Nokia puts pressure on the competition by cutting prices
With a sizable piece of the cell phone pie, Nokia is poised to go for seconds (how’s that for a metaphor…) Nokia recently cut prices on their handsets (generally those geared towards portable media) by as much as 10% in a bid that is intended to put heavy pressure on their competitors. Either way, the savings are being passed on to you, the consumer, or ‘pawn’, if you will, in this game of corporate chess.
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No New Consoles until 2012 at the earliest
The average life-cycle of a console these days, based on the previous generation, is about 4-5 years. Xbox to Xbox 360: 4years, Nintendo GameCube to Wii: 5 years, and PlayStation 2 to PlayStation 3: 6 years. If you’ve been keeping track that would mean Microsoft would be on par for a close release next year! Well, analysts and common sense align here to say that simply isn’t going to happen.
THQ CEO Brian Farrell recently had a talk with Forbes magazine and put the next next-gen launch date a little further down the road: “Those engines have a lot of steam left in them. We think it could be seven or eight years before new machines start to roll out.” Mike Capp, president of Epic Games, thinks that the next console cycle will launch at the earliest 2012 and as late as 2018. Outstanding revenues (especially considering the state of the economy), record breaking game sales, and the overall investment into the consoles themselves (think PS3’s home, and Xbox’s substation Fall update) suggest that this cycle is likely to last a while yet.
Rogers and the iPhone: A match made in hell
Okay, okay; old hat right? We already know about their terrible rates, their record setting contracts, their criminal data rates, but what about how Rogers treatment of their own customers? Well, pretty appalling. According to an article over at the Torontoist, any Rogers contract customers that have upgraded their handsets in the past year are virtually prohibited from purchasing an iPhone.
How would one go about such a process? Well, first off, pay the early cancellation fee ($20 for every month left of the contract) and handset subsidy, then pen a new contract with a $35 activation fee. And on top of all that, existing Rogers customers who cancel a contract and sign a new one cannot retain their phone number. So, get an iPhone after being a loyal Rogers customer and you’ll pay through the nose and lose your number.
At least they’re consistent.
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