Amazon - Marketing Choices - Fire General

FWIW - Interesting commentary on Amazon's marketing choices. Don't expect higher-end gizmos anytime soon (at least in North America).
www.pcmag.com/commentary/356511/with-echo-amazon-builds-a-wall-against-google

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X1a available on BestBuy next month...?

Thanks & all credits to BGR
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/11/10/sony-ericsson-xperia-x1a-hitting-best-buy-next-month/
anybody know how reliable these reports are?
a December 7th release date would be amazing.
That would be great, hurry up Sony!
Sony is said to be shipping X1a to retailers (best buy) starting Dec. 1st. So 7th should be somewhat accurate. As for the 799.99 price tag, I would probably hold off and look at other retailers, specifically online for a much lower price than a big box store. Case and point... HTC touch diamond US version (GSM) sells in bestbuy stores for 699.99, online its 549.99. I wouldn't be surprised to see the X1a sell for around 600 dollars at online sellers (mobilecityonline etc.)
Still, expect them to show up around the same time.

HTC One pre-orders in the U.S. reach “several hundred thousand” + More news

According to HTC president for global sales and marketing Jason Mackenzie, who gleefully announced that the flagship phone has hit the right chord with customers.
“We are seeing our strongest initial response for any smartphone we’ve ever designed with several hundred thousand people in the U.S. pre-registering to purchase the new HTC One,” wrote Mackenzie in an e-mail sent out to customers who have signed up to get the phone through HTC’s trade-up program.
Source
also +
HTC teams up with Qualcomm to promote new HTC One
Qualcomm will help smartphone vendor HTC promote sales of the new HTC One, a smartphone equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor, through recommending the smartphone in advertising films, according to market sources.
androidindian said:
According to HTC president for global sales and marketing Jason Mackenzie, who gleefully announced that the flagship phone has hit the right chord with customers.
“We are seeing our strongest initial response for any smartphone we’ve ever designed with several hundred thousand people in the U.S. pre-registering to purchase the new HTC One,” wrote Mackenzie in an e-mail sent out to customers who have signed up to get the phone through HTC’s trade-up program.
also +
HTC teams up with Qualcomm to promote new HTC One
Qualcomm will help smartphone vendor HTC promote sales of the new HTC One, a smartphone equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor, through recommending the smartphone in advertising films, according to market sources.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pre registration is very different from pre orders and since no pre order has been available in the US, only time will tell how much the delay hurt.
"pre-registering to purchase" is meaningless. See also units shipped versus units sold.
I'd be impressed if Jason Mackenzie apologised for attempting to launch the HTC One in the UK,
at Easter, 2+ weeks after the official launch date and with no actual stock in the UK to launch.

Zenfone 2 doing well in Japan

http://m.pocketnow.com/2015/07/24/budget-smartphone-demand
Nice to see that demand for the Zenfone has been high in Japan. I actually got mine imported from Expansys because I wanted the cheaper 550 model, which wasn't released here, and because the 551 sold officially here is significantly marked up in price (though still about the cheapest thing you can find in Japan with decent specs). But it seems ASUS have been shifting a lot of the official JP model 551 nevertheless. Japan has up until recently been terrible for freedom of competition and choice in mobile, with the three big established carriers holding a cast iron grip of the market in a cartel-like manner. A combination of the rise of dirt-cheap MNVO carriers and government intervention (forced unlocking especially) to curb the anti-competitive practices of the big 3 has started to change this. ASUS are obviously one of the main beneficiaries of this - breaking into the market with the Zenfone 5 and seemingly expanding their presence with the Zenfone 2.
Asus is a Taiwanese Tech company since 1989 and one of the 1st to release computer components to consumers. I am sure that they are able to bring down cellphones price/performance ratio considerably. Found this on wikipedia:
'ASUS is the world's -largest PC vendor by 2014 unit sales . ASUS appears in BusinessWeek’s "InfoTech 100" and "Asia’s Top 10 IT Companies"
They are partners with Intel (Created in 1968 ; released world's 1st CPU in 1971) since their release so they pretty much know what to build and how to code for their products.
I still remember building my 1st desktop with an Asus motherboard 16 years ago LoL Hands-down, I only use Asus motherboards as they are know to rarely fail and even then, their support is top notch. They always use their products in Overclocking Tournaments for a reason.
aziz07 said:
Asus is a Taiwanese Tech company since 1989 and one of the 1st to release computer components to consumers. I am sure that they are able to bring down cellphones price/performance ratio considerably. Found this on wikipedia:
'ASUS is the world's -largest PC vendor by 2014 unit sales . ASUS appears in BusinessWeek’s "InfoTech 100" and "Asia’s Top 10 IT Companies"
They are partners with Intel since their release so they pretty much know what to build and how to code for their products.
I still remember building my 1st desktop with an Asus motherboard 16 years ago LoL Hands-down, I only use Asus motherboards as they are know to rarely fail and even then, their support is top notch. They always use their products in Overclocking Tournaments for a reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Running an asus motherboard and asus monitor on my current build. I have never had an "indian call center" support experience with them. Always competent english speaking operators. Very nice people and very knowledged.
kanagawaben said:
http://m.pocketnow.com/2015/07/24/budget-smartphone-demand
Nice to see that demand for the Zenfone has been high in Japan. I actually got mine imported from Expansys because I wanted the cheaper 550 model, which wasn't released here, and because the 551 sold officially here is significantly marked up in price (though still about the cheapest thing you can find in Japan with decent specs). But it seems ASUS have been shifting a lot of the official JP model 551 nevertheless. Japan has up until recently been terrible for freedom of competition and choice in mobile, with the three big established carriers holding a cast iron grip of the market in a cartel-like manner. A combination of the rise of dirt-cheap MNVO carriers and government intervention (forced unlocking especially) to curb the anti-competitive practices of the big 3 has started to change this. ASUS are obviously one of the main beneficiaries of this - breaking into the market with the Zenfone 5 and seemingly expanding their presence with the Zenfone 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Recently, I realize that config_init.sh has the description "ZE550ML_JP" in firmware 2.19.40.22 and 2.19.40.23. There was no this description in 2.19.40.12.
I don't know this means ASUS is trying to sell ZE550ML here in Japan or not.
If so, ZE550ML will accelerate to change the market share of carriers in Japan.

yota phone rival - or not? the oukitel u6 dual screen

just seen something similar to yota phone the oukitel u6 dual screen - dont think its as good but its cheaper
take a look
Oukitel U6 dual-screen smartphone up for pre-order for $270
kam1962 said:
just seen something similar to yota phone the oukitel u6 dual screen - dont think its as good but its cheaper
take a look
Oukitel U6 dual-screen smartphone up for pre-order for $270
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, China is at it again.
Quality-wise their EPD looks similar, but the software side seems to be severely lacking when compared to Yotaphone 2. Not to say that Yotaphone 2's current software was something out of this world. Anyways, competition is always welcome.
The price is also much more in line with what they are offering.
OUKITEL U6 - worth it
Jeopardy said:
Ah, China is at it again.
Quality-wise their EPD looks similar, but the software side seems to be severely lacking when compared to Yotaphone 2. Not to say that Yotaphone 2's current software was something out of this world. Anyways, competition is always welcome.
The price is also much more in line with what they are offering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is said that OUKITEL U6 pre-sell online, and it starts shipping from September 15, 2015.
but the shipping date of Yota has not announced to the public. Because all I've seen so far is CGI renders, concepts, and pre-orders with no definite release date. I even don't know if it exists.
Any updates?
Last year I've researched the dual screen phones before I purchased YP2, as of January there were 4 manufacturers in China in various stages with one manufacturer saying they release the phone in January but didn't. There is another startup in U.S. with plans to release similar phone as YP, but as of January not available yet.
I decided to go with SISWOO R9 DARKROOM simply because it had the best specs, a relatively active user forum (the company SISWOO was even actively looking for ideas) and they already build a good reputation for high quality phones in Europe. SISWOO is higher quality than say XIAOMI and price is a bit higher. They have distributor network in Europe compared to XIAOMI which only sells online.
So I put down money in Aliexpress waiting waiting for the R9 ..and nothing. Wasn't ready to ship by the date it was originally announced (Jan 18). I cancelled order, got money back eventually.
I decided to purchase YP not only because it was the only dual- screen phone commercially available to me but also had best software for dual screen.
However, as OP saying hardware-wise they are similar to YP - with exception to screen (better scree), internal memory and processor - plus DUAL SIM card (every Chinese phone) and SD card. The Chinese phones have no software, so it's just mirroring you can do and running aps - but no native apps for ink screen. The design of YP is so much better and it's a quite a looker, the only other area would be shape - it's easy to slip. The Chinese phones appear to be safer to hold.
Price - YP costs about double but you get pretty good hardware for it.
If somebody looking for value phone with dual screen ink, it's best advice to wait for a few months, there will be more choice.
Honestly, Oukitel and Siswoo are just copying Yotaphone... Specs may be higher, but implementation and software are poor and I don't trust much in updates in next 2 years... even one year... IMHO
TKPL said:
Honestly, Oukitel and Siswoo are just copying Yotaphone... Specs may be higher, but implementation and software are poor and I don't trust much in updates in next 2 years... even one year... IMHO
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Though haven't Yota basically given up support for the YP2 already? I mean they stated no more version updates, just some EPD apps is to come. It's a great phone, but in light of the stagefright metaphor it feels a bit irresponsible of them not to patch it asap seeing as if I recall correct they made the first YP after the news about NSA snooping on everyone. It at least gave me the idea that security as main focus with their phones.
Now I can't think of any brand that has patched the metaphor exploit yet except for the Nexus line of phones so they are not alone in sharing the irresponsibility, just not as security concerned as would be expected.
I am wondering if it's a question of market viability or copyrights for the dual screen feature. I am surprised there is no major phone manufacturer that would come with dual screens. It's the only way to go to differentiate phones since the screen is the biggest energy consumer and there are plenty of people who use ebook readers. Not sure why is YP and only handful of Chinese manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon and nobody else.

Amazon - Marketing Choices

FWIW - Interesting commentary on Amazon's marketing choices. Don't expect higher-end gizmos anytime soon (at least in North America).
www.pcmag.com/commentary/356511/with-echo-amazon-builds-a-wall-against-google

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