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Retail Rollout Revealed
Zodiac hits the bricks on June 24th
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by Scott Raulinaitis, Editor - 6/10/2004 - 12:00am EST
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Page 1
- Overview
The other day while doing one of my usual Google searches for things that rhyme with "Zodiac," hoping to come across some interesting bit of news, I came across an interesting Zodiac review by Kyle Ackerman of Frictionless Insight. It's a good review and worth a read, but for Zodiac veterans what makes it so "interesting" is a brief mention that the Zodiac will be available in CompUSA stores nationwide on June 24th. Tapwave's official press release coming out of the recent E3 event simply stated this release as being in "late June," so was Kyle privy to some exclusive information or was this simply yet another example of an journalist getting his facts wrong?
I emailed Kyle to get to the bottom of it and he was gracious enough to respond quite promptly. Not only did he state that this date was given to him by Tapwave, he also stated that he was told that the Zodiac would be given approximately 4' of dedicated shelf space at CompUSA. Still a bit skeptical, I emailed Byron Connell, Senior VP of Marketing at Tapwave, hoping to get their official response. Not only did Byron confirm both of these details, he also gave me several other pieces of information about their retail rollout.
First, while the Zodiac won't be available in stores until the 24th, CompUSA.com is expected to start selling them online about a week earlier. The Zodiac will feature all-new packaging (I'm guessing that this will be the packaging shown at E3). He also indicated that there would be a "variety of advertising (from retailers and Tapwave)." This bit of information greatly intrigued me and I sent Byron some follow-up questions, hoping to extract more details about their advertising plans. I'll keep you posted.
Previously-Unknown Retailer Revealed
Byron went on to pleasantly surprise me by revealing who that additional retailer was that we were wondering about. J&R, an electronics retailer in New York, will also carry the Zodiac. Interestingly enough, once Byron revealed this I did a quick search on J&R's site and discovered that the Zodiac is already in their online inventory system, listed as a pre-order item. In case you're wondering, the price, at least for now, is not discounted.
Even Amazon started leaking some early details of their Zodiac plans today. While the Zodiac itself is unlisted, several accessories can be found by searching (though none are available for order).
Byron went on to say that "Both accounts are giving us wonderful support and excellent shelf space to display a live running demo, a variety of accessories, and video games on MMC Cards (packaged in DVD-style cases). CompUSA has two types of stores (large and small format). All the large format stores are providing us with 4 linear feet of space in their mobile coral area...Generally, we expect to see retail accounts merchandise Zodiac in the mobile area or gaming area. Some accounts (or stores within accounts) may cross-merchandise in both areas."
While I'm excited that J&R is on board, I must admit that I was also a bit disappointed that the previously-unknown retailer wasn't a nationwide household name, along the lines of Circuit City, Best Buy, or a gaming-focused store like EBGames.
Nevertheless, it's exciting to know that the retail release of the Zodiac is just weeks away. Why should existing Zodiac users care? Because the more new Zodiac users we get, the more 3rd party accessories and Zodiac-optimized applications and games we'll see.
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