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FreeSat sells 100,000 boxes -- can we get some more HD content now?
Alright -- what's a bloke got to do to get some more HD? Clearly the demand is growing, as evidenced by the 100,000th FreeSat box being gleefully picked up and used to catch a meager amount of free HDTV material. Since launching just five months ago, the free-to-air satellite service has captivated quite a few citizens, though we're left wondering what it will really take to get more content providers to push their material on the service. 500,000 subs? A million?
Poll: Are you intentionally delaying an HDTV purchase?
We already heard that prices were still a huge determining factor in flat-panel purchasing decisions (surprise, surprise, right?), but with new reports asserting that a sweet two-fer of price drops could be on the way, we're curious as to what you're doing. Are you intentionally duct taping your index finger away from the left-click button? Are you buying anyway? Or might you replace that mildly aged set (or add another in the bed- / guestroom) if the prices are low enough? Let us know your game plan in the poll below.[Image courtesy of ABC] %Poll-18477%
Australia's Foxtel nets 40,000 new subscribers since HD+ launch
Only a few months have passed since Australia's Foxtel launched its HD+ service, and judging by the numbers, Aussies are warming to high-def. The carrier just posted a 17% rise in revenue (up to $1.7 billion), and it's expecting the numbers to remain high as more consumers cave to the temptation of high-definition programming. Furthermore, 40,000 new users have signed on since the HD+ launch, and the average revenue per user has skyrocketed to nearly $85 per month "as a result of a higher take-up of additional services such as Foxtel iQ." There's no specific mention of additional HD channels, but given that bigwigs surely realize how critical they are to revenue growth, we can't imagine them not giving you folks a few more here shortly.
MobiTV breaks the 4 million subscriber mark
MobiTV has been around for quite awhile, and although it has seen its fair share of ups and downs, today's a day for celebration in the offices that remain. After hitting the 3 million mark in February, the company is now claiming that its benefiting from some 4 million subscriptions. Charlie Nooney, MobiTV's CEO, was quoted as saying that the firm was "thrilled to be on the cusp of mass market acceptance for mobile entertainment in North America." We don't know if we'd go that far just yet, but here's a tip of the hat to you anyway.[Via RCRWireless, image courtesy of PDAsNews]
China Mobile soars past the 600 million subscriber mark, refuses to slow down
Just last April, we heard that China Mobile had acquired more subscribers than the entire population of the United States of America. 15 months later, it has doubled up on that figure. Yep, China Mobile has just broken the 600 million subscriber mark as the country as a whole added 53.5 million new wireless users from January to June. Consequently, fixed-line customers fell by 9.3 million to 356 million during the same window of time. So, what's the over / under on months before the carrier breaks the big 1 billion?[Via IntoMobile]
AT&T finally breaks the half million mark with U-verse customers
AT&T's U-verse still isn't a clear cut winner in the world of HD carriers, but it sure got a lot more attractive with the recent rollout of 2 HD / 2SD -- which enabled users to record one high-def program while watching another (or record two HD shows simultaneously). During Q2 2008, the company managed to pick up 170,000 new U-verse subscribers (versus 148,000 in Q1 2008), and since it closed 2007 with 231,000, it has more than doubled its customer base (549,000) in half a year. At its current rate, it'll be tight to make its goal of one million subscribers by the end of 2008, but it might just get there. Can't say our faith was nearly as high just six months prior.[Via HD-Report]
AT&T has secured 379,000 U-verse TV subscribers
While Verizon was busy acquiring over a quarter-million new FiOS TV customers during Q1 2008, AT&T wasn't resting on its laurels. The company managed to pick up 148,000 new U-verse TV customers in the same period, pushing the 231,000 it ended 2007 with up to a new total of 379,000. Potentially more interesting is the firm's intentions to still hit the long-standing goal of netting a million subscribers before 2009 dawns, and as if that wasn't bold enough, it's looking to pass approximately 30 million living units by the end of 2010 (it's at 9 million now). Of course, we aren't discounting the company's ability to do so -- after all, it is rolling out service to a plethora of new locales at a pretty brisk rate -- but with the inability to record two HD channels at once, we can't see it really catching on until a few more limitations are lifted.
Best Buy sets out to help pay customers' DirecTV bills
We've kvetched quite heavily about the misconception that an HDTV sans HD service can turn SD content into HD, so we suppose we can't harsh on Best Buy too much for attempting to push a little high-def service onto its HDTV-buying customers. Effective immediately, the big box retailer is agreeing to pay $30 of a customer's DTV bill for three months when activating any new DirecTV service, six months when adding HD Access and buying an HDTV under $999, or a full year if adding HD Access and purchasing an HDTV $999 or higher. Unfortunately, the deal is set to expire on June 24th, so those even remotely interested don't have too awfully long to hem and haw.[Image courtesy of Divaris]
AT&T ends 2007 with 231000 U-verse subscribers
Make no mistake, the number 231,000 in and of itself isn't exactly valuable, but considering that AT&T is aiming to secure one million subscribers to its fiber-based U-verse service before this year comes to a close, it certainly comes into perspective. Just months ago, AT&T was reporting that it had 126,000 U-verse customers and was handling around 10,000 installs per week. Currently, the carrier is suggesting that it's over one-fourth of the way to its goal, but considering that "just" 12,000 installs per week are being done now, it's not exactly on track to hit that million. 'Course, if it keeps on rolling U-verse out to new markets at a furious pace, we suppose anything could happen, but it's not like the provider hasn't overshot estimates in the past.
Verizon grabs one million FiOS TV subscribers
Just months after Verizon celebrated two years of FiOS, and merely four days after celebrating the same for New York, the firm has found yet another reason to boogie down. After a "banner 2007" and a presumably successful January 2008, the outfit has finally netted its one millionth FiOS TV subscriber. The milestone makes it the tenth largest cable provider in the United States, and considering that Mediacom is holding down the nine spot with 1.3 million, we'd say VZW is well on its way into single digits on the leaderboard. Meanwhile, that other fiber-based television carrier is aiming to hit the same mark before 2008 draws to a close.
OTA antenna sales skyrocket, cable subscribers jump ship
One could certainly argue the actual link between OTA antenna sales going through the roof while some one million cable subscribers decided to ditch their service this year, but nevertheless, that's exactly what has happened. Richard Schneider, President of Antennas Direct, saw his Terrestrial Digital brand of antenna sales "triple" during the same time period in which the cable industry lost two-percent of its market share, and while there's a very real possibility some of those folks opted for fiber or satellite-based alternatives, we've no doubt that some just decided to make do with the crystal clear, uncompressed HD locals; furthermore, new satellite subscribers in areas without HD locals would be awfully tempted to pick up an OTA antenna to complement their service. Of course, teaching the HD illiterate how to install and use one is a whole 'nother matter.
Has Apple cracked down on unlocker-resellers?
Is Apple hitting back at businessmen who buy, unlock and resell iPhones? Apple customers whose accounts show large, repeated iPhone orders are reportedly receiving emails canceling their orders and inviting them to enter the Apple reseller program, presumably with unlocking limitations. TUAW reader Silvio Duque sent in a copy of a recent email to an Apple customer: It thanked the customer for his interest in Apple products. "While Apple appreciates your company's support of Apple's technology and products, the Apple Store you placed this order with sells products to end-user customers only, and the order has therefore been cancelled. You may wish to review the Sales and Refunds Policy." TUAW has not confirmed this policy and we'd like to hear from any other readers whose orders got cancelled.
Judge okays Amp'd sale, customers now free to join Prexar Mobile
We already had a decent hunch that Prexar Mobile would come into play here, but a Delaware judge has officially green lit the sale of Amp'd Mobile to United Systems Access, which will give "thousands of customers a chance to switch carriers in the wake of the startup venture's collapse." United Systems will reportedly offer service to Amp'd customers under its Prexar Mobile brand, and interestingly, Amp'd will be getting a "25-percent stake in Prexar." Additionally, it was noted that Amp'd Mobile will be paid according to "how many of its customers switch service to the small Maine-based wireless provider, what plans the customers choose, and how long they stay with the new carrier." And you thought you'd never hear from these guys again.[Via mocoNews]
Irate would-be Lenovo customers seeing delays on ThinkPad T61
Your idea of the Lenovo buying experience has probably been all but tainted if its latest ThinkPad T61 was, er, would have been your first machine from the company. According to an incredibly long thread over at Notebook Review, more than a few would-be customers are getting progressively angrier as each passing day goes by without any sign of their new laptop. Apparently, a number of manufacturing hiccups are delaying the process, and some users are even reporting ship dates into the first week of September. Moreover, it seems that some loyal users even received consolation emails that tried to explain the delays and apologized by offering up a free accessory and a chance to easily cancel the order. So if you've had a T61 on order since day one and weren't already aware of all this behind the scenes turmoil, do yourself a favor and take a very deep breath before hitting the read link.[Thanks, Craig]
Retail sucks, customer demands Mario on the 360
Over at Retail-Sucks.com AndrewDB posted an account of his experience working for EB Games and dealing with a crazed mother. The quick and dirty version of the story is an overly aggressive mother stormed into their store and demanded a Mario game for the Xbox 360. We know what you're thinking, but don't worry, her eleven year old son told her that the Mario game was available for his Xbox. In the end she throws a fit when they calmly tell her Mario is only available for Nintendo systems, extrudes a bunch of curse words, calls up corporate, throws her Razr, and acts like a nine year old child. Retail, the one job where you have to put on a friendly smile when dealing with unruly customers. We know there are a lot of fanboy readers who work at video game stores or other retailers that sells games, do you have a crazy customer story to tell?[Via Digg]
Consumers still baffled about HD content, channel options
After several years of this "HD thing" being around, we'd assume that the general public would begin to catch on and understand the completely unnecessary, yet very prevalent confusions that simply come with owning and operating an HDTV. Apparently there's still a vast majority of potential HDTV buyers and current owners that are still miffed when it comes to fully understanding how to setup, tweak, operate, and enjoy their new set. Research posted in USA Today states that while "about 15-percent" of American homes have an HD-capable television, less than half of them said that their purchase was influenced by wanting to catch their favorite shows in high definition. While we've certainly seen reports showing that we Americans can't get enough once we get a taste, it appears that a staggering amount of owners either don't know how to correctly receive HD content, or simply believe that "digital cable" equates to "high definition." Surveyors attribute the "confusing nature" of actually getting HD content into your home as the primary culprit, as cable and satellite companies don't exactly go the extra mile to clarify the technological mumbo jumbo while siphoning your cash. Notably, many HDTV purchasers were buying in with "gaming and / or DVD viewing" atop their list of priorities, presumably satisfied with stretch-o-vision when watching plain ole TV. Sure, some firms have reached out to addlepated consumers in hopes of clearing up some of the myths, but it seems that there's still a ways to go before the general public can truly grasp the nature of HD.
TiVo fanatics livid over Series3 shipping delays
So if you're a consumer electronics manufacturer in the midst of a highly-publicized product release, you'd think that the last group of customers you'd want to alienate would be the die-hard fanatics who participate in your forums everyday and were among the very first to place orders for said product, right? Well judging by the tone of the comments on the TiVo Community boards, that's exactly what the company has down to its so-called VIP subscribers -- you know, the ones who possess those coveted lifetime subscriptions and woke up extra-early this past Tuesday to ensure that their new Series3 boxes would arrive the next day. Except TiVo apparently wasn't ready to handle the deluge of orders that it received, and after two days of wondering what the heck was going on (calls to customer service were met by confusion and misinformation on the part of the phone reps), everyone finally received an email confirming the delays and promising shipment by Friday. Luckily TiVo had the good sense to refund the shipping charges -- in some cases $50 worth -- to these early adopters, but much to the VIPs' displeasure, they learned that they'd be unable to cancel their pending orders if they wanted to go the retail route; and what's more, there was some confusion as to whether store-bought TiVos would even be eligible for the $200 lifetime subscription transfer. As of this writing it seems that only a handful of folks actually got their boxes on Friday, with everyone else scrambling to reschedule the CableCARD installation appointments they'd made with their cable providers. So while there's little argument that TiVo makes a fine product with a world-class interface, perhaps when it eventually comes out with the Series4, it'll do some better planning or leave distribution to the professionals -- apparently, TiVo and e-commerce don't seem to go too well together lately.[Via HDBeat]
Apple should offer Macs with OS X and Windows for businesses
The internet is absolutely abuzz on fire over the ramifications of Boot Camp, and this time around the wild speculation isn't confined just to the crazed, Mountain-Dew-infused digg posts. Everyone is hypothesizing that Boot Camp signifies things like the death of Mac gaming, software support for OS X or even that Dvorak (the shock-journalist that he is) was right after all.There are quite a few articles out there, however, about the appeal that these Intel Macs and Boot Camp have to education and IT departments of companies both big and small. A lot of headlines like "Companies now have one more reason to look at the Mac" are piling into endo at an alarming rate, and I started thinking about something C.K. said when Boot Camp landed: "However, over time, if Apple plays it's cards right and doesn't screw things up, people will see that booting into OS X runs more smoothly and is nicer than booting into Windows, and we may see more switchers than ever before."While that's probably very true on the consumer side of things, I'm willing to bet that, even if businesses want to gobble up a batch of Macs overnight, the software they need their company to run isn't going to magically start working on OS X in the blink of an IT manager's eye. Honestly, I never thought I would say this, but case in point: if Apple started offering Macs with OS X and Windows pre-installed to the business sector, they could rake in companies looking to switch by the truck load. This option would be the nail in the coffin for business customers who want an out-of-the-box solution for getting set up on Macs with a minimum of fuss. In fact, there would be any fuss. These customers would have the best of both worlds from the moment they hit the power button, and Apple would have a rock solid strategy for putting business hardware competitors like Dell on the run.Apple doesn't need to license Mac OS X to PC manufacturers. With all the doors that Boot Camp opens for the company, Apple simply need to warn them to get out of the way.
