Remember how HP has retail stores selling webOS-based devices? Not anymore, as HP hammers the last nail into the webOS coffin by closing down the US stores and gets rid of any remaining inventory.

Reports emerge of the stores selling Veer handsets for $50 and Pixi units for all of $25 (or $15 for 4 or more).

The news is just the last in a series relating to the HP fire sale, where TouchPad prices dropped to around $100.

We can definitely say our farewells to Palm now, then-- unless HP manages Continue reading...

UK supermarket Sainsbury's purchases "white label" online entertainment company Global Media Vault from MBL PLC for £1 million, saying “customers will soon be able to buy, rent or stream content from Sainsbury’s.”

Global Media Vault will operate with Sainsbury's as main client, and has a database containing 3M music, film and game assets for the UK market.

"Online retailing and the delivery of digital content will play a key role in the future of entertainment," Sainsbury's says.

The purchase Continue reading...

Electronic Partner H1 2011 revenues decline by 3% Y-o-Y-- even if the market actually shows growth (by 4.3%), according to Manager Magazin.

Meanwhile international revenues drop even further to reach the double digit range, with Medimax retail outlets threatening to slip even further towards the red.

Manager Magazin quotes EP managing partner and director Oliver Haubrich, who says the retailer is "in an alarming state."

The reason for such a decline? Family in-fighting, as Oliver Haubrich struggles Continue reading...

Media-Saturn closes shop in Greece with immediate effect-- shutting down 2 big Greek Saturn outlets at Larissa Station (central Athens) and Pylaia (Thessaloniki), the Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports.

The retailer will also pass 3 Saturn stores to sister chain Media Markt-- even if Media Markt is also shutting down an outlet in southern Athens.

The Media-Saturn venture in Greece left little profit for the Metro group-- with turnovers dropping by -25% Y-o-Y within 2 years, making the Saturn Continue reading...

Bedding, why bedding? Pixmania in France will launch Sombed, its own brand of bedding.

In Russia, Eldorado will exchange until the end of October outdated appliances and electronics in more than 50 product categories, giving customers 20% discount against the price of the new purchase.

Media Markt will halt the use of promotional prices and empower each Media Markt store to compare its prices with all competitors (online and offline) on a daily basis.

Everywhere you look the economy pushes retailers Continue reading...

US carrier Sprint makes a $20 billion bet on the iPhone 4S, the Wall Street Journal reports-- committing to buy "at least 30.5 million iPhones," a possibly record breaking non-military order.

With such an order Sprint (the no. 3 US carrier) might only start making money from the deal on 2014.

The carrier however hopes the gamble will put it in a better position with customers, gaining revenue in the process. Either that or it ends up losing, big time.

Both Sprint and Apple decline to comment Continue reading...

Best Buy gives up on the digital music market and sells Napster to Rhapsody for a minority stake in the online music provider.

Napster-- hugely popular source of pirated music turned legitimate paid music service-- was bought by Best Buy 3 years ago for $121M. Back then, according to Gartner, Napster had an estimated 700000 subscribers.

It now has less than half of that amount-- around 200000-300000, with Best Buy failing to use its retail network to promote the service.

Napster will shut down Continue reading...

With hardly any noise (and few noticing) Google opens the first "Google Store"-- a "Chromezone" shop within a London PC World branch.

The polar opposite of over-hyped Apple retail launches, the small "shop within a shop" only sells Chromebooks and accessories (such as headphones) and will run for the 3 months leading to Christmas, the London Evening Standard reports.

Staffing the Chromezone are "specially trained Chromebook experts."

"It's still very, very early days" Arvind Desikan from Google Continue reading...