Boaz Berkowitz

Common Usage Errors on the Seeking Alpha Site

Thank you for putting this together! Nice job.

Is the Game Over for Wii?

Interesting correlations.

I have to agree with jwebb1970. Marketing and image as well as other factors such as price often wins out over superior hardware and not just in video game consoles. VHS won out over Betamax, PCs over Apples, etc.

Nintendo: The Wii Bubble Has Burst

User "Big Moving" makes a good point, except Nintendo can easily produce games irrespective of its hardware. Remember Sega? They used to battle it out with Nintendo for platform dominance and at one point captured 51% of the market. But after a few bombs (Dreamcast, Saturn, etc.) and the emergence of Sony's PlayStation, Sega's market share of platform sales plummeted to a lowly 2%. Shortly afterward they abandoned this market completely and focused solely on game development. They still produce some exceptional games for the other platforms, even their ancient rival, Nintendo. In my youth I never would have imagined video games featuring Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo's Mario but now they exist.

Nintendo's games will not be enough save them if they want to remain the industry leader. They will need innovative hardware, not software.

But yes, they do make some fine games :)

On Nov 01 08:27 AM Big Moving Stock wrote:

> Gaming is a part time passion of mine, since childhood many moons
> ago. Agreed that Nintendo does not have the most technically superior
> hardware but they do have something nobody else has and probably
> never will. They create the best 1st party software by a long shot
> and they own the best franchises in the history of gaming. Mario
> - Zelda - Metroid, etc.. Nintendo has never tried to have the "best"
> hardware or machine, but what they have strived for and largely succeeded
> at, is producing the software and games that are the most fun and
> appealing to the largest audience of users, both casual fans and
> hardcore gamers. I Love Nintendo!

Nintendo: The Wii Bubble Has Burst

Xbox is technically a better machine in that it is has a stronger processor and more advanced graphics. The Wii actually chokes on some games that flow smoothly on the Xbox. The Wii has some advantages but they are mostly in its motion sensors. If its competitors match this feature with better technology, then yes Nintendo is in trouble (seekingalpha.com/artic...). Unless of course they manage to wow the world again with a new innovative product like they did with the Wii.

But none of this is a surprise, but rather part of the natural life cycle of a product. The recent price drop was a clear indication of this.

Obama signs Bill inre Global warming( Presidential decree)

Hi Freya, I'm afraid I can only fix the problems that I am notified about and I don't know what you are referring to regarding your husband or other users. I'll contact Mary for more information but please feel free to email me directly at boaz [@} seekingalpha.com and I promise you, I'll do my best to help. I believe others on the site will vouch for both my sincerity and ability to produce results.

Thank you.

On Oct 07 06:11 AM Freya wrote:

> Boaz: That's what Mary Hunt told my husband, But then abandoned him.
> "work with us, we can Clean this site up."
>
> If you have a problem, write me. He did. Meanwhile, The Persons responsible
> continue to wander around "unmolested", so to speak.
>
> And continue to Lie. Granted, this time around its in an Instablog
> but as far as I'm concerned, A lie is a Lie.
>
> Believe me Boaz, I'd like to believe you.
>
> But I have history on my side, "once Bitten, twice Shy". Unfortunately
> We were Bitten Twice, By Someone in your Organization while Responding
> to the Same Author.
>
> That Author continues to make Comments. His Abusive comments continue
> to permeate Seeking Alpha. He has been doing it for over a Year.
> But he is allowed to get away with it.
>
> If that isn't two different codes of conduct, I do not know what
> is.
>
> We'll see.

Obama signs Bill inre Global warming( Presidential decree)

Hi Freya, your user name has now been fixed.

Obama signs Bill inre Global warming( Presidential decree)

Hi Freya, I noticed your bio today and I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you have experienced. I've requested that your user name be fixed as a priority and will stay on top of this to make sure it is done. Please feel free to contact me directly should you have additional problems in the future.

Boaz Berkowitz
Director of Contributor Relations
Seeking Alpha

The UK Moves First on Bank Reserves

Thanks to those of you who brought this issue of Optionsgirl to my attention. I did some investigating and found out that due to an error, a handful of user accounts were accidentally deleted, during a routine "spam" cleanup. Optionsgirl was one of these. These users were immediately notified via email to bring this error to their attention and to notify them that their accounts would be reinstated within 24 hours. As you can see, her account has been restored as promised:

seekingalpha.com/user/...

I too have been following Optionsgirl for some time now and was surprised she was no longer on the site. I'm glad to see she is now back.

In the future, should questions like this ever arise, it is best to contact Seeking Alpha directly (seekingalpha.com/page/...). With thousands of comments posted to our site daily, we'll be able to investigate such errors far more quickly when notified in that manner rather than within the comments section of articles. Those of you who know me are already aware that I always do my best to get you the facts as expeditiously as possibly.

Boaz Berkowitz
Director of Contributor Relations
Seeking Alpha

Who Benefited from Microsoft's Bing Cashback?

I covered the cashback program in depth in some of my recent articles:

seekingalpha.com/artic...

seekingalpha.com/artic...

But one question remains is will there be a lasting impact? I for one did make use of this promotion, but my loyalty has not increased at all. I simply go to which ever cashback promotion offers the highest payout (usually bing since they use their cashback program as a loss leader but not always - sometimes the competition has a better promotion or features a store that Bing is not partnered with). I suspect most other users are the same - this kind of promotion specifically appeals to price sensitive customers. In other words, they'll go where ever they can get the best deal. So using the current strategy, Microsoft may only build market share by literally paying users to search with Bing. As strategies go, that isn't sustainable for the long term.

Plus I've been dismally unimpressed with Bing's support. My wife had a problem where all of her cashback was inexplicably canceled. She's been waiting for the problem to be resolved for over a month to know available. We never had that sort of trouble with other cashback sites like Fatwallet, Ebates, Mrrebates, etc.

As an advertising tactic though, it was brilliant. A few months ago, no one heard of Bing. Within its first few weeks, already 1 in 4 US adults recognized the name somewhat. That is quite an impressive feat. I don't know how much money Microsoft blew on this promotion, but it could easily have been less than a mass advertising campaign would have cost them. And was likely more effective too.

RCS Phase 2: Some Progress

Thanks for the update.

Greenback Plunges to One Year Low; Higher Yielding Currencies Rejoice

Thanks for the update.

Congrats to Seeking Alpha author Lee Munson who appeared on CNBC

Hi Avooch, I sent you an email as requested. We're always here to help get people started with their first instablog post. Good luck!

Welcoming Eric Karnis to the Seeking Alpha Marketing & Sales Team!

UPDATE: Another congratulations to Eric who is now a full-time employee with the Seeking Alpha Sales team!

New updates to the Seeking Alpha website this week

Thanks Rita. For those of you who weren't aware, "RitaLin" heads up our design team at Seeking Alpha.

Rachael Granby Is on Maternity Leave

Congratulations!