Roaming Fees May Apply...

so the tgs wkend has completed and there was no annoucement about the psp price, although sony said they would wait until after the show to gauge audience response to the game demos. today's new york times published a story which speaks of specualtion about a $250+ price point..over $100 more than a nintendo ds. other interesting info in the article is the subject of whether or not the added value of playing a movie or listening to music justifies a $250+ price point, especially considering that most of today's youth has portable music solutions and that most people, in a situation with a psp, would most likely rather play a game than watch a movie.

this is great. check out the demo stations for the psp showcase prior to the tokyo game show.

im not sure if ive posted any metrics for this week, but i stumbled across this old newsbite from earlier this month.

mobile phone gaming has been a hot topic (i recently mentioned the work that nvidia is doing in the areas of mobile phone GPUs) and here is why:

"Researcher Strategy Analytics predicts that the mobile gaming market will show impressive growth over the next five years, expanding from 32 million global users in 2004 to 220 million in 2009. The mobile gaming market is expected to reach $8 billion in the next five years. Downloadable games are expected to generate more than 82 percent of the market's revenues. The number of BREW- and Java-enabled handsets is also expected to explode from 186 million units in 2004 to more than 1 billion in 2009."

this number is tremendous. this article goes into greater detail about the value of the marketplace and how VCs are making investments into this space.

how's this for confidence? squaresoft, the publisher of the final fantasy franchise of videogames has announced that an upcoming title will only be available for the DoCoMo network in Japan..that's right, its only meant for mobile phones - not consoles.

in other news, the japanese equivalent of the e3 show is taking place right now in tokyo. the "tokyo game show" is taking place over the weekend. so far we have heard the nintendo ds lauch plans have been released but still no word on the sony psp launch plans. as for next generation consoles, no news yet - but none is expected. news can be followed here.

wouldnt it be a great move for xbox to announce the next gen xbox in japan - in an appeal to win fans in this unsupportive market?

in one day the combined release of the star wars trilogy dvds and sw:battlefront (videogame) netted over $115 million in retail sales. thats quite an awesome story.

and in case you missed him, here are the photos of chewbacca touring the world in support of the releases.

i've been a strong critic about mobile phone games. while i believe that the marketplace is out there, i dont necessarily think that the quality of games that are available are anythign to get excited about. in fact, the ngage doesnt even offer anything that is very exciting and this is a game/phone hybrid - not a pureplay.

what will make mobile phone games exciting to diehards, and to developers (which will then make publishers and carriers excited) is when the gpus inside the phones get real and can process graphics at contemporary desktop speeds without sucking down power. nvidia has been moving very aggresively in this space as they see real opportunity.

sony has officially announced a re=designed ps2 unit. its about 30% smaller and includes a built-in ethernet and modem connection for online games. no official pricing yet for the US but a november 1 release date for the US has been confirmed. pictures and the press release have been posted by lik-sang.

on the ds front, lots to report as nintendo has announced a launch date of 11/21 in the US with a $149.99 price point. the most interesting news is the confirmation that the system will launch in the US before it is released in japan...here is a quote from ign:

"Nintendo chose the United States to lead the worldwide launch of Nintendo DS because of overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic reaction from consumers and to take advantage of the holiday sales season. After the subsequent launch in Japan, the system will be available in Europe and Australia in the first quarter of 2005."

finally, some confirmation! bbc news is reporting that in-flight cell phone use is not dangerous!

according to the report, mobile phones do not interfere with in-flight navigation systems. the report is based on a two year study by the european commission and airbus. during the research, tests were performed where mobile phone users had their calls switched to ground based relay stations. on the plane itself was a "picocell" which acted as a mini cell tower to provde service to all in-flight users.

Airbus is readying technology to support in-flight mobile phone service in its planes by 2006.

hmm..word on the street is that retailers can't get their hands on ps2 units..this couldnt come at a more interesting time as q4 approaches and "must play" titles begin to ship (GTA: SA, Def Jam 2, Star Wars Battlefront, THUG 2, KillZone, etc.). why is there a sudden drop in supply? it could be sony clearing their inventory as they prepare to releases a new system design, similar to the PSone.

this system would be a scaled down (in terms of system size) version of the ps2 with a built-in network adapter and possibly retail for around $150. this release makes sense as the ps2 is now into its 4th year of production and system parts have become highly optimized and more financially efficient. what isnt consistent is this model as compared to the launch of the PSone. when the PSone was launched in 2000, the ps2 was already announced...

ive spent some time catching up on some news over the past 2 weeks and have found some interesting things..

wi-philly. an ambitious program has been announced in philadelphia for a city wide, municipal wi-fi network. it has a lot of benefits including: appeals to tourists, students, business travelers, provides bandwidth for schools, businesses, coffee shops and restaurants that dont have exclusive t-mo deals, and it also helps bridge the digital divide. they seems to have plans in place for how to distribute the revenue derived from the program.

ngage at one million. nokia has shipped its one million ngage, and they claim that the margin between the shipments and the sales is shortening. they say one million handsets is enough to be "mainstream" in the wireless space, but those of us in the US would have to rack their brains for a memory of seeing someone on a ngage.

tivo and netflix are talking partnership. not sure how this will work but i'll be the acquisition of strangeberry will have something to do with it.

nokia and blackberry are extending their relationship by integrating the blackberry connect software into their new mobile communicator. apparently the blackberry email client is better than any symbion client.

psx is a failure. prices have been cut in japan as apparently the unit at its current price is drawing very little appeal.

in case you didnt know, microsoft now has the patent for tabbing through a web page. so remember to mail them your money after you hit the key to the next link.

it was bound to happen and it seems like we will be hearing a lot about the threats of WiMAX to wi-fi as we know it. this article from slate talks about how the long range coverage offered by wi-max will give service conglomerates the opportunity to spread their network over a highly populated area with minimal equipment. with coverage like this, who is going to need wi-fi...simply turn on your computer and you are on. this makes perfect sense if you do not travel a lot for buisness and already have other bundled services from the same provider.

but what does this mean to free wireless internet access? the local coffee shop? the guy who lives above starbucks and decides to offer free service to his network so you dont have to pay for t-mo..well, i suppose that we will still have our movements..the war drivers and the war chalkers...

walmart has accidently, prematurely published its pre-order page for the nintedo ds system. according to the page (which is still available here), it will retail for just below $200. walmart is discounting the product down to $199.82.

the page also lists a retail shipping/availability date of 11.30.04. this is about two weeks later than earlier reports which had the ds shipping within 3 days of the japan launch date.

walmart is claiming that the ds shipments will be limited in quantity. in addition, there are no games or accessory offers that accompany the product listing.

nintendo officials claim that there is no official launch date or price. what does this mean? ive worked with walmart in the past, and ive found that whatever they say, tends to go. $200. bet on it.

according to engadget, rumors are pointing towards an october release of the treo 650. apparently, palmone has begun to receive their internal, immediate shipments of the smartphone from their taiwanese manufacturer (HTC).

there's been a lot of excitement in the mobile marketplace recently as handset manufacturers are jumping on the GSM/802.11x dual platform functionality bandwagon.

why all of the hype? well, with companies like vonage getting a lot of exposure these days (through press and advertising), mainstream consumers are starting to understand what voIP is and what the benefits are: cheaper service, little to no taxes, advanced features all at a really low price.

if you dig deeper into the advanced features, companies like vonage offer the opportunity to "roam" with your voIP account..which would mean that you can tap into a hotel broadband system or even go into a starbucks (with hotspot location) and assume home phone service.

combine that with the recenct trend of people removing their home landlines in favor of their cell phone service. what's their reasoning? unnecessary taxes, service fees, and long distance charges..however, the call quality of a landline is far superior than a cell phone call. what vonage and its competitors offer is a somewhat reliable service (its there when your broadband connection is up..which for most people is about 99.99%) and call quality better than cell phone service. vonage services can cost as low at $19.95 a month for service plans that include hundreds of minutes, free long distance, free call waiting, call forwarding, voice mail and more, and no taxes!

dual platform phones will allow customers who have voIP accounts to utilize the followign scenarios:

- use one phone handset at home for home line and mobile phone calls
- use their mobile handset at hotspot locations to simulate their home line (and take advantage of a cheaper calling plan)

its all very interesting and im sure the phones will have initial power issues, but with so many companies jumping into this, im sure we will see some great products in the next 12-18 months. look to ericsson to be the early leader because of early chipset design innovations (still looking for a link here).

in other news, the register has a nice recap on the news that leaked last week about the failed meetings between steve jobs and sony.

interesting news story coming out of tokyo about how steve jobs approached nobuyuki idei of sony and offered him a partnership deal in the itunes music store service. according to the report, apple and sony would have shared joint operations responsibilities for the service. such an alliance would have given apple a stronger foothold in the music content business, a chance to expand compatibility and technology formats with sony products (ie through NetMD based products), and some marketshare to further impending threats from microsoft in the music space.

in other mac related news, HP has launched the "hp+ipod" product which is basically, an ipod that you buy from HP. there doesnt seem to be any design change to represent a special edition so i'm not quite sure what the marketing hook is. however, i do think the move was a good decision by apple. they were able to line up with an excellent value PC maker who does high volume home/small office sales. i havent looked at the numbers, but im sure that HP sells more small to mid-range home computers than apple sells..therefore, there is a chance to tie ipod sales to all of these initial purchases. hp has also done a very good jojb of branding the home digital experience with its cameras, scanners and printers. the fact that there is some sort of connection (albeit a non-visual one) between HP and the ipod makes it more likely that someone will choose the product over a competitive music player product as it may fit in the HP digital experience that the consumer is buying into.

it looks as if HP launched their campaign during last sunday's mtv video music awards. the spot is interesting and touch on the trend of customization.

im a bit embarassed that i havent seen this site before. nintendo teased attendees at this year's E3 show with their "start mayhem" creative campaign and recently they have begun a top 10 market outdoor media buy. the web site is great as they build upon the equity established by the fact that the gba has unique colors and therefore unique personalities.

the site was launched yesterday to promote a major price cut of their gameboy advance sp. the price is now $79, down from $99. while its obvious that nintendo is looking to clear inventory and establish the low end of the price spectrum for their portable game systems before the launch of the DS, dropping the price will lure fence sitters over to the gameboy advance camp..especially because the DS will be beackward compatible to play GBA games.

at $79 apiece, i think its time for the "flame red" edition that everyone wants, but can't seem to find a rational reason to buy because they already own platinum.

in other gameboy news, its nice to know that the GBA was allowed in the rnc.

although i've only been back in the city since late tuesday night/early wednesday morning, i have to say that i've felt zero discomfort or radical change with the convention being in town. the only thing ive seemed to notice are:

• the frequent buzz of helicopters at night
• the fuji blimp, in use by the NYPD, hovering above the city with an unreadably NYPD logo on it (so much for good branding guidelines)
• the "express lanes" for emergency vehicles in midtown. not quite sure if these are for the NYPD, FDNY, or the GOP

i was told by a friend that union square was quite busy on monday, but i went over there today, and took some photos of the scene. there was a lot of calm protesting going on and i did happen to see a great sign: WMD WTF? gotta love that one. there are quite a few web galleries out there with some photo documenatries of the ongoing protests..one can be found here.

all in all, i don't smell the fear, feel the panic, or seem to be annoyed by all the people in town. in fact, a couple of friends have attended some unexpected parties and have had a great time with a lot of "southern hospitality."

one day before the launch of the "msn music" retail site (for digital downloads), apple has announced an itunes affiliate program. apple will provide commissions to web sites who provide links over to songs available for sale at the itunes music store.

apple is obviously looking to its affinity market to build on the power the exists in its cultural base to fight off the scale that microsoft possesses as it enters into the foray of digital music downloads. microsoft with its (conservative) estimated 90% share of the home computer market has the power to crush apple in regards to reach, scale, and market share and represents the first legitimate threat to apple's itunes music store.