Microsoft keeps customers in the dark over Windows 8 prices
With just two months to go before the retail launch of Windows 8, Microsoft has yet to price the new OS.
Analysts today blamed Microsoft's attempt to accommodate both desktops and tablets with Windows 8 for the lack of information.
"The delay in releasing pricing is all about uncertainty around the PC market and competition from Apple," argued Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. "Microsoft needs to price Windows in a way that looks smart versus Apple's OS X, doesn't leave money on the table with commercial PC customers, and enables OEMs to compete better with the iPad."
The delay in pricing Windows 8 is real: During the Windows Vista and Windows 7 cycles, Microsoft unveiled retail prices weeks before each OS made the RTM, or "release to manufacturing," milestone, and four or more months before retail sales started. Read more...
Windows 8 and OS X Mountain Lion by the numbers
Like 2009, this year is one of dueling operating system upgrades, when the two biggest OS rivals face off with new editions.
We've covered both the Windows 8 and OS X Mountain Lion upgrades, and spelled out what's known so far about their prices, release dates, delivery methods, upgrade paths and more.
Now it's the turn of the numbers to tell their story.
0 -- The price of an upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion for buyers of new Macs who purchased their Lion-powered systems starting June 11. The program, called "Up-To-Date" by Apple, continues as long as either Apple or its authorized resellers sell Lion-equipped Macs. The free upgrade will be available from the Mac App Store after buyers fill out a form to be posted on this page of the Apple website. Read more...
Sony apologizes for Whitney Houston album price hike
After negative backlash from fans outraged about Sony Music raising prices on Whitney Houston's digital albums within hours of her death Saturday, the music label has now apologized for what it says was a "mistake" on its part.
The New York Times reported on a statement issued by the label admitting to its error and by Sunday night, Sony had changed the prices back:
“[The] Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mis-priced on the U.K. iTunes store on Sunday. When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologize for any offense caused.”
It appears the alleged mistake was made by a Sony employee in Britain "and that the company gave no orders for prices to be raised on Ms. Houston’s music." Read more...
New iPad Rental Service Targets Travelers
The Internet makes it easy to rent books, movies, high fashion, kid stuff and pretty much anything. But most iPad rental services don't rent to individuals. Unless you own a business, it's still easier to rent a speedboat than an iPad.
Flying Connected, an electronics rental site that launched in New York City last month, aims to make it easy for individuals to rent electronic companions for their trips.
Rental prices on the site vary depending on the renters' choice of insurance package, accessories and pre-loaded media. The company's most popular item, the iPad 2, can be rented for $18 to $28 per day. For a small fee, it will deliver a device to an airport or hotel in New York City. Read more...
Is Office 2010 in for a significant price decline?
Stock market prognosticating company Trefis specializes in predicting stock prices by analyzing a company's major components and calculating how much of the company's stock price is attributable to each piece. Their recent take on Microsoft Office -- the tail that waves the Microsoft stock price dog -- has caught the attention of Forbes Magazine, among others.
The Trefis analysis of Microsoft attributes 28.6 percent of Microsoft stock price to Office, 25.1 percent to Windows, 13.5 percent to Server, 7.9 percent to Xbox, 4.3 percent to Bing, 1.6 percent to Skype, and 19 percent to cash. Read more...
Aberration: iPhone 5 wide pricing scheme, iPhone 4 axing change course
Apple’s position in the smartphone market at the top of the iPhone 5 era is an aberration. Despite nearly owning the MP3 player, tablet, and music download markets, Apple finds itself opening the iPhone 5 era with a minority marketshare in the smartphone arena thanks to a mistake it made with the original iPhone before it was even unveiled. While tablets based on the competing Android platform have barely made a dent against the iPad’s marketshare dominance, phones based on Android are fractionally outselling the iPhone thanks to the fact that Apple tied the iPhone to a single carrier per nation for the first several years of its existence. And while the iPhone 4 was originally freed from AT&T’s clutches earlier this year, Read more...
Higher Prices for Phone 7 Apps Will Be Encouraged
Even with hundreds of new features built into an upcoming update of Windows Phone 7 and new device partners, Microsoft seems to understand that it's all about the apps. After the software giant showed off its Mango update this week, an executive said the company will encourage more developers to create applications for the Windows Phone Marketplace by allowing higher prices.
"I'd rather developers sell fewer than a million downloads and get to a million dollars," Brandon Watson, director of an apps developer program for Microsoft, told Bloomberg News during an interview in Helsinki. "If we can support a higher price point, that's good for developers." Read more...
Too-high Android tablet prices spook developers
While developer interest in Apple's mobile devices remains solid, interest in Android has stalled among programmers disappointed with tablet prices and pressed by Android fragmentation, a survey published today showed.
"Interest in Android on tablets has stalled, or plateaued, however you want to put it," said Scott Schwartzhoff, vice president of marketing at Mountain View, Calif.-based Appcelerator.
The poll, conducted two weeks ago by Appcelerator and research firm IDC, polled more than 2,700 developers who use Appcelerator's Titanium cross-platform compiler to produce mobile applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
The numbers reflect a growing frustration that Android tablets don't stack up against Apple's iPad, and that their biggest weapon -- lower prices -- has not been used. Read more...
Only a carrier could trumpet $500 per gigabyte as a price cut
AT&T announced today that it was cutting the price of data access for prepaid customers -- those who don't sign contracts but instead pay as they go -- to $5 for 10MB of data access on select smartphones, a major cut from the previous $5 for 1MB. But press reports haven't done their math: The costs are 50 times what so-called postpaid customers -- those who sign a contract and get a bill each month -- are charged. An AT&T GoPhone customer pays $500 per gigabyte of data usage, whereas a postpaid Android or iPhone user pays $10 per gigabyte.
Of course, there are other plans: One costs $150 per gigabyte if you buy 100MB increments (15 times what regular customers pay), and the other costs "only" $50 per gigabyte if you buy 500MB increments (5 times over the regular customer cost). Such a deal! Read more...