PS3 Celebrates its First Birthday

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today celebrates the first birthday of its PLAYSTATION 3. Launched one year ago in North America, PS3 has revolutionized the industry with its Cell Broadband Engine technology which gives the system tremendous computational power; Blu-ray Disc capabilities which provides state-of-the art graphics and unrivaled storage capacity; and free access to PLAYSTATION Network where PS3 users can experience online gaming, connect with other PS3 users as well as download games, movies and other content from the PLAYSTATION Store.
In its first year, more than 200 software titles have been released for PS3 and more than 60 million pieces of content have been downloaded from PLAYSTATION Network worldwide. Also, through the continued support of and dialogue with PS3 users, remarkable hardware advancements and features have been added to the system through firmware updates making it the most advanced computer entertainment system on the market today.
When we designed PS3 our goal was to introduce a system so technically advanced that it could stand the test of time and could take the industry in a whole new direction, which for PS3 was high-definition entertainment said Jack Tretton, President and CEO of SCEA. While we're excited by the progress we've made this first year, we know that like our other platforms, the best is still yet to come, especially given our new hardware and software line-up, and that PS3 will continue to take the industry to new heights for years to come. PS3 is the first gaming system to provide a disc capacity of 50GB thanks to its Blu-ray Disc functionality. Current PS3 first party games are currently in the 20GB range, well north of the threshold of HD-DVD or DVD, allowing for unmatched potential for games, movies and other media.

[via sohood.com]

Orange to sell 49 eur/month iPhone contract-paper

PARIS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - French telecoms operator Orange will offer a two-year service contract for a minimum of 1,176 euros ($1,754) with the Apple (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iPhone, which it will start selling in France on Wednesday evening, Les Echos said.

The newspaper said on Friday Orange had briefly leaked details of its terms of sale for the music-playing, Internet-browsing device on its Website.

France Telecom (FTE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) unit Orange declined to comment.

Apple sold 1.1 million iPhones in the United States between the end of June, when it first went on sale, and the end of September, beating analysts' forecasts. Thousands of customers queued for days to be among the first to buy one.

The company aims to sell 10 million of the devices by the end of 2008, representing about 1 percent of the total mobile phone market, but industry watchers are unanimous that the iPhone's impact is far greater than its market share suggests.

As well as raising the bar for other handset makers with the iPhone's many media features, Apple has broken with tradition by making exclusive deals with one carrier in each country, beginning with AT&T (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in the United States.

In Germany, Apple's exclusive sales partner T-Mobile (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) was forced by a court this week to offer customers iPhones that are not locked to the T-Mobile network.

But the 999 euro price at which it will offer unlocked phones, compared with 399 euros with a contract, makes the move almost meaningless.

In France, Orange will also offer the iPhone without a service contract but Les Echos said the price, like in Germany, would be significantly higher. Orange has said the starting price with a contract will be 399 euros.  Continued...

[via Reuters]

1,400 Wii consoles sold in ten minutes on Amazon

It's the Wii console's second Christmas out and there a strong sense of déjà vu in reports that talk of internet-breaking sales as punters go mental for Nintendo's console.
Amazon apparently sold 1,400 consoles in just ten minutes, when stock was renewed last week. A similar picture is painted at retailers across the country, as the widely sold-out Wii becomes harder to find with every passing day.
The craze has predictably pushed up prices of the console - some are selling on eBay and Amazon (second hand) for over £300. Just as Reggie said would be the case, there just aren't enough consoles for everyone.

It's not that Nintendo isn't making many - on the contrary the company is said to be pumping out 1.8 million units a month. That's not enough to satisfy demand, but retailers are pretty happy about it.
The chief executive of Woolworths, Trevor Bish-Jones, told the Telegraph: "There is a steady flow of Wiis into the country between now and Christmas. It will not be enough to meet all consumer demand but is sufficient for retailers to enjoy good levels of sales in the run-up to Christmas."
We at CVG could only find select shops that still had Wii consoles in stock, and that was because they were bundling the console with fives games (that you probably don't want) for £400. No thanks.

[via computerandvideogames]