with software that prevents the play of downloads in RealNetwork's Harmony format. Apple has been loath to license its own Fairplay digital rights management (DRM) technology to firms like Real or the recording industry, and of course the iPod dosen't let you play other formats from download sites. Result: if you want any music to come out of those iPod earbuds, you're going to have to rip it from a CD or buy it from iTunes. Hey, who’s your daddy.

Now the odd thing about this strategy is that Apple doesn't own the content – they license those tunes from the recording companies, and as a result make very little from iTunes downloads. Perhaps Jobs hopes the iPod audience will become so large he'll gain leverage on the music houses and be able to lower those licensing fees enough to achieve meaningful earnings from downloads. But for the moment, he's making his green on the iPods themselves. Of course there's some competition out there, notably from some very slick MP3 players like the iRiver iFP-799T, which goes for around $220 and is a lot easier to find right now.

For now it doesn’t matter. Downloads are a small fraction of music sales as compared to CDs (meaning, I suspect, that most iPods are filled with CD rips, not downloads), so the recording industry has limited interest in forcing Apple to share its standard or in putting music out with some universal DRM method. But if people start downloading enough for the industry to care, they may not want Apple to be the only store on the block. In the long run, will consumer infatuation with the elegance of Apple's design really mean they'll submit to the closed world Jobs seems to dream of? Will so many people own iPods that even the content providers will have to sell through Apple on Cupertino's terms? Or, as with the PC back in the day, will Jobs' decision not to let others use his DRM scheme mean a more open standard will take hold, perhaps this time backed by a recording industry which can kill the music at Apple.

Posted by jeffrey.trester
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December 20, 2004

Talking the Walk: Sonywonder Technology Lab

Electronics | Dec 20, 04

I recently visited Sony's NYC Headquarters. The ground floor of the building is a small-scale Metreon-like display area and store(s). (If you haven't been there, Metreon is 350,000 sq feet of space in downtown San Francisco devoted to an entertainment complex, part of which is store-like displays.) There is also a walk-through display area called Sonywonder where you are given the opportunity to `use' some of the technology (Perhaps the name comes from "I Wonder what Sony could have been thinking..."?). I'll review this all in a moment.

But first, a couple of words to qualify (or disqualify) my review. I am not much of a computer-based gamer. I played a little PACman and knocked off a couple of Klingons in the very early stages of each of computer based gaming, but since I've always had a job that kept me at my computer for many too many hours anyway, I've never found the games to be of much interest.

I can also add that I'm no longer 10 years old. If I were, I might have a more charitable view of this. But then, again, if I were I'd probably be more interested in angling my parents to take me to Disneyland rather than go through this rather dull display.

However, I do like to use computers for information storage (particularly my photos and my music) and as a control element in my (largely TV based) entertainment system. Nothing very elaborate, mind you, but I like having 30 or 40 hours of reasonably findable television available.

So, insofar as the "Sonywonder"land is devoted to gamers or 10 year olds, it will miss me. Otherwise, though, I am a pretty good market for their products, typing this review on one of my desktop Sonys, carrying a couple of laptop Sonys, having a reasonably elaborate (but sub-aficianado) home HiFi setup from Sony, an MD walkman or two and other pieces of Sony flotsam and jetsam from previous ages.

There are three pieces of the Sony Headquarters Experience to discuss.

The store was a disappointment to me. It seems much smaller than the one associated with the Metreon in San Francisco. I saw some of the low-line headphones and walkmen there, but have a hard time believing that it is anything like a complete presentation of Sony's line.

But perhaps in the rush of a pre-Christmas weekend, the crowds made everything seem smaller, narrower and harder to look at.

In any event, I'd expect to see a more interesting display at a J&R or other large volume sales outlet.

The Sonywonder struck me as a bit bizzare. First, you wait in line for an elevator which takes you up about 4 stories in the atrium of the building. Coffee is in sight, a giant Spiderman hangs upside down on the wall, but there's no opportunity to investigate Sony products. You just stand there.

The elevator takes you up four stories and from there you will gradually walk down ramps for two or three stories. All of this seems to be necessary to accomplish some crowd `control', and to space out the arrivals as some of the steps in the process of going through the `maze' take a considerable time and otherwise backed up lines throughout the exhibit would be unavoidable.

Your first offical activity is to get `registered' by creating a picture and voice record that can be used to follow you through the exhibit place. Most of the time all that is done with this is that your picture will occasionally appear on some screen as you wander through the exhibit. I guess I am not Narcissistic enough for this. I'd actually rather see Britney Spears on the screen rather than my own face. I get enough of that shaving in the morning.

As one of the many available experiences I did the `Sound Lab'. What it was supposed to be about I'll never know. All I can say is that I managed, along with some of the other visitors who shared the experience with me, to produce a perfectly terrible sounding piece of musical junk for which I kept getting wonderful congratulations about how well I was doing and how wonderful it sounded (from the machine, of course, not from anyone associated with the Philharmonic). If kids have to put up with this kind of barrage of compliments for the terrible junk that they, on occasion, produce, it is no wonder that we witness a decline in `taste'

I might add, I guess, that I found the description of what we were supposed to be doing quite incomprehensible. Perhaps there was no point to it. If so, they managed to ommunicate that---at least by example.

At the end of all of this you're given a `document' with your name and picture on it. No sound clip, and a reproduction on pretty uninspiring piece of paper. I think I'd rather have had a shot of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton or whomever. I would have thought that the kids might too---perhaps with a breathy bombshell saying something come hither with your name. Oh well.

I guess this must have all prepared me for the visit to the Qualia part of the store. I don't get that either. Here we have considerable incredibly expensive New York floorspace devoted to displaying (along with TVs you'd see at a Best Buy) three of the current four items in Sony's `Qualia' line. The items I saw were numbers 10, 16 and 17. I know a number 4 exists, but I don't think I saw it. I suppose numbers 11, 12, ... exist too, but I don't have even the vaguest clue of what they are about---the may well exist only in Japan for all I know---so I can only review the three items I saw.

And bizzare items they were, too.

Headphones One was a set of headphones. You might ask `What's odd about that?' Well, nothing is odd about that until you look at the price tag and realize that it is not saying $26.00, it is saying $2600.00. (The first listed prices were $3200.00, but as time has passed it has fallen, even with the dollar's collapse) Just let little Johnny get his peanut-butter hands smeared all over that one. But these days it's probably only a fifth of his tuition to grade school anyway.

I understand that there is a group headphone aficianados---HeadFi people---who are deeply into headphones, but I rather suspect that they are small in number, and while some of them may be willing to spend huge amounts, it is hard to make up much sales volume out of items that have prices so far out of scale.

MD Player Then there's a $1900.00 MD player. Certainly it's very nice looking. But it looks more designed to sit on a desk than to actually be carried about, and I thought that being carried about was why MD players were so useful.

Camera A $4000+ camera completes the list. This looks fine too, but their specs don't seem to indicate that they are really all that wonderful. The camera itself seems oddly conflicted. It is incredibly tiny, but a 2 megapixel camera is nothing special these days, and while the camera itself is tiny, it comes packed in briefcase-sized case, necessary to handle all of the addons that connect it to its world.

So where's the market?

I haven't got a clue. Certainly only the rich. Given the emphasis on style, one would have to suspect that looking good is an important part of it. None of this stuff looks durable enough to put up with `pro on the battlefield' conditions. None of the specs indicate to me that any normal person will be able to see or hear the differences between what is produced by this equipment and stuff that costs about one-tenth its price.

Sony might say: "Sweets to the sweet..."

I keep thinking "Have some nuts!"

Posted by david.ness
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Talking the Walk: Sonywonder Technology Lab

Electronics | Dec 20, 04

I recently visited Sony's NYC Headquarters. The ground floor of the building is a small-scale Metreon-like display area and store(s). (If you haven't been there, Metreon is 350,000 sq feet of space in downtown San Francisco devoted to an entertainment complex, part of which is store-like displays.) There is also a walk-through display area called Sonywonder where you are given the opportunity to `use' some of the technology (Perhaps the name comes from "I Wonder what Sony could have been thinking..."?). I'll review this all in a moment.

But first, a couple of words to qualify (or disqualify) my review. I am not much of a computer-based gamer. I played a little PACman and knocked off a couple of Klingons in the very early stages of each of computer based gaming, but since I've always had a job that kept me at my computer for many too many hours anyway, I've never found the games to be of much interest.

I can also add that I'm no longer 10 years old. If I were, I might have a more charitable view of this. But then, again, if I were I'd probably be more interested in angling my parents to take me to Disneyland rather than go through this rather dull display.

However, I do like to use computers for information storage (particularly my photos and my music) and as a control element in my (largely TV based) entertainment system. Nothing very elaborate, mind you, but I like having 30 or 40 hours of reasonably findable television available.

So, insofar as the "Sonywonder"land is devoted to gamers or 10 year olds, it will miss me. Otherwise, though, I am a pretty good market for their products, typing this review on one of my desktop Sonys, carrying a couple of laptop Sonys, having a reasonably elaborate (but sub-aficianado) home HiFi setup from Sony, an MD walkman or two and other pieces of Sony flotsam and jetsam from previous ages.

There are three pieces of the Sony Headquarters Experience to discuss.

The store was a disappointment to me. It seems much smaller than the one associated with the Metreon in San Francisco. I saw some of the low-line headphones and walkmen there, but have a hard time believing that it is anything like a complete presentation of Sony's line.

But perhaps in the rush of a pre-Christmas weekend, the crowds made everything seem smaller, narrower and harder to look at.

In any event, I'd expect to see a more interesting display at a J&R or other large volume sales outlet.

The Sonywonder struck me as a bit bizzare. First, you wait in line for an elevator which takes you up about 4 stories in the atrium of the building. Coffee is in sight, a giant Spiderman hangs upside down on the wall, but there's no opportunity to investigate Sony products. You just stand there.

The elevator takes you up four stories and from there you will gradually walk down ramps for two or three stories. All of this seems to be necessary to accomplish some crowd `control', and to space out the arrivals as some of the steps in the process of going through the `maze' take a considerable time and otherwise backed up lines throughout the exhibit would be unavoidable.

Your first offical activity is to get `registered' by creating a picture and voice record that can be used to follow you through the exhibit place. Most of the time all that is done with this is that your picture will occasionally appear on some screen as you wander through the exhibit. I guess I am not Narcissistic enough for this. I'd actually rather see Britney Spears on the screen rather than my own face. I get enough of that shaving in the morning.

As one of the many available experiences I did the `Sound Lab'. What it was supposed to be about I'll never know. All I can say is that I managed, along with some of the other visitors who shared the experience with me, to produce a perfectly terrible sounding piece of musical junk for which I kept getting wonderful congratulations about how well I was doing and how wonderful it sounded (from the machine, of course, not from anyone associated with the Philharmonic). If kids have to put up with this kind of barrage of compliments for the terrible junk that they, on occasion, produce, it is no wonder that we witness a decline in `taste'

I might add, I guess, that I found the description of what we were supposed to be doing quite incomprehensible. Perhaps there was no point to it. If so, they managed to ommunicate that---at least by example.

At the end of all of this you're given a `document' with your name and picture on it. No sound clip, and a reproduction on pretty uninspiring piece of paper. I think I'd rather have had a shot of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton or whomever. I would have thought that the kids might too---perhaps with a breathy bombshell saying something come hither with your name. Oh well.

I guess this must have all prepared me for the visit to the Qualia part of the store. I don't get that either. Here we have considerable incredibly expensive New York floorspace devoted to displaying (along with TVs you'd see at a Best Buy) three of the current four items in Sony's `Qualia' line. The items I saw were numbers 10, 16 and 17. I know a number 4 exists, but I don't think I saw it. I suppose numbers 11, 12, ... exist too, but I don't have even the vaguest clue of what they are about---the may well exist only in Japan for all I know---so I can only review the three items I saw.

And bizzare items they were, too.

Headphones One was a set of headphones. You might ask `What's odd about that?' Well, nothing is odd about that until you look at the price tag and realize that it is not saying $26.00, it is saying $2600.00. (The first listed prices were $3200.00, but as time has passed it has fallen, even with the dollar's collapse) Just let little Johnny get his peanut-butter hands smeared all over that one. But these days it's probably only a fifth of his tuition to grade school anyway.

I understand that there is a group headphone aficianados---HeadFi people---who are deeply into headphones, but I rather suspect that they are small in number, and while some of them may be willing to spend huge amounts, it is hard to make up much sales volume out of items that have prices so far out of scale.

MD Player Then there's a $1900.00 MD player. Certainly it's very nice looking. But it looks more designed to sit on a desk than to actually be carried about, and I thought that being carried about was why MD players were so useful.

Camera A $4000+ camera completes the list. This looks fine too, but their specs don't seem to indicate that they are really all that wonderful. The camera itself seems oddly conflicted. It is incredibly tiny, but a 2 megapixel camera is nothing special these days, and while the camera itself is tiny, it comes packed in briefcase-sized case, necessary to handle all of the addons that connect it to its world.

So where's the market?

I haven't got a clue. Certainly only the rich. Given the emphasis on style, one would have to suspect that looking good is an important part of it. None of this stuff looks durable enough to put up with `pro on the battlefield' conditions. None of the specs indicate to me that any normal person will be able to see or hear the differences between what is produced by this equipment and stuff that costs about one-tenth its price.

Sony might say: "Sweets to the sweet..."

I keep thinking "Have some nuts!"

Posted by david.ness
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December 14, 2004

Hell's Bells

Electronics | Dec 14, 04

At the moment I only have my cellphone and a couple of other devices that "beep" at me. Yet, between the trouble recognizing just what it is that is beeping, and then finding it, it is already a problem. And with each device I get that uses an andible signal the problem gets worse and worse.

And then there's a variant of this problem that you encounter in a room full of Bluetooth. If you're not careful, one device may talk to another without you intending it---or even thinking about it. Sometimes this produces results that are difficult to manage. It directly suggests that our signal space is filling up with both signals we can hear and signals that our devices hear and process.

For example, I made the mistake of buying a Bluetooth phone unit for my land line. After I had screwed things up while getting it working the first time, I decided that it would be best to simply reset the thing to factory conditions and start over. When I tried, the handset recognized my computer---which has a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse---and wouldn't find the land line base unit. And the base unit needed a handset already talking to it so that it could be reset. I had to call the manufacturer in desperation, and he basically told me to shut down all my computer gear so that the only signal in play was the base unit. I asked (jokingly) if that meant I had to shut down my computer every time my phone rang. The tech I was talking to was not amused. Perhaps he had heard the question before. Several times. Fortunately, once the handset had been linked to the base I was able to restart the computers without any particular difficulty.

But imagine a normal person in this situation. In order to connect a new phone---a task which used to only involve plugging an RJ-11 cable into the wall---one first has to coordinate and make peace with all of my Bluetooth devices present in the environment. Bad enough if there is one such device. If there are two, or more, the task can quickly become so complex that the best thing to do seems to be to return the phone and get one that just plugs in to a regular jack.

So I need to limit my bells and to simplify my world. It's fine if my phone has a different ring for each function and for each person, but it's only fine if I live alone and have only one cel line. Multiple cel lines and multiple people produce a bewildering audible environment. Things are tough, even when they work. And if something goes wrong, and no longer works, forget it. You might as well start over.

Remember the days that the most complicated diagnostic gear that we needed was a battery tester? No longer. What I want for Christmas now is a "beep translator and finder" along with some rather complicated signal tracking and logging devices. I don't think anyone makes these yet, but when they do I'll sure be a customer if the prices are reasonable.

Hear me Santa?

Posted by david.ness
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November 30, 2004

Flat Screen Prices Get Flattened

Electronics | Nov 30, 04

In a time of ballooning deficits it may seem no one in Washington believes in basic economics lately, but when it comes to buying a flat screen television, it might be wise to take a page from Adam Smith. Competition produces lower prices, and there are few more competitive markets than the one for LCD, plasma and rear projection televisions. These technologies, and the firms that manufacture them, are the forces behind the flat screen revolution, and they've been pounding each other into offering consumers ever lower prices.

Consider, for example, two popular 42 inch models: the Sony-KDL-42XBR950, an LCD set that has fallen 30% it was released back in February, or the Panasonic TH-42PD25U/P, a plasma off more than 33% since the middle of June. If you've waited to buy, you're already a winner in the pre-holiday price drop derby.

LCDs may come under greater price pressure yet. Screen manufacturers in Asia – Samsung, LG, and others – have been under-cutting each other in a vicious cycle, but firms that integrate the panels into television sets, such as Panasonic, Zenith and Sony, have been loathe to cut prices quickly. The same goes for retailers. However, this strategy of keeping prices artificially high to preserve profits has the effect of preventing the LCD from becoming a true mass-market technology, especially in the face of declining plasma and rear projection prices (and some feel these later screens have significant advantages over LCDs, including lack of so-called ghost images, availability of sizes greater than 40 inches, etc.). When there's an unfilled potential demand at the mass-market level, and price competition from other technologies as well, sooner or later someone cuts prices to stay competitive, meet that demand and make up the smaller profits per unit by selling greater volume. So as much as LCD prices have dropped already, the fall is not over. Look for more declines as we move into 2005, and for flat screens of all three technological stripes to make more headway against traditional CRT televisions.

Posted by jeffrey.trester
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