Hello, and welcome to another week of Tremors and Rumors!
We’ve got some interesting stuff this week. First, a big-name gaming giant falls to a measly (okay, not-so-measly) smartphone colossus in quarter earnings. Then, our favorite fruity company extends some excellent benefits to its employees helping to spread their products. Finally, an ever-growing social networking site opens itself up for more growth – to your teens! There’s plenty to talk about and so much to do, so here we go: your T&R for the week.
Nintendo Posts Earnings Loss for 2011 Fiscal – Alongside the Wii U in Late 2012 (Gaming Tremor!)
What a bummer of a year for the gaming goliath (I’m running out of words for “big”). Though Nintendo keeps releasing game systems, it seems that simply is not enough to keep up with the times. Nintendo released a fiscal statement alongside news about their new console, the Wii U, stating that while their new console will release in late 2012, they will also be posting a fiscal loss for the year 2011 of upwards of $800 million. That a lot of dollars, folks, but I wouldn’t count Nintendo down just yet. On the contrary – though people are buying far more games on their smartphones these days, Nintendo was still about to sell over 10 million Nintendo 3DS units this fiscal year, and with their new console releasing in late 2012, I think it’s safe to say they won’t be totally in the red next fiscal year. That being said, it’s a situation worth watching – the Wii U isn’t an immense upgrade over the Wii, and it comes off as a bit gimmicky. We’ll have to see what becomes of the new console moving forward.
Apple Gives Mac/iPad Discounts to Employees, Ups Charitable Contributions to Half-Time Employees (Charity Tremor)
There are lots of mega-corporations that look like terrible monstrosities. Apple attempts to relieve this image (and does a fairly good job of it) by offering employee discounts and matching charity donations made by full-time employees. That has now changed! It used to be that employees received 25% off of a Mac or iOS device purchase – now they receive $500 off any Mac purchase (except Mac Minis – that would make them nearly free) and $250 off any iPad (50% off, if you get the low-end WiFi only model). On top of that, Apple has extended their charitable donation matching to half-time employees, up to $10,000. I doubt any part-time employees will be making $10,000 donations anytime soon, but it’s great to see a company try to help the little people and the big people. They’ve done so for a long time through the Project RED program.
Google+ Opens to Teens; Teens Question “WTP?” (Social Networking Tremor)
If you haven’t heard, Google+ is the Facebook killer. Or at least, it wants to be, but adoption hasn’t been as incredible as the behemoth now known as Facebook. That being said, in an effort to expand their user base, Google has opened up Google+ to allow people 13 and up (the past limit was 18+). In doing so, they have also revised their privacy settings to be more safely-set for younger audiences. For example, in a video Hangout, if someone from outside a younger users circle joins, the younger user will have their audio/video cut off and will be asked if they want to rejoin. It’s more of a safety precaution than anything, but it’s probably for the best. Wouldn’t want ChatRoulette to be implemented into Google+.
