Blog articles from 07/2008

The Los Angeles Times reports that the rumor is true: Sony will be offering movie downloads through the PlayStation3. The company said it would start selling and renting movies and TV shows through its PlayStation Network tonight. MGM, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, Turner Entertainment and of course Sony Pictures are making titles available. PlayStation 3 owners will be able to buy TV shows for $1.99 and up. They can also rent movies for...

U.S. households are increasingly looking to the remote control as their link to easing the complexity of control and search among the growing number of disparate systems in their homes, according to Aftermarket Entertainment: Universal Remote Controllers (Second Edition). This new report from Parks Associates confirms and expands upon the trends identified in the 2006 first edition. These include the increasing desire and willingness of U.S. households to replace current remote...

What we had written about in a March blog has apparently come to fruition. The streaming content from Netflix's Instant Queue online video service will be available to Xbox 360 users this fall, Netflix and Microsoft reported at the E3 show in Los Angeles. The service, expected to launch as a software upgrade for the Xbox 360, will be offered at no additional cost to Netflix subscribers who also hold Xbox 360 Live Gold memberships.

Belkin is really leading the charge for cable replacement solutions. They were (I believe) the first company to put out a wireless USB hub for your desktop, intending to eliminate the cumbersome cabling between your PC and peripherals. This product uses the WiMedia ultra-wideband wireless solution. Belkin has unveiled its FlyWire wireless HDMI accessory . The company says that it will enable multi-room streaming of content from AV receivers, set-top boxes, game consoles, Blu-ray...

Parks Associates says advanced TV applications make the television... In a new survey by Parks Associates , roughly two-thirds of U.S. and Canadian broadband households reported regular use of a PC to play music while at home, and one-third said they use a television to listen to music. MP3 players ranked equal to TVs, with one-third of households using these platforms for music, in the new report titled Digital Media Habits II . “iPods are sexy, but not everybody has...

Several publications have published stories speculating a $50 price cut for Xbox 360 in the U.S.(price cut already happened in New Zealand and Austrlia). Will such price cuts lead to a near-term sales boost? Our consumer data suggest there will be some impact. Microsoft definitely needs to stimulate consumer interest in its console. GTA IV didn't help much and there isn't a killer game, no pun intended, on the horizon. Our consumer data from Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home II,...