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Mar 16
0

ThunderBolt pre-sales break record

By | Droid, news, Verizon | No Comments

Best Buy lowers its price for ThunderBolt to $249.99 for three days only

Computerworld – Online retailer Wirefly said Wednesday its first day of pre-sales of the HTC ThunderBolt smartphone were 400% higher than any other cell phone pre-sale in the company’s eight-year history.

Wirefly didn’t provide the number of pre-orders of the Android-based smartphone, the first to run on the Verizon Wireless LTE network, but said the smartphone accounted for 25% of all of its sales on Tuesday. The pre-orders started at 3 a.m. ET on Tuesday and Wirefly shipments begin Thursday, when Verizon will also start selling it.

Wirefly calls itself the number one online retailer of cell phones, smartphones and cell phone plans. However, it does not sell phones that run on AT&T, nor does it sell the best-selling iPhone.

The pre-sale record for ThunderBolt shows there is pent-up demand for the first device to launch on Verizon’s faster LTE network, said Andy Zeinfeld, CEO of Simplexity, the parent company of Wirefly. “Our sales volume far surpassed our expectations,” he said in a statement.

A Wirefly spokesman added: “If there was any lingering doubt that the ThunderBolt by HTC was going to be lightning hot, Wirefly’s pre-orders smashed that doubt to smithereens.”

Wirefly didn’t credit its $50-lower price for the device as a reason for the increased sales. It offers the ThunderBolt for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement from Verizon, while Verizon will offer it for $249.99.

Various Web sites, including Amazon.com, have historically offered smartphones at lower prices than the carriers, using the discounts as a way to attract attention to their sites, analysts said.

Retailer Best Buy advertised the ThunderBolt in Sunday’s newspaper circulars for $299.99 for several weeks, helping build interest in the smartphone, but suddenly lowered the initial price to $249.99 on Tuesday, the same day of the Wirefly pre-sale for $199.99.

But Best Buy said in a press release that it was dropping the price to $249.99 only through March 19, including online pre-orders, then kicking the price back up to $299.99 on March 20.

Best Buy’s move indicates customer interest in the first LTE device from Verizon, along with the pre-sales by Wirefly. “The HTC ThunderBolt has generated a lot of excitement for us since it was announced,” said Scott Anderson, head of merchanding for Best Buy Mobile, in a statement. “Customers have already spoken loud and clear — people want this phone and we’re excited to deliver it on March 17.”

Mar 09
0

IBM bets on New Orleans; gives $250,000 to $400,000 worth of services

By | New Orleans, news | No Comments

IBM announced the first batch of cities this week awarded grants as part of the company’s three-year, $50 million Smarter Cities Challenge. The recipients–including New Orleans, Newark, Rio de Janeiro, and Jakarta–are diverse, to say the least. So how did they end up with IBM’s attention, and what happens now?

IBM chose 24 recipients from more than 200 city applicants, all of which were vying for IBM’s expertise in data analytics to tackle problems like crime, education, and budgeting.

The issues in the winning cities are as diverse as the cities themselves. In St. Louis, Mo., for example, IBM has already hit the ground running, with consultants and technology specialists using advanced data analytics to deal with the city’s public safety and education problems. Data analytics are being used to “deploy public safety officers and to figure out which students are most at risk of dropping out, as well as social service needs,” explains Stan Litow, IBM’s Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President of IBM’s Foundation.

In Chengdu, China, IBM will home in on the local government’s Wireless City initiative, and in Rio de Janeiro, the company will work on infrastructure, environmental, and economic challenges.

The company had a number of requirements for potential recipients: discrete sets of issues to deal with, an assurance that IBM would have full access to the city’s data, a population of approximately 300,000 to 750,000 residents, and the equivalent of the top city official signing off on the proposal, among other things. Some (not-so-smart?) cities were knocked out of the running simply because they didn’t have the mayor’s signature on their application.

But overall, the process was competitive. “We were looking for cities where you could really make an impact,” says Litow.

A team of six IBM employees will be deployed to each recipient city, including at least one technology specialist, one business and consulting expert, and one marketing and communications pro.

IBM will reveal the goals of other recipient cities in the coming weeks and months. And as for the cities that didn’t make the cut this time around? Better luck next year (and, make sure to sign on the dotted line).