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AMD decreases Q1 sales outlook, expects to cut workforce by 10%
It's one thing to put the kibosh on whispers of across-the-board layoffs; it's another to go and fire twice the amount rumored. Sure enough, a recent report from the AP notes that the California-based chipmaker is expecting to layoff 10-percent of its 16,000-person workforce by Q3 2008. Additionally, the outfit is trimming its sales outlook for Q1 due to "poor sales in all of its business segments," and as if that wasn't enough, it's expecting to "incur an [undisclosed] restructuring charge in the second quarter as a result of the layoffs." Ouch.[Via The Street, thanks Aaron]
March Madness to drum up demand for nearly one million HDTVs
Sure, this year's Super Bowl was said to be responsible for some two million HDTV purchases, but driving another million just a month later isn't anything to sneeze at. According to a new release from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament "will help inspire the purchase of nearly 1 million HDTVs (934,000), which represents slightly more than $1 billion in retail sales." Beyond that, the data also found that over half of existing HDTV-owning sports fans would end up turning their attention to the internet in order to fetch highlights and statistics. Of course, it also discovered that the amount of fans viewing whole games online is on the rise, and considering that The Man will likely have you right where he wants you tomorrow (read: nowhere near a TV), we don't find that surprising at all.
LCD TV shipments forecasted to double by 2012
2012 is really turning out to be a banner year in the world of HDTV -- after all, we'll have 900 HD channels via satellite, 33 million homes engaging in HD streaming and everyone and their cousin will own a LCD TV. Okay, so maybe that's a stretch, but according to new data from iSuppli, global shipments of LCD TVs will "nearly double" from 2008 to 2012, "driven mainly by falling prices and consumer demand for flat-screens and the HD format." If you're scouting numbers, the report suggests that we'll see worldwide shipments rise to nearly 194 million in just four years, and unsurprisingly, the thin designs and big resolutions are at the forefront of reasons why. Oh, and if prices keep sinking ever closer to zero, we wouldn't be surprised one iota to see this milestone passed a few months earlier than predicted.[Via WidescreenReview, image courtesy of Sciam]
CEA expects Super Bowl to drive over two million HDTV sales
Well, what do you know? No sooner than we whip up a questionnaire to find out if you're going to splurge on a new HDTV for the forthcoming tilt between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, along comes a study suggesting that quite a few of your neighbors will be. According to new results from the third annual Sports and Technology survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and Sports Video Group (SVG), the Big Game is expected to drive the purchase of 2.4 million high-definition sets, which should generate some $2.2 billion this year alone. Interestingly, this year's study also found that emerging outlets such as mobile handsets and the internet would be sought to provide statistics and secondary information while the Super Bowl is in progress. And hey, if you're questioning your sanity over buying a new TV for one game, just think, March Madness is only weeks away.[Image courtesy of AP / Rick Hossman]
Analyst: Wii still in lead by 2011, PS3 close behind
Ah, here's something else to place in the next time capsule we bury at the bottom of the Wii Fanboy garden, along with our copy of Cruis'n (we feel future generations should understand the horror). Research company Screen Digest broke out the pencil crayons and came up with the graph above, forecasting exactly how the now-gen console race will look come 2011. And while things don't look, erm, massively promising for Microsoft and the Xbox 360, Screen Digest has the PlayStation 3 almost neck and neck with the Wii by year-end 2011.Naturally, we'd advise taking this with a rather large dose of salt, because this industry has proven time and time again to be an unpredictable beast. After all, would such a graph have been published one year before the Wii first came to market?[Via CVG]
Nintendo releases Q1 sales results, thinks it's not going away
It should come as no surprise to any of our readers that the Wii is selling pretty well, hindered almost solely by its own production problems. Today, Nintendo confirmed any suspicions in announcing its Q1 sales figures -- 3.43 million Wiis sold since the beginning of April, bringing the running worldwide total to 9.27 million. In light of the greater than expected success, it also upped its forecast for the entire year's Wii sales, now predicting to sell upwards of 16.5 million Wiis by April 2008. What do you think? Can it be done? And what do you get when you remove those pesky production constraints? The company also confirmed nearly twice as many Nintendo DS' sold in the same period (nearly 7 million), and it now thinks it can sell another 19 million this year. Between the two systems and the confirmed million sales of both Super Paper Mario and Mario Party 8 (and a couple little guys named Diamond and Pearl), Nintendo verified it's reaping windfall profits on the order of $666 million in just three months, an increase of 416% over last year. Some out there may think the company's recent success isn't going to last, but Nintendo certainly believes otherwise.
Motorola's profit forecast goes from bad to worse
Maybe the Sidekick Slide is Moto's savior -- then again, maybe it's not -- but either way, the company seems to need a huge hit (or three) in the wings to turn its luck around. In the wake of two hefty rounds of job cuts, Motorola has now announced that it'll lose money in the second quarter and no longer expects its mobile devices unit to turn a profit at all this year, thanks largely to underperforming sales in Europe and Asia. In other news, Garriques' shoes have now been filled by a man going by the name of Stu Reed, apparently some "supply chain executive" who has been tapped to play the next fall guy get this sinking ship back on track. We've said it before and we'll say it again: where's the US version of the Z8, Moto?
Pachter: PlayStation 3 will win next-gen war because of Blu-Ray
The most recent Wedbush Morgan report has been released and in it, Michael Pachter states that he believes that Blu-Ray may actually be the deciding factor in the console wars. At the end of the PS3/Wii/360 generation, he expects Sony to 'win' with a 36% market share, largely due to the strong movie industry support of Blu-Ray.Interestingly though, he also states that this console cycle will essentially be "a dead heat, and each manufacturer will have sufficient market share to generate significant profits." This is great news for videogame fans everywhere, since an evenly divided market will mean that each of the consoles will have a chance to grow and mature as they age. This may be PS3 Fanboy, but I really don't want any of the current consoles to pull a Dreamcast.
Weather forecasts could be aided by sensor-laden aircraft
We know, it's rather disappointing to check the local forecast on your Melitta MS1MSB or Wii weather channel, only to find the conditions completely not as you expected once you stroll outside, but those guesstimates could be getting a bit of help from weather tracking airplanes. Boeing has filed a patent application that would "using airborne radars to measure wind vectors," essentially strapping weather-sensing nodes onto an airplane so that it collects real-time data whilst passing across remote regions of the planet that typically get ignored. Better yet, the data could even be cross-referenced with nearby planes in order to estimate the best actual forecast for a given region based on numerous information sources, potentially yielding a more accurate look at forthcoming weather. Of course, all logic here would point to humanoid meteorologists being established to interpret and disseminate the information, but until all this gets real, we'll be playin' it safe with the weather forecasting umbrella.[Via NewScientistTech]
Nintendo raises profit forecast....again
Nintendo's stock has been going up like ... like, um ... like Apple's stock! But not even the bookies could predict such a dominating performance (sorry, I just couldn't resist that link ... go Gators!), and as such, Nintendo has had to once again raises its profits forecast thanks to extremely strong game sales for both the Nintendo DS and the Wii. How much, you ask? One billion dollars. That's USD, folks.We also have a gem of a quote from one Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo: "Nintendo is going like gangbusters, and the Wii consoles are selling like hotcakes." Gangbusters, huh? According to UrbanDictionary.com, a gangbuster is: "a sexual advance made by someone in an attempt to turn on another person." Hot, Edwin. Very hot.
Wii version of Madden uses Forecast Channel? (update 1)
What started as a rumor has been confirmed to be true: Madden 07 for the Wii uses the Forecast Channel to determine weather for games. That's pretty awesome, if you ask us, as we're from Philly and are very much into sports. Adding another dynamic such as this to the experience can only improve our love for the title as it destroys ceilings and shoots off into the stratosphere.It's all pretty easy, asking that you only set the game to read from the system client and upon starting the game, you'll see your current default city's weather in-game. Cool for us, as weather in Philly ranges, but if you're in some place such as Seattle, well it could get kind of boring after you've played your 8th or so game in a row with rain. Obviously, if your team plays in a dome, this doesn't apply ...[Thanks Brandon!][Update: Looks like we were all fooled! This indeed is not the case and it turns out the person who confirmed this was just lucky the first go around and found it to not consistently work. We apologize for the error.]
Today's hottest game video: Wii forecast channel
What's the Wii weather forecast? Chili today, hot tamale! HO HO HO! Sorry, that's stuck in our head from some really flimsy joke book we read during our childhood. Apparently the joke doesn't really hold up, but it's about the only weather-related joke we've got at the moment. Today's hottest video covers the newly released Wii Forecast channel now gracing screens everywhere. If Nintendo would just release a Murder, She Wrote and a Matlock channel, they could really market this thing to seniors everywhere.Check out the video after the jump, and then look up the Wii-nter weather on a console near you.
How's the weather?
Need to know how it is out there? Just check your Wii. The Forecast channel is now live and active for all your weather-announcing needs. Now you totally have a good reason to stay inside and throw down with some Elebits. "Look! There's a 12% chance of rain -- the Wii told me. How could I brave the outdoors?" We understand.That's not the only update excitement this week for your Wii channels, either -- this Friday, the free trial version of the Opera browser will be available for download. Next June, it'll cost five bucks, but for now, you can check out all the YTMNDs and special photos you want, from the comfort of your Wii. Ain't the Internet grand?[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Sony can make 80,000 bricks
In an interview with CNET News, Bill Gates discusses not only where the company is headed with Windows Vista, but also his feelings on where the Xbox 360 is headed. When asked about the demand for the Playstation 3 and how it effects the Xbox 360's sales, Bill stated that he "wouldn't change positions with them in a million years. I mean, we know what it's like to be a year late. We feel great about the position that we're in." Confidence in the brand and overall outlook... that's what I like to hear Billy! And what does the little analyst inside of you think? Is Microsoft handling the 360 how you would, or do you have some advice for the big wigs up in Redmond HQ?
Many Wii online functions not ready for launch [update 1]
Nintendo announced today in a press release that many of the Wii's online functions would not be available when the system launches in North America on Sunday. The release reveals the forecast channel will debut on Dec. 20, while the news channel (with content from the Associated Press) will debut Jan. 27 of next year. The release also suggested that the Wii's Opera browser would not be available for download immediately, saying "more information about the availability of the browser will be released in the coming weeks."Nintendo did confirm that 12 Virtual Console games would be available on launch day, including Donkey Kong, SimCity, Super Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog and Bomberman '93. The release also confirmed that new VC content would be released every Monday and established pricing for Genesis and Turbo-Grafx games at 800 points ($8) and 600 points ($6) respectively.Of course what is perhaps the key online feature for a game console -- actual online game play -- still won't be available until next year, making a lot of this moot from a certain perspective. Still, this delay in more basic online functionality makes us wonder how well Nintendo's online strategy will be able to go from a practical standing start to keeping up with the big boys.[Thanks Stephen][update: Original article said Jan. 17 for the News Channel launch. This has been fixed above.]
Nintendo lies: DS will only outsell PSP by a 2:1 margin!
Nintendo boldly claimed that the DS was outselling the PSP by a 3:1 margin. Ha! We proved them wrong! They're only going to outsell the system by a 2:1 margin! At least, according to Sony's and Nintendo's projected sales figures. Sony recently lowered its shipment target 25 percent, from 12 million to 9 million. Nintendo, on the other hand, raised its shipment target from 17 million to 20 million.Due to battery explosions, and sluggish games sales, Sony expects a 62 percent drop in profits.[Via Joystiq]
The skinny on Wii Channels
The new interface of the Nintendo Wii is organized into "channels", each containing different services and functions. The English version of wii.com gives a nice summary of the initial channels. Here's what they do: The Disc channel is simply for playing games based off of optical media, i.e. Wii or Gamecube discs. Nothing fancy here. The Mii channel allows a player to create his or her own digital avatar. These avatars will most likely be your online "identity", but will also appear in certain software, such as Wii Sports. The Photo channel is a channel that allows you to view and share digital photos and movies from an external source. The Wii also contains an iPhoto-like functionality, allowing you to touch up, alter, and distort your photos to your heart's content. The Forecast channel will give you a look at local weather. You can also zoom out in a very Google Earth-esque fashion, and view data for pretty much anywhere in the world. The News channel is for, well, news. Various topics will be broken down into topical categories for your viewing pleasure. Remember, this and the weather service are free of charge. The Wii Shop channel is, as expected, the online marketplace for the Wii. You'll mainly be in here buying games for the Virtual Console, but you can also purchase Opera's web browser and whatever else Nintendo decides to charge. Hopefully, extra multiplayer maps and the like will remain free, but we suppose that's up to the publisher. The Virtual Console channels are the channels that allow you to play games from any of the various systems supported: NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, and the TurboGrafx-16. The Internet channel allows one to surf the internet. However, this is not free; an Opera browser must be purchased for a currently unknown price. However, the browser supports Adobe Flash, AJAX software, and essentially every feature a major browser should; it's a nice step up from the DS version. The Message Board channel allows users to post messages on various boards, and send messages or photos directly to PCs or cell phones. This is also the service through which games will be updated and patched. And there you have it! Looks like we're gonna be doing some hardcore channel surfing when the Wii hits the streets.
IFA 2006: Flat panel prices dropping in 2007
No surprise there, but the question is how much? LG was quoted a few days ago as saying they expect LCD prices to plunge as by 30% or more next year, mimicking their behavior in 2006, while today Hitachi says they expect plasmas to drop around 20%. Both have big plans for next year, with LG rolling out their first 47-inch 1080p LCD this year, along with 1080p 65- and 70-inch PDPs, followed by smaller versions of both the LCDs and plasmas next year. Hitachi has a few tricks up their sleeve as well, with their own 50-inch 1080p plasma slated for next year and a high-powered advertising campaign. Still, with so many competitors, both know that increasing production and cutting prices will be the key to keeping/increasing their marketshare. Now the hard part for consumers is knowing when to jump in, that prices have and will continue to drop is nothing new, but even when what is now a brand-new TV is 20% off, you'll have to choose between old technology, a shiny new LED-based set, SED or even something else.Read - LG Elec sees LCD TV prices down 30% plus in 2007Read - Hitachi sees smaller fall in plasma TV prices