IDC: Android smartphone sales explode in Europe |
- IDC: Android smartphone sales explode in Europe
- All HP computers will soon dual-boot Windows and webOS
- Iger: DVD not dead yet
- Internet Explorer 9 coming March 14th
- Microsoft Kinect sales top 10 million
- Analyst: Motorola Xoom sales are 'weak,' Honeycomb is a 'mess'
- Windows Phone Marketplace hits 9000 apps
- Limewire finally settles with music publishers
| IDC: Android smartphone sales explode in Europe Posted: 09 Mar 2011 05:44 PM PST  IDC has posted their latest figures for European smartphone sales and unsurprisingly Android has taken the top spot, with 31 percent share. Overall smartphone sales increased 100 percent to 25.6 million in the Q4 2010, while feature phone sales dropped 25 percent. Combined, Western European phone sales grew 3.2 percent to 58.7 million units. Android saw the highest growth, 1580 percent, to 8 million units sold. iOS saw its constant strong growth continue at 66 percent. Windows Phone 7 saw 18 percent growth but the number is artificially high because Windows Mobile sales were so low to begin with. Says the research firm (via press release): The last quarter of 2010 clearly shows the trends for the coming years in Western Europe. The Western European mobile phone market will be dominated by smartphones, and Android will be the king of the hill. Android surged from 4% to 31% market share in less than a year to become the market leader in 4Q10 and the fastest growing operating system ever. IDC estimates at that Android will grow at a 37% compound annual growth rate between 2010 and 2015 in Western Europe, overtaking the overall market growth in the period and that of its direct competitor, the iOS from Apple. 
      |
| All HP computers will soon dual-boot Windows and webOS Posted: 09 Mar 2011 04:20 PM PST  Starting in 2012, new HP computers will all come with the ability to dual-boot Windows and webOS, the mobile operating system the company acquired with its purchase of Palm last year. HP has done hardly anything with the popular operating system since its acquisition of Palm, although it did release version 2.0 earlier this year, and plans to release tablets with the OS later this year. Palm was purchased for $1.2 billion and many wondered if HP overpaid. Palm had less than 9 months of cash left and was burning through money at a furious rate before it put itself up for sale. Sales of the Palm Pre and Pixi devices were slower than anticipated. It is unclear what advantages users will have booting into WebOS over Windows 7. HP has announced a number of new webOS smartphones, each of which were received with little fanfare.
    |
| Posted: 09 Mar 2011 02:38 PM PST  Bob Iger, Disney CEO, has said this week that the DVD market is not healthy, but also "not dead yet." Speaking to Charlie Rose, the CEO explained Disney is looking at all distribution channels but still believes in physical media. Says Iger (via TR): The home video business is more challenged than ever before. And that's the problem. Iger did admit that the home video market is "not as healthy as it was," with overall sales down 15 percent year-over-year (YoY): People are still buying [discs]. … They're just not buying as many of them. And the primary reason, I would argue, is that they have other things to do. So far, digital downloads, VOD and PPV have not grown enough to offset the drop off in DVD sales, added the CEO.
    |
| Internet Explorer 9 coming March 14th Posted: 09 Mar 2011 02:18 PM PST  Microsoft has announced today, via blog post, that Internet Explorer 9 will be available on March 14th. The release candidate of the updated browser was launched at the end of February. Microsoft has transformed IE9, adding a URL/Search bar like Chrome, and going or a "minimalist" look, leaving more room for actual browsing. IE9 users will also be able to pin sites and bookmarks to the Windows taskbar, use a built-in download manager (for the first time ever) and see hardware acceleration for HTML5 video. ActiveX filtering and other security features have been added, as well. While most of the IE9 features were visible in the Release Candidate, but the company promises they "have a few surprises left."
    |
| Microsoft Kinect sales top 10 million Posted: 09 Mar 2011 01:35 PM PST  Microsoft has announced today that Kinect motion control system sales have topped 10 million since release in early November of last year. Sales of the sensor also led to a bump in games sales, says the company, with over 10 million Kinect games sold so far, as well, not including the ones bundled with the system. The software giant also notes that the Guinness World Records has "officially named Kinect for Xbox 360 the fastest-selling consumer electronics device, which sold an average of 133,333 units per day for a total of eight million units in its first 60 days between November 4, 2010 and January 3, 2011." Says Guinness: The sales figures here speak for themselves. According to independent research, no other consumer electronics device sold faster within a 60-day time span, which is an incredible achievement considering the strength of the sector. Kinect, with a bundled game, sells for $140.
    |
| Analyst: Motorola Xoom sales are 'weak,' Honeycomb is a 'mess' Posted: 09 Mar 2011 10:53 AM PST  Yesterday, Verizon publicly stated that sales of the Motorola Xoom tablet are very strong, but at least one analyst disagrees. Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research says today that sales are in fact, "very weak," and short battery life and "poor software quality" are killing the tablet. Says Chowdhry (via Barrons): Google Honeycomb is suffering from frequent application freezes and crashes and the battery life is very inconsistent – lasts sometimes for 2 hours, and sometimes for 6 hours. The battery standby life is mere 10 – 12 hours vs. 30 days on Apple iPad. The analyst calls the Honeycomb interface "extremely complicated and confusing, and does not come naturally – you really have to work on it," citing conversations with Xoom owners. Chowdhry concludes that Honeycomb, and Android tablets in general, may "struggle to get mass adoption – and probably be relegated to Tech Community only."
    |
| Windows Phone Marketplace hits 9000 apps Posted: 09 Mar 2011 09:35 AM PST  Microsoft has said this week that the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace has now reached 9000 available apps, and 32,000 registered developers. Furthermore, the company has launched a new global publisher program. Windows Phone Developer tools have seen over 1 million downloads, to date. Microsoft has included the ability to trial apps, which it says has been successful. Microsoft (via PCM): Users like trials. Paid apps that include trial functionality are downloaded 70 times more than paid apps that don't include trial functionality, expanding the number of potential customers to purchase the full paid version.
    |
| Limewire finally settles with music publishers Posted: 09 Mar 2011 08:58 AM PST  LimeWire has finally settled a long-standing lawsuit brought by major music publishers, months after the service was shutdown for good. The settlement covers 30 publishers but the financial terms were not disclosed. As part of the deal, all claims against founder Mark Gorton have been dropped, and cannot be brought again. Says the National Music Publishers Association (via Reuters): A settlement was reached. The parties worked hard to achieve a settlement that is a good result for all involved. The publishers sued LimeWire last June, months before a judge shut down the P2P client for good. There are still thirteen labels "pursuing copyright litigation," against LimeWire, however. Arista, Atlantic, BMG Music, Capital, Elektra, Interscope, Laface, Motown, Priority, Sony BMG, UMG, Virgin and Warner Brothers are all hoping for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
    |
| You are subscribed to email updates from AfterDawn.com To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment