Browse by Tags
-
Posted
Jan 17 2008, 12:32 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Talk about bad timing. Apple just announced it will offer downloaded movie rentals (including high-def) over the Internet. Netflix is working on a set-top box to do the same thing, and Microsoft has been ramping up its downloadable movie offerings over Xbox Live.
Now, one cable company is starting to push back at excessive bandwidth usage caused mainly by video downloading. After an internal memo was leaked, Time Warner Cable confirmed it's planning a trial in Beaumont, Tex., in which it will charge Internet subscribers based on usage. (Time Warner's shares closed down 22 cents to $22.35 Friday.)
It's a tricky situation for Time Warner and other cable companies. Customers generally pay a flat rate for Internet (about $50 a month in my case), but a small minority are basically torrenting HD movies like crazy and sucking up a bunch of bandwidth. According to the leaked memo, 5% of subscribers were using up half of the total bandwidth.
Read More...
-
Posted
Dec 14 2007, 11:01 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Give Nintendo credit for at least trying to address the Wii shortage frustrating many parents this month. The company said today that you'll be able to buy a raincheck that will guarantee a Wii gets into your hands....by the end of January.
Here are the rules: You can only buy the raincheck at a GameStop store on Dec. 20 or 21. And you have to pay full-price ($250) for the system at the time you buy the raincheck. Here's the funny thing: Nintendo is guaranteeing the Wiis but then saying the rainchecks are only available as supplies last. And we've seen how long anything related to the Wii lasts in stores.
Read More...
-
Posted
Feb 19 2008, 12:21 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The battle to become the high-definition replacement for the DVD is over today, with Toshiba's decision to pull out of the HD-DVD business. Toshiba will stop making HD-DVD players and aims to stop shipping them to retailers by the end of next month. No one else makes standalone HD-DVD players. Expect to see huge sales on HD-DVD players and movies over the next two months, but don't let anyone you know take the bait: this format is dead, dead, dead. Still, Sony's Blu-ray camp shouldn't be celebrating just yet. Sure, Blu-ray won this battle for high-definition video, but it faces
much bigger challenges in the race for consumer adoption. Its biggest competitor is and has always been the plain old DVD.
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 12 2009, 11:08 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 No, you don't have to get your eyes checked. You read the headline correctly: A Texas judge has banned Microsoft from selling Word in the United States.
And now, in the worst-case scenario, Microsoft (MSFT) may have to pull Word off the shelves by October. The chances of that actually happening are very small. Still, this makes for some interesting drama. That anything this exciting has come out of a patent-infringement case is a shocker. These cases are snoozers, and this particular one involves the dreadfully dull subject of XML, a programming language (I'm told the better description here is "markup" language).
But the decision to place the lawsuit in Tyler, Tex., is leading some to suggest that Microsoft may be a victim here. Tyler is the reputed "patent troll" capital of North America, writes former Jupiter analyst Joe Wilcox. Big patent victories against companies there are fairly common.
Read More...
-
Posted
Nov 26 2007, 10:32 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The Wall Street Journal has an excellent article about Nicholas Negroponte, an MIT professor who is pioneering an ambitious project to produce a $100 laptop that poor countries can buy for their children. It's a noble effort that would educate children and families as well as connect them to the Internet.
The article details the many challenges Negroponte is facing in his goal to get the laptop to 150 million children. So far, only about 2,000 children have received the computers. Why? Tech giants are worried the laptop will cut into future business opportunities in the developing world, so they're coming up with competing machines.
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 18 2007, 10:31 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Sony makes some historic blunders. One of the biggest was making digital music players that wouldn't play MP3s, the most popular digital music format. Those devices played Sony's own ATRAC format, which the company killed a few months ago.
Sony hasn't learned from its mistakes. Consider the PlayStation 3, the too-expensive game console that hasn't become the hit the company wanted. Sony's finally selling a cheaper PS3 in the U.S., just in time for the holidays. It'll cost $400, but will have only 40 gigabytes of storage -- half that of the standard version, which is getting a price cut to $500 from $600.
That's fine. Some people don't need more than 40 gigs anyway in a video game system. But get this: the cheap PS3 won't play games made for the PlayStation 2. That feature is called backward compatibility, and it's a dealbreaker. A typical PlayStation 2 owner probably has a nice library of video games. The new PS3 won't play any of them.
Read More...
-
Posted
Sep 04 2008, 04:36 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Microsoft has decided that it would rather be the video game market share leader than make a buck at the business. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)
Redmond cut the price of its Xbox 360 to $199. That drops it from its previous sticker of $279. The action may take some business away from the Sony PS3, but it is more clearly aimed at market leader Nintendo which has remained in the front spot for months with its $250 Wii.
Read More...
-
Posted
Dec 03 2007, 05:13 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
I was shopping at a Best Buy in San Jose yesterday and here's what I found: 
Stacks of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. When I asked where the Wiis were, a saleswoman gave a small snort and shook her head. The store was out.
It's a common scenario across the country, and in other parts of the world. A year after its release, the console that many expected would be in third place has become a hit of such proportions that people still line up overnight to buy one. I've had a Wii since its launch, and spent a good chunk of the weekend playing "Super Mario Galaxy." This console definitely holds up over time.
Read More...
-
Posted
Feb 13 2008, 05:04 PM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
In the wake of Yahoo's rejection of Microsoft's $31-a-share, or $44.6 billion, takeover offer, there's been much speculation about what price Yahoo might accept from Microsoft. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)
The figure of $40 a share was mentioned in several news reports last weekend. An Associated Press report cited a source close to Yahoo who said that Microsoft had offered $40 in February 2007.
Bill Miller, the manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust mutual fund, mentioned it in his quarterly letter to the fund's shareholders, released on Tuesday: "It has been reported that MSFT has been discussing a combination with YHOO for well over a year, and that it had been prepared to pay over $40 per share previously."
Legg Mason is Yahoo's second-largest shareholder, and Miller believes Microsoft should boost its bid.
So, at what point does a company have an obligation to report an offer and a dollar figure to its shareholders? And, more important, were Yahoo's shareholders poorly served by the decision not to disclose Microsoft's offer?
Read More...
-
Posted
Jul 29 2009, 07:58 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Minyanville presents 10 promotional stunts that horribly backfired.
What can a corporation do to generate some increased revenue and public awareness? While buckling down and delivering a sensational product is one tried-and-true method, the far quicker and easier route is a promotional stunt.
A straight-forward ad inside People Magazine or a witty banner on the side of a city bus doesn't seem to cut it any longer. What really generates word of mouth is a flashy and often explosive spectacle.
Take, for example, some of the most successful publicity stunts of all time.
Would Artisan Entertainment's (LGF) "Blair Witch Project" have generated all that buzz if it wasn't billed as a tragic, true-life documentary? A Web site featuring photos of the "missing" actors was set up as a makeshift memorial to the three young students. Missing-person fliers were distributed and fake local news reports were produced to amplify the ruse. Once IMDb.com listed the actors as "deceased," the movie had reached a level of epic publicity and led to a highly lucrative box office -- all thanks to a creative marketing team.
Read More...
More Posts Next page »
|
