BUSINESS BRIEFS
Sony cuts price of Playstation 3
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Looking to jump-start sales of its PlayStation 3 game system, Sony cut the price by $100 to $499 and plans to introduce a new $599 package with a larger (80-gigabyte vs. 60-GB) hard drive and one game next month.
Richard Doherty of research firm The Envisioneering Group said yesterday that Sony's aggressive move should increase interest in its state-of-the-art PS3, which plays high-definition games and movies.
Crowds lined up for the PS3 in November, but sales slowed after the holidays as the underdog $250 Nintendo Wii grabbed the spotlight. By the end of May, Nintendo sold 2.8 million Wiis, while Sony sold 1.36 million PS3s in the United States.
FRUIT PRODUCTS SETTING A RECORD
Got fruit?
Savvy marketers, keenly aware of consumer demand for anything with a hint of fruit, this year will roll out a record number of products that make claims about fruit content, reports Datamonitor.
Some 240 fruit-infused products — from ice cream to chips — appeared in the first half of 2007, compared with 124 in all of 2000.
The fruit frenzy comes two years after the government bumped up the Food Pyramid's recommended daily fruit and veggie consumption.
KIA WORKERS PLAN TO STRIKE
Workers at Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, will stage partial strikes for three days this week, extending stoppages estimated to cost $167 million in lost production.
The 28,000-member union will walk out for four hours during the day and night shifts on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, the union said yesterday in a statement.
The carmaker lost production of 2,732 vehicles in June as workers staged stoppages as part of wider protests against a free-trade deal between South Korea and the U.S.
