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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Posted
Jul 31 2009, 12:36 PM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 This article was written by Minyanville's Scott Reeves
A Michigan teen has a novel excuse for not getting his homework in on time: Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle ate his book report. Justin Gawronski, 17, is a contemporary kid, so he got an attorney to press his claim against Amazon in federal court. Mixing high-tech and lawyers suggests the old ways are best: Pen, paper, and the family dog have served generations of slackers admirably. Gawronski, an advanced-placement student, said his notes lost all relevance when Amazon deleted electronic copies of George Orwell’s "Nineteen Eighty-Four" from his Kindle during a copyright dispute. Gawronski says he used the electronic book reader’s note function to make comments and annotations as he read the book, when -- zap! -- the text of the novel disappeared, thanks to the Thought Police at Amazon. This left him with comments referring only to empty disc space.
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Posted
Nov 27 2007, 02:49 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Steve Jobs has come up with an invisible vacuum that sucks people into Apple stores. That's what it sounds like from reading research done by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
Munster's team spent six hours staring at people outside of mall-based Apple stores last weekend and found that 27% of people walking within 25 feet of an entrance went inside.
And here's a stat that could make retailers drool: An average of 462 people entered an Apple store each hour last Friday during the company's Black Friday sale. I've seen quite a few Apple stores and can't imagine that many people crammed in. Apple has created more space this year by removing the cash registers and giving employees handheld scanners.
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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.
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Posted
Nov 09 2007, 06:58 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Sony head Howard Stringer talked Blu-Ray this week during a visit to Manhattan, saying his format is in a "stalemate" with HD-DVD. He played down the battle as no biggie.
"It doesn't mean as much as all that," he said. He added that the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD teams once talked about uniting under one format, but that didn't happen.
I think Sony just blinked. Stringer drops bombs like these just as we're heading into the holiday shopping season? Shoppers are going to be picking a side in the great Blu-Ray/HD-DVD fight, but does Sony even care?
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Posted
Sep 02 2009, 11:46 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This article is written by Minyanville's Mike Schuster
In a move so ominous it should have been preceded by a visit from the Silver Surfer, Disney (DIS) has agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment (MVL) for a cool $4 billion. As part of the deal, Marvel's massive 5,000-character menagerie will be under Disney control. While Marvel's film licensing deals with Fox (NWS) and Sony (SNE) will remain for now, the future may not be so bright. Disney Chief Robert Iger assured fans that it acquired Marvel simply to bring their creative force on board and not to revamp its library. However, the company's press release -- as well as Disney's history with its partners -- tell a different story. Bing: Robert Iger
In the statement, Iger stated, "This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories."
In other words, tighter management is likely to come into play.
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Posted
Sep 29 2009, 03:33 PM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This article is written by Minyanville's Mike Schuster
Tsk tsk, volume abusers. In between tucking in your shirt and wiping the dirt from your face with a saliva-soaked thumb, the European Union has noticed that you might be setting your MP3 player just a tad too loud. So they're gonna go ahead and limit that for ya.
In strict accordance with the "If it's too loud, you're too old" mantra, 52-year-old Meglena Kuneva -- the EU's Consumer Affairs Commissioner -- said that the division will be drafting an industry-wide ordinance to limit the default volume on digital music devices sold in Europe. And since the standards will apply to all players, companies like Sony (S), Panasonic (PC), and of course Apple (AAPL) will have to readjust the settings on their popular MP3 devices.For more on Apple products, see Overhyped Products: Apple Newton. In addition to the default settings, a health warning will be displayed when the user chooses to override the default maximum volume settings -- a guilt trip worthy of a long-distance phone call from your mother reminding you to wear your jacket.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Kuneva said she hopes that this initiative will limit the cases of hearing loss with younger patients. "If you want to enjoy your favorite songs in 20 or 30 years time, turn the volume down," Kuneva said in defiance of personal responsibility.
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