Console Wars - Who is really winning?

Some representatives of the big trio involved in the console war agree (partially) with NPD’s data, others disagree. Statistics don’t match. What to believe?

What is even more confusing is that when I contacted the ESA (Entertainment Software Association), the PR manager there, Mr. Jeff Woodbury, sent me a link to NPD Group, stating that “The ESA does not have the information you are requesting (which is odd, considering that among others the ESA organizes game shows like the defunct E3 and is the leading representative for the gaming industry), and that “[…]I do not think the complete data for 2006 will be released until next week”. Must I mention that the link to NPD group’s page contained information from the beginning of 2006?...

But then again, big news sites like USA Today or Mercury News and PC Pro are quoting NPD or even interviewing its employees, so I tend to give them the credit for the data presented on their sites.

According to those data, December 2006 was extremely profitable for all the gaming industry in the US, with sales reaching an impressive $3.7 billion, up 28 percent compared to the previous year. Overall sales rose 19 percent in 2006 to $12.5 billion, NPD reported.

The analysis made by NPD also indicates that the launch of Nintendo Wii is clearly one of the most successful gaming console launches in history. Wii managed to sell in December 2006 approximately 604,200 pieces, clearly surpassing Sony’s PS3, which only sold 490,700 units. For the same month, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the leader, with approximately 1.1 million units reaching their owners.

However, Nintendo spokeswoman Perrin Kaplan declared that “Our numbers in terms of what we have shipped is definitely well above that (NPD) number. What NPD does not account for is the product that is in transit.” She also added that the company had a “robust” year. Now, what are we supposed to believe?

Previously, Sony’s spokesman David Karraker announced that Sony had met its goal of 1 million PS3 consoles shipped in the US (not sold, although you'll see him later in the article saying something different). But there are a few reasons for which we should consider Sony’s declaration as incorrect: Sony sold 466,716 PlayStation 3 units in Japan from its Nov. 11 domestic launch date to the end of December, according to a market survey released Tuesday by Japanese computer game publisher Enterbrain Inc. The figures fall short of the 1 million consoles Sony predicted it would ship domestically by year's end. Thus, the combined U.S. and Japan PS3 sales puts the company well below its global shipping goal of 2 million (considering NPD’s data for US as accurate). Sony Computer Entertainment of America Senior VP of Marketing, Peter Dille refused to comment though on the numbers speculated for Japan:”it’s 1 million in North America. What we’re not talking about today is the Japanese numbers, but we will be announcing those soon in the Sony announcement that will come out of Japan.”

Moreover, as underlined before, shipping 1 million consoles doesn’t necessarily mean having 1 million PS3 owners. Peter Dille confirms without a doubt: “What the sell-in number refers to is that we’ve shipped it, we’ve sold it to retail, and the fact that we got to a million was possible because we were air shipping these products in.”(gameinformer.com)

David Karraker disagrees of course: "To Sony, shipped has always meant 'sold and shipped to retailers,' " Karakker notes. "Microsoft views 'sold' as what has been sold to retailers but could be sitting on pallets in warehouses or stacked on store shelves. <> to Sony has always meant what the consumer has actually purchased.”

"I think many people have incorrectly viewed our competitor's <> figure to believe it was actually sold to consumers, which it was not," Karakker concludes. Confused yet?

Reality confirms though that the PS3 is no longer appealing to customers. "We have lots [of PS3s]. So does everybody else," an unnamed employee told Gametrailers.com, referring to other GameStop stores. He explained that Nintendo's Wii console was sold out nearly everywhere, and Nintendo is having difficulties meeting the explosive demand for the system. The GameStop in question had been receiving Wii shipments every week, according to the employee, but lately the shipments have shifted to bi-weekly with only a handful of consoles- four, in the case of his store.

The employee explained that the PS3 has seen a large number of returns since its November launch, mostly due to customers failing to attain huge resale rates for the consoles on eBay auctions.

On Ars Technica, another anonymous game retailer declares that "It's not that we've gotten more PS3s than Wiis, it's just that no one wants them."

"We've seen a few returned. We have four in the store right now," the employee told ArsTechnica. The piece also confirms that failed eBay auctions are triggering a deluge of PS3 returns from would-be resellers hoping to recoup their PS3 purchase costs.

Sony is still benefiting though from the strong sales of PS2. Peter Diller told this to gameinformer.com: "Month in, month out, the PlayStation 2 continues to outsell Xbox 360. I think you see the consumers voting with their wallets on the PlayStation brand." With millions of Sony gaming products in the hands of gamers, the company is confident: "I would argue that consumers worldwide, to the tune of over 200 million PlayStations, PS2s, PSPs and PS3s, have decided whether or not Sony has the DNA to deliver hardware, software and services to suit this industry," Karraker told GamePro.

Since we’ve mentioned Xbox 360 and Microsoft, last Sunday, before the CES began, the Redmond behemoth boasted with the fact that more than 10.4 million Xbox 360 consoles were sold, the numbers exceeding the company’s most optimistic expectations. David Hufford, director of project management for Xbox, said the NPD numbers - which also showed Xbox 360 life-to-date U.S. sales of 4.5 million – “are very much in line with what we're seeing here.”

In December 2006, “Gears of War” sold 815,700 units, while “Call of Duty 3” sold 410,800 pieces. Recently, Capcom announced that its zombie smashing euphoria Dead Rising went gold, with more than 1 million copies sold by the end of 2006. There were 823,800 wireless controllers for Xbox 360 sold in December and 224,600 Play and Charge Kit.

Nintendo seems to be by far the most profitable company last year in the gaming biz, with 1.6 million DS and DS Lite consoles sold for the mentioned period, 850,700 units of Game Boy Advance and 604,200 units of Wii.

In the end, I cannot advise you to completely trust what the big gaming trio is saying, but I also advise you to take NPD's reports with a grain of salt...

Apple announce the iPhone

Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday announced the iPod maker's long-awaited leap into the mobile phone business and renamed the company to just "Apple Inc," reflecting its increased focus on consumer electronics.

The iPhone, which will start at US$499 when it launches in June, is controlled by touch, plays music, surfs the Internet and runs the Macintosh computer operating system. Jobs said it will "reinvent" wireless communications and "leapfrog" past the current generation of smart phones.

"Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," he said during his keynote address at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo. "It's very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career ... Apple's been very fortunate in that it's introduced a few of these."

He said the company's name change is meant to reflect Apple's transformation from a computer manufacturer to a full-fledged consumer electronics company.

During his speech, Jobs also unveiled a TV set-top box that allows people to send video from their computers and announced the number of songs sold on its iTunes Music Store has topped 2 billion.

Apple shares jumped more than 8 percent on the announcements, while the stock of rival smart-phone makers plunged. The run on Apple stock created about US$6 billion in shareholder wealth.

While Jobs noted the explosive growth of the cell phone market, it is not clear that a device as alluring as the iPhone poses a threat to mainstream handset makers due to the price, said Avi Greengart, mobile device analyst for the research firm Current Analysis.

"My initial reaction is that this product actually lives up to the extensive hype, and I'm not easily impressed," he said. "But the vast majority of phones sold cost way less than US$500."

Instead, the rivals most likely to face new competition from Apple's handset are makers of higher-end smart phones such as Palm Inc.

Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, said the iPhone could revolutionize the way cell phones are designed and sold.

"This goes beyond smart phones and should be given its own category called `brilliant' phones," he said. "Cell phones are on track to become the largest platform for digital music playback and Apple needed to make this move to help defend their iPod franchise as well as extend it beyond a dedicated music environment."

Apple currently commands about 75 percent of the market for downloaded music and portable music players. But it is expected to lose market share on both fronts as rivals introduce their own gadgets and music stores.

Jobs said Apple expects to sell 10 million iPhones next year, the first full year in which they will be available. That is about 1 percent of the global market for mobile phones. More than 950 million were sold worldwide last year.

The Apple phones, which will operate exclusively on AT&T Inc's Cingular Wireless network, will start shipping in June. A 4 gigabyte model will cost US$499, while an 8 gigabyte iPhone will be US$599. While wireless carriers typically offer discounts and rebates on new devices when they agree to sign a two-year service contact, Cingular said it was unclear whether this would be the case with the iPhone.

IPhone is less than 1.3cm thin -- less than almost any phone on the market today. It comes with a 2-megapixel digital camera built into the back, as well as a slot for headphones and a SIM card.

The phone automatically synchs the user's media -- movies, music, photos -- through iTunes on computers running either Mac OS X or Microsoft Corp's Windows. The device also synchs e-mail, Web bookmarks and nearly any type of digital content stored on a PC.

"It's just like an iPod," Jobs said, "charge and synch."

To make a call, users can tap out the number on an onscreen keypad or scroll through their contacts and dial with a single touch.

Apple is also introducing what it calls "visual voicemail," so users can jump to the most important messages rather than have to listen to all of them in order.

The phone supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology and can detect location from Global Positioning System satellites. It also can send and display e-mail and text messages. Apple is part-nering with Yahoo Inc on Web e-mail and Google Inc on maps.

With a few finger taps, Jobs demonstrated how to pull up a Google Maps site and find the closest Starbucks to San Francisco's Moscone Center, where Macworld is held.

He then prank-called the cafe and ordered 4,000 lattes to go before quickly hanging up.

Dragons 19-12 Munster

Munster managed to score two first half tries both, from Lifeimi Mafi.

Munster will be disappointed only to pick up a losing bonus point having gone down 19-12 to the Dragons at Rodney Parade. They led 12-6 at half time but conceded a 47th try to Jamie Ringer that Ceri Sweeney converted to edge the home side 13-12 ahead. Sweeney added two more penalties to end it Dragons 19-12 Munster.

MUNSTER: C Cullen; A Horgan, L Mafi, T Halstead (M Lawlor), I Dowling; J Manning (E Hickey) (B O'Meara), T Ó'Leary; M Horan, A Kyraicou, T Buckley (F Pucciariello); D Ryan, M O'Driscoll; C Wyatt (P O'Connell), J O'Sullivan (J Coughlan), A Foley capt.

DRAGONS: K Morgan; G Wyatt, P Emerick, A Smith, N Brew; C Sweeney, G Cooper; A Black, B Daly, L Harrison; I Gough, L Charteris/P Sidoli; C Charvis, J Ringer, M Owen. Replacements: K Crawford, D Maddocks, A Hall, N Fitisemanu, G Chapman, M Hercus, A Walker.

Al Gore - Climate Crisis

I have just finished watching Al Gore's documentary - an inconvenient truth - and I thought I would take the good advice given in the credits and encourage everyone to go out and rent or buy the DVD or even visit the website www.climatecrisis.net.

I really enjoyed the DVD and it actually answered a lot of questions that I had about global warming but for some reason never looked up. It was amazing to see the effects that we are all having on Antarctica and the implications it is going to cause unless we act now. Not a day goes by without a major incident occurring, just last week a 25 mile wide ice shelf has broken off an island in the Canadian Arctic and could cause chaos when it starts floating away. I really think that pretty soon all this "global warming" stuff that I for one have fobbed off is really going to start to hit home.

Welcome

I would like to welcome you all to my blog. I realise that I am quite late in getting to the blog scene but so what!.

I will mainly be discussing the Internet, computers and science related topics. However I will also be talking from time to time on my two other obsessions.......Rugby and Xbox 360.

Anyhow, I hope that you will drop in again to say hello.

post script; lots of love to Leanne and Matthew!

Amazon's Bezo has Liftoff

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has launched a new product -- literally.

In an Internet message posted this week the Internet billionaire released for the first time details and video of the November 13 launch of the test space vehicle Goddard from his private spaceport near the western Texas town of Van Horn.

The videos show the cone-shaped rocket, about 50 feet (15 meters) tall with four spindly legs, lifting off from a desert launch pad, ascending vertically 285 feet (78 meters), then returning to Earth in a flight lasting less than a minute.

It was the first test for Bezos' Blue Origin commercial space venture, which is developing a vehicle to take occupants on a 10-minute ride to the edge of space, nearly 60 miles (96 km) above the Earth and back.

"We're working, patiently and step-by-step, to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system," Bezos said in his message, dated January 2, on the website.

The November launch, he said, "was both useful and fun. Many friends and family came to watch the launch and support the team."

The posting includes photographs from the launch site and video taken from several angles, including from the Goddard. It also has a pitch for job applicants, particularly aerospace engineers.

Bezos did not say when the next test flight would take place, but warned "Accomplishing this mission will take a long time, and we're working on it methodically. We believe in incremental improvement and in keeping investments at a pace that's sustainable."

Eventually, Blue Origin could offer spaceflights that orbit the Earth, Bezos has said.

A number of companies are working on private space ventures, including Virgin Galactic, part of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group.