Items tagged with prices
Are you starting to run low on storage space? Before you bite the bullet and pay an inflated price for another hard drive to store your expanding collection of lolcats or whatever else it is that's hogging your HDD, you might want to consider hanging tight for another month. If you can, you could end up saving as much as 10 percent on your HDD purchase. According to news and rumor site DigiTimes, the Taiwan market is getting ready to drop the price of hard drives by around 10 percent at the end of April. It's a move that, in part, is intended to promote sales, as buyers have been hesitant to stock up on storage ever since severe flooding in Thailand disrupted the HDD manufacturing business and...
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The arrival of Kepler was a double-win for consumers. First, NVIDIA's highly anticipated GeForce GTX 680 graphics card upped the pixel pushing performance ante and took pole position as the fastest single-GPU card on the planet, pulling ahead of AMD's Radeon HD 7970 videocard in almost every situation (check out our review here). And secondly, NVIDIA managed to undercut the competition by pricing its GeForce GTX 680 at $500. That's hardly chump change, but hey, it's $50 cheaper than the competition's flagship GPU. The question is, can we expect a price war to ensue? Conventional wisdom says that AMD has to lower the price of its HD 7970 part because it's no longer the fastest option out there,...
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Enjoying that old school MEdia Net data plan on your feature phone or smartphone? Get ready to kiss it goodbye should you ever choose to upgrade to a new phone. Proving once again that all good things must eventually end, AT&T has today made clear that any phone that it deems a "smartphone" will be subject to the same $30/month data plan that iPhone and BlackBerry users currently endure.In other words, any Palm, Windows Mobile or Symbian S60-based phone that is purchased from AT&T will have to be paired with a $30/month data plan. And yes, that includes the incredible small Nokia Surge, which is absolutely no a smartphone by anyone's definition other than AT&T's. Of course, if you...
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Microsoft introduced its latest Zune models, as well as the version 3.0 update of its software in September. And here we are, already facing a price cut, and a pretty good one at that. Although Microsoft would like to call it a holiday price cut, one would have to wonder if the difficult economy, which has led to some pretty sad forecasts from retailers, has anything to do with this.Just FYI, these cuts are only for flash-based Zunes and accessories. According to the official Zune blog, the prices, starting tomorrow, will be as follows:Zune 4GB - $99.99 (-$30)Zune 8GB - $139.99 (-$10)Zune 16GB - $179.99 (-$20)Car Pack - $69.99 (-$10)Home/AV Pack - $59.99 (-$20)Dock Pack - $39.99 (-$10)Note that...
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If you are thinking of taking advantage of Circuit City's closing of 155 retail store locations to score a sweet deal on a new HDTV, the folks over at HD Guru warn that not only are deals not to be had, but that you might actually wind up paying more for it and potentially taking home a lemon. HD Guru visited a Circuit City in Massapequa, New York that is closing, to investigate what deals were to be had. What they found was alarming. At this particular Circuit City location, HDTVs were being sold at ten percent off "pre-closeout" prices. The only problem is that the pre-closeout prices were actually jacked-up from what Circuit City sell the same HDTV models for on CircuitCity.com. The end result...
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According to reports, Comcast is set to unveil new speed tiers and prices to go along with them. This will go well with the new metered use that went into effect on Oct. 1st: it will mean you can reach your 250 GB cap faster. At any rate, DSL Reports says they have exclusive info about the new tiers, which will be the following: Economy: Unchanged at $24.95 for 768 kbps down/384 kbps up.Performance: 6/1 Mbps will now get 12/2 Mbps for $42.95 a month.Performance: 8/2 Mbps will get 16/2 for $52.95 a month.Ultra: 22/5 Mbps for $62.95 a month. (Will update to 30/5 Mbps.)Extreme Fifty: 50/10 Mbps for $139.95The Ultra and Extreme 50 tiers will obviously require new DOCSIS 3.0 modems. And they won't...
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DRAM prices have been at incredibly low levels for so long that it's hard to imagine that they'll stay this way forever. So how long will this trend continue? Apparently a year or more if the analysts are on target:The current DRAM downturn will likely last more than a year and possibly two, said Simon Woo, memory chip analyst at Merrill Lynch, at a conference in Taipei last week."It's longer than expected," he said, comparing it to the DRAM industry crunch of 1997-1998, which lasted nearly two years.This is excellent news for anyone building or upgrading, especially if you're planning on going with a 64-bit OS....
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Microsoft announced it was lowering Windows Vista prices last Thursday. While the price cuts aren't scheduled to go into effect until the release of Service Pack 1 (SP1), Microsoft had said that many retailers would be offering promotions that would drop Vista to its new lower prices.But the ad at OfficeMax took things a step further. In this week's circular, the office products chain is selling Windows Vista Home Premium for $99. That's $30 less than Microsoft's just-lowered price and the same as the suggested price for Windows Vista Home Basic--though perhaps just a hair more than the clearance prices a couple weeks back at closing CompUSA stores.The question now is just how low will Vista...
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Microsoft sells the vast majority of its Windows Vista operating systems pre-installed on new machines. In a bid to expand the customer base of Vista users to include people still using the XP OS, plus new adopters like those that build their own PCs and need to purchase an OS at retail, Microsoft has announced a fairly steep price reduction in various versions of Vista.The price cuts vary by market but in general will range from 20 to 40 percent. In the U.S., an upgrade from earlier versions of Windows to Vista Home Premium will cost $130, compared with the current $160. A full version of the top-end Vista Ultimate edition will sell for $320, down from $400.The new prices will take effect with...
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Since Amazon MP3 opened, it's been obvious that Apple would have to respond to its lower prices, and they have, by lowering prices on its unprotected music files to match at 99 cents.While there is no reason to think that Amazon has taken the market by storm, it’s clear that it is a competitive force. If iPod users decide to try Amazon’s store in order to save 30 cents a track, suddenly the iTunes would become less central to the online music business. Nothing would do more to please the music labels, which have been increasingly concerned that Apple is dictating the terms of their business.Amazon still has advantages, with MP3 format vs AAC, and with tracks from Universal Music Group. ...
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Despite the recent defection of NBC Universal, which may in fact been as a result of negotiations including this option, Apple is trying to lower the price of video downloads on iTunes. Their proposed new price would be 99 cents / TV episode. There are reasons for the network's unease. For example, DVD sales of television shows have become an important part of overall revenue. Variety offered one example where NBC's Heroes DVD currently retails for $40 in stores. Including 23 episodes, on iTunes it would currently cost $45.77 to purchase all of them. After the change, that cost would be $22.77, much cheaper than the DVD. Customers could opt for the cheaper download...
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Netflix has recently lowered their prices for 3 DVDs to $16.99, and for a select few (million) customers, they’re trying a lower price point of $15.99 to see where the ‘sweet spot’ is.These price cuts come on the heels of Blockbuster acquiring Movielink earlier this month, a move that many claim will be a major part of Blockbuster’s strategy to compete with the well entrenched Netflix. “Hey, keep those price reductions coming, Netflix! Pretty soon, they'll be giving them away. We have a price war on our hands between Netflix and Blockbuster, folks, and it looks like we movie buffs will be the winners.” It seems that a major price war is starting up, and that’s nothing but good for consumers....
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If you’re looking to build an AMD powered system, you might want to hold out a short while as we are very likely to see revised CPU prices from the Sunnyvale based chip maker. “AMD Monday will slash prices by as much as 30 percent on its Athlon 64 X2 dual-core microprocessor series, according to a system builder with a long-standing business relationship with the chip giant. The system builder, who preferred to remain anonymous, said manufacturer prices for the top-of-the-line Athlon 64 X2 6000+ would drop from $241-per-unit to about $170. The price of an Athlon 64 X2 4000+ would be cut from about $90 to $69, he said” Less than $200 for a 6000+ is just great deal any way you look at it....
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As a result of the speculated rise in price of computer memory chips, shares of Samsung, Hynix, and other major producers rose today. Shares of South Korean company Samsung, the largest producer of DRAM in the world, rose 1.2% today, whereas the runner-up, Hynix, also based in Korea, climbed 4.3%. Other companies including Powerchip, Nanya, and Inotera experienced gains similar to Samsung’s. "Prices of the benchmark chip yesterday rose for the first time in a week on the spot market, helping fuel optimism computer makers are buying DRAM ahead of back-to-school and Christmas demand during the second half. Prices have plunged more than 60 percent this year, eroding earnings at companies such...
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Intel Corp. made an announcement today to cut prices for some processors over a period of three months starting next month in order to regain market share from AMD Inc. Intel plans on reducing the price of the Core 2 Quad processor by 50% on July 22. The move will pressure AMD to reduce prices too and probably comes as a response to the upcoming launch of AMD’s own quad-core processors, the Phenom, which will arrive in the second half of 2007. "Last year, a price war led to a 42 percent decline in annual profit at Intel and a $166 million loss at Advanced Micro.""Advanced Micro Chief Marketing Officer Henri Richard said last week that he was 'concerned' that Intel would cut prices of quad-core...
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Sony has recently cut $100 off its BDP-S300 Blu-ray DVD player, which has fallen to an unprecedented price of $499, about half of what it cost six months ago at its introduction. The price cut comes in response to growing demand for new technology and lower production costs, according to Sony. However, Sony's rival Toshiba is asking less than $300 for its next generation HD DVD player. "Both companies have struggled to win customers for their respective systems as the battle of the formats is causing confusion, according to analysts." "They believe customers will wait to see which one the market will settle for in an echo of the 1980s Betamax-VHS videotape battle."...
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Experts believe that DRAM prices are near rock bottom. Inventories remain strong, which means that prices are not likely to increase significantly anytime soon. As DRAM prices increased just slightly on Thursday and Friday, shares of Samsung, the number 1 DRAM chip maker, rose 3.9%. Other major DRAM manufacturers, including Hynix, Elpida Memory, and Nanya saw similar increases. The fact that share values are so senstive to DRAM market prices may be a sign that prices have bottomed out. "Shares of Asian chipmakers rallied on Friday as spot prices for computer memory chips gained, fanning speculation that the market may have bottomed out." "If inventories...
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AMD got a little buzz last week when they talked about the bigtime capabilities of their next-generation processors, code-named Barcelona, due out later this year. As usual, Intel doesn't hesitate to ramp up the pressure on their competitor, and is planning huge price cuts on their existing versions of quad-core processors for desktops and servers. According to DailyTech, the price cuts will kick in on July 22nd. The first part of the price cuts will center on Intel's quad-core desktop processors. The Q6600, which Intel launched in February, currently sells for $530 in quantities of 1000. When the product was originally launched, it was priced at $851 in quantities of 1000. The...
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Are you holding off on buying RAM because prices keep going down, while at the same time major players continually release faster modules? If so, you'll want to read this article that ExtremeTech wrote on the subject: "A new report from market research firm DRAMeXchange says that DRAM contract prices may finally hit bottom sometime during the second half of 2007. After sliding to roughly $20 in the second half of April, DRAM contract prices will likely decline even more before the PC selling season ramps up and demand increases, the DRAMeXchange report said. To date, the research firm said that the pricing environment for the market has remained stagnant because of sluggish demand over the...
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Intel announced price cuts, as much as 40%, on both its desktop and server processors. Rival chipmaker AMD announced a 611 million dollar loss for the first quarter already. Someone please take AMD's belt and shoelaces away for the rest of the week. For the desktop market, the Core 2 Quad Q6600 has fallen in price to US$530 while CPUs in the Core 2 Duo E6X00-series have been cut by up to 40%. Intel also introduced two new processors, the E6420 and E6320, which share equivalent features to the similarly numbered E6400 and E6300 CPUs but have an increased L2 cache of 4MB. Entire list after the jump. What do you think? Do you like the idea of AMD challenging Intel enough...
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The good news: Prices going down... The bad news: This is for owners who have already purchased a license. "One of the best things about Windows Vista's new packaging is the fact that all retail versions of the OS are on one disc. If you have one copy of Vista, you have the code for almost all of the other versions. That's the driving force behind Anytime Upgrade, and it's also the reason why Microsoft is now trying to entice consumers into buying discounted licenses. This past week the company announced the Windows Vista Additional License program, which provides discounts to customers who have already purchased either a retail or an OEM edition...
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It's a fairly safe assumption that both AMD and Intel have a good idea what is going on with the other company, especially when it comes to products that are due to see the light of day soon. This means that Intel probably has a very good idea of what to expect from AMD quad-core CPUs that are due out in few short months. So what does Intel think of Barcelona? Well, according to this DailyTech article, it seems that Intel has abandoned a 2.13GHz quad-core CPU and is now planning on bumping their existing mid-high end 2.4GHz chip down in price, possibly even cheaper than they had planned on for the 2.13GHz. If all this ends up coming about the way DailyTech says it might, then it would seem...
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