PlayStation 3 banned in Europe

European customs officers have been ordered to seize shipments of PlayStation 3s after LG won a preliminary injunction against Sony in an acrimonious patent battle between the two Asian electronics giants. The ruling by the civil court of justice in the Hague means that all new PS3s have to be confiscated as they are imported into the UK and the rest of Europe for at least 10 days. If the injunction was extended it could mean consoles disappearing from high street shelves. It is understood that Sony and computer games retailers typically have about two to three weeks' worth of PS3s in stock across the continent. Tens of thousands of PS3s were seized by customs officers last week in the Netherlands, the Guardian has learnt, in a dispute that centers on Sony's allegedly infringing use of Blu-ray technology belonging to LG.

 Not to long ago Sony was sued by LG for patent violation relating to the PS3's Blu-ray system. As LG pushed to get the popular gaming system removed from store shelves in the US, they did not have to push in Europe. Europe has issued a 10 day ban on the game system's imports and sales, this ban is subject to a pending extension. This is devastating news for the Japan based company Sony, prior to the ban around 100,000 PS3 consoles were imported into Europe every week. This massive loss of profit for the company could spell trouble, and if the product is not removed from US stores, and this patent case is not completed within a short amount of time we can expect to see a price increase in all of Sony's products to compensate for the reduction of the available market. However being this company has such a large supply of other products from Tv's, portable game systems, and mobile devices it will not cause the company to go out, it will just cause it to have to cope with reduced profits for the next few days, weeks, or even months.

Motorola sues Tivo

So in this case, Motorola is suing Tivo over their DVR patents. DVR stands for digital video recording by the way. This just one of the many cases that has to deal with DVR suits. Tivo has done the same against Dishnetwork and EchoStar which are also big name companies. Let's put it this way, it's all about money to these big companies, their revenue is never enough and so they find as many ways to increase it, suing over patents seems to be the battleground of the tech world. Basically if any of these companies ever do win, their cases it's going to be a big hit in their revenue stream. In actuality its going do more bad then good. Sure one company wins the money and will spend it hopefully, but the other company that loses will most definitely have to make cuts and possibly close down depending on the suit. This will just increase the unemployment rate. Not frictional unemployment but rather cyclical where the demand for let's say Tivo is nearly as high as before and therefore they will have to lay off people. I mean the demand isn't as high because they lost their case for the DVR and will most likely cannot sell that set up box with said DVR, ergo their main revenue stream is gone.

PIrates at it Again

Pirates attacked a leisure vessel this week. This got me thinking about how much a modern day pirate could impact the price of any commodity transported by water. Then I found that recently, pirates hijacked a US bound oil tanker off of the coast of Somalia. The Oil, being as valuable a product as it is will make the ransom for the tanker astronomical. Especially for the vast quantity that was on the tanker. Pirate attacks and hijackings cost the global economy over $12 billion a year. All that can do is cost us more at the pump.

Because of the danger of sailing through the area, the shipping companies have to pay the seamen more money to sail. They also pay increased insurance rates on ships that move through pirate infested water. The increase in cost because of the pirates impacts us directly through higher costs for anything imported to the US from the Middle East and India. That includes oil, cotton and many other highly used items.

Verizon Xoom

In an earlier post I talked about the new tablets being created that run on the Android OS, and as of then prices had not been announced. Well the first tablet, the Verizon Xoom, has had its price announced as well as how you will be able to get your hands on it. The Xoom will use Verizon's 3G network, cost $600 with a contract, and will require a $20 data plan.

This device seems to be a good competitor for the iPad if, of course, you are planning on getting a tablet that uses 3G. The iPad that has access to 3G is $629 which is only a bit more than this tablet, but the iPad doesn't require a contract. If you want to get your hands on the Xoom without a contract it'll cost you an extra $200 bringing the price up to $800. Some would stop right there simply because of not wanting to get roped into a contract, but if you're going to use a 3G network anyway then the contract isn't much of a big deal. One thing that will make the tablet better than the iPad is the fact that it will be given access to Verizon's 4G network sometime later this year for free. I think that the price point of this product is good to compete with the iPad, but I also think the contract is going to scare people away and really limit the amount of units sold. Even though this tablet will more than likely not be more popular than the iPad, it does take some business away from Apple and makes it so Apple can't charge whatever they want for their product. Apple can't charge whatever they want for their product anymore because they have to make sure they can still beat out these new tablets for consumer attention. This means that Apple will have to keep its prices at or around the Xoom's which is good for us consumers because if anything all the prices will do are fall allowing people to spend less of their overall income. However, for Apple this means that they will most likely start making less money, maybe not much but the amount of money they lose will grow as more and more tablets are introduced into the market because there will be more competition. For a first attempt by Android this is a very strong entry, but if they can't break Apple's hold on the market then this product will fall by the wayside.

iPad 2 soon?

The iPad 2 will be revealed to the public next week, says The Wall Street Journal.

According to "multiple sources," the next iteration of Apple's popular tablet device will be revealed next Wednesday. The WSJ's report falls in line with similar rumors we've heard over the last few weeks, not to mention Apple's annual release schedules.

Last year the company introduced the iPad in late January and planned on shipping the device in late March, due to unspecified issues, however, the release was delayed until early April. If rumors and The WSJ's report prove true, Apple is expected to ship the next iPad around the same time this year.



With the announcement of the iPad 2 seemingly on the horizon, Apple seems to be moving faster to finish its new model. The original iPad was a huge success for Apple, which raked in huge profits on its release. With every kid wanting one, the product is still in high demand even today. So did Apple jump to soon with their new iteration, or will they hit the sweet spot again? Apple has a history of improving upon its technology within months of first putting it on the market. Given the consumer feedback Apple gets, it seems likely that it will already have improved features planned and ready to retail early every year. So has Apple released its new tablet too soon, or is the right time now?