The Digital Home

Wal-Mart Stores has waged an online book pricing war against Amazon.com, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday morning.

Wal-Mart sent the first salvo over Amazon's bow on Thursday when the retail giant announced that it would sell ten highly anticipated books for $10 on Walmart.com. Wal-Mart said Stephen King's upcoming hardcover "Under the Dome" and Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" will be included in that grouping. Wal-Mart's prices include free shipping.

Not to be outdone, Amazon reduced prices to match Wal-Mart's pricing on all 10 titles. That was quickly followed by Wal-Mart's decision to reduce the prices on those books again to $9 late Thursday night. In response, Amazon reduced the prices of all ten titles to $9, as well. The company also reduced the books' Kindle pricing to $9. That's where the prices stand on both sites as of this writing.

Sarah Palin's book is going for $9 on Wal-Mart.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

"If there is going to be a 'Wal-Mart of the Web,' it is going to be Walmart.com," Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. "Our goal is to be the biggest and most visited retail Web site."

As viable a goal as that may be for Wal-Mart, it could also cost the online-retail industry dearly. According to the Journal, Wal-Mart is already offering up to 200 best sellers for "50 percent of their list price." That's a figure that most retailers can't keep up with. And as the publication pointed out, it's a price point that could put smaller, less powerful organizations out of business.

"Retailers traditionally pay half the list price for a hardcover book," the Journal wrote in its report. "Assuming that's the case with Wal-Mart, its $10 sale price on 'Under the Dome' represents a 71 percent discount of the $35 cover price, which suggests the discounter will lose $7 to $7.50 on every copy it sells." Wal-Mart might be able to afford that, but other, smaller retailers might not.

But $10 might not be a figure that Wal-Mart picked out of the air. Quite the contrary, the retail giant might have chosen $10 because it's the same price Amazon is currently offering e-books for in its Kindle store. Wal-Mart is, so far, on the outside looking in at the e-book market and the sale of highly anticipated hardcovers for $10 might reflect that.

That said, the company told the Journal that its decision to drop the price of those major titles had nothing to do with the Kindle. Even so, Wal-Mart is a major retailer with loads of cash that it can easily put towards infiltrating a discount book market--electronic or otherwise. A loss on select titles might be worth it in the long run. It could stymie some of the Kindle's impressive growth. That might have been Wal-Mart's intention all along.

What do you think of this? Is Wal-Mart the hero for offering hardcover books at such discounted rates? Is Amazon wrong for matching its pricing? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Amazon.com on Thursday announced that customers looking to get their packages sooner will have a couple new options available to them.

Amazon customers placing deliveries within the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Seattle, as well as "some surrounding areas," will now be able to receive shipments on the same day they place an order. The service will be coming to Chicago, Indianapolis, and Phoenix "in the coming months."

Amazon said "thousands of items" are available now to customers living in those cities. The new option, called Local Express Delivery, will have varied pricing that depends on the type of product purchased. Amazon Prime members--customers who pay $79 per year to receive unlimited two-day shipping from the online retailer--will need to pay $5.99 per item for the service.

In order to get an item on the same day it's ordered, customers will need to buy products prior to their city's cutoff time. For example, New York customers will need to order a product by 10 a.m. ET, while Seattle customers can purchase products by 1 p.m. PT. The other cities' cutoff times vary within that range. According to Amazon, it will list the cutoff times on each eligible product's detail page.

Amazon's Local Express Delivery charges.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

The Samsung UN46B7000--one of the newly entertained Samsung HDTVs.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

Samsung announced on Wednesday that on-demand video services from Blockbuster and Amazon are coming to some of its home entertainment products.

Blockbuster OnDemand, which allows people to rent or purchase video content on a one-off basis, is now available on some of Samsung's high-definition TVs, Blu-ray players, and home theater systems.

According to Samsung, the service will be offered on its Series 650 and above LCD and plasma HDTVs, as well as its Series 7000 and above LED HDTVs. Blockbuster OnDemand will be available to owners of the Samsung BD-P1600, BD-P3600, and BD-P4600 Blu-ray players, as well as the company's HT-BD1250, HT-BD3252, HT-BD7200, and HT-BD8200 Blu-ray home theater systems. The company said that the service is available now through a firmware upgrade.

As part of the rollout, Blockbuster OnDemand content can be streamed across multiple Blockbuster-enabled devices in the home. According to the company, users who order a particular movie can start watching it on one Samsung product in their home and continue watching it on another supported Samsung device.

For its part, Blockbuster has had a busy week. On Tuesday, the company announced that its OnDemand service was finally made available on TiVo DVRs. Like the service on TiVo, Samsung equipment owners can expect to pay between $2.99 and $3.99 for movie rentals. Blockbuster charges between $7.99 and $19.99 for film purchases.

As part of the deal, Blockbuster will start selling Samsung Blu-ray players that feature the company's OnDemand service in "thousands of corporate-owned stores and participating franchise stores." Blockbuster also said on Tuesday that it will also start selling TiVo DVRs in its stores.

But Samsung didn't stop there. The company also announced on Wednesday that Amazon Video On Demand will be offered to owners of Samsung LCD and plasma HDTVs that are series 650 and above, and LED HDTVs that are series 7000 and above. To get the service, users will need to download the Amazon Video On Demand widget using their television's Internet@TV content service.

Samsung said that once the user downloads the Amazon Video On Demand widget, they will be able to access Amazon's more than 50,000 movies and television shows. Amazon's widget joins already-available widgets from Twitter, Yahoo, YouTube, and others, the company said.

A growing trend?
The fact that Samsung has added Blockbuster's and Amazon's video services to its HDTVs shouldn't come as a surprise; it's competing in a marketplace where integrated entertainment is becoming the norm.

Earlier this year, LG announced the launch of two broadband-equipped HDTVs--the 47-inch 47LH50 and the 50-inch 50PS80--that feature the company's NetCast Entertainment Access. That service gives users the ability to access Netflix's streaming library of movies and TV shows. Toshiba is also getting in on the trend.

The Dell Mini apparently isn't Michael Dell's favorite product.

(Credit: CBS interactive)

Netbooks aren't for everyone, Dell CEO Michael Dell said Tuesday night at a dinner in Silicon Valley hosted by the Churchill Club.

Give a 10-inch Netbook to someone who's been using a 15-inch notebook, and the user will say, "'Hey, this is fantastic....It's so light,'" Dell said, according to The Register. "But about 36 hours later, they're saying 'The screen's gonna have to go. Give me my 15-inch screen back.'" (Editors' note: Dell also spoke at Oracle OpenWorld on Tuesday, about how his company is delivering a more efficient enterprise with its services. See the ZDNet video on right.)

The fact that Dell would take Netbooks to task in such a way should be a surprise, considering his company sells a line of 10-inch Netbooks. But Tuesday night in Santa Clara, Calif., Dell apparently didn't care. He wanted to make it clear that his company realizes the limits of Netbooks and that it offers options.

"We see a fair amount of customers not really being that satisfied with the smaller screen and the lower performance, unless it's like a secondary machine or it's (a) very first machine and the expectations are low," Dell said, according to The Register. "But as a replacement machine for an experienced user, it's not what we'd recommend. It's not a good experience, and we don't see users very happy with those."

Although Dell obviously has issues with Netbooks, it seems that many consumers don't. A recent study from DisplaySearch found that as notebook sales fell 14 percent in the second quarter year over year, Netbook sales rose a whopping 264 percent. The research company expects the trend to continue.

With that in mind, was Dell's founder doing the right thing by taking shots at Netbooks? His company does sell them, after all. And if Netbook sales are booming, shouldn't this simply be area where Dell can capitalize.

What do you think?

Broadband-connected TiVo DVR subscribers have access to Blockbuster's long-awaited OnDemand rental service, TiVo announced on Tuesday.

The service is available to owners of TiVo Series2 and TiVo Series3 digital-video recorders (including the TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL).

According to the company, users will be able to stream films ranging from new releases to classics. Users will be charged $2.99 for classic hits and $3.99 for new releases. Blockbuster will be adding more films over the coming weeks, including "select HD titles."

As part of the agreement, Blockbuster will also begin selling TiVo DVRs in "thousands" of participating Blockbuster stores around the United States.

Blockbuster OnDemand's arrival on the TiVo (and TiVo's arrival in Blockbuster stores, for that matter) has been a long time coming. The partnership was first announced in March.

Whether Blockbuster will enjoy success on the TiVo is up for debate. The company's main competitor, Netflix, is already streaming films and television shows to TiVos for no additional fee beyond the company's unlimited-plan charges. Amazon Video On Demand is also available to TiVo users, and like Blockbuster, it, too, allows them to purchase individual videos, rather than pay a monthly subscription fee.

TiVo owners can also access content from YouTube, as well as films through Jaman and CinemaNow's Disney.

To access Blockbuster OnDemand, users will first need to create a Blockbuster account. Once complete, they can access Blockbuster OnDemand content from the TiVo's video-on-demand menu.

Amp Up Before You Score iPhone app.

(Credit: Pepsi)

PepsiCo has tweeted an apology on its Amp Energy Twitter account, as well as its Pepsi account, to those who may be offended by its new iPhone application, Amp Up Before You Score, which some have complained is insensitive to women.

"Our app tried 2 (sic) show the humorous lengths guys go 2 pick up women," a tweet read on Amp Energy's Twitter page. "We apologize if it's in bad taste & appreciate your feedback." The message was retweeted on Pepsi's official Twitter page.

The soft-drink maker stopped short of removing the free application from Apple's App Store.

Amp Up Before You Score is described by Pepsi as a "road map to success for your favorite kinds of women--24 in all." According to the company, the app first helps men "identify her type." To do so, the app shows a listing of "types of women" and features a "cheat sheet on the stuff she's into, with lists, links, and some surefire opening lines."

Perhaps the most suspect part of the app is the "Keep a List" function. The company describes that feature as such: "Get lucky? Add her to your brag list. You can include a name, date, and whatever details you remember."

After Pepsi released the app, people immediately took offense. Not only did Pepsi and its Amp Energy division hear it from Twitter users, the company also took shots from blogs that found the app particularly offensive. An overwhelming number of reviewers gave the app one star on its App Store page.

So far, Amp Up Before You Score is still available as a free download in Apple's App Store. If you want to see the app in action without downloading it, you can view a video from Pepsi here.

The video game industry is poised to make a rebound, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. The analyst also predicted that it will be Sony's PlayStation 3, and not the Nintendo Wii, that will lead console sales for the month, when NPD releases figures next week.

The PlayStation 3 Slim is helping spur console sales.

(Credit: Sony)

"After six consecutive months of double-digit declines, we expect a return to double-digit sales growth (on video game software)," Pachter wrote to clients. "We forecast sales of $750 million, up 21 percent, compared to last year's $618 million."

It's a good sign that after months of decline, the video game industry is finally rebounding. That said, overall sales are still far behind 2008 figures.

PS3 victory?
But it's Pachter's next topic that might easily attract the most attention. According to the analyst, he estimates that September's NPD figures will show a "sell-through of 390,000 Wii hardware units (down 45 percent from last year), 350,000 Xbox 360 units (up 1 percent from last year), and 410,000 PS3 consoles (up 76 percent year-over-year), as the price cuts for all three consoles spurred demand."

Although Pachter said he thinks console sales will be "relatively flat for the balance of the year," he did say that the price cuts could "benefit the PS3 the most in coming months." Not only does Pachter believe Sony's console will outsell the Xbox 360, but he contends that it's possible that the PlayStation 3 will lead Xbox 360 sales for the rest of the year.

Another Xbox 360 price cut?
Pachter isn't convinced that the price cuts are over. He wrote to clients that "Microsoft has the ability to lower price yet again," but he cautioned that a more likely scenario would see the company offer a "more feature-packed Xbox 360 in early 2010 (likely with a 250GB hard drive) at the same $299 price point." It could cut the price of its console if "it begins to lose significant market share to Sony."

As interesting as they might be, Pachter's comments are purely speculation at this point. Look for the official sales figures to drop next week, when NPD makes them available.

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Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Jack Tretton said in an interview with Forbes earlier this week that a Sony victory in this generation's console war is good for the industry.

SCEA President and CEO Jack Tretton

(Credit: SCEA)

"In an industry that has certainly had its challenges this year, we like to say that the environment where the PlayStation wins is best for this industry," Tretton told Forbes. "We have a brand that can play on a worldwide basis, to young and old, male and female, where our competition tends to be relegated to select regions or to select consumer audiences."

Tretton's comments came after the SCEA chief told Forbes that Nintendo, the current console leader, "delivers a casual, youth-oriented entertainment experience."

Of course, Tretton's statements echo what has been coming out of the Sony camp for quite a while. Sony has made it clear that it views Microsoft as its direct competitor. And although Nintendo sells far more consoles than both Microsoft and Sony, it seems that, as always, Sony doesn't believe that Nintendo is a real competitor.

More than gaming
That might be based in Tretton's belief that the PlayStation 3 is much more than just a gaming console. Tretton cited Sony's new advertising slogan where the company claims the PlayStation "only does everything." He said that the PlayStation 3 might be a gaming console at its core, "but it's so much more: Blu-ray movies, downloading music content, downloading video content, surfing the Internet. This is really the central entertainment device for a room."

Vonage Mobile for the iPhone, iPod Touch.

(Credit: Vonage)

Voice over Internet Protocol service provider Vonage on Monday announced that it has launched its first mobile apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and BlackBerry devices.

Dubbed Vonage Mobile, the company's free VoIP app enables users to place international calls from their mobile devices. iPod Touch owners can do so by placing calls through Wi-Fi. BlackBerry owners will transmit calls over the cellular network only. iPhone owners will be able to place calls from Wi-Fi or through AT&T's network.

According to Vonage, its app will help users save up to 50 percent on international calling charges levied by carriers. After downloading the app, users need to enter an international number. They can also select a call recipient from their existing iPhone or BlackBerry contacts list. Those who receive calls will see the user's cell phone number on their caller IDs. Charges will be taken against the user's credit card, which they need to input when they first start using the app.

For now, Vonage is offering per-minute rates. The company said in a statement that by the end of the year, it will offer the Vonage World plan to users. Vonage World for home users currently allows them to make calls to more than 60 countries for $24.99 per month.

Vonage's app launch comes on the heels of controversy over whether Google's similar Voice app should have been denied access to Apple's App Store. The debate still rages on.

Vonage's new mobile app is available now in Apple's App Store and Research In Motion's BlackBerry App World. Both versions are free.