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business posts

Walmart to rival Best Buy's Geek Squad with own in-home install crew

by Darren Murph posted Oct 25th 2009 at 7:07PM

We've never truly been at ease with that Geek Squad crowd. Something about "the people" they hang with and "the places" they hang at just worries us, so we're pretty thrilled to see another mega-corp stepping in to take the place of the now-deceased Circuit City FireDog crew. Starting sometime before the holiday season, Wally World will be partnering with N.E.W. Customer Service Companies in order to offer in-home installation to customers buying anything from a wireless router to a HTIB. The service plans will be sold on prepaid cards ranging from $99 to $399 in value, and each install includes a "preliminary consultation and a tutorial after installation is completed." Granted, it may be a bit tough to get the dude looking to spend $5 on a new plasma to spring for such a service, but hey, it's not like competition is a bad thing.

[Via Hot Hardware]

ASUS throws XP Professional on Eee PC 1005HA, dubs it 'business edition'

by Donald Melanson posted Oct 20th 2009 at 1:46AM

Alright, so ASUS' Eee PC 1005HA is certainly decent enough as it is, but we can't help but think that the company is stretching things a bit with its new "business edition" of the netbook. Apparently, all that's needed to earn that designation is Windows XP Professional for an OS, and a standard 2GB of RAM, which no respectable businessperson would ever be without. Otherwise, you'll get the usual 10.1-inch display, Atom N280 processor, 160GB hard drive, and a promised 10.5 hours of battery life -- all in the very same Seashell enclosure, of course. Still no official word on a release over here, but it looks like folks in Japan will be able to pick this one up on October 20th for just over the Yen-equivalent of $700.

[Thanks, TheLostSwede]

Yanko Design opens store, oodles of concepts now on the market

by Darren Murph posted Oct 19th 2009 at 4:48PM

Yanko Design is well known for digging up some of the most amazing, most commercializable concepts on the world wide web, and today the site has finally taken the next logical step. With every awesome mockup comes the inevitable question: "Yo, holmes -- where can I buy this?" With the grand opening of the YD Store, you can now exchange your currency for such luxuries as the d°light Huggable Pillow, Magnetic Spice Stand, Sorapot and Cloud Chair. We couldn't be happier to see some of these incredible designs ushered into the market place, and if you're feeling the same, you can give that read link a tap to enter a deep, dark world that's bound to drain your wallet dry. Have fun!

Update: Seems the site is getting battered at the moment, though we're sure they're buying more bandwidth as we speak. Right?

Sprint proves money can solve problems, buys iPCS to settle litigation

by Darren Murph posted Oct 19th 2009 at 1:48PM

Considering Sprint's financial position and the overall credit market, we're not exactly sure where the carrier managed to pick up $831 million, which it promptly used to acquire affiliate iPCS and take on $405 million of net debt. If you'll recall, the aforesaid youngin' was worrying papa way back in May of 2008, and it seems that Sprint has finally had enough of this whole "litigation" thing. The acquisition puts all of the court battling to rest (or at least it's expected to), enabling the operator to stop divesting its iDEN network in select iPCS markets. Money may not buy happiness, but it sure buys a good muzzle.

[Via Reuters]

Sony Ericsson Q3 slump buoyed by new financing, a rumored November launch for XPERIA X3

by Ross Miller posted Oct 16th 2009 at 4:49PM

Bad news, good news, and potentially great news time, folks. First with the bad: Sony Ericsson posted another loss for its fiscal third quarter, to the tune of 164 million euro (about $244 million US), blaming a large chunk of that on a drop in sales. Sales dropped year-over-year 40 percent to 1.6 billion euro, and unit shipments comparably down 45 percent. That's the bad, now what's good for SE is that its secured more financial backing to reshape its future into something more profitable. External financing totals a reported 455 million euro ($676 million US), 255 million of which is already in the company's position and 200 million as a two-year backup. SE also managed to beat analyst estimates, losing less than anticipated, and that's gotta induce some bittersweet smiles in the corporate boardrooms... oh, the potentially great news? Well, SEMC blog has boldly announced that the Android-imbued Rachael (a.k.a. XPERIA X3) is due out this November, same specs as we heard before and two color options, Sensuous Black and Luster White. Unfortunately, we're not seeing exactly where this news is coming for, so until SE speaks the magic words, we're considering it a rumor for now -- but we're hopeful.

[Via GSM Arena; thanks, Gillz and Christo]

Read - Rachael in November?
Read - Sony Ericsson 3Q loss widens
Read - XPERIA X3 in the wild

Acer fulfills prophecy, overtakes Dell as number two PC maker worldwide (update)

by Ross Miller posted Oct 14th 2009 at 8:14PM

As if on cue, here's some new data research firm Gartner lending credence to Lanci's boasting. Looks like Acer has leapfrogged over Dell for the number two spot in global market share for the third quarter of 2009, from 12.5 to 15.4 percent of the Big Pie Chart™. Meanwhile Dell is just below at 12.8 percent, and HP is sitting happily atop with a 19.9 percent ownership.

Update: Let us adjust our glasses a bit. According to the charts, Acer is number two in worldwide PC sales, not in US as this previously reported. Stateside, the company is sitting at number three at 13.9 percent, behind HP (25.7 percent) and Dell (26.2 percent). Apologies for the confusion, the person responsible for eyesight has been subsequently sacked, the person responsible for the sacking has been sacked, etc.

Comcast looking to buy NBC?

by Nilay Patel posted Oct 5th 2009 at 9:02PM

Not sure how a story like this snuck under the radar on Friday, but the WSJ reports that Comcast and NBC are in the early stages of a buyout offer -- Comcast's plan is to control 51 percent of a new joint venture with current NBC owner GE. Needless to say, that would be a massive content industry shakeup, and it would bring over two dozen networks and stations under Comcast's control, from E! to NBC itself, as well as the Universal movie studio. Sure brings that whole TV Everywhere plan into sharp relief, doesn't it? Talks are said to be far apart and contigent on Comcast maintaining its credit rating by putting as little cash upfront as possible, but big companies like this don't poke around lightly -- we'll see how this one turns out.

Borders pulls a B&N, offers free WiFi to all patrons

by Darren Murph posted Sep 30th 2009 at 7:07PM

In the gory, never-ending war for book store supremacy, Borders has just tapped Verizon in order to match Barnes & Noble's summer efforts to bring gratis WiFi to all who enter. Details of the arrangement are scant, but the takeaway is this: in "virtually all" of its more than 500 stores nationwide, Borders is hooking up with Verizon to bring free internet to anyone who sashays in (note: you literally have to dance upon entering) with a WiFi-enabled device. The service is expected to be fully rolled out by mid-October, giving you plenty of time to select the scarf and skinny jeans you'd like to be seen in by your fellow hipsters.

Iridium to merge with GHL, get back into sat phone game

by Darren Murph posted Sep 28th 2009 at 9:34AM

Aside from pushing out around one phone per year (at best), Iridium Satellite really hasn't had a major impact on the market over the past ten years. 'Course, that's probably because it's hard to have much impact after seeking bankruptcy protection in 1999, but we digress. Starting tomorrow, new life will be breathed into Iridium thanks to a merger with publicly traded GHL Acquisition. If all goes to plan, the merger will add over $200 million to the company's bank account, enabling it to pay down debt and develop a next-generation network of satellites to be launched in 2014. Furthermore, $160 million will be raised by issuing another 16 million shares at $10 a pop, and a new label (Iridium Communications) will be thrown on for good measure. Only time will tell if the world really is ready to adopt satellite phones en masse, but if TerraStar's latest deal is any indication, we'd say chances are ~~good~~ halfway decent.

Ask Engadget: What's the best business phone out there?

by Darren Murph posted Sep 24th 2009 at 11:27PM

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Jimmy, who's making it his business to find out what phone currently on the market is best for business.

"I'm in the market for a new phone and money isn't a limitation. I'm also not partial to any particular US carrier, but here are some of the features I'd like to have: WiFi, GPS, good coverage in lots of places, push Gmail (a must!), physical keyboard (a must!), a touchscreen, decent battery life and a relatively slim body. And please, nothing that has a fruit logo on it. No offense to the fruit fans, though. Thanks!"

We've a feeling you started something Jimmy, and we're not so sure we're going to like the outcome. At any rate, we'd ask the dear readers to chime in here with a little help, and if you really had "iPhone 3GS" on the tip of your tongue, feel free to list it anyway -- but your reasoning better be really, really good.

Clearwire branding true 4G WiMAX rollouts 'CLEAR,' upgrading pre-WiMAX areas nationwide

by Darren Murph posted Sep 24th 2009 at 9:01AM

Clearwire's far too young of a company to be dealing with a mid-life crisis, but just a year or so after it really began rolling out its Clear WiMAX services in select portions of America, it appears that the outfit is changing names. Confusingly enough, the company (currently Clearwire) will be renaming itself as the service (currently Clear), leaving us to wonder what exactly CLEAR (the rebranded company) will call its WiMAX offerings. There's no indication on the company's website as to when it plans to make the rebranding official, but a customer in Charlotte, North Carolina has informed us that the change is already underway in the Queen City. According to him, his equipment was recently swapped out, with the new modem boasting a Motorola logo and a "CLEAR" logo instead of the "Clearwire" emblem as before. Interestingly, he also claims that his download speed received a (gratis) bump from 1.6Mbps to 5Mbps, which resulted in a "huge improvement in speed." So, any other users out there getting their modems swapped out? Call us crazy, but we're guessing it's just a matter of time.

[Thanks, Rick]

Update: Clearwire pinged us with a few clarifications here. Ready? Good. Clearwire, as a company, is not changing its name. So far as the SEC knows, the corporate entity will remain "Clearwire." The new "CLEAR" branding is a push to market its true 4G WiMAX services (as opposed to "pre-WiMAX service"), which are rolling out to over 40 existing Clearwire markets around the country. Seems that explains the speed boost Mr. Rick experienced, huh?

Gallery: Clearwire renaming itself CLEAR, getting a logo makeover too

Continue reading Clearwire branding true 4G WiMAX rollouts 'CLEAR,' upgrading pre-WiMAX areas nationwide

AmazonBasics: Bezos and Co. starts private-label consumer electronics line

by Darren Murph posted Sep 20th 2009 at 12:51PM

You had to see this coming. Or not. While Amazon has certainly shown an ability to do well in the consumer electronics space (ahem, Kindle anyone?), we never exactly envisioned the mammoth e-tailer to spark up its own private-label line of consumer electronics. Designed to go mano-a-mano with the likes of Monoprice and other cut-rate accessories providers, AmazonBasics will -- at least initially -- offer consumers AV cables, blank DVD media and other inexpensive doodads for not much cheddar. Everything the outfit sells through this initiative will ship in frustration-free packaging, and Bezos has already committed to expanding the line "in the coming months." As expected, these products will be eligible for free (albeit slow) shipping if you break the $25-per-order mark, and while Americans can begin ordering today, it'll be a tick before these wares trickle out to international portals. So, industry -- are you scared yet?

Read - AmazonBasics
Read - Amazon's press release

Blockbuster plans to part with 960 retail stores by end of 2010

by Ross Miller posted Sep 15th 2009 at 8:32PM

Seriously, Blockbuster can't seem to get a break. In a recent SEC filing, the company identified 18 percent of its retail outlets it deemed unprofitable and announced plans to close up to 960 stores by the end of 2010. That's divided into up to 685 by the end of this year and the remaining 275 the year after, but the filing continues to say that up to 1,560 locations, or 22 percent of its total retail coverage, could end up falling the wayside. Another slide indicates how the company sees itself going forward, with an expansion of kiosks and its Total Access subscriber base, and putting OnDemand in "nearly every connected device." Of course, if this brings Blockbuster back to profitability as it expects to be, then more power to it, but it's clear that the one-time king is fighting wars on a number of sides and has a long way to go if it intends to stay afloat, much less reclaim its crown.

[Via CNET]

Deutsche Telekom eyeing Sprint Nextel for acquisition?

by Ross Miller posted Sep 13th 2009 at 5:19PM

With T-Mobile UK and Orange now having to (potentially) learn to play nice, Deutsche Telekom is already looking ahead to its next big target: Sprint Nextel. According to a Telegraph report, the telecom giant, with an estimated value of $60.45 billion, has called in advisers from Deutsche Bank as it reportedly prepares to submit an offer to the $10.6 billion-valued Now Network within the next three weeks. The assimilation of Sprint and Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile US under the same umbrella could give second-place AT&T a fight with a 78.2 million-strong customer base... but that said, we wouldn't anticipate any quick or smooth merger given the US carriers rely on substantially different bands (CDMA vs. GSM) for service. Hey, there's always WiMAX might come into play. Obviously there's a lot of unanswered questions here, but at this point it's all speculation given no actual offer has been thrown on the table -- and we bet Hesse will have some choice words on the matter. Keep an eye out on this one, things could very quickly get very, very interesting here.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Walkman outsells iPod in Japan for first time in four years... but iPhone sales don't count

by Ross Miller posted Sep 3rd 2009 at 2:02PM

As with most accomplishments these days, we can't help but place a rather large asterisk next to Sony's award for managing to outsell the iPod lineup with its Walkman. According to Tokyo-based research firm BCN Inc., for the week ending August 30th, the Walkman series had a 43 percent share of the personal music player market versus 42.1 percent for iPods, marking the first time in four years that Sony's managed to get the upper hand. Got that? Good, now for a major caveat. For whatever reason, iPhones aren't considered part of the iPod line, meaning people who want the luxuries of the iPod touch and a wireless data plan aren't included in the survey. That's quite an omission -- the iPhone 3GS is currently the best-selling phone in Japan, after all -- and we gotta imagine it'd be more than enough to tilt the data in Apple's favor, even if you threw in Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones for good measure. But hey, it's still a feat in its own right, and Sony might as well celebrate while it lasts -- something tells us the gang in Cupertino has something up their sleeve soon.