this is on Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 44th streets in New York City.
In thinking about retail ... this helps illustrate the tremendous challenges they face.
- online switching costs are pretty much zero -- just type another URL; these two stores are physically touching -- just walk next door
- they carry much of the same inventory from plasma TVs to computers to home stereo equipment to software, CDs, DVDs, etc.
- they both sell Apple iPods; consumers have already decided to buy an iPod for Christmas (for some reason), which store do they walk into? what differentiates the store with the blue awning from the one with silver letters? they both have "black friday" discounts but the price ended up to be about $1 from each other; both have geeks on staff, one called Geek Squad and the other Fire Dog
- and then there's Amazon.com which is tax free and offers free 2nd day shipping so you can shop from the comfort of home or in pajamas if you choose.
hmmm ... since I live on 38th and Fifth Ave and I can walk north to reach these stores, do I walk into the Circuit City because I reach it first and it's front door is about 100 steps closer than the Best Buy?
THIS is a challenging marketing problem for retailers such as the ones pictured!
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It looks like Intel's not done with its 45nm processors just yet, as Reg Hardware is now reporting that the company is set to release yet another model, dubbed "Diamondville", that is apparently intended specifically for low-cost desktop PCs. That processor will apparently be part of the so-called "Shelton" platofrm which, among other things, will be able to operate without a fan, meaning the systems based on it should definitely be on the small side. The folks at Reg Hardware go one step further than that, however, speculating that the Diamondville/Shelton combo could in fact be the basis for Asus' forthcoming desktop Eee PC -- a possibility given a bit more credence given that Shelton is designed to work with 2 to 4GB of flash storage. Either way, we should be hearing plenty more about it soon enough, as the platform is supposedly set for a 2008 release.
Today in the lunch line I was waiting for a custom tossed salad to be made for the person in front of me and I was surveying the sundry items available to add to my salad.
The SDK included an Android emulator. Here are some screenshots from the software gPhone.
•There's a browser (no flash, but still better than the shipping Windows Mobile browser), address book, maps.
•Missing are YouTube, Gmail and Calendar apps.
•There are demos for OpenGL/3D, autocomplete, scroll bars, alarms, and pop-up notices with images.
•You know you can download and run this yourself, right now, for free. Right? Go!
•There's also a coverflow and grid type view for photos.
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The folks over at the Blu-ray.com forums found a great Kmart coupon that gives you 20% off on any one item. Being Blu-ray fans, they naturally threw their cash at the PS3, which will be $319 after said 20% discount. Not interested in the PS3? You can print out the coupon and try your hand at the Xbox 360 Premium ($279) as well, or even stuff like HD DVD or Blu-ray standalone players! Coupon works in store only. [
According to an email shared by a source with our friends at the Consumerist, starting today T-Mobile will begin charging existing customers an $18 fee when they buy a new phone. Apparently the new fee will help underwrite the cost of selling subsidized phones to new customers. Now here's the confusing part — if an existing customer is upgrading their phone, but not extending their contract, the fee will not be assessed. Perhaps they feel that any potential anger resulting from this charge will subside after a fresh two year contract expires. Hopefully we will learn more when we receive some confirmation on this issue. [
An iPhone hacker, known as Core, has managed to finalize an AppleTalk Filing Protocol hack that enables full read/write access to either an iPhone, or iPod touch, via Finder. Unfortunately, the work has just been completed, and as yet, it is not available via Installer.app. If you fancy trying it manually, you can find the complete instructions after the jump, courtesy of the great guys at TUAW.
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