Look at these statistics here:
During the month of April 2007, this is how these consoles fared (in Nothern America):
Nintendo DS - 471,000
Nintendo Wii - 360,000
Playstation 2 - 194,000
Playstation Portable - 183,000
Xbox 360 - 174,000
Gameboy Advance - 84,000
Playstation 3 - 82,000
GameCube - 13,000
Do you even believe your tits?! Playstation is barely trying to stay afloat in the consoles department! According to industry news, Playstation 3 is facing problems in trying to sell even 100,000 units a month!
It's quite gutsy of Nintendo to launch it's wii at a time when Sony and Microsoft are busy killing each other in the markets. Shrewd as they are, they have also underestimated their selling prowess and thus leading to a problem with supply. But who can blame them, it's better to be cautious than to have an oversupply and have stock sitting in your supply chains.
Some also say that there are just too few games to be had on the playstation. And i do believe that's what you want to do when you buy a game console - to play games. In fact, looking at the figures, you can see that the Playstation 2 (yes! 2!!) is actually outselling the Playstation 3! Now how can that even be remotely possible? Blame it on the games.
On the whole, Sony is still selling well. The PS2 and the PSP continues to be it's cash cow and it feeds a market that is already tired of an electronics market that's Microsoft everything.
And that is the problem that i foresee with the Xbox. Not the games, not the console, not the technology. The very brand of Microsoft is the deadweight that could be dragging it's sales. A quick survey: What do you think of when you think of Microsoft Games? I don't know about you, but the first thing that comes to mind is "Flight Simulator" and "Age of Empires". And i also can't get Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Windows out of my head. The word "microsoft" is just too serious to be related to anything fun. Perhaps some serious brand disassociation would do well to boost the Xbox's sales.
My buddy Rimbo pointed out another opportunity for Nintendo: "...technical prowess, combined with the low cost of development for the Wii.....will show a huge opportunity to develop games for the Wii that isn't being exploited yet by the big development houses. For the price of one triple-A title for the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, a studio could develop 3 Wii games and because of the huge Wii installed base, anyone of them has a better chance of selling than a big-budget Xbox/Playstation offering".
Enough said.
I'm spending my money on a hoover instead.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
For Pieter:
"...if you go to bed with an itchy arse, you will wake up with a smelly finger." - my uncle on skunk
Note to self:
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.' -- Calvin Coolidge
goodbye china!
And thus we move again. Out of China this time and back the to the UK...
More information about what I’m up to in the UK when the time is right.
32 more days before I leave, my boss freaked out when I handed him the resignation letter. Ah well, what can I say... I mean I like china, but there are always better things in life to look forward to. Call me what you will, itchy feet, irresponsible, a man who can’t grow up to settle down. But hey, I’m getting a lot more out of life than you, you and you over there! I was reading Channel News Asia last evening and that was enough to reassure me of what I’m doing. I really don’t want to have my life reduced to movies, Saturday night clubbing, mindless complaining and then a few years after, leaving the planet in a Singapore Casket funeral.
So what are my thoughts about China? My opinions are really just very surface. Not even if a person has been here 10 years, you can never say that you know China well. Sure, on one hand they may be rude, unhygienic, self centred, untrusting and very casual, but hey! Singapore was exactly like this not too long ago too!
On a business perspective, I’m still not too sure about dealing with a real local Chinese firm. Their work is far too casual and quality control is almost lacking. But that really is because that’s what their society is all about. The motivation for working is propelled by money, not passion and that can be very dangerous.
It is a society that is driven by effort, not results. A factory girl working 24 hours and producing little results is praised more than the one that does her regular hours but has helped in identifying production flaws and increased productivity. Then again, it’s not fair to just say that China practices this very bad culture. It is something that is commonplace all throughout Asia. Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore... people in these places all believe in working hard, pointlessly. I am very disagreeable with this habit. I mean, if you see a colleague working like a mad hamster, you would feel compelled to stay at your desk too! And what are both of you doing all this time? Well, writing blogs off-line can be one. MSN could be another. Even if you have your work open on the screen, you could be just poking around and not doing any real work. So what is the point really?
Now, what if you had a system, that gets you in trouble if results are not produced, and required you to get off work at 6pm everyday? Think that’s a stupid idea? Not at all, it’s actually a new policy that’s practiced by foreign companies setup in Asia and it draws results better than never before. If you must work overtime, do it alone, do it at home. In a modern workforce, work is very portable and there really is no real reason why you must do it in the office anyway. At least not after office hours.
Argh, sorry mates. My thoughts are straying all over the place. A Tuesday morning after a bad breakfast and strong coffee doesn’t really make for conducive thinking.
More information about what I’m up to in the UK when the time is right.
32 more days before I leave, my boss freaked out when I handed him the resignation letter. Ah well, what can I say... I mean I like china, but there are always better things in life to look forward to. Call me what you will, itchy feet, irresponsible, a man who can’t grow up to settle down. But hey, I’m getting a lot more out of life than you, you and you over there! I was reading Channel News Asia last evening and that was enough to reassure me of what I’m doing. I really don’t want to have my life reduced to movies, Saturday night clubbing, mindless complaining and then a few years after, leaving the planet in a Singapore Casket funeral.
So what are my thoughts about China? My opinions are really just very surface. Not even if a person has been here 10 years, you can never say that you know China well. Sure, on one hand they may be rude, unhygienic, self centred, untrusting and very casual, but hey! Singapore was exactly like this not too long ago too!
On a business perspective, I’m still not too sure about dealing with a real local Chinese firm. Their work is far too casual and quality control is almost lacking. But that really is because that’s what their society is all about. The motivation for working is propelled by money, not passion and that can be very dangerous.
It is a society that is driven by effort, not results. A factory girl working 24 hours and producing little results is praised more than the one that does her regular hours but has helped in identifying production flaws and increased productivity. Then again, it’s not fair to just say that China practices this very bad culture. It is something that is commonplace all throughout Asia. Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore... people in these places all believe in working hard, pointlessly. I am very disagreeable with this habit. I mean, if you see a colleague working like a mad hamster, you would feel compelled to stay at your desk too! And what are both of you doing all this time? Well, writing blogs off-line can be one. MSN could be another. Even if you have your work open on the screen, you could be just poking around and not doing any real work. So what is the point really?
Now, what if you had a system, that gets you in trouble if results are not produced, and required you to get off work at 6pm everyday? Think that’s a stupid idea? Not at all, it’s actually a new policy that’s practiced by foreign companies setup in Asia and it draws results better than never before. If you must work overtime, do it alone, do it at home. In a modern workforce, work is very portable and there really is no real reason why you must do it in the office anyway. At least not after office hours.
Argh, sorry mates. My thoughts are straying all over the place. A Tuesday morning after a bad breakfast and strong coffee doesn’t really make for conducive thinking.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Monday, May 07, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
communist propaganda art
actually, communism propaganda art is quite cool. after trying to re-create this last night, I can understand why the hype caught on so well. it’s not the art entirely that won the battle though, the whole idea of communism is supposed to be the way forward for mankind in the future.
But the whole concept has a fundamental flaw: human greed and selfishness.
Communism is not a bad or evil thing, that’s what your history and social conditioning would like you to think. If communism had it’s way, there would be no global warming, no mindless capitalisation, far less crimes, no need for prostitution (damn), no murders committed in the name of religion. The world would be simpler, people would be helping one another and mankind would live the way God intended it to be – to live peacefully and to take care of the planet without mischief.
Ah. But that is a perfect world, a dream world. Now let’s talk about reality. In reality, we all want things. We want our Ferraris, our golf memberships, our sexy ladies swooning over us, our men to splurge money on us, our iPods and our pretty clothes. Abolishment of private property? Not with our greedy human nature, no way. In the real world, central planning becomes dictatorship. Communal work runs into laziness. Oh well....
But the whole concept has a fundamental flaw: human greed and selfishness.
Communism is not a bad or evil thing, that’s what your history and social conditioning would like you to think. If communism had it’s way, there would be no global warming, no mindless capitalisation, far less crimes, no need for prostitution (damn), no murders committed in the name of religion. The world would be simpler, people would be helping one another and mankind would live the way God intended it to be – to live peacefully and to take care of the planet without mischief.
Ah. But that is a perfect world, a dream world. Now let’s talk about reality. In reality, we all want things. We want our Ferraris, our golf memberships, our sexy ladies swooning over us, our men to splurge money on us, our iPods and our pretty clothes. Abolishment of private property? Not with our greedy human nature, no way. In the real world, central planning becomes dictatorship. Communal work runs into laziness. Oh well....
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