November 23, 2006
That Thanksgiving Halo
US online retailers are licking their chops at the prospect of Black Friday and Cyber Monday bookending the coming Thanksgiving weekend.
Already, shoppers have spent $6.35bn online (excluding travel) since the holiday season officially began on November 1, according to comScore Networks. That’s 23 per cent up on last year.
ComScore expects spending in November and December to exceed $24bn, 24 per cent higher than 2005, and Cyber Monday splurges to reach almost $600m, up from $484m last year.
However, there will be precious little to be made on the new PlayStation 3 due to shortages, although Sony points out a halo effect on the PSP - sales up 29 per cent week-on-week - and the PS2 - up 24 per cent.
Speaking of haloes, Microsoft says the game standing in for the long-awaited Halo 3 this season - Gears of War - has sold 1m copies in its first two weeks, undoubtedly beating Sony’s rival Resistance: Fall of Man, given the lack of PS3s.
Oh, and we may have finally established a link between the lines we observed for the PS3 and the queues outside Niketown here - Nike has come out with a limited edition PS3 sneaker.
Chris Nuttall, San Francisco
