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Bad news, bargain hunters; Nintendo has gone on record saying there are no imminent price cuts for the Nintendo Wii or DS. Satoru Iwata, the company's president, said he did not believe in the "model" of price slashing, as it tends to leave early adopters feeling a little disheartened. Though we do agree, surely early adopters are well out of their honeymoon phase by now? With
Nintendo's profits soaring to new heights, they're not exactly looking for a quick dollar, so perhaps the move makes a little sense. Still, Nintendo is not expecting to make as much cash on DS hardware sales in the coming year, which means there are a few more eggs in a Wii basket somewhere. The exact DS stats breakdown like this:
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Gizmodo
Here we see ol' Mercator, if country sizes were drawn according to the amount of discretionary income spent on electronics by its citizens. As the world's largest economy, the US being the biggest blob here at $162 billion for 2007 is not that surprising. But what might be surprising is Japan, who spends more on recreation than clothing, household items and electronics combined—pretty interesting for such a style- and gadget-conscious nation. Also note central Europe's electronics spending, which is clearly becoming a force to be reckoned with if IFA in Berlin was any indication. Head over to the NYTimes for more playing with this cool little flash data visualization with other categories of spending. [NYTimes via Boing Boing]
