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Don't Expect E-Readers to Breach $100 Price Point in 2010

Pulkit Chandna — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:58:35 -0600

Many tech analysts feel e-book readers will have to breach the $100 price point if they are to go beyond their niche audience. With the number of companies lining up to try their luck in the nascent e-book reader market increasing rapidly, the contenders will soon realize that e-readers will need a wider audience for even a few of them to stay in the hunt.

According to Scott Liu, chairman of electrophoretic display (e-paper) maker Prime View International (PVI), e-readers will not be breaching the $100 price point in 2010 as the demand will stay strong. He told Digitimes that electrophoretic displays are becoming affordable but his company is still not offering them to clients at reduced prices.

Google Slashes Prices on Cloud Storage for Photos

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:32:21 -0600

Purchasing storage space in addition to the 1GB free space included with every Picasa Web Albums account just got cheaper, and dramatically at that. Google has slashed the price of additional storage space by eight times: “twice as much storage for a quarter of the old price.” Paid storage plans now start at $5 a year for 20GB and go all the way up to $4,096 per year for 16TB space, which is enough to store 8 million full resolution photos.

With that much storage on offer, it just sounds like the cloud storage solution that NASA has been waiting for to store its satellite imagery. “While the cost of hard drive storage has continued to drop in these two years, we've also been working hard to improve our infrastructure to reduce your costs even further. Today we're dramatically lowering our prices to make extra storage even more affordable,” Google engineer Elvin Lee wrote in a post on the official Google Photos Blog.

Netflix Awards $1 Million Programming Prize, Announces New Contest

Paul Lilly — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:10:17 -0500

In what turned out to be a heated code-battle right up until the end, Netflix on Monday awarded a seven-person team of statisticians, machine-learning experts, and computer engineers from the U.S., Austria, Canada, and Israel its $1 million prize. All the multinational team -- called BelKor Pragmatic Chaos -- had to do was put their programming mettle to the test and improve the online movie rental service's movie recommendation algorithm by 10 percent, then fend off the competition for 30 days during which time a last call was issued for other teams to submit their work.

Sounds like an easy way to earn a million smackers, right? Mabye not, but if you think you have what it takes to out-program number crunchers from all around the world, only you missed out the first time around, Netflix is again giving out some serious cash in a follow-up contest.

This time around, the award is cut in half from $1 million to $500,000, but there will be no specific accuracy target as there was before. Instead, contestants will be presented with demographic and behavioral data, and then expected to model indviduals' "taste profiles," Netflix said. The data set of more than 100 million entries will provide the renters' age, gender, ZIP codes, genre ratings, and previously chosen movies.

Image Credit: edjephotos.com

Ultra-thin Notebooks to Account for Only 4% of Worldwide Notebook Shipments

Pulkit Chandna — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:09:37 -0500

Although HP and Dell are planning to introduce new ultra-thin notebook models, based on Intel’s Consumer Ultra Low-Voltage (CULV) platform, in the fourth quarter, Digitimes Research has forecast a rough road ahead for the segment. According to Digitimes’ research wing, global ultra-thin notebook shipments are expected to account for 4% of all notebook shipments in 2009. It anticipates that 6 million ultra-thin notebooks will be shipped this year. It blamed their high prices for their low desirability with respect to netbooks. “In terms of the price/performance ratio, the ultra-thin notebooks' components carry higher prices than most of the standard parts, but their working performance is only slightly better than netbooks,” said Joanne Chien, senior analyst at Digitimes.

Microsoft Advises Developers to Price their Mobile Apps High

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:06:56 -0500

Apart from the eight uncanny people who bought the $999.99 “I Am Rich” app – an underwhelming screensaver - from the iTunes App Store last year, a vast majority happily devours the free and 99-cent apps. But the preponderance of 99-cent apps has made the App Store a cluttered warehouse, banished many quality apps to oblivion, and increased redundancy. Furthermore, many top-notch developers are finding it difficult to set an honest price on premium apps, for they fear their honesty might render these apps unattractive.

Microsoft plans to roll out Windows Marketplace for Mobile in October, 2009. The Redmond-based giant doesn’t want developers to lose out on revenue in a bid to maximize application downloads. According to a Tech Flash report, Loke Uei of Microsoft's mobile developer team feels the popularity of 99-cent apps doesn’t imply that 99 cents is a fair price. "I know, 99 cents is interesting -- yes, consumers like to pay 99 cents for applications. But 99 cents, come on, I think your app is worth more than that," Uei told developers at the inaugural WinMoDevCamp in Redmond.

Image Credit: Cio

Windows 7 to Cost Just Half the US Price in the UK

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:14:12 -0500

Microsoft has turned British passports into Windows 7 discount coupons. According to the British arm of tech website Cnet, the full version of Windows 7 Home Premium will be selling for about $105 (£65) in the UK, at almost half its US price, which is $200 (£122). The full version in the UK is even cheaper than the upgrade version on the other side of the Atlantic. The upgrade version costs $120 (£72) in the US.

An Amazon.co.uk spokesperson told Cnet that this unbelievable price is to stay indefinitely. However, Microsoft is still to return the website’s call for comment on the issue. Ask your British cousins to carry some spare Windows 7 Home Premium copies in their baggage the next time they sail across.

Image Credit: Amazon

Microsoft Edits Laptop Hunter Ad over Apple Complaint

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:56:12 -0500

Microsoft was forced to edit one of its Laptop Hunter ads after Apple’s legal team highlighted the presence of an erroneous reference to the MacBook’s price in it. In the original ad, the protagonist, Lauren, who was shown scouring for a notebook under $1700 with her mother, disdainfully rejected a MacBook Pro due to its $2000 price tag. Even her mother backed her decision to reject the MacBook.

Apple drew Microsoft’s attention to the recent drop in MacBook prices, which rendered the reference to its starting price inaccurate. Microsoft has not only made the necessary edits but also pulled down the original version from video sharing websites like Youtube after receiving a phone call from Apple. The new ad features no direct reference to MacBook’s price, though the protagonist still fails to justify its price.

“We slightly adjusted the ads to reflect the updated pricing of the Mac laptop shown in the TV advertisement,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said in a statement. She further added that the focus of the campaign has remained intact.

Image Credit: Technabob

Dell Apologizes for Online Pricing Mix Up

Paul Lilly — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:55:38 -0500

An online pricing mix up in Taiwan last week had Dell selling selling 19-inch LCD monitors for as little as $15, as well as the company's Latitude E4300 laptops for roughly $560, more than a grand below what they normally sell for. But rather than cash in on some smoking deals, Taiwan shoppers instead get an apology, refund, and a coupon for their trouble.

"It is Dell's hope that the courtesy coupons demonstrate Dell's respect for its customers and to apologize for any inconvenience caused," the company said in a statement.

Those who tried to purchase a laptop will receive a coupon worth NT$20,000, or about $600 USD, while those who placed orders for the mispriced LCDs will get a $NT1,000 coupon worth about $30 USD.

While the coupons and an apology may be enough to placate affected customers, there's still the issue of whether or not Dell was in violation of fair trade laws in Taiwan.

"To avoid any further confusion to our customers and to facilitate further investigation Dell has made the difficult decision to close our Taiwan online store," Dell said in a statement.

Do'h!

Image Credit: bloggingbuyouts.com