The economic downturn apparently hasn't dashed everyone's Christmas spirits -- Internet commerce site Amazon.com announced Friday that the 2008 holiday season finished as its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15, which is a record-breaking 72.9 items per second.
Amazon holiday facts (as reported in a company press release):
- From Nov. 15-Dec. 10, sold one copy of Microsoft Office every 2.5 minutes
- The weight of all GPS devices sold since Black Friday equals 151 Mini Coopers
- Sold enough high-performance headphones that everyone attending the last three Super Bowls could grab a set and rock out
- Sold enough coffee to give each resident of Seattle a cup per day for two months
- Sold enough Spalding basketballs to fill three C-130 cargo planes
Amazon bestsellers (Nov. 15- Dec. 19 based on units ordered):
- Electronics: Samsung's 52-inch LCD HDTV; Apple iPod touch 8GB; Acer Aspire One netbook; Nintendo Wii
- DVDs: "Wall-E," "The Dark Knight" for Blu-ray and "The Dark Knight"
- Music: "Fearless," Taylor Swift; "And Winter Came," Enya; "Twilight" soundtrack
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is trying to cash in on the Apple iPhone 3G frenzy by offering the device beginning Sunday. The retailer will offer the black 8GB model for $197 and the 16GB black or white model for $297 with a new two-year service agreement from AT&T or qualified upgrade, according to a press release. Wal-Mart will also match the price of any local competitor's advertised price.
Now here's an interesting business plan. BetaNews reports that Sprint is trying to rid itself of users who tie up its customer service lines by telling them that it would let them go effective July 30. The company told the subscribers in a letter that "the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs."
Several users of an online forum where the story first broke, Sprintusers.com, are writing to Sprint CEO Gary Forsee to complain about the move. The company is offering a service credit to those whose accounts it is axing and is not charging an early termination fee.
Some die-hard techies in Washington camped outside of AT&T stores, hoping to get first dibs on Apple's new iPhone, which goes on sale Friday at 6 p.m. Several local TV stations ran stories on their morning news about the frenzy. At the AT&T store in Chevy Chase, some people had been in line since midnight.
"We have phones here, we don't discuss quantities of phones at our locations," AT&T Sales Manager Colin Martin told NBC 4. Some VIPs, like lawmakers and professional athletes, tried to get early access to the iPhones but they were told to get in line like everyone else.
Here's coverage from NBC 4 and Fox 5 News.
No big surprise here. Online analytics firm Hitwise reported this week that the volume of U.S. searches for the term “iphone” increased 583 percent in the past four weeks leading up to the June 29 launch date. The market share of U.S. visits to the Apple iPhone Web site increased 185 percent in the same time period, officials said. The most popular queries containing the term were focused on price, recent news, reviews and the release date.
Meanwhile, “iphone” was the 131st most searched for term sending traffic to all U.S. Web sites for the four weeks ending June 23, Hitwise said. The term was the fifth most popular search term sending visits to the AT&T Wireless Web site. AT&T will be the exclusive service provider for the long-awaited gadget. Read more here.
That's the day the highly anticipated Apple iPhone hits store shelves. It's $600 and only compatible and with AT&T wireless service. It also still requires that pesky two-year service plan. Although the price may be a hindrance for some, high-tech influentials won't think twice about handing over the dough -- and the mobile phone industry will be forced to react. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. In the meantime, watch Apple's latest soothing iPhone ad. It almost makes you forget the price tag.
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