I think the car dock is the only one worth getting if you are going to bother with GPS on the iPhone. Even on a 3G and 3GS I've tried Navigon, iGo, Sygic.

Reception is terrible, lots of lost connections, does not maintain solid lock while on the move, and so on. It seems to be a function of hardware design/limitation and not software. Basically IMO the iPhone is lousy compared to other PDAs/Smartphones when it comes to built in GPS reception for turn by turn nav purposes. Taking a static fix for Google Maps etc seems to be fine. But wow the reception is overall weak and lock is easily broken. Seen this on multiple handsets.

I say this because a lot of people who think these apps so far (Sygic, Navigon) work "Great" with a few niggles have yet to actually use let's say Tomtom, iGo or Garmin Mobile XT on Windows Mobile handsets from the last year or two to see the difference in robustness - you can actually use it as a real turn by turn GPS without worrying about lock breaking easily.

Nav on the iPhone is a fragile proposition, IMO only fixable by using an actual solid GPS solution because the iPhone does not incorporate one good enough for "good enough" turn by turn nav to bring it up to a level of similar experience compared to what you get on Windows Mobile for standalone GPS. Hell even Telenav on Palm Pre and Windows Mobile rocks compared to the spotty experience on iPhone caused by the reception limitations of the built in GPS.

Therefore, spring for the car mount instead since Tomtom was wise enough to build a GPS into it (they dont do this for any other platform, which is a dead giveaway they know very well the iPhone GPS is not solid, in addition to trying to reach 2G customers as well of course), seems like that will give you a solid nav experience on iPhone.

Hm. Still no IM-style true threaded text. Every other major smartphone OS has it, QWERTY dumbphones now have it, yet Blackberry still limps on with its sort-of implementation.

Looks like this is the player they announced a while back in the Japanese papers with an estimated MSRP of USD $499.

Stop comparing PS3 to PS2 because it doesnt work.

PS2 didnt debut at $500-$600.

PS2 didnt do insane numbers until it broke the well known $200 price barrier

DVD players didnt do insane numbers until they broke the $200 price barrier.

PS3 is doing lousy numbers and is still $500 entry. BD players are $500 entry and are also doing badly - all brands and all models of BD standalone players combined are outsold by a large margin by

Total lifetime PS2 sales is about 120M units worldwide

Lifetime DVD players is around 120M units IN JUST THE US ALONE - the disc playback market is far bigger than the console audience, aka even if PS3 can reach the success of the PS2 (which is about as highly dubious as it can get, already) it STILL pales in comparison to the total DVD market.

"I wish these people whining about how important content is in the "war" would actually look at the release lists for both formats thus far. "

I think what's more important is that Blu-ray content, as evidenced by declining PS3 sales worldwide and standalone BD players being outsold by HD DVD players, has NOT proven to be an advantage in moving hardware into people's homes.

Why? The hardware is too expensive, both the players and the PS3.

So that question remains for those who still dont get it... if Sony/BDA has such the phenomenally superior content package, and it matters so much to consumers, why is the PS3 floundering and why do so few BD players sell? And why does HD DVD with its "inferior" library outsell BD's standalone players in every major market?

Why? Because with such a price difference between the two formats' hardware in place, HD DVD's content library is more than good enough for the average joe who is in the market right now. Price is making them choose HD DVD.

This behavior is not good for Sony, because they are on the wrong end of the price equation compared to the competiton, with both their console and their BD players.

Well firstoff hatchetforce.. stating that "the PS2 was criticized over its high price" is way out there. people would give you more credence if you related some of your arguments to the real world - criticism over a $300 price point is far, far different than criticism over a $600 price point. Trying to make the PS3 look like PS2 here is insane. If you know the CE industry you know the public doesnt even begin to think about buying in volume until sub $300, and doesnt actually start buying in real volume until sub-$200. Lo and behold we saw that with PS3. You comparison to a $600 PS3, that it is merely another PS2 that has the same breakout potential, is disconnected from reality. It also reveals that if you are actually in the biz, you are definitely more on the tech side than involved with actually knowing how to sell the things and what consumer behavior/adoption patterns are like.

As for some of the rest:


"Most analysts have stated the format war is over and Blu-ray has won"

Only those who have gobbled up Sony PR and havent done a lot of researching about attach rates or player penetration, as well as PS3 attach rates, which happen to be low. Note that most have said that the war is still far from over, so your spin is noted here.


"but it will be up to 2 years until the public fully steps that way. "

Probably agree. People in general are not buying a lot of blue laser players of either format, particularly those of Blu-ray. I'll get to that. People are happy with DVD, enough that they are not going to jump for HD playback until it gets cheap enough, like sub-$200. Which is likely Christmastime for HD-DVD and 2009 for BD.

"With prices falling on Blu-ray devices left and right, "

Yes, falling to remaining about least 70% more expensive than the rival HD-DVD format's devices at all product levels. And falling to the "bargain" $500 price which people already showed us they had no willingness to buy in volume anyway, in the form of the 20gb PS3 which was a console AND BD player AND sold so bad at retail sony had to dump it in favor of the 60gb version only.

"with the PS3 in Europe being responsible for major increases in Blu-ray movie sales there is a prediction to be had there. "

I have to LOL at people who dont know what is behind this PR spin that was put out. Let's see. Worldwide, BD players sell badly, no exaggeration. And, previous to PS3 launch, standalone BD player sales in EMEA were just plain awful, people actually much favor HD-DVD players in Europe to an even higher degree than in N. America (where HD DVD players to this day still well outsell BD players). As such BD disc volume in EMEA was practically non-existent, showing the same significantly lower attach rate compared to HD-DVD, same is in N. America. So PS3 launches - it is not a big achievement to bump up disc sales by 1000 percent, when you were moving practically nothing beforehand. You could probably do it with an attach rate of half a movie across the 1M PS3s sold in Europe. Out of context, impressive. In context, (increasing nearly non-existent sales by 1000 percent) not so impressive.

"No one needs to spell it out either."

Apparently some do. Sony's console is doing badly. It will continue to do badly so long as it sits at a non-mainstream price point. All your talk is useless because you are unable to understand the problem from a consumer behavior standpoint, which is the only one that matters, e.g. if you cannot get the consumers to adopt your hardware, you cannot make money. And what I mean is that no amount of talking about technical advantages, or what games MAY or may not be coming out, or what other cool stuff about the PS3 you think makes it a winner, really matter to the consumer - right now their biggest rub is the price. Above a certain price point for this category, they could not care less if the PS3 could double as a Roomba and vacuum their house. Disagree? Fine. However actual sales worldwide prove this point. $600 consoles sell poorly to the mainstream after fanboys take their share.

If you want to sell mainstream volume, price matters. If you want to occupy a premium niche, extract lots of margin, and sell a low but profitable volume, high price is ok if you can get away with it. However particularly considering its long term strategy and Blu-ray plans, Sony wants this to be a mainstream-numbers product. But with a price that is so far disconnected from the mainstream that the Sony is truly conflicted as to what to do. Absorb massive losses from radical price cuts, or absorb massive losses from a console that sits with 2+ million units in inventory that isnt moving well, and is likely to keep growing in inventory level.

On top of that on the HD disc front you have $200 HD-DVD players by year end or mid-2008 if Wal-Mart has their way, and likely Toshiba will have $249 or $200 players on its own via holiday rebates as well.

"Microsoft will be eating serious humble pie when they go to make their next console and have to license Blu-ray technology."

Microsoft and Intel are not abandoning HD-DVD and have no reason to as currently the format has more traction on the PC side, in case you missed that HP and Samsung both moved to being HD DVD friendly. On top of that they are fans of their own particular roles in the content protection world and have no interest in supporting Sony's proprietary DRM if they dont have to.

Studios will follow installed base, if there is a sizeable hardware base that consumes tons of movies, they are going to sell to it, it is how they make money. Currently the HD DVD base has a much higher movie attach rate than BD (mostly because all figures point to only a fraction of PS3 owners actually being repeat movie buyers), and Vito Mandato on behalf of paramount expected the gap between the two installed bases to nearly equal each other eventually due to slowing PS3 sales and increased price-driven sales of HD DVD hardware.

So in summary:

1. The PS3 is no PS2 by ANY MEASURE, most especially price which happens to be double what the PS2 is, and cannot be rationalized away as anything other than what it is - the main problem.

2. The Format war is just heating up. Btw the total difference in library between the two formats is only like 20-30 titles. And people buy lots more HD DVD players compared to BD players despite the "studio advantage" that is supposed to make such a difference - no reason for this other than price is a big driver for people. And price will be a big factor starting in the holidays when we see $200 vs. $400 for HD DVD vs BD.

"Free BD's not counted in totals. This should be obvious. If "

It is obvious, but you dont know what you're talking about. The free pack-ins are not included. However BDs obtained from retailers via a coupon / certificate, ARE included since it counts as a retail "sale" coming out of retail inventory.

breaking out PS3 is important because it tells you what is really going on. Just like how the BD disc sales over the last quarter have been somewhat misleadingly inflated due to free/discount certificates in launch PS3s, the certificates to redeem free copies of Casino Royale, and radical half off sales from retailers like Amazon. Im not talking about free pack-ins. If you did all this for HD-DVD you would see huge spikes for it as well.

PS3 is a games console and not purchased primarily as a BD player by the mainstream. The same mainstream that right now doesnt really care about EITHER format because you look at total standalone player sales of both formats together and it is miniscule.

The entertainment biz really only considers the PS3 userbase to be 15-20% real repeat movie customers, the rest gamers.

Mainstream penetration will not be achieved by selling discs to PS3 owners. It will be achieved by putting the gate piece, the hardware, in a massive number of households. As much as Sony and the fanboys hate this truth, it is still true. And people are fairly satisfied with DVD, not interested in general in BD or HD-DVD, and in absolutely no hurry to adopt an HD movie format. The sales figures bear this out - the standalone player sales are the piece to look at.

So, in the absence of the content, the quality, or anything NOT price related actually being able to drive sales volume, we see that the last thing left that is making a difference right now is price, HD-DVD players primarily outsell BD players by a large margin for that one reason in Europe and North America.

Which is bad news for Sony. It means what people already knew when looking at the curve of DVD player adoption - huge jumps in mainstream volume come with price drops below a mainstream upper boundary price. In this case its usually considered sub-$300 as the first one, and sub-$200 and the much bigger jump. No one doubts HD-DVD will get there first especially with the help of generic Chinese players hitting the market this year. If HD-DVD can maintain a minimum $100 price differential on hardware it will do just fine as it hits sub-$300 and sub-$200. it only has to have a good enough content portfolio, not a gigantic content portfolio.

Because right now, that highly touted content portfolio is not driving standalone player sales for BD, they are still getting mauled by HD-DVD in that regard - that tells us that people are more concerned with the player price than they are with the content portfolio. Again, bad news for Sony.

Fanboy says, "BUT BUT you tard, you are clearly ignoring the PS3! Market dominance will come from having all those PS3s out there with a BD drive in them!"

Actully no. In case no one noticed, PS3 sales have dropped into the toilet in all geographies if you look beyond Sony press releases. High launch volume and steep dropoffs. Why? After fanboys are exhausted, the high price makes the PS3 a lousy mainstream value proposition. Newer releases will not help this - most people are not going to pay $599 for a console (now that the 20gb version is EOL'ed). And that "most people" segment is the hugest part of the market, the one that determines mainstream success.

People are sensitive to price - that is why PS3 sales are dropping badly around the world, why BD players dont sell well, and why BD has not actually won anything yet except the battle to move discounted/free discs to existing PS3 owners.

The battle is far from over. As PS3 launch surges and their after effects subside, expect an inflection in this race by the end of the year and early next year.

Ah, probably the only way I can afford a PPC6700!