When I purchased my Xbox 360 I ponied up the extra cash to get a hard drive. Honestly, I think it was something of a mistake for them to release a SKU without the HDD, but I understand why they decided to do it. What I don’t understand is why it costs so much to add a new drive to your Core system. Well the analysts at iSuppli have dug deep and have discovered the breakdown of where your money is going. Hit the jump for the details.
Samsung has reiterated its commitment to AMOLED display technology, claiming the panels will reach an economy of scale in terms of production sometime during 2009. According to Woo-Jong Lee, who is VP of Samsung SDI’s mobile display marketing team, medium and large scale applications will become increasingly relevant for the technology, as production ramps up and cost-per-unit becomes more realistic. In fact production costs are currently the primary issue with AMOLED manufacture; Samsung SDI has a current capacity of 1.5m a year.
There has been a lot of criticism of the used game business by big players in the industry. Mostly it is argued that studios lose money when people buy used copies of games, rather than brand new copies from the store. However, at least one market researcher claims that it is the exact opposite.
And in his place COO Greg Brown will be stepping up. Zander is stepping down on his terms and chose to use the end of the first quarter where Motorola saw a profit as a good time to announce it.
I knew Motorola wasn’t doing too good because they haven’t released a hot product in a long time, but I had no idea it was this bad. It seems like the CEO’s of the entire mobile industry are stepping down, except in the companies that made money like ATT, Samsung, and HTC.
I enjoy my Xbox 360, it sees a lot more action these days because I can play Guitar Hero on it. However, despite the fact that it’s a generation (not to mention many years) old, I still love my PlayStation 2. It has been a faithful console, and has been with me for many years. Unfortunately, according to analysts, the console may finally be put out to pasture.
I’ve made tentative plans to have my body opened up (after my death, of course) and each of the constituent parts valued; that way people will know just how much has been spent on me compared to my inherent worth. After all, it’s an indignity most new iPod models suffer: research firm iSuppli have been poking around in the cramped innards of a new nano and found that, thanks to some canny parts juggling, Apple have reduced build cost by over $13 from previous models. Turns out that the 4GB nano you pay $150 for has less than $60 worth of components, while the $200 8GB version has under $83.
When I was sitting here yesterday covering Apple’s big event I heard that they dropped the price on the 8GB iPhone. I was ecstatic, Apple had found some way to drop the price of their phone to make it more affordable for the average Joe. Unfortunately, I was one of the few that saw this as a good thing.
With the 60GB PS3 dying off, analysts have begun to speculate what will happen to that $499 price point. Will Sony drop the price of the 80GB to fill the void, or will they just forget about it?
So the PS3 is getting a nice $100 price cut in August, Xbox 360s just got their warranties extended, and now Microsoft is rumored to cut prices soon. Man, it’s a good time to be a gamer.
We’ve been hearing reports that the Xbox 360 failure rate is as high as 30%. From what I’ve heard from other gamers, that unfortunately sounds pretty close to the mark. I love my 360, and I do my best to take care of it, but I always worry that one day it will bite the dust. With the failure rate that high on the Xbox, it makes us wonder what kind of failure rate the PS3 has.
SlashGear Japan
