Jon Peddie News

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Jon Peddie now has news feeds

Jon Peddie now has news feeds

Thursday, January 17, 2008

iPod Sets Man’s Pants On Fire

ATLANTA—The new iPod Nano is hot. But one Douglasville man said his old Nano got even hotter—hot enough to burst into flames. So I look down and I see flames coming up to my chest, said Danny Williams. Williams said the burn hole from the pocket of his pants marks the spot of his 15 seconds of flame. He said he had an iPod Nano and an glossy piece of paper in his pocket. He believes the paper shielded him from being burned.

I haven’t read too many stories on exploding iPods (as far as I know, Apple doesn’t employ Sony laptop batties in the Nano), but there are of course thousands upon thousands of disgruntled iPod users who run into problems with the LCD and battery issues. If the new iPods havent addressed those problems added to a what seems to be a heat issue maybe Microsoft will be able to make some hay.

The appearance of Apple’s long head start could well be less of a challenge as first seems obvious. As we like to say here at Jon Peddie Research, Microsoft functions like an army of ants. It takes its losses and it keeps coming. Witness the success of the Xbox. Witness the possible misteps Apple has made with the iPhone and in managing relationships with content providers. Yes, if Microsoft is going to win this one it’s going to be a long, brutal battle. That’s the only kind of fight Microsoft understands.—CRD

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Upcoming 8800GT sighted

Follow the link for a picture Tweaktown claims to be Nvidia’s next gen offering. Some are worried that given a
one slot cooling system the board will run too hot, but given the rumors of 3SLi a one slot design
is a pretty obvious requirement.—CRD

Nvidia Readies New “Ultimate” Technology for Gamers

Triple SLI – Nvidia’s Next-Generation Ultimate Gaming Platform

Nvidia Corp. not only plans to refresh its lineup of performance graphics accelerators this year,
but also intends to introduce its 3-way SLI multi-GPU technology aiming extreme performance enthusiasts. But will the new triple SLI technology truly become a high-performance solution, or will it share the destiny of Nvidia quad SLI?

According to a slide published by Expreview web-site, which is presumably from Nvidia Corp.’s roadmap, 3-way SLI is Nvidia’s new “ultimate gaming platform”, which will offer ultimate performance in three-dimensional games.

3-Way SLi, if this is true, (and so far Nvidia has yet to comment) The target market for such a platform would be minuscule at best and microscopic at worst. X8800 GTX cards are running between $525 to $600 a piece and a Motherboard that could support such a system will be $200. The upgrade in performance would have to be off the charts in order to justify such a cost, and given the meager 30% performance boost of the current SLi I am not sure it is realistic.—CRD

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Sony announces new, cheaper PlayStation 3 and cuts price on top-line model

NEW YORK—Sony Corp. today cut the price of its PlayStation 3 game console in the United States and announced an even cheaper model that will arrive before the holiday shopping season. The top-line PlayStation model, with an 80 gigabyte hard drive, now costs $499, down from $599. That effectively eliminates the lower-end model, which has a 60-gigabyte drive and has sold for $499.

A new low-end model with a 40-gigabyte drive will go on sale Nov. 2 for $399. Unlike the other PlayStation 3 models, the new one won’t be able to play games made for the PlayStation 2. In a statement, Sony said this was due to a more extensive lineup of games of the PlayStation 3.

This announcement in price reductions comes on the heels of a 20% reduction for the PS3 in Japan in September and an overall cut in prices in July. What has occurred in the console market these past 2 years is a minor miracle. Sony was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and now a few short months later it is a distant 3rd behind 2 machines with arguably inferior technology. The numbers don’t lie and in September not only did the PS3 trail the 360 in sales by over 400K consoles (thank you, Halo3), and the Wii by 380K units, but also trails the never-say-die PS2. This coupled with the 360’s 74% market share in software, the Wii’s 17%, and the PS3’s 9%, and Sony is in big trouble. In order to get the cost down, Sony removed the additional hardware that made the PS3 model will not be backward compatible for PS1 and PS2 games. It must have been a touch choice considering that the PS2 is still outselling the PS3 and Sony made so much hay over Microsoft’s decision to limit the ability of the XBox 360 to new games and a few select Xbox “classic” games. Sony needs a fix, it is in desperate need of a “must-have” title that can take advantage of the PS3s superior hardware and gives the console a chance to shine.

In a related story, Microsoft countered the price cut by Sony by offering a price reduction of their own. The 360 will be reduced to $304 (34,800 Yen) down from $348 (39,795 Yen) in Japan. The Wii is still the cheapest console on the home islands going for $219 (25,000 Yen).—CRD

AT&T, Napster To Unveil Direct Mobile Music Download
(from CNN Money)

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- AT&T Inc. (T) unveiled on Monday a service that allows its subscribers to download music from Napster Inc. (NAPS) directly to their cellphones, keeping pace with services already offered by rival wireless carriers. It represents a shift in AT&T’s stance on mobile music to an “over-the-air” download model versus “sideloading,” or transferring music from a computer to a phone through a physical connection.
...
The service, Napster Mobile, is an expansion of AT&T’s foray into music. In July, it began a download service called eMusic, which catered to the independent scene. [JPR Editor’s note: EMusic is an independent music site that specializes in music from independent artists. AT&T teamed with that company to create its eMusic offering.]
...
“The important thing you have to look at is it’s not a standalone offer,” said Roger Entner, head of the communications practice for IAG Research. “It’s another puzzle piece that hooks people into using their cell phone as a multimedia entertainment device.”
...
As price wars on unlimited minutes rage and revenue from talk time dries up, every major carrier is looking to offer more and more features: from games, ringbacks, TV, GPS to downloadable music. CTIA is in San Francisco this week, I’m excited to verify the rumors that some handsets are now capable of performing MRIs, if they are we won’t have mobile phones anymore but TriCorders.

AT&T is offering the Napster downloads for $1.99 which is $1 more than it costs to buy a song on Napster off the internet and $1 more than it cost to download an iTune song for your AT&T iPhone. Makes one wonder who exactly will be willing to pay the extra dollar.—CRD

Samsung Serenata Challenges iPhone

Move over, iPhone. There’s a new high-capacity media phone in town and it’s… downright ridiculous.
Samsung and Danish design firm Bang & Olufsen revealed their latest collaboration on Tuesday, the Serenata phone.

Featuring B&O’s trademark over-the-top design, 4GB of storage and a 2.26-inch LCD screen, the Sereneta might not quite be ready to oust Apple in the technical arena, but as a status symbol, it certainly stands a chance.

The Seranata is a sleek looking phone, with a distinctive flipped look about it. The control wheel and buttons are on top of the phone while the 2.26-LCD is on the bottom. The new Samsung will feature 4GB of storage which is 4 short of Apple’s iPhone. Hopefully, the lack in storage space will translate to more affordable price. The price has yet to be determined but the phone is set to launch at the end of October.—CRD