Yes. Sold to Specialty Equity, CompUSSR is going to be shut down and liquidated. If you’re expecting a rash of fantastic Fire Sale-like deals, though, don’t get too excited. Gordon Brother Group, the owners of Specialty Equity, is known to hold off on steep discount deals until the 11th hour. Combine that with the fact that there are only 103 active stores, very few of which are in major metropolitan areas (check your city) and you’re not going to find much.

Two of the possible reasons behind this collapse are Apple and the market. Apple now holds anywhere from 15-20% of laptop sales and the Halo Effect (not the game) from its very, very significant iPod/iPhone business combined with Microsoft spectacular failure with Windows Vista (Blista?) have been driving upgraders to Apple’s online and retail stores better than any slick Apple advertising campaign.

Second, the market has been evolving for years and that includes people’s decreasing need for a monolithic brick & mortar establishment. Like cars, computers are being built better and, despite Microsoft’s claims that people need Vista, XP is a solid platform with proven tools and support and companies like Dell and HP are building better machines based on a wide range of improved technologies. Tie all of this together with low system prices, a drive towards portable and all-in-one systems, and it wasn’t hard to see coming.

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: business, news

Okay, kids, it just a rumor, as everything else that Apple hasn’t officially announced is, but there’s word on the street that Apple will be rolling out a new ultraportable MacBook at MacWorld in January. Jim Goldman over at CNBC says so, claiming that his contact has passed on info that very strongly suggests that the unit will be a MacBook Pro, be a mere 0.5″ thick, and (according to conflicting reports) a 12″ or 13.3″ display. The big news here is that the unit is suspected to be SSD HDD based. All this, if true, will run you around US$1,500 (if the pricing is accurate, of course).

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: macworld, mobile, news, rumor

As you may have noted, we’ve been in a news blackhole since Thanksgiving. This isn’t all that surprising, but its kind of annoying nonetheless. Most energy seems to be focused on Black Friday and spinning up the X-mas Machine. Sure, there were some items in the last two weeks, but nothing of any real import. I’ve received a Palm Centro and a Duracell PowerSource Mobile 100 for review and the Apple Rumors machine is about to kick in prior to 2008 so there’s sure to be more soon. I will, however, start working on the other elements of the site when times are slow.

In actual mobile gear news, Engadget seems to be all freaked out about how odd the Wibrain UMPC is, and I agree. Its very odd looking and, despite its smallish 4.8″ display, that thing has to be really, really wide. I’m more into the OQO model of design with the sliding keyboard. I can even handle raon’s Everun arrangement. Oh well, I guess everyone has to have their “thing”.

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: mobile, mobodojo, news, umpc