I worked at CompUSA for 2 years, and while that is true for some products, other times it is not. With desktops and notebooks, we usually had models in the store before the manufacturer even had them listed on their website. (this was true more for gateway/emachines and sony than HP/compaq though). And some other products were hit and miss. The Nokia 770 for example was around for a good 6 months before I even saw the major geek sites covering it. But then we wouldn't get in a line of Canon cameras until 4 months after they were available online. Logitech was very odd...somtimes we got products months before the release date (the G15 keyboard was nearly 2 months early), or several months after (the G7 mouse was about 3 months late).
Much of our product came directly from the manufacturer (via our FedEx account), and didn't go through a CompUSA warehouse...most of our generic product, memory, and software came through the warehouse. So we could have products within a couple days after a manufacturer had them available. And then we just keep relatively low on hand quantities, and clearance price older models.
So it would be no issue for any major electronics retailer to have new product on the shelf...as long as things are coordinated properly on both ends, and with desktops and laptops, that is usually not a problem.
Inkjets printers are cheaper than laser printers for many average consumers. Remember, Slashdot is a minority...most people go to Dell or walk into a Best Buy and pick up a $500 PC often with a free printer.
1) Color laser printers are still (relatively) expensive. Average Joe consumer buys a $500-700 desktop or a $800-$1000 notebook. Justifying a $400 printer for maybe 15 pages per week or less is not viableNow naturally if he's putting out 100+ pages per week, then a laser printer would pay off. But the average consumer is not going to get their money's worth by the time they would need to buy a new printer.
2) A complimentary color inkjet to a BW laser can be the best choice for many consumers with a higher printing demand. A $100 BW laser for printing out most things and a cheap color inkjet for the occasions you need color. Modern ink cartridges take AT LEAST 6 months to dry out (at least in my experience...I've had some work after 2 years of non-use).
3) Photos. Lasers can't output the same photos a nice $150-200 photo printer can. Epson and HP have small 4x6 inkjet photo printers that can get 20-25 cents per print, which isn't much more than Wal-Mart, and can be worth it for the convenience. The larger photo printers are more expensive, but when they double as a desktop, can be worth it.
So, inkjet printing is NOT a bad idea, it's just got a bad ink scam system that finally someone is trying to rectify. For the average consumer, this will be very welcome.
I've seen lots of Chines porn, Japanese Pixelation, and good ol' redneck hometown booty calls, but how the hell did South Korea get up there?
China is the most populated country, so that makes sense, and Japan and the US are the two largest economies in the world, so more 'luxury good' cash. Can anyone explain South Korea? Does the nude Kerrigan mod in StarCraft count or something?
It all boils down to money. And no, I am not talking about Microsoft bribing companies to make their websites incompatible with anything but IE.
For most of these sites, it probably takes a lot of testing to get them working properly, and for financial sites, even moreso since they cannot afford errors. This means a lot of money spent on manpower. Now, they would have to test many features again and again, even if there are no code changes, just to make sure they work with every browser.
Even though FF's marketshare has reached respectable levels, OSX and Linux adoption has not (and even a large portion of those users have access to a Windows machine). That means almost all their potential customers can use their website, even if they have to switch their browser. And for the few people that get upset over this and take their business elsewhere, they consider your loss acceptable versus paying for the manpower to test a second browser. And they are probably right. The small portion of people who value their browser ideals higher than their company choice will more than likely not exceed the cost of testing a second browser.
Then there are of course smaller sites and whatnot who this does not apply to, but for larger companies, this is probably the reasoning in most cases.
Which in most cases for gamers, doesn't usually matter-in most cases, the more powerful hardware is better than weaker hardware with new tech. However, with the way M$ is pushing Vista upgrading, how long will it be before there are less impressive games that require DX10 to run, and potentially DX10 hardware? Or what about DX10 games like Crysis? Maybe that will push performance past non DX10 cards. It's hard to say untill we can test things like that.
If these consolidation companies would quite wasting so much money on marketing, and you know, actually offer better rates, they might actually get some business.
Who am I kidding, this is America, a well marketed piece of crap gets ten times the volume of a quality product that slips under the radar.
I'm stuck in a backwater area of Ohio that pretty much only gets Verizon (and then it's spotty). You can get Sprint signal some in the northern area of where I live, and some Cingular to the west. T-Mobile is miles away. And the Verizon providers around here know it. Since neither of them are an actual Verizon Store, they don't have to honor any promos, and they can charge their own BS fees. If you're smart, you drive an hour and a half to the nearest Verizon or electronics retailer that sells them.
What is odd, is that a local (once dial-up only, and they had a monopoly then, because no other ISP had a local access number) ISP is laying fiber all over town, so I can get off our horrid Road Runner service. 5 down 2 up dedicated for $50/mo, yay!
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I worked at CompUSA for 2 years, and while that is true for some products, other times it is not. With desktops and notebooks, we usually had models in the store before the manufacturer even had them listed on their website. (this was true more for gateway/emachines and sony than HP/compaq though). And some other products were hit and miss. The Nokia 770 for example was around for a good 6 months before I even saw the major geek sites covering it. But then we wouldn't get in a line of Canon cameras until 4 months after they were available online. Logitech was very odd...somtimes we got products months before the release date (the G15 keyboard was nearly 2 months early), or several months after (the G7 mouse was about 3 months late).
Much of our product came directly from the manufacturer (via our FedEx account), and didn't go through a CompUSA warehouse...most of our generic product, memory, and software came through the warehouse. So we could have products within a couple days after a manufacturer had them available. And then we just keep relatively low on hand quantities, and clearance price older models.
So it would be no issue for any major electronics retailer to have new product on the shelf...as long as things are coordinated properly on both ends, and with desktops and laptops, that is usually not a problem.
Inkjets printers are cheaper than laser printers for many average consumers. Remember, Slashdot is a minority...most people go to Dell or walk into a Best Buy and pick up a $500 PC often with a free printer.
1) Color laser printers are still (relatively) expensive. Average Joe consumer buys a $500-700 desktop or a $800-$1000 notebook. Justifying a $400 printer for maybe 15 pages per week or less is not viableNow naturally if he's putting out 100+ pages per week, then a laser printer would pay off. But the average consumer is not going to get their money's worth by the time they would need to buy a new printer.
2) A complimentary color inkjet to a BW laser can be the best choice for many consumers with a higher printing demand. A $100 BW laser for printing out most things and a cheap color inkjet for the occasions you need color. Modern ink cartridges take AT LEAST 6 months to dry out (at least in my experience...I've had some work after 2 years of non-use).
3) Photos. Lasers can't output the same photos a nice $150-200 photo printer can. Epson and HP have small 4x6 inkjet photo printers that can get 20-25 cents per print, which isn't much more than Wal-Mart, and can be worth it for the convenience. The larger photo printers are more expensive, but when they double as a desktop, can be worth it.
So, inkjet printing is NOT a bad idea, it's just got a bad ink scam system that finally someone is trying to rectify. For the average consumer, this will be very welcome.
I've seen lots of Chines porn, Japanese Pixelation, and good ol' redneck hometown booty calls, but how the hell did South Korea get up there?
China is the most populated country, so that makes sense, and Japan and the US are the two largest economies in the world, so more 'luxury good' cash. Can anyone explain South Korea? Does the nude Kerrigan mod in StarCraft count or something?
It all boils down to money. And no, I am not talking about Microsoft bribing companies to make their websites incompatible with anything but IE.
For most of these sites, it probably takes a lot of testing to get them working properly, and for financial sites, even moreso since they cannot afford errors. This means a lot of money spent on manpower. Now, they would have to test many features again and again, even if there are no code changes, just to make sure they work with every browser.
Even though FF's marketshare has reached respectable levels, OSX and Linux adoption has not (and even a large portion of those users have access to a Windows machine). That means almost all their potential customers can use their website, even if they have to switch their browser. And for the few people that get upset over this and take their business elsewhere, they consider your loss acceptable versus paying for the manpower to test a second browser. And they are probably right. The small portion of people who value their browser ideals higher than their company choice will more than likely not exceed the cost of testing a second browser.
Then there are of course smaller sites and whatnot who this does not apply to, but for larger companies, this is probably the reasoning in most cases.
Which in most cases for gamers, doesn't usually matter-in most cases, the more powerful hardware is better than weaker hardware with new tech. However, with the way M$ is pushing Vista upgrading, how long will it be before there are less impressive games that require DX10 to run, and potentially DX10 hardware? Or what about DX10 games like Crysis? Maybe that will push performance past non DX10 cards. It's hard to say untill we can test things like that.
May was the last date I heard, but they did announce the name for the new cards. The HD 2900 XT will be the high end card, followed by similarly named 2600 and 2400 variants. No prices or specific date. More info: http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/13/amd-names-names -r600-now-the-ati-radeon-hd-2900-xt/
If these consolidation companies would quite wasting so much money on marketing, and you know, actually offer better rates, they might actually get some business. Who am I kidding, this is America, a well marketed piece of crap gets ten times the volume of a quality product that slips under the radar.
I think you just outlined the reason Bose is successful...
I'm stuck in a backwater area of Ohio that pretty much only gets Verizon (and then it's spotty). You can get Sprint signal some in the northern area of where I live, and some Cingular to the west. T-Mobile is miles away. And the Verizon providers around here know it. Since neither of them are an actual Verizon Store, they don't have to honor any promos, and they can charge their own BS fees. If you're smart, you drive an hour and a half to the nearest Verizon or electronics retailer that sells them. What is odd, is that a local (once dial-up only, and they had a monopoly then, because no other ISP had a local access number) ISP is laying fiber all over town, so I can get off our horrid Road Runner service. 5 down 2 up dedicated for $50/mo, yay!