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PS Vita 3G price drops to $199 at certain Sony outlets
Just when we had gotten used to the idea that the PS Vita's price drop in Japan would not be followed by a similar one here, Joystiq reports many Sony stores are offering the 3G bundle at a discount. While not all the stores contacted had the lowered $199 price, most of the ones that were still open at this hour did. We're not seeing this price drop reflected in any other stores, and there's no official announcement of any change, which only contributes to the confusion. Different store employees gave different explanations for the change, including a few indicating the model would be discontinued. The online shop still shows both the WiFi and 3G models for $249, so for now all we know is that if you are interested in buying, it would serve you well to look around for the lower price.
NVIDIA CEO suggests $199 Tegra 3 tablets in the summer
Always talkative NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang is in the news yet again, this time telling the New York Times that his company's Tegra 3 hardware is incorporating enough cost saving that it could be in $199 Android tablets by this summer -- beating his previous $299 promise. Beyond the tantalizing thought of value-priced tablets with the horsepower of the Transformer Prime (perfect for that rumored price subsidized, ASUS-built and Google-branded slate, right?) there's also a shout out Tegra-powered Windows 8 slates and Sony's unannounced VAIO Chromebook that popped through the FCC. The NYT suggests its T25 chip could stand for Tegra 2.5 with a debut planned for Google I/O in June -- we'll find out then if this is misguided line drawing or a very educated guess.
Ceton officially drops the InfiniTV 4 price to $199
A device that was selling for around $600 on eBay just two years ago, is now officially priced at $199 -- the second $100 price drop in the past eight months -- and is available immediately from some of your favorite online retailers. That means both the USB and PCIe versions of the CableCARD tuner that can record four HD channels at once, cost a mere $50 per tuner. While this makes it the cheapest per-tuner CableCARD tuner ever available, the dual tuner Hauppauge WinTV DCR-2650 at $149 retail ($112 street) still requires the lowest total entry cost into the PC CableCARD tuner market. We've come a long way since ATI offered a single tuner for $299, but the still-pricey cards make it easy to understand understand why TV manufacturers and other set-top box makers, like Boxee, can't hide the price of a CableCARD tuner in the cost of their products.
Logitech Revue price drops to $199 on Amazon
While we wait for the OTA update that will bring Android 3.1 to existing Google TV devices, Logitech's Revue -- check the official blog post linked below for some of the features being added -- has apparently already received its price cut and CrunchGear points out it is currently available for $199 on Amazon. As we noted a couple of weeks ago when the company announced weak sales and a plan to drop the price to $249, getting the price under two bills was probably as important as smoothing out the software experience. Of course, after Google I/O we wonder if anyone interested in Google TV is still jonesing for a launch device (even with the promise of updated software and Android Market access in the future) when something newer and better is likely on the way. After all, you can get Honeycomb on a T-Mobile G1 now, but that doesn't mean you would want to do it.
Nintendo finally confirms new $199 Wii price
After being stuck so long at $249, we can hardly believe the Wii is "pulling a PS3" and going down in price at last -- outside of the insurmountable mountains of evidence we had of the price drop before Nintendo could get around to confirming it, of course. The console will begin retailing for $199.99 (~$200 for us math types) on September 27, which is this Sunday.Update: The Wii will fall to ¥20,000 in Japan, which represents a 20 percent drop.Update 2: Looks like those of you getting paid in Euros will be asked to shell out €199.99. [Via Joystiq]
$199 Nintendo Wii spotted in Best Buy ad?
First there was an alleged Toys R Us ad, and now we've caught wind of what's claimed to be a Best Buy spot showing the Nintendo Wii getting that long-desired $50 price drop, down just below the two Benjamin mark. Easily Photoshopped image? You betcha, so we'll just have to play wait-and-see as the evidence seems to mount up -- it's been a long time coming, after all, we wouldn't be that surprised given the oncoming holiday season and the recent downward trend in demand.
ASUS: $200 Eee PC in 2009
Finally, the promise of the $200 Eee PC is, uh, promised again. Jerry Shen, apparently in a meeting with analysts, said that ASUS will launch an Eee PC priced at US$200 in 2009. He also said that 7- and 8.9-inch Eee PCs will be phased out of the market to be replaced by 10-inch models. Although that sounds like it opens the possibility for a 10-inch Eee PC for $200 we're not counting on it. Shen also noted that 70% of all Eee PCs are now loaded with XP (a latecomer to netbooks) and hard disk drives compared to 30% with Linux and SSDs. Microsoft, you win again.
Philips' 198 and 199: at least they've got games
A far cry from the Samsung Souls and Nokia N96s of the world lie two unassuming new models from Philips. Wow crowds, they won't, but there's a certain elegancy to simplicity that's hard to ignore here. Both the 198 and 199 candybars share 128 x 128 color displays, a miniUSB port, 20 days' worth of standby time, a handful of games to pass the time, GPRS data, and that's about it; the 199 adds an FM radio for those times when the games get a little tiresome. The GSM 900 / 1800 radio isn't going to do much for you stateside, but both should be available in China, Russia, and parts of Europe shortly for 1,000 Czech koruna and 1,100 koruna respectively -- about $63 and $70.[Via Unwired View and Softpedia]
Microsoft knows console 'sweet spot' is $199
Bloomberg news just flowed with the good quotes today. Speaking with various Xbox executives, they got one to talk about a sales sweet spot, another to say where they really want the Xbox numbers to be, and finally, a message to the hardcore. First up was Xbox's director of product management, David Hufford, who said, "We are well aware that the sweet spot of the market is really 199 bucks.'' Knowing and doing are clearly two different things. We've been expecting an Xbox price drop to come along later this year, but there hasn't really been a clear movement in that direction just yet. And even if there is a drop, we really don't think anybody should be expecting the premium or "real" Xbox 360 to be $199 anytime soon.Another beautiful quote comes from Peter Moore, who discusses expanding the demographics of the Xbox 360, which currently resides with the 20-something male. Moore says, "If we don't make that move, make it early and expand our demographic, we will wind up in the same place as with Xbox 1, a solid business with 25 million people ... What I need is a solid business with 90 million people.'' Is that a lofty goal? You better believe it. But if that's where Moore wants to be, expect some serious changes with the console coming soon -- there's that concept of a price drop again.Some of the changes expected are more family games, making children's titles easier to find and cutting the price. We have one more quote, which really nails home how the Wii is changing the industry with its disturbing sales march. Albert Penello, director of Xbox global marketing knocks it out of the park with, "If you don't start building that content and reputation it never comes ... I don't want to be pigeonholed as a hard-core machine.'' [Via GI.biz]
