Jon Peddie News

Saturday, December 01, 2007

iPhone owner sues Apple for $1 million

SAN JOSE, California (AP)—A New York woman is so angry at Apple Inc. for lopping $200 off the price of the iPhone that she’s filed a lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages.

Speaking of affordable prices. Apple has found itself on the wrong end of a lawsuit after a woman in New York didn’t take to kindly to Apple slashing the iPhone from $599 to $399 after only being available for two months. I guess you please everyone all the time, even if you are Apple.—CRD

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Microsoft has new Zune music players to take on iPods

Microsoft Corp. is introducing a series of Zune digital media players that for the first time will compete with the most popular iPod, the Nano.
Microsoft, which rolled out its first portable player, the 30-GB Zune, last year, is extending the line with an 80-GB Zune. In the latest stab at Apple’s lead in the market, it also is unveiling a smaller, cheaper 4-GB and 8-GB Zune, directly rivaling Apple Inc.’s iPod Nano, which also comes with 4-GB and 8-GB storage capacities. Available next month, the new Zunes will cost $149.99 to $249.99.

I always like to see the heavyweights step into the ring with each other. But this tilt seems more like a Tyson vs. Spinks match-up rather than a classic Ali Vs. Frazier. To cut into Apple’s 70% market share one would think Microsoft would have to either come up with a product so innovative that it becomes a “have-to-have” item or hit a price point that Apple can’t reach or give away about a million free songs. None of which the Zune is offering. At $149.99 and $249.99 The new Zune is even more expensive than the iPod Nanos of the same storage capacity.  Maybe Microsoft is counting on a self-inflicted Vista-esqu implosion from our friends in Cupertino. Speaking of which ...—CRD

Monday, November 05, 2007

iPhone to launch outside U.S.

LONDON, England (AP)—Apple Inc.’s iPhone will go on sale in Britain on November 9 exclusively through mobile operator O2, marking the first time the combination cell phone-iPod media player will be available outside the United States.

The 8-gigabyte model will be offered for £269, or $536—or $139 more expensive than what Apple now charges in the U.S. The British iPhone has the same technical specifications as the U.S. model, but the price includes the U.K.’s value-added tax.
This is of course the “official” launch of the iPhone in Europe, others who just couldn’t wait until now have gotten their hands on an unlocked duty-free version of the iPhone. Apparently, Apple has seen these unlocked jewels as such a threat that the latest software upgrade disables unauthorized versions. One wonders, is this the end of the Apple’s Teflon era? There are a lot outraged free spirits out there as a result of Apple’s action. On the other hand Apple has skated past much worse.

I for one, am glad to see the iPhone in Europe, its nice to know The Brits import something from us besides 50 Cent and Kayne West singles both of which are topping the charts on BBC Radio 1 this week. Aaaayoohh!!!—CRD

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Windows XP won’t bow out so soon

Bowing to pressure from customers and computer makers, Microsoft plans to keep Windows XP around a little longer.

Large PC manufacturers were slated to have to stop selling XP after January 31. However, vendors have successfully lobbied Microsoft to allow them to continue selling PCs with all flavors of Windows XP preloaded until June 30, a further five months. Microsoft also plans to keep XP on retail shelves longer and will allow computer makers in emerging markets to build machines with Windows XP Starter Edition until June 2010.

This is good news to anyone who has had the pleasure of working with Vista and all its amazing security issues. I am usually not one to pile on, in fact I’ve even been known to defend MS and even GW (what can I say, Herny Fonda in 12 angry men left major impression) but when it comes to Vista I can’t help myself. Granted XP has security issues, but at least you could update a graphics card without spending an hour and 20 minutes on the phone with tech support trying to re-register the OS. Those kinds of problems need to be fixed.

Monday, October 01, 2007

China’s engineers are more likely to join a start-up than Americans

Chinese engineers are younger, less-educated, unhappier in their current jobs and more likely to join a startup than their American counterparts according to survey released today comparing the hopes and dreams of engineers on either side of the Pacific.

Chinese engineers also reported lower levels of education. A bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering was the predominant job ticket in both countries,
and 37 percent of the Chinese had that credential compared with 45 percent of U.S. respondents. Among Chinese engineers, 13 percent reported having master’s degrees in electrical engineering,compared with 25 percent of their counterparts in the United States.

When it comes to engineers, the people designing bridges, buildings, and semiconductors, I’m a big believer in quality over quantity. The article probably goes a long way to ease the fears of westerners scared to death of Chinese engineering talent but considering that China is producing close to 600,000 a year compared to the US’s 70,000, it looks like China has got the power of numbers on its side too. At least they’re unhappy, right?—CRD

Monday, September 10, 2007

HP’s Image is Changing

Being cool and hip in the computer industry is tough. Each company has their own following who, in turn consider their own brand to have these qualities. However, appealing to the high margin “influencers” is a different story.Despite their best efforts, Hewlett-Packard has not really been hip and cool to a key segment of this “influencer” group, nor has Acer/Gateway, or IBM/Lenovo. This is due to a combination of product design and brand image.

HPs first attempt to appeal to the industry influencers is the Blackbird 002 and it is a good note to start on. It is quite possibly
the most well-thought-out case design (Figure 1: The HP Blackbird 002) in computer history and gamers will respectit for this. Of course, the customization is important; as well as the hardcore operations like liquid cooling for all processors. It all comes back to the case itself which defines the product. The Blackbird’s
case looks like a heat sink and is made from a solid piece of forged aluminum manufactured by an automobile company. The internal areas have bulkheads to compartmentalize heat and allow it to be managed methodically (versus unmanageable swirling vortexes and hotspots found in most cases).

Ted Pollock - JPR Senior Game Analyst (Volume 7, Number 18, Jon Peddie’s TechWatch, September 10, 2007)

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Microsoft looks to “Halo 3” to hold Xbox console lead

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg)—Microsoft Corp. took the lead in video-game players after it introduced the Xbox 360 in November 2005, five years after entering the business. Now the world’s largest software maker is banking on another new product to stay No. 1 ...
Estimates of the first day sales of Halo3 range from $180 to $200 million — not bad considering the game doesn’t knock your socks off visually. It suggests that Master Chief fans might actually consider the story to be as important as the visual experience.

It will be interesting to see over the upcoming weeks and holiday season not only how many Halo3 units sell but how sales of the 360 console itself are affected. The Wii was primed to overtake the top spot by years’ end but Halo3 could reverse that trend. What about the PS3, you say? It’s bordering on irrelevent from the point of view of this reporter.—CRD

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Nvidia delivers first modern motherboard GPU to Intel-based desktops

SANTA CLARA, CA--SEPTEMBER 25, 2007--The recent introduction of Microsoft Vista and a slew of other 3D-optimized applications,
including Google Maps and Microsoft Office 2007, have redefined customers’ expectations for experiencing visually-rich mainstream applications on their home and business PCs.

As a result, consumers have now made the GPU a primary requirement in their PC purchasing decisions. ...

Nvidia is typically gung-ho in this press release but as Jon points out in it, more and more applications need the power provided by a dedicated GPU. Novice users are starting to understand that the apps they need to run to zoom around the virtual Earth or have pina coladas on an imaginary beach are powered by the GPU and not CPU. This is nothing but good news for Nvidia.—CRD

Friday, June 01, 2007

Update: AMD announces ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro

Today AMD announced the introduction of the latest card to join the Radeon HD 2000 series, the Radeon HD 2900 Pro. As its name suggests, the Radeon HD 2900 Pro is based on the same R600 GPU powering the high-end Radeon HD 2900 XT.

The new AMD AIB will be offred in a 512 MB and 1 GB of on-board memory with running GDDR3 and GDDR4 memory respectively. Prices range from $249 to $299 placing the boards in the Performance segment.