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HTC's market capitalization reaches $33.8b, overshadows Nokia and RIM
Nokia once said that going with Android was like "peeing in your pants" for temporary warmth. Well, even if that warmth doesn't last forever, it has now helped one of its upstart competitors, HTC, to rise beyond Nokia in terms of market valuation. This is a somewhat beguiling metric to compare companies by -- market cap measures the value of a company's shares available on the market, and not every company has the same proportion of its overall value available in stocks -- but it illustrates well the diametrically opposite directions in which the two mobile phone makers are moving. Bloomberg informs us that HTC's stock has risen by 33 percent this year, while Nokia's has shrunk by 19 percent. Surpassing Nokia now means HTC is the world's third most valuable smartphone maker. Of course, neither Nokia nor RIM is sitting idly by and letting the Taiwanese whippersnapper have things its own way, however both companies' roadmaps for re-conquering the smartphone high-end seem to stretch far off into the 2012 distance. As for HTC, we expect it to launch another Sensation of a device on Tuesday.
Zynga valuations place company at nearly $10 billion
Earlier this week, casual gaming juggernaut Zynga received yet another outside investment of an undisclosed sum of money. A number of news outlets speculated on the aforementioned sum and what it's done to the company's bottom line -- for instance, the Wall Street Journal (via Develop) reported that the investment was worth $250 million, valuing the company at somewhere between $7 billion and $10 billion. All Things Digital says the investment was for $500 million, and claimed (alongside the New York Times) that the company is worth "nearly $10 billion." Meanwhile, Joystiq.com's gaming industry luminaries have valued the new investment at "many, many millions," placing Zynga's net worth at "the largest number anyone's ever seen or written." Feel free to use those valuations as well, business guys.
Mobclix finds the monthly value of an app user
Mobile advertiser Mobclix put together this infographic supposedly showing the "monthly value of an app user." It's the monthly advertising revenue for each app category listed, divided by the average number of users in a given month. As you can see above, iPhone apps are clearly generating more revenue per user than Android apps across the board, and Utilities apps top the list in terms of monthly value per user, as compared to Entertainment and Games apps. Before you start building an ad-driven Utility app for iPhone, though, don't forget that this chart basically sidelines the population stat. While the "value per user" on Games apps seems low, that's only because there are so many more users in that category. Lots more people, believe it or not, use their smartphones to play games than do actual work. Likewise for the Android listings; we already know that Android mobile app sales aren't quite as high as iPhone app sales, though there are more Android handsets out there than iPhones already. This is more of an interesting look at the people who use the apps. Utilities users on the iPhone tend to be a little more valuable as app users, while Games users are relatively cheap and plentiful. That's a pattern we've seen on platforms before, and things will likely stay that way even as the market for mobile advertising gets even bigger. [via AppAdvice]
Apple's market cap passes $300 billion
After blasting through the $330 per share for Apple's stock today, the company now has a market capitalization valued at around $302 billion dollars. While market cap isn't everything, this is a substantial shift from the way things used to be. Apple used to be the underdog! Remember when Apple was on life support in the '90s after a series of bland and uninspiring CEOs and product lines? Since the return of Steve Jobs and his hand-picked crew of innovators, however, the company has seen a truly remarkable rise in profits and marketshare while expanding into completely new markets for the company. Apple is on the rise in a big way, and if what we saw in 2010 is any indication, 2011 will see even more growth for our favorite mobile device company.
Zalman's SandForce-based N Series SSD drive gets reviewed, patted on the back
Zalman's making an SSD? You betcha, and it's embedding a SandForce SF-1222 controller in its N Series line. That controller has proven to be the go-to one for loads of solid state drives, but Zalman's joining the party a touch late. Unfortunately for it, the MSRPs affixed to the 64GB ($169) and 128GB ($289) versions aren't exactly class-leading, but the benchmarking gurus over at Legit Reviews took it upon themselves to test a 128GB model anyway. After running the gauntlet, the conclusions drawn were fairly predictable: scores were right in line with every other SandForce drive they had tested in recent months, with words like "speedy, resilient, and reliable" detailing the drive. Reviewers did point out that the pricing situation would likely hinder adoption rates, and it's still unclear if a company more closely associated with cooling accessories and cases can stake a claim in the storage realm. Hit the source link for the full skinny if you're edging closer to pulling the trigger.
Rumor: Final Fantasy XIV draws a $26 million ragequit
reddit_url = "http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/10/13/rumor-final-fantasy-xiv-draws-a-26-million-ragequit/"; reddit_target="gaming"; Tweet You may or may not be one of the people unhappy with Final Fantasy XIV in its current state. Certainly the game has both drawn its fair share of ire and praise, and it's hard to picture a launch with more strongly divided opinions. But even if you hate everything the game turned out to be, you have to admit that you can't make quite the spectacle that one unnamed Japanese player did -- a rage-fueled quit that involved selling off $26 million worth of Square-Enix stock as a parting gesture. Square-Enix experienced a definite dip in stock value on the 7th, dropping from 1800 yen a share to 1735 a share before recovering later in the day. According to Japanese sources, this was preceded by a rather angry dispatch from a shareholder explaining that he was so disgusted by Final Fantasy XIV he no longer wanted any of the stock. While there is some debate as to the chain of events and their veracity, it would certainly make this event the ultimate response to the question of "can I have your stuff?" [Thanks to Stormwaltz for the tip!]
ATI CrossFireX versus NVIDIA SLI: performance scaling showdown
We know who the daddy is when it comes to single-card graphics performance, and we've even witnessed NVIDIA and ATI duking it out with multiple cards before, but this here roundup is what you might call comprehensive. Comparing a mind-boggling 23 different configurations, the Tech Report guys set out to determine the best bang for your DirectX 11 buck. Their conclusion won't shock those of you who've been following the recent love affair between reviewers and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460: a pair of these eminently affordable cards regularly outpaced the best single-GPU solutions out there. Slightly more intriguing, however, was the discovery that its elder siblings, the GTX 470 and 480, have improved in performance to the point of being markedly ahead of ATI's Radeon HD 5870, with the blame for this shift being put squarely on the shoulders of NVIDIA's driver update team. Hurry up and give the source a read while it's still fresh, we can't imagine ATI letting this be the status quo for too much longer.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 becomes everyone's favorite midrange graphics card
It's rare to come across a universally lauded product nowadays, but NVIDIA's fresh new GTX 460 is just that sort of exceptional creation. Contrary to its GTX 465 elder brother, the 460 isn't a chopped-down top-tier part and is instead built on the new GF104 core. This smaller core, designed from the start to perform humbler functions, has ameliorated the famed power inefficiency that has been a Fermi signature so far, and has resulted in AnandTech describing the new card as "the $200 king." You'll get 768MB of onboard RAM at that point, but we'd splurge an extra $30 to make that a round gigabyte and enjoy some extra L2 cache and ROPs on the card. Either way, the GTX 460 seems to have completely killed off the market for the 465 and is stepping all over ATI's toes with its competitive pricing and, for once, decent heat and power metrics. Oh, and apparently it "overclocks like a monster" too -- hit the links below for the full reviews. Read - AnandTech Read - HardOCP Read - Hot Hardware Read - Tom's Hardware Read - PC Perspective Read - Bit-tech Read - Guru 3D Read - Legit Reviews
How-to: figure out the best value iPhone 4 contracts in the UK (updated)
Choices, choices. Do you get the 16GB or 32GB iPhone 4? The black one now or the white one a little later? We can't tell you which variant of Apple's next phone will hold its value best over the coming months, but we can try to clear up a bit of the fogginess surrounding price plans on offer from UK networks. Orange and O2 are the first to drop handset pricing and full contract details, but they haven't made it easy for the discerning buyer, with each carrier offering more than a dozen options. Vodafone, T-Mobile, Three, and even Tesco Mobile are set to follow suit in the coming days and weeks, but we thought we'd get the ball rolling with the pair we have now. Update: And just as we publish this, Voda has gone official with its tariffs. We've now broken them down into a more digestible format as well. Just for you. Update 2: Tesco Mobile has also outed its pricing and it's by far the best of the bunch. Check out the full chart inside the post. Update 3: Three's iPhone 4 pricing has now also been made known.
Intel's X25-V and Kingston's SSDNow V Series face off in battle for best value SSD
Got $125 and a burning desire to get in on the SSD fun? Intel and Kingston both have models priced to seduce that cash away from your pocket, and here comes AnandTech with a comparative review to help you make an informed decision. To start off with, Intel's X25-V sports 40GB of storage and is described as a smaller version of the X25-M G2, whereas Kingston's V Series boot drive offers a smaller 30GB capacity but also comes with a fuller upgrade kit. Since this is 2010 and not some prehistoric age, both drives naturally come equipped with Trim support. In benchmark results, Intel's drive took the advantage in the performance of random read/write tasks, but was second best when it came to sequential write jobs. Ultimately, that extra 10GB of storage and the fact you're more likely to capitalize on random, rather than sequential, drive access swung it in favor of the X25-V. Hit up the full review for the more nuanced impressions.
Pricing the tablet: How high can they go?
With the Apple tablet due to be announced next Wednesday, we've been seeing a lot of possible price points thrown around. Will the tablet retail for $999? Or is a $699 or $799 unit in the cards? It's really hard to say because as with all retail, both price and value depend a good deal on supply and demand, as well as on any deals Apple has with potential data providers. Take the iPhone for example you can buy a contract-free 32GB iPhone 3GS at the Apple store, for a rather steep $699. Apple doesn't make this easy for you. I found you had to search by model number (namely 718LL/A, for the screen shot shown here) rather than by the 3GS model name. Apple isn't exactly pushing AT&T-free models at their store, and I think the price here reflects that. You can pick up a 64GB iPod touch for $399 shipped, today. What makes the 32GB iPhone with just half that memory worth $300? In my opinion, it's Apple's way of dissuading customers from purchase. Slap a premium on the price, keep customers away. What's the true value of a phone? An informal survey in the TUAW newsroom came up with a figure of $50, mostly by waving our hands in the air. Looking at standard phones in the market, we decided that $50 could easily cover a retail assessment including 3G data reception, built in GPS, and a built in magnetometer. That would make a "real" market price for the 32GB iPhone hover at about $349, namely the price of a current generation 32GB iPod plus $50 in phone extras, namely half the price of what the current unit sells (or, more likely, and quite deliberately, fails to sell) at. So what does it take to go from a phone to a tablet? And I say phone, because I think it's likely that the tablet will ship with some sort of data plan option. I think the same sort of math applies. I wouldn't be surprised to see a $999 tablet be announced next Wednesday with a $699 deal for anyone who signs up for a two year data plan at, say, $39.99/month. In other words, I think it could be likely that Apple will push high on their initial price, moving that price downwards as early adopters give way to regular consumers later this year during pre-Christmas Q4 sales. As much as I want my $699 contract-free tablet, I don't think Apple's is anywhere near being on board with that low number. So what's your take on this? What will be the contract-free price? What kind of discount do you anticipate if the tablet comes with a data plan, and what monthly charge do you think the market is willing to take on for that data access? Let us know in the comments.
Save a little on your existing AT&T iPhone plan
Update: It appears that this post describes a sponsorship discount (business/school/etc). Those users get a percentage off of their monthly plan ($29.99 voice plan and iPhone data charge excluded). Those who do not see this as an option lack the corporate discount; those who do are seeing what the monthly service cost is after the discount is applied.Go here to see if you qualify for the corporate discount.Note that this discount only applies to the voice plan and not to the iPhone data plan. Nor does it apply to the additional lines in a family plan.Looking to save a little on your monthly iPhone rates? AT&T just announced a price break but you do have to opt-in. It's not automatic. You can save from $6/month on the Nation 450 with rollover up to $12/month on the Nation 1350. The Unlimited plan remains unaffected.So what's the downside of all this? You may lose some or all of your rollover minutes by converting to the new plan price. So check the fine print before you click Submit. Any existing corporate or student discounts remain unaffected. If you're already receiving a 15% discount, for example, you'll continue to do so after the change. The iPhone data plan for $30 is not altered in any way.The rate change takes effect immediately. Your current month will be pro-rated up to the date of change, the old charges affecting everything up to your change date, the new charges thereafter. AT&T warns that you may not be able to view your yet-unbilled usage for the remainder of the billing cycle, but you can call and talk to an AT&T representative if you need that information.[Thanks, Dale Gattis]
In-app purchases not so hot for some developers
PocketGamer.biz has an interesting interview up with Pangea, makers of the iPhone physics puzzle game Enigmo, and they say that so far, their experience with in-app purchases has been pretty lukewarm. The software itself has sold over a million copies, but only a very small number of those customers are going for the in-app purchases -- about 25 per day, according to Pangea's Brian Greenstone. 25 per day may not be bad for a smaller developer, but Greenstone says he "was expecting hundreds."Why aren't the microtransactions doing so hot? It's going to take time, first of all -- customers need to learn the value of picking up content piece by piece, and developers need to learn exactly how to price and plan the stuff out. On an established download service like Xbox Live, add-ons and content packs have become de rigueur, though some of those battles are still being fought. But on the App Store, not only are prices still up in the air, but in-app purchases are hard to find, and they're all over the map in terms of value versus investment.Greenstone seems to believe what I'd tend to agree with: that after all of the dust has settled, customers will pay for content that's worth paying for -- he's just given up on worrying about pricing, and is focused on delivering content that's worth whatever he wants to charge. Eventually, both devs and customers will settle on a fair price, and when that happens, I'm sure we'll see some major in-app purchase sales.
The Daily Grind: What is your MMO time worth?
Tobold wrote an interesting blog post the other day about the value of time and gaming. In an earlier post, he mentioned that he had spent over 4,579 hours playing World of Warcraft since release. In another, he proclaimed his intentions to spend $100 on Free Realms in its first week. For some reason, his readers reacted more strongly to the FR post than the WoW one.The reaction seems a bit strange when you consider what Tobold must have spent on his WoW subscription over the years. It's even stranger still when you consider what he could have earned or accomplished if even half those hours were spent on some kind of side job or other "productive" activity. On a purely entertainment level, he's probably getting a pretty good deal in both WoW and FR based on the money he pay to play and you can't work all the time if you want a healthy lifestyle.We're curious; when it comes to gaming, what is your time worth? Do you take too much, too little, or a balanced amount of downtime for gaming and why?
The Daily Grind: Would a cheaper subscription get you playing more?
Let's face it - things are rough insofar as the general economy goes. People are being much more cautious with their cash, and especially now, they want much more value for their dollar when it comes to entertainment spending. What used to be OK at $15 may no longer be such a good deal, and with more free-to-play games coming all the time, players have a lot more options for entertainment. In the comments for the poll we ran the other morning, there were some who noted that they've kept Lord of the Rings Online accounts in part because they felt it was a good value for an MMO. Others noted that they've switched to free-to-play games like Runes of Magic, or pay-once like Guild Wars to get their gaming on. Beyond that I also know a few parents who have opted to switch to FusionFall for family gaming, since it gives you the ability to have four different accounts for $9.95 a month. With that under consideration, this morning we thought we'd ask you - would a cheaper subscription cost for MMOs across the board (say, all of them drop to the $9.95 model of Lord of the Rings Online - or maybe even offer some lifetime options) get you to play more games - or perhaps jump around and try out other games? Would a cheaper subscription rate bring you back to a game account you may have let lapse due to harder times?
Is right now the best time to buy a new HDTV?
A perfect storm of the slow economy and seasonal affect of new televisions coming in while old models still sit unsold is making right now the time to buy, according to the L.A. Times. It's the answer to the question many of us are constantly asked "when can I get the best deal?" and there's plenty of answers, Black Friday, Super Bowl, or right now during the slow period, but strictly on a dollar sense, from now through the next several months is generally easy picking for bargain hunters, with clearances driving prices low if you can manage to resist the pull of brand new models with their slick features sitting right next to the ones on sale. Any tips on where to look, or at least self control before we pass our own stimulus package?
What's the best HTPC under $3,000?
We had a lively Ask Engadget HD this week, so figured we'd point our dear readers in the direction of Engadget Classic for another HD-related inquiry. This week's question is about HTPCs, particularly ones that won't absolutely shatter the bank. We know you've got some creative thoughts as to how to get a robust system without blowing north of three large, so head on over and chime in, won't you?
Blizzard: World of Warcraft will do fine, global economic collapse be damned
Alright, so the sky is falling. Pretty soon, the world will be dominated by mohawks, black leather and hand-built muscle cars in a never-ending deathmatch over who gets to eat the roadkill. Okay, maybe it won't be that bad -- but unless you've been stranded on a desert island for the past year, you know that there's a global economic crisis going on. But worry not: MMOs -- World of Warcraft in particular -- will be just fine, according to Blizzard Executive VP Rob Pardo.He said that WoW is immune to economic downturn because it offers an excellent bargain: "People might not want to go out to the movies and spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertainment if you're staying at home more." A comparable situation from history: during the Great Depression, movies in the United States were only a nickel -- far cheaper than competing, live forms of entertainment, so the movie industry thrived. In fact, some folks credit the Great Depression as a contributor to the rise of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Think the same'll happen to MMOs if this gets bad?
Consumers delaying Blu-ray purchases, can't find value proposition
You just have to love the mixed messages, don't you? On one hand, you've got research asserting that Blu-ray simply isn't gaining the desired amount of traction since the demise of HD DVD; on the other, you've got numbers showing that BD adoption actually is on the up and up. So, which is it? According to a hot-out-of-the-oven study by ABI Research, consumers in America are still procrastinating when it comes to buying into Blu-ray. Over half of the 1,000 respondents noted that they had "no plans to purchase one," with 23% suggesting that they might take the plunge in 2009. Principal analyst Steve Wilson, in our estimation, nails the reason right on the head: consumers can't see why Blu-ray is worth the extra coin over DVD. Let's face it -- VHS to DVD was entirely more dramatic than DVD to Blu-ray, and for folks still watching an SDTV, Blu-ray isn't even a consideration. Slow and steady, BD, slow and steady.[Image courtesy of WikInvest]
Ask Engadget HD: Is switching from cable to satellite worth it?
As if it wasn't apparent enough from our breakdown of HD carriers earlier this year, the two satcasters here in the US have a dominant lead in HD offerings. Still, the abundance of high-def material comes at a cost, and it's a price many are hesitant to pay for fear of stepping too far out of their comfort zone. According to Sam: "Now that DirecTV is almost at 100 national HD channels, I'm this close to cutting my cable off and making the switch. However, I'm terrified of hidden installation costs (fishing cables, etc.), punching all sorts of new holes in my home, locking myself into a contract and having to pay a non-discounted rate to keep my cable internet around without bundled HD service. There seems to be so many drawbacks to getting a dish -- is it really worth it?" We have no doubts that many of you have indeed pulled the trigger in a similar situation, and we're equally sure that a large chunk of you have decided to play it safe and stick with fewer HD channels (and fewer battle scars on your siding). We can definitely see this one getting heated, but make sure you speak your mind on the matter in comments below.[Image courtesy of Flickr]Got a burning question that you'd love to toss out for Engadget HD (or its readers) to take a look at? Tired of Google's blank stares when you ask for real-world experiences? Hit us up at ask at engadgethd dawt com and keep an eye on this space -- your inquiry could be next.
