wal-mart

Last weekend Wal-Mart mistakenly advertised a Microsoft Xbox 360 and Kinect bundle for $249, considerably less than its actual retail price. Despite the slip-up, it seems the ubiquitous retailer will honor the bundle's mistaken price. We've seen a ... number of price errors in recent months. The most glaring and embarrassing error was made by Sears, which in July accidentally advertised an Apple iPad 2 for just $69, or 86 per cent less than its typical retail price. Sears later apologized for the error, but only credited the accounts of those who had scrambled to take advantage of the deal. Xbox ... (view more)

Wal-Mart will soon compete with the major cellphone networks by selling its own calling plan. The world's largest retailer will offer exceptionally low rates on voice calls and texts, though its data charges may be too expensive for many users. The ... chain will be acting as a virtual operator, meaning it licenses bandwidth from a mobile network (T-Mobile in this case), and resells it to customers. Its plan, dubbed "Family Mobile", costs $45 a month for one line and $25 a month for each additional line, with unlimited US calls and texts. That's substantially lower than what major networks ... (view more)

As of this past Sunday, Wal-Mart has commenced selling Apple's iPhone 3G in approximately 2,500 of its stores. With two models available for consumers, one of which is under $200, Apple should expect a big boost in sales. Wal-Mart's two iPhone ... versions include an 8 GB edition and a 16 GB model. The smaller version is available for a reasonable $197, while the larger iPhone retails for $297. Tech fans will remember that when the 8 GB originally went on sale in June of last year, it cost the average consumer about $599. In a statement last week, Wal-Mart revealed that every phone sold within ... (view more)

Wal-Mart's online store has undergone a major redesign that makes its massive catalogue of songs entirely DRM-free. Digital rights management (DRM) is a term used to identify restrictions placed on digital media to prevent piracy. Wal-Mart's online ... store had previously made use of the Windows Media DRM, limiting the playback of songs to devices sanctioned by Microsoft. However, the growing popularity of mobile media devices such as the iPod, which cannot play songs limited to the Windows Media DRM, has forced the retailer to carry out a complete switch-over. Wal-Mart had announced its ... (view more)

After just four months, Wal-Mart has abandoned its once-promising Linux-based PC experiment. Although no longer available for sale in stores, the company will continue to retail these systems through its website. The 'gPC' made by Everex cost just ... $199, largely because the firm didn't have to pay licensing fees to Microsoft. Linux is an open-source operating system which is free to download and modify. Many of its users find and share ways to improve the system. A spokeswoman said the model was more popular among online buyers. That's likely because Linux is generally used by people who are ... (view more)

Earlier last week we reported that Best Buy decided to heavily back Blu-Ray in the next generation DVD format wars. We wrote that the battle appeared to be nearing its climax, and now Wal-Mart may be striking the killer blow to the rival HD-DVD ... system. While Best Buy plans to continue stocking both formats (but put all its promotional backing behind Blu-Ray), Wal-Mart is dropping HD-DVD completely. Their head of home entertainment, Gary Severson, said "We've listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-Ray products and movies with their purchases." They'll be ... (view more)

You didn't expect retail glutton Wal-Mart to sit idly by while iTunes, Napster, and the new LimeWire shared in all the legal download dollars, did you? Of course not. That's why it's very little surprise that the omnipresent American chain has ... announced it will be going online in a big way when it comes to music. Like its deals on anything from t-shirts to tea, Wal-Mart has begun offering bargain basement prices for downloads to a variety of devices, including the Apple's iPod, iPhone, and Microsoft's Zune. Just how low can Wal-Mart go? To 94 cents, apparently. That's the price of the average ... (view more)

Recent reports suggest that Apple and Wal-Mart are in talks to negotiate a partnership. The deal will have iTunes movie downloads available on Wal-Mart store shelves. The arrangement may take the form of an iTunes Store "digital coupon" available ... for purchase at Wal-Mart. Customers would then use these coupons to download movies from the iTunes online store. (Source: arstechnica.com ) Such an arrangement would allow Wal-Mart to gain a foothold in the still young downloadable movie industry, while enabling Apple to increase their movie offerings to a wide audience. The potential partnership ... (view more)

Not long ago, America Online (AOL) announced that it will offer a slew of movies for download. At the time, the system wasn't much to look at, the movies were very hit and miss, and AOL had no system in place to offer users the ability to make ... copies of the flicks they acquired. Well, now Apple is trying to up the ante by offering movies on its popular iTunes website, and the potential of the company's crusade is raising eyebrows at Wal-Mart HQ (amongst others). According to sources, Apple intends to start offering movies for download from iTunes within days. Although Apple CEO Steve Jobs had ... (view more)

Let's face it: Wal-Mart is the most dominant retail chain in North America. By importing cheaper Chinese wares and selling them to U.S. and Canadian consumers for slightly less than the competition, the massive all-in-one department store franchise ... has choked out small business pennies at a time. Yet there is one demographic that has not yet contributed fully to Wal-Mart's tremendous growth: Youth. In an attempt to act on the popularity of MySpace, Wal-Mart has launched its own similar site, "The Hub", a social site with the intention of raking in as much disposable income as possible. So, ... (view more)