Digital-Lifestyles

Business

Changes to business digitisation brings

  • Creative’s Zen Micro – iPod Fight Back Plans Emerge

    Zen Micro Creative Labs

    The word has been going around that Creative Labs intends 2005 to be the year that they unseat Apple as the major supplier of music players. They reported selling 2 million in the last two months and certainly, with the growth of digital music, the prize for success would be large.

    Some of the details of Creative’s marketing plans are now starting to surface by way of UK sales house Emap advertising.

    They’re putting a considerable amount of money behind the campaign, with £3m being muted by Brand Republic (reg. req.). Not only will it run over 13 channels, but Emap’s in-house creative team is making a 70-sec video that has three different endings, targeted at the pop, rock, and urban audiences. The channels are owned by three different operators (Emap, Sky, and Chart Show) and representing 60% of the music channels available to UK Sky satellite viewers.

    By attaching themselves to TV music channels that their 16- to 34-year-old target audience watch, they’re hoping for ‘cool’ association, as well as being permanently in front of them.

    The campaign will focus on the 5/6Gb Zen micro player which, in our view, has the looks to become an object of desire.

    Buy the Zen Micro from Amazon (UK, US)

  • Ofcom Strategic Review of Telecommunications Gets UK Parliament Inquiry

    The UK House of Commons launched an inquiry into Ofcom’s Strategic Review of Telecommunications (SRT) yesterday.

    Ofcom, the uber-regulator that among other things, oversees telecoms in the UK, started its SRT in January 2004. It was long overdue in the eyes of many, as it was the first comprehensive strategic review of the UK telecommunications sector for 13 years.

    Now the UK House of Commons, Trade and Industry Committee will be looking into the workings and results of the SRT, in particular how it relates to the “extensiveness and competitiveness” of broadband in the UK.

    The SRT is divided in to three phases; Current position and prospects for the telecommunications sector; Options for Ofcom’s strategic approach to telecommunications regulation; and Proposals; the first phase was published at the end of April.

    Ofcom identified two key problems in Phase One; an unstable market structure in fixed telecoms, dominated by BT and with alternative providers that are, in the main, fragmented and of limited scale; BT’s control of the UK-wide access network hadn’t been addressed to date. They then posed some questions; primarily about the future of BT.

    Phase Two was published in November 04 and used some relatively strong language (pretty diplomatic in the normal, non-Quango world), which we summarised as “Ofcom to BT: Equivalence or else”. It’s still open for public consultation until 3 February 2005.

    Yesterdays announcement from the Trade and Industry Committee, said in the light of the Committee’s Report on the UK Broadband Market, the inquiry will be looking into OfCom’s STR process to date, the interim conclusions reached in the Phase Two document, and the direction of the remainder of the Review. They’ll be paying particular attention how it relates to the competitiveness of the broadband market in the UK, including local loop unbundling, and the “functional separation of British Telecom”.

    A spokeperson at OfCom told us that they “had already briefed the Committee” and “welcomed their interest” in the SRT. When we asked about the previously expected Spring delivery of SRT Phase 3, we were told that they “still planned” to meet it. Frankly they were playing their cards pretty close to their chest.

    We called the office of the Committee, but given the 21 enquiries they have on currently, no one was available for comment at the time of publishing the story.

    If you have any view on the area covered by the Committee, they’re asking for written evidence on these or any other related issues by Friday 18 February 2005 via email ([email protected]). If you do write please CC ([email protected]) us in, we’d be interested in see the issues raised.


    Alerted by OfcomWatch
    Trade and Industry Select Committee
    Ofcom – Strategic Review of Telecommunications

  • Youth Gym Usage Up 15% After PS2 Games Installed

    Liverpool Gym PS2Back at the tail end of last year, Liverpool City Council installed gym equipment with Sony Playstation games consoles fitted to them, in an effort to induce the local youth to come to the gym.

    At the time, Councillor Warren Bradley, Executive Member for Leisure was quoted as saying “By fitting television screens and games consoles to the equipment, we will be able to show children that they can combine their favourite activity with exercise. And by teaching children about the positive benefits of exercise.”

    Why are we mentioning today? The Sun, a well known tabloid “newspaper”, is running a brief story and editorial comment about it today, deriding Liverpool council spending money on Playstations in an attempt to encourage children into gyms.

    Over the two years since we first discovered the Reebok CyberRider, we’ve written about devices that connect games consoles to exercise machines and have been keen on them. The connection of physical input to video games seems like a great area of growth and it’s certainly true that in those two years there have been lots of interesting developments. Sony and Nike MotionWorks have got together recently to bring EyeToy Kinetic to market in autumn 05, combining the camera add-on for the PS2 with fitness software.

    We spoke to Donald Hurst, Operations manager of sport and recreation service at Liverpool City Council to get the accurate details on the story.

    The equipment that they’re using, supplied by TechnoGym, includes running a treadmill, rowing machine, and cycle. The four machines that they have working at each of their Lifestyles fitness centres at Peter Lloyd, Everton Park and Garston have been particularly well received, both by the children and adults.

    It appears particularly popular at the Garston centre, which has 2,000 members and is their busiest site, with the staff receiving quite a number of positive comments from children’s parents.

    Keen children are given an introduction session which runs between 4 – 5:30 daily and are then free to choose from a selection of 30 games supplied by the venue. Hurst said they’ve made the decision to currently not let the children bring in their own games, so they have some control over the type of game being played. Once the game has been selected it has to be setup by the fitness instructor.

    Hurst put some comparative usage figures together for us that show usage by young people has gone up by 15% over the same period last year since the Playstation had been introduced. He also told us that there is a growing interest from adults to use the equipment as well.

    While Liverpool hasn’t yet gone the whole hog of direct connection between physical input and the games, we think it’s a good start. The increase in attendance figures also point in that direction.

    Liverpool City Council

  • Intel Reshuffle Around Platforms

    Sensing the changes in the micro-electronics industry, with the growth of tech/media convergence, Intel are to reorganise themselves around Platforms.

    The new groups of interest are Mobility; Digital Enterprise; Digital Home; and Digital Health.

    Mobility will deal with, surprise surprise, portable devices such as notebook PCs, handhelds and communications devices. A major focus will be getting the expanding numbers of mobile devices working better together using, we assume, wireless networking.

    Focused on living room entertainment applications and consumer electronics devices, the Digital Home group will focus on developing computing and communications platforms for consumers.

    Digital Enterprise Group will cover end-to-end solutions in businesses. With digital delivery of content, this is becoming more and more important to content owners/current broadcasters and an area that IBM is putting a lot of effort into try to capture.

    One of the big areas of excitement for the connected home is its use of health sensing. Intel are jumping on this with the Digital Health group.

    This is a clear illustration of the growth of the electronics business away from its business focused roots, maturing in to a new phase, one where technology will be everywhere.

    Intel

  • Chernin Hints News Corp. to Buy into Video Gaming

    News Corp., the media giant built by Rupert Murdoch is reportedly looking to get into the games business.

    The FT is running a story today that Peter Chernin, News Corp. chief operating officer, told a conference in Phoenix, Arizona that they were “kicking the tires of pretty much all video games companies,” as “We see as a big business and would like to get into it.”

    Normally used to buying huge companies like Fox, News Corp is clearly looking for the best value company, but finding a big disparity between the largest, Electronics Arts (EA), and the rest of the video games companies. “We are struggling with the gap between companies like Electronic Arts, which come with a high price tag, and the next tier of companies. These may be too focused on one or two product lines.” Chernin said.

    There are many reasons why a move into gaming would make sense for News Corp. Numerous studies have shown that people, particularly the young, are moving away from watching television to play video games and the next generation of Set Top Boxes (STB’s) have considerable power. Using News Corps. satellite distribution platform, such as Sky and DirecTV, to distribute games to these STBs makes total sense.

    We imagine there is a state of confusion at EA, if not the whole of the games industry, switching between a state of high excitement and nervousness. As the many corporate corpses that litter in the trail of News Corp. attest to, when they do it, they do it big.

    News Corporation

  • Motorola and Oakley Form JV for Wireless Products

    Motorola and Oakley to form a new venture to fuse Motorola’s latest Bluetooth technology with Oakley’s glasses. First designs are expect mid-2005.

    The details are thin on the ground at the moment but lots of phrases that could mean anything are being bounded around by both sides. Here’s a couple; “enabling seamlessly mobile wireless communications anywhere and everywhere consumers want to be” – Motorola; “expanding the possibilities for our new electronics category” – Oakley.

    Perversely the Oakley Safe Harbor Disclaimer is about twice as long as the information provided.

    Back in September Oakley released their MP3-player sunglasses, the Oakley Thump, which have been well reviewed, despite their high cost for not much storage.

    Motorola have of late (and to some effect) worked hard to try and recapture their position in the mobile phone market, having lost out to other phone companies considerably. They’ve designed products that they hoped would be more appealing to the youth market and have spent extensively on marketing.

    This deal with Oakley looks like another step in that direction, as it brings with it ‘cred’.

    Cos Lykos, Vice President of Business Development said “Oakley’s engineering team now has an expanded technology arsenal to develop new and innovative electronic products.” So it’s highly possible that some interesting products could come out of it.

    Motorola
    Oakley

  • Ofcom Release Ultra Wideband (UWB) Document

    Ofcom released a consultation document today on ultra wideband (UWB) in the UK.

    Given Ofcom’s statutory duties under the Communications Act 2003 to ensure the optimal use of the radio spectrum under its management, they should be keen on UWB.

    The strength of UWB also causes its problems. By simultaneously transmitting over a wide range of frequencies (around 3.1 – 10.6GHz, if you’re interested), UWB is able to achieve higher data transfer rate than other wireless technologies.

    By spreading over these frequencies it has the possibility of interfering with services that currently operate in or around these services, such as 3G, broadband fixed wireless access and radio astronomy.

    Back in May 2004, Ofcom commissioned Mason Communications and DotEcon to produce an independent report in to UWB. Delivered in December 2004 (Read the final report, all 218 pages of PDF fun), it looked at the advantages to the UK economy of allowing UWB applications and the disadvantages of increased interference to existing radio spectrum users.

    The report focuses on the use of UWB to create a Personal Area Network (PAN) with examples of usage being; providing wireless connections between DVD players, displays and speakers; and using them for high speed wireless links between digital cameras and computers.

    While acknowledging interference is likely, it’s clear that Ofcom feels this should be weighed carefully against UWB’s potential benefits. To check this interference, the suggestion is to use a technical ‘mask’, controlling the amount of power that could be used at different frequencies, in an attempt to reduce the impact of interference.

    The US regulator has already authorised UWB on a licence-exempt basis, but Ofcom consider the US specification to be inappropriate for the UK. Their proposal is that if UWB is allowed, it should be on a licence-exempt basis, but be limited to the same in-band power levels as permitted in the US, but have tighter out-of-band limits.

    Ofcom point out that there is a need to come to a decision soon, fearing US-built UWB devices could be imported in to the UK.

    All of these add up to a big pressure on the frequency users that would be affected. It will be interesting to see what their reaction will be during the consultation period which closes 24 March 2005.

    Ofcom Ultra Wideband consultation document
    Mason Communications and DotEcon final report

  • The Sun launch Page 3 Soft Porn to Mobile Phones

    Sun MobileNews International, the publisher of well known UK tabloid ‘newspaper’, The Sun, has opened the doors on its own mobile content service that it calls Sun Mobile.

    It will feature ringtones, java games and … you guessed it … Page 3 wallpapers and screen savers. For our non-UK readers, Page 3 of the Sun is dominated by a photo of a topless (at least) woman.

    The service won’t be short of promotion. The Sun website, Sun Online, has around 3m users, with half of its traffic coming from the US and Canada. The printed paper has a circulation of 9 million.

    Despite The Sun having a presence on the Vodafone live! and Orange World portals, News International (NI) has set up their own mobile site, developed by Blue Start Mobile. It will be accessible in over 130 countries around the world, thanks to NI’s deal with Bango.

    Many mobile content providers are discontented with what they see as unbalanced, operator-biased revenue splits that the mobile phone company are currently offering in the UK. It sounds to us like NI has recognised this, as Simon Ashley the commercial manager dealing with the launch points out, “Sun Mobile gives us direct, interactive relationship with our customers on mobile.”

    Sun Mobile (contains nudity)

  • Netflix Subscription Slowdown Projected: SG Cowen

    Yesterday SG Cowen & Co released a Morning Call that cast a shadow over Netflix.

    They expect Netflix to report solid Q4 results in 2004, but believe it’s unlikely to achieve its goal of 4m subscriptions in 2005, for two reasons.

    Blockbuster has lowered the price of their online postal 3-DVD service in the US from $17.49/month to $14.99/month. Netflix have stated that they will maintain their pricing at $17.99.

    SG Cowen has been carrying out a survey of DVD postal rental services in four US markets. Their results indicate that Blockbuster service has improved, while heavy users of the Netflix service are getting a reduced service.

    SG Cowen actually tied some numbers to Blockbuster’s improvement. The levels of movie availability were at 20-25% in October 2004, improving to 62-84% in November and reaching 84-94% in December.

    Over this time they found that Netflix is cutting back.

    Their belief is that Netflix is reducing the number of new releases that they are purchasing, which is impacting the availability of the titles to their customers. This in turn brings further cost savings for Netflix as they are sending out less DVD’s, thus reducing their shipping costs for heavy users of the service.

    If SG Cowen are correct, it looks like the road ahead for Netflix and its high usage subscribers could be bumpy.

    SG Cowen

  • Children’s Cellular phone withdrawn following UK health report

    Professor Sir William Stewart, chairman of the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB), today published a report of the emissions of mobile phones. He said he believed that mobiles may pose a health risk, although this was not yet proven. He said “If there are risks – and we think there may be risks – then the people who are going to be most affected are children, and the younger the child, the greater the danger.”

    Following this, Communic8 the company who sells MyMo, a mobile phone specifically for use of children between 4 and 8, announced that they were to stop selling it immediately.

    We spoke to Adam Stephenson of MyMo and he said “After listening to the the tone and content of Sir William Stewart on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning, we have decided to stop selling MyMo.” He went on explain that they had read between the lines to see a considerable risk. “The idea behind MyMo was to protect children. We have no intention of exposing children to any danger.” While pointing out that no one in his company were medical experts, he went on to say “We feel it would be foolish to challenge their findings.”

    The MyMo offered a simple ‘cut down’ mobile phone with three buttons on it that enable pre-set phone number to be called easily. It was licensed from a company in Germany and is still for sale in Italy and in the Netherlands, through KPN.

    This is the second piece of research within a month, flagging the possible dangers of mobile phone emissions. The last study, majority-funded by the European Union, has found in December that in laboratory conditions, radio waves from mobile phones harm body cells and damage DNA.

    MyMo
    Sir William Stewart on BBC Radio 4 (Real player req.)
    Health warning on children with mobile phones – The Scotsman
    Cellular Phone Emissions Damage DNA, Study Finds – Digital-Lifestyles.info