In the announcement, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and Justin Bieber appeared in futuristic clothes, pretending to tape for "5 G spot," and then, immediately, "6 G" phones. "There are Those bloody g?" Ozzy muttered.
Best Buy's response was essentially this: don't worry, Ozzy. Just let Best Buy "future proof" technology with its new "Buy-Back programme."
There is no fine print, however, that Ozzy might want to read. The buy-back plan looks like expensive extended warranty plans of Best Buy, and unless consumers are savants and masters of various actuarial calculations of risk, it may prove an ill-considered purchase for most of them.
Best Buy invoices the share repurchase plan as a way to stay ahead of ever-improving technology. His marketing on its Web site offers this message, "now you can own the latest." The program requires, however, that committed customers and pay in advance for something that may or may not be used. This is an option, in the classic sense: you pay for the privilege of keeping open the possibility of selling the gadget back to Best Buy.
I spoke recently with George Sherman, senior vice president for service at best buy, who provided an illustration of how the program works. When you buy a $ 2000 TV, for example, a customer can pay an additional $ 179, which will provide a Best Buy gift card with a value of "50 percent" of the original purchase if the product is sold back to Best Buy within six months (in fact, seven; Best Buy does not start counting the period up to 31 days after purchase).
The "up to" has your qualifications fine print, and the value of buyback descends steeply over time. If the television was sold back between 25 and 49 months, the customer receives only "up to 10 percent." For other products — cell phones, laptops, computers, netbooks and Tablet PCs — offer ends 25 months after purchase.
There is a risk, however, that improved, new versions of the technology does not come quickly as advertisements. You may end up without a valid reason to buy a new TV within months of initial expenditure of $ 2,179.
The multi-year terms and conditions, Best Buy explains that "time is of the essence". If the option to repurchase was not exercised within this period, you lose all the value. That is not the case with an arrangement of trade-in conventional, such as Best Buy also offers and does not involve the purchase of a put option-back in advance.
If the customer is the company to repurchase the product, Best Buy pays with cash, but not with the gift card. If the customer redeems the never option, all the best for the retailer. "By collecting a fee for a service that is not used is a wonderful business," says Matthew Fassler, an analyst at Goldman Sachs.
In the course of the fiscal quarter that ended on November 27, Best Buy, reported a decrease of 5 percent in comparable-store sales in the United States and Puerto Rico, compared to the previous quarter. A category with a sharp decline in the consumer electronics age, down 10.6%. Services of Best Buy, which include extended warranties, that proved more durable, down only 1.5 percent.
Mr. Fassler says that Best Buy has not disclosed for many years as very extended warranties help its profits. Retail sales of consumer electronics is "historically a low margin business that depends on extended warranties for profitability", says. "Maybe extended warranties have become even more valuable than Best Buy recently, as its content businesses — such as film and music — are compacted."
Consumers who choose the option to repurchase must hope that a clearer vision of the future — and the new technology that will bring — compared to those who buy extended warranties to guard against unforeseen problems. Mark Kotkin, Director of survey research at Consumer Reports, says, "the seller often tells you, ' this will give you the peace of mind should you require a costly repair. Would do it. ' But the probability of a product to bring down a typical extended warranty period are low. "
Even if you break the product, the cost of the repair is not much more, on average, compared to the cost of the guarantee, he says. He concludes that extended warranties are a bad bet ".
AJAY KALRA, a marketing professor at Rice University, agrees. "All statistics are compelling: in almost all cases, you should not buy the extended warranty," he says.
Professor Kalra has co-authored an article of 2009 published the Journal of Consumer Research that examined the purchase records from the Department of electronics of a dealer that is not identified.
An extended service contract is purchased in about 3 of every 10 transactions. Subjective considerations the authors noticed: clients were more likely to add the warranty if the product was to be used mainly for fun. These products, the authors hypothesize, ' arouse feelings of guilt and increasing risk aversion.
I'd love to know that Best Buy is not making ridiculously high margins on extended warranties and other services, compared to sales of the products themselves. Here is a picture of a better future: Best Buy again breaks out the margins earned by each service Add-ons.
Can be long past the day Ozzy Gets his bloody 6 G.
Randall Stross is an author of base in Silicon Valley and Professor of business at San Jose State University. E-mail: stross@nytimes.com.
Showing posts with label ability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ability. Show all posts
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The ability to see Discovery's parting shot (space)
Skywatchers in parts of the United States and Canada have a chance Friday night at NASA's space shuttle Discovery – on its mission last-ever – as it chases the international space station through the night sky.
The shuttle and space station will be visible to the naked eye as a separate entity, appearing as bright "stars" sailing across the twilight sky tonight. With clear skies Skywatchers in the northern and southern United States Canada have the best chances of seeing the two spacecraft.
The ISS can be seen easily in clear nights without a telescope, thanks to its enormous size and solar panels. It is as long as a football field and has enough living space for astronauts like a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.
On good passes, the space station is so intense it can compete with the planet Venus in the sky and appears more than 25 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
Discovery launched into space on Thursday and is scheduled to dock at space station Saturday at 2: 16 PM EST. Since Saturday night, both will appear as a singular object moving light.
The international space station makes a complete orbit around the Earth, about once every 91.5 minutes. Initially, after launching Thursday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Discovery space station hauled through the sky from about 37 minutes.
By this evening, this gap will be decreased by around 15 minutes. This means that you will not be able to see the two spacecraft in the sky at the same time; rather, the discovery would appear first, followed by less than half an hour later from the space station traveling along essentially the same path.
Discovery is flying an 11-day mission to deliver a new storage room and humanoid robot to the international space station. This is the final flight of shuttle Discovery because NASA plans to retire the orbiter along with the rest of the shuttle fleet later this year.
NASA's shuttle Discovery is most-flown and is making its ninth trip into space.
Region of visibility
As regards its visibility, it seems that living in the United States of America Central and southern of skywatchers may be out of luck for the discovery or the space station. This is because the trajectories of spacecraft will transmit on paths that are too low or overhead during daylight hours, making them invisible.
In the northern United States of America, there is the possibility of spotting the discovery and the train station on paths that start in the Western Sky then scroll over the bottom in a direction toward the North and East.
In most cases, the higher the gain the shuttle or space station above the Northern horizon will be about 15 degrees. The closed fist at arm's length measures about 10 degrees. So a pass 15 degrees would be approximately one and a half fists up from the horizon.
From southern Canada, two space vehicles will make a bow even higher across the sky. From Montreal and Calgary, for example, there are estimated passes that are more than 40 degrees above the horizon – almost halfway from the horizon to the point of overhead (called the zenith).
How brilliant are?
Most of the satellites become visible only when they are in the light of the Sun and the observer is in deep dusk or dark. This usually means shortly after sunset or before sunrise.
Because of huge dimensions and configuration of highly reflective solar panels of the international space station, is the brightest object artificial currently in orbit around the Earth.
Some have even caught a glimpse of ISS just before sunset or shortly after sunrise. And as a bonus, in the light of the Sun to directly out of the solar panels can sometimes do seem to flare briefly to ISS superbrilliance.
The space shuttle also appears as a very bright (magnitude 0-1); almost matching Sirius, although nowhere near as dazzling as the ISS.
When and where to look
What are the chances of centering Discovery and space station in your town?
You can easily find trying one of these four popular websites: Chris peat heaven above, Science @ NASA's J-Pass, NASA SkyWatch and Spaceweather.com.
Everyone will ask for your zip code or city, and respond with a list of suggested times. Estimates computed a couple of days ahead of time is usually accurate within a few minutes. However, you can change due to slow decay of the orbit of the space station and periodic reboosts Gurkhas.
Another great site is this one, which provides real-time satellite tracking and shows at any time during the day or night on which part of the land the shuttle or ISS happens to be.
Allows you to check websites often for updates as viewing conditions can sometimes change due to developments of the mission.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes of astronomy for the New York Times and other publications, and he is also a meteorologist on camera to News 12 Westchester, N.Y., click here for shuttle mission updates and a link to NASA TV.
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