Microsoft Kinect supplies ‘running low’
Several stores, including Game and Play.com, have already sold out of their pre-order allocation of the Kinect gaming system, which officially goes on sale on Nov 10. Kinect, previously known as Project Natal, does away with the need for controllers, and instead uses a camera, connected to an Xbox 360 games console, to capture gestures and movement made by players and translate it in to on-screen action. The shortage of Kinect systems has lead to worries that the peripheral, which is expected to be a big seller this Christmas, could be in short supply during the festive period.
Huawei poses risk to Australian NBN
Australia has become the latest country to express concern about security risks posed by Huawei equipment, joining the UK, US and India. Security experts warn that Australia will leave itself vulnerable to cyber crime if it deploys the Chinese firm’s equipment in its national next-generation network, saying the kit could contain secret entrances to the network, and that the government should reject it even if it passes muster in close inspections. They are worried by Huawei’s alleged links with the Chinese military, as the firm reportedly prepares bids for a significant chunk of Australia’s NBN next generation contracts, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Redstone puts Marcom to sleep
Managed services provider Redstone is offloading the bulk of its Marcom Communications division in a bid to boost efficiency. The firm has agreed to sell some of Marcom’s key assets to Maintel Europe for £1.75 million (€2 million), in a deal that includes 40 employees and some other maintenance contracts, as the firm seeks to deliver cost savings and focus on higher-margin revenue streams. Proceeds from the sale will be used to cut the firm’s debt and to fund its long-term development.
HP snaps up Meego boss
Ari Jaaksi, who until so recently was running Nokia's Meego project, has been recruited by HP to bring some of that Meego magic to its own webOS. Ari Jaaksi left Nokia early this month for what were described at the time as "personal reasons". We can only assume those personal reasons included not being shackled to a sinking ship or copping the blame when Nokia's last, best, hope goes down with all hands as he's now boasting the title of Senior Vice President with responsibility for webOS. Not that webOS is unsinkable, but at least it has a device or two on the market, and some respect for its technical competence.
Microsoft steers OEMs away from putting Phone 7 on Tablets
Microsoft is usually decisive. There is a saying in contact sports such as American football and rugby – it doesn‘t matter if you make a wrong decision, if you commit to it and do it hard enough, you can make it into the right decision. It works for business too. Decisiveness – even when based on poorly thought-out decisions – can be taken for market leadership. Indecisiveness looks like you have no idea of what is going on. A Microsoft executive this week said that Phone 7 was not man enough for the job of running tablets. At least that‘s what Greg Sullivan, senior product manager at Microsoft, said at the Windows Phone 7 launch event. He told us: "Windows 7 will provide a richer touch and applications experience and will be necessary on tablets."
China slaps copyright tax on Internet cafes
China's National Copyright Administration has moved to extend copyright protections in the populous republic. The CFCA said it intends to collect royalties from the screening of Chinese films in public places such as aeroplanes, public transport systems and Internet cafes. Internet cafes are one of the few places in China where the majority of the population can get online. Under the new scheme these will effectively pay a copyright tax based on their size. There is nothing so sophisticated as a fee per downloaded film.
Voda confirms OneNet Express, 1m Europe OneNet users
Vodafone UK has confirmed launch of its cut-down One Net Express unified communications proposition for small businesses. It launches with it, starting today (October 15), a multi-million pound marketing campaign around its two small-business unified communications propositions, OneNet and OneNet Express. The pair sit alongside its full-blow corporate offer, Vodafone One. Vodafone said it has signed its millionth customer to OneNet across its European territories.
Games download market soars to $2.9bn
NPD said gamers spent up to $2.9 billion on digital online goods, against $3.7 billion on console and PC games purchased in stores in the first half of 2010. The digital goods figure includes revenue from used games, game rentals, subscriptions, full game digital downloads, social network games, downloadable content, and mobile game apps. Dollars spent on physical retail items such as hardware, software and accessories still accounts for the majority of the total consumer spend.
New additions bring WAC membership to 48
Myriad, Accenture, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Qualcomm and others join Wholesale Applications Community. The WAC was formed in February by a group of operators in order to provide shared APIs that will give developers the opportunity to write apps that can be deployed across multiple platforms. It's pitching this as a single 'pipe' for reaching a potential 3bn subscribers. An independent company was formed in July to promote and manage the activities of the WAC. Must be working as the new additions include some of the industry's biggest infrastructural names.
US Consumers Favour the Browser Over Apps
Adobe has released the results of its first quantitative mobile consumer study, conducted by its Omniture Business Unit, including newly integrated Adobe Scene7. The study of 1,200 US consumers measured mobile user preferences, characteristics, satisfaction levels and other experiential factors across four key consumer categories: Consumer Products & Shopping; Financial Services; Media & Entertainment; and Travel. The study revealed that when it comes to the mobile user experience, respondents generally favour mobile browser experiences over downloadable mobile app experiences across all four categories, and that they prefer mobile apps when interacting with social media and music and self-contained experiences such as games and maps. Overall, consumers report equal satisfaction levels with their browser and app experiences, and spend about the same amount of time interacting with each.
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