BEST BUY CLOSING IN UK

Best Buy Europe, the joint venture between Best Buy Inc. and Carphone Warehouse, has been shuttered after just 18 months in business. In that short amount of time, it lost £80 million ($127 million), largely due to consumer belt-tightening and increased competition from cheaper online retailers. Up to 1,100 jobs will be lost at the eleven UK stores currently open in Thurrock, Bristol and Wolverhampton, among other locations, bringing to an end the company's ambitious plan to open 200 stores across Europe.

At the same time, the US giant declared it would buy out its European partner's stake in the Best Buy Mobile chain as it continues to pull out of unprofitable foreign operations.

BEST BUY TO OFFER TOUCHPAD WITH HP COMPUTER PURCHASE

Best Buy announced on Monday that customers who purchase an HP or Compaq laptop, desktop or all-in-one computer can opt to purchase an HP TouchPad tablet for an additional $149. The deal, which gives a small breath of life to a tablet that has already been killed-off by HP, kicks off on November 1st. Interested buyers can also purchase the TouchPad for $599.99, the tablet’s initial launch price, without buying an HP computer. As a quick refresher, the TouchPad offers a 9.7-inch XGA display, 32GB of storage, a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and support for 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and NFC.

BEST BUY REDUCING HOLIDAY HIRES

Best Buy will hire fewer temporary workers for the 2011 holiday season compared to last year, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The nationwide electronics retail chain will take on 15,000 new temporary employees, compared to the 29,000 it hired in 2010. Best Buy is not alone in its decision. Research from the management consulting firm Hay Group suggests that about 25% of U.S. retailers will hire fewer temporary employees this holiday season. “The consumer is being really careful about where he or she is spending the dollars, and I think that will continue through the holidays,” Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn told Reuters. Dunn said his company will carry the iPhone 5 and noted Best Buy expects tablets, smartphones and accessories for both to be a sales catalyst this holiday season.

GAMESTOP STARTS iOS TRADE-IN PROGRAM, MIGHT SELL iPHONE 5

GameStop is hopping on the mobile bandwagon. The company announced it will begin selling iPhones, iPods, and iPads as well as offer a trade-in program for those old iOS devices you want to upgrade. Starting this week, GameStop stores will start taking your old iOS devices for in-store credit.

The game selling store will be up against some fierce competition in the trade-in program department. Over the past few years companies such as Verizon, Amazon, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble have all created such programs with varying degrees of success.

iPHONE 5 UP FOR PRE-ORDER SOON

Artist rendering of possible iPhone 5

Apple has yet to announce it’s fifth-generation smartphone, but that apparently won’t stop German carrier Deutsche Telekom from selling it. Bloomberg reported on Monday morning that it has confirmed with Deutsche Telekom that, beginning today, DT subscribers may begin reserving Apple’s next-generation iPhone 5 smartphone. The carrier will hand out coupons to customers who reserve the device, despite the fact that no confirmed details surrounding the next iPhone are available.

In a leaked document Best Buy will begin pre-orders in the next few weeks with delivery the first week on October. Also of note in the leaked document is that Sprint will be the third US carrier to get the iPhone.

BEST BUY PUTS MUSIC IN THE CLOUD; PLAYS CATCH UP TO EVERYONE ELSE

Best Buy has rolled out its aptly (if uncreatively) named Music Cloud service that lets you upload your audio to its servers and stream it wherever you go. You can also save songs locally, plus there are apps for Androids, Blackberrys, and iPhones to manage and play your music. There are two flavors of Music Cloud, Lite and Premium. The former is free, while the latter costs $3.99 a month, though Best Buy hasn't said what the difference is (other than price) between the two. The catch? It's currently only capable of grabbing songs from iTunes, so no uploading from file folders.

SONY PLAYSTATION 3 ADDS VIDEO ON DEMAND FROM BEST BUY'S CINEMA NOW

Sony planned the PlayStation 3 from the start as a movie playing powerhouse, but it may not have predicted so many would end up using it for Netflix streaming. CEO Jack Tretton hit the stage at the company's E3 keynote to announce it is the leading Netflix streamer, accounting for 30% of the video watched on the service.

While this is somewhat surprising maybe it shouldn't be -- consoles far outpace other TV connected streamers in install base, and between the Xbox 360, Wii, and Sony's box, the PS3 is the only one that lets you watch without an additional subscription and in HD.

Also announced is a new partnership bringing video on-demand movies from the Best Buy-owned CinemaNow service. With any luck, the retail giant will add a subscription element or partner with Redbox and make this interesting, but until then it's just another footnote on the list of providers currently offered on the PS3.

BARNES & NOBLE ANNOUNCES NEW NOOK eREADER

Barnes & Noble on Tuesday unveiled its all new NOOK eBook reader, and to say it’s an improvement over the previous-generation model is an understatement. This new version replaces the older greyscale model, not the still-young NOOK color, and it features a major improvement we probably all saw coming… a touchscreen.

The eReader sports an on-screen keyboard and it also allows readers to look up words or take notes with simple taps on the beautiful E Ink display. The new NOOK features just one button compared to the Kindle’s 38, which obviously simplifies the user experience significantly. More importantly, the new NOOK can last up to two months on a single charge, double the battery life of Amazon’s Kindle.

Other nifty features include a new proprietary dissolve transition that takes readers from one page to the next, and social media integration that allows users to share recommendations via Twitter, Facebook and more. Of course the new eReader also features Wi-Fi connectivity and owners can enjoy free hotspot access at all Barnes & Noble stores as well as every AT&T hotspot across the country. The new NOOK will retail for $139.99 when it becomes available on June 10th from Barnes & Noble, Best Buy and more.

BEST BUY TO RELEASE SOME iPAD 2'S ON SUNDAY

We've been hearing a lot of chatter about Best Buy and the iPad 2, rumors that the company was sitting on a giant pile of tablets ahead of some great event. Well, now we have an interesting tip that says the company will tap into that stock-pile ahead of a big Sunday launch. According to the above image, stores will, in general, have a minimum of three slates each -- which in many cases isn't going to be enough. Good, then, that the company has a guide on how to "minimize customer disappoints." BBY has earlier said that it is fulfilling reservations first, so if you're still holding your ticket but not a tablet this might be a good time to give your local big box a ring.

BEST BUY RESPONDS TO RUMOR OF APPLE iPAD 2 SALES FREEZE

Earlier today we reported on a rumor that Apple was pulling all iPad 2's from Best Buy for some alleged sales shenanigans at the big box retailer. Best Buy has responded to those rumors stating:

“Best Buy continues to receive iPad 2 inventory from Apple on a regular basis. As we’ve said previously, we are fulfilling customer reservations first. Our stores have been asked to temporarily hold non-reserved iPad 2 inventory for an upcoming promotion. This is a customary practice for us when there are supply constraints. Best Buy enjoys a great partnership with Apple, and we’re delighted by customer response to iPad 2.”

Best Buy did not address claims that retail staff is being instructed by management to misinform customers.

RUMOR: APPLE BLACKLISTS BEST BUY FROM SELLING THE iPAD2

Citing a source at Best Buy, CrunchGear reported this week that Best Buy was holding off on selling iPad 2 units it had in stock, telling customers they were sold out when, in reality, the stores had just reached their internal quota for that day. That strategy is rumored to have upset Apple, which is allegedly no longer allowing the retailer to sell the iPad 2.

"No less than (Apple Chief Operating Officer) Tim Cook is involved in this little snafu, and will be helping with the negotiations," the report said.

In addition, TUAW also received a tip that Apple "ordered a freeze on sales of the iPad 2 through Best Buy." The report also claimed that the retailer has pulled all stock except demo units.

Thanks to P.A. for this tip!

BEST BUY'S BUY BACK PROGRAM NOT VERY GOOD

Best Buy has been spending a lot of money lately advertising their new Buy Back Program on prime time television. In fact, you’ve very likely seen the ad, in which Ozzy Osborne is so befuddled by the rapid advancement of tech that he is soon replaced by a young Justin Bieber, who — being younger and not drug-addled — can keep up with the march of tech.

The idea’s this: when you buy any gadget at Best Buy, you can opt to pay them a fee that guarantees that when you decide to upgrade it in a year or three, Best Buy will buy it back from you. Let’s say, for example, you spend $2000 on a new iMac: for just $60 more, Best Buy will guarantee to buy it back for you next year at a fixed price so you can upgrade to the next model.

Sound too good to be true? It is. Let’s take our theoretical iMac: after a year, Best Buy will buy it back from you, sure, but they’ll only give you thirty percent of the price you paid for it. That’s only $666 dollars, far below what you’d get for the same computer on Craigslist or eBay.

It gets even worse, though. Best Buy won’t hand you cash: instead, they’ll pay with gift cards. That means that Best Buy’s effectively paying you even less money out of their pocket.

Now deduct the $60 fee. Getting the picture? When all is said and done, Best Buy’s paying far, far less for your computer than what you’d get if you sold it pretty much anywhere else… even if you decided to just take the first offer. Heck, at the end of the day, Digital Trends found that if you tried to sell your iPhone 3GS to Best Buy througg this program, you’d make $215 less for the handset than the going rates on eBay.

In other words, ignore the Biebers being thrown at you: Best Buy Buyback is just as much of a sucker’s deal as their warranty service.

PRE-ORDER YOUR XOOM NOW FOR THURSDAY DELIVERY

No more stunt prices, no more premature web appearances, this (we hope) is finally Best Buy's fully official listing for the Motorola Xoom. It brings no great surprises to those who've been tracking the tablet's progress to retail shelves, offering first dibs to buyers willing to make the effort and pre-order one in store today, with full availability coming on Thursday, February 24th. The $800 3G-equipped model is accompanied on Best Buy's site by a $40 portfolio case, a $50 basic charging dock, a $130 stereo speaker dock, and a $70 Bluetooth keyboard, but there's no sighting of the cheaper WiFi-only Xoom. There was some suspicion that the $600 SKU would launch a little later on and that is indeed what appears to be happening. One final note of caution: even if you're intending to use the Xoom as a pure WiFi-only device, remember that you'll be required to activate data with Verizon for at least a month first

MOTOROLA XOOM UP FOR PRE-ORDER AT BEST BUY, ONLY $1,199

There are conflicting reports on the price of the Motorola Xoom tablet, both coming from the same source...Best Buy. The retailer has the Android 3.0 tablet up for pre-order on their website for $1,199 while a leaked circular has it for $799.

In both instances the Xoom is described the same, including the mandatory Verizon data plan. We are guessing the pre-order price was a placeholder and was never changed, but odder things have happened.

VERIZON CRIPPLES WIFI ON XOOM TABLET UNLESS YOU BUY A DATA PLAN

According to a leaked Best Buy advertising circular, Verizon is crippling the WiFi capabilites of the Motorola Xoom tablets it subsidies unless a data plan is added. The circular states

To activate WiFi functionality on this device, a minimum of one month data subscription is required."

This is reminiscent of when Verizon crippled Bluetooth on its handsets fearing people wouldn't buy ringtones from them. It is highly doubtful this is a Best Buy policy, but one being forced on them by Verizon.

LEAKED: MOTOROLA XOOM AVAILABLE FEBRUARY 24

Best Buy has let the cat out of the bag...again! According to the Best Buy Facebook page, the Motorola Xoom will be available starting February 24th. Pricing has not been disclosed yet however.

The Xoom is Motorola's new tablet running Android 3.0 with a dual-core Tegra 2 running at 1Ghz. The 10.1-inch screen has as resolution of 1280 x 800. The Xoom also has a 5MP HD camera that can double as a video recorder.

WHITE iPHONE MAKES APPEARANCE IN AT&T SYSTEM

Hot on the heels of cameos in various Vodafone Germany and Best Buy systems, the mythical white iPhone 4 is showing up somewhere else. Turns out any AT&T subscriber can now log in to their account and see both 16GB and 32GB versions of the phone listed in the model picker, which could definitely suggest that these guys are getting ready to finally make them available along with everyone else. Then again, we've also heard that the white iPhone 4 never even left some of AT&T's inventory systems in the first place, so this might mean very little -- but for now, we're going with the "where there's smoke, there's fire" angle. Verizon, your turn.

MOTOROLA XOOM LAUNCHING FEBRUARY 17TH

An internal Best Buy document obtained by Engadget shows the Motorola Xoom tablet launching on February 17th. The Xoom, a flagship Google Android Honeycomb tablet, will arrive at stores on the 16th in preparation for the release the next day. The document goes on to say the Xoom will have the rumored 32GB onboard storage.

BEST BUY WILL NOT CARRY VERIZON'S iPHONE

If images that reportedly reveal an internal Best Buy training document end up being real, it looks like the giant nationwide retailer will not be carrying Verizon Wireless’ new iPhone 4 at launch. The images supposedly show a section of Best Buy’s playbook intended to help guide sales reps’ interactions with shoppers. In this particular section, employees are given some fodder for customers inquiring about Verizon Wireless’ iPhone 4. The first leaked page covers data speeds and the Verizon iPhone’s potential lack thereof:

Verizon’s entire presence at CES last week was focused on one thing and one thing alone: 4G. Its LTE network is now live in 38 markets and a flurry of 4G phones will launch in the coming months. But the iPhone… the smartphone millions of Verizon Wireless subscribers have been dying for… is a 3G device.

We knew Verizon’s iPhone 4 would be a CDMA phone for a number of reasons, but 3G is so 2010. Sprint launched its first 4G phone with minimal WiMAX coverage and it ended up being the fastest-selling phone in the carrier’s history. Now, we won’t see a 4G iPhone from Verizon until 2012. That means while millions of Android phones are surfing Verizon’s 4G airwaves later this year, iPhones will still be puttering along at EVDO speeds.

BEST BUY TO BUY BACK OLD GADGETS

Best Buy is ready to launch an initiative where they will buy back your old tech gear at a percentage of its original cost. That means laptops, tablets, televisions and phones will all be returnable.

According to the documents on Boy Genius Report, you can sell your devices back for up to 50% of their original cost—if you do it in the first 6 months. Buy back percentages will drop every 6 months after that. Aimed at people looking to upgrade, you can only receive store credit for the gadgets you sell. [Gizmodo]