E-Readers spells succes in the Holiday season of 2010

Gartner says that while the number of electronic readers sold is likely to increase in 2009, it expects 2010 to be the year when e-book readers really become popular consumer electronic devices, culminating in e-reader “mania” for the 2010 holiday season. There are a number of hurdles that need to be overcome before e-readers can become more mainstream, such as e-books needing a wider variety of retail channels, ranging from big box retailers and wireless carrier outlets to lifestyle stores such as Brookstone. More publishers must also be seen buying into e-readers. For example, there has been news about the success of e-book sales of Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”; however other noted authors such as John Grisham and J.K. Rowling do not have their works available as e-books.

Time spent online? Microsoft gains because of frustrated users desperately seeking help

comScore study shows that, in terms of time spent on sites, the Redmond-based Microsoft sites ranked as the most engaging global property in September, followed by Google, Yahoo, and Facebook. But nobody seems to think why… The truth is that hundred of thousand users using or testing Windows operating systems are spending a lot of time looking how to fix their computers… It’s as simple as that. On Google you spend seconds because it does it’s job right.

Dell Mini 3ix, the Android smartphone

Dell’s first Android smartphone has received FCC approval. The Dell Mini 3i was released in China earlier this year as a stripped down, entry-level model. The FCC signed off today on a more advanced version, the Mini 3iX. This will include Wi-Fi and 3G mobile broadband, the two features most notably absent from the original.

The Mini 3iX will have the same design as its little brother, giving it a 3.5-inch, 360-by-640 touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS, and a microSD memory card slot. In addition to Wi-Fi and 3G, it will have Bluetooth.

Via Brightland >>

Mobile phone sales down 8% in Canada

The expected Canadian mobile phone market recovery will have to wait at least another quarter, says IDC. The market was down 8% in the third quarter of 2009, which marked the third straight sequential decline. Handset makers shipped 4% fewer units to wireless service providers and other channel partners in the third quarter when compared to the same quarter last year despite double-digit converged mobile device growth.

GoToMeeting: the worse client experience ever possible

I was invited to a webinar today by a partner who choose GoToMeeting online platform to create this conference. Man! I am so angry, if I was near GTM headquarters I would definatelly go there and throw some eggs ar them.
First I had to update the browser to the latest Java plug-in, than I had to download and Install the software, than I registered for the conference. When you start the software, you can go directly to the meeting without registering also for GoToMeeting. But It won’t work. It sends you back to registration, no error mesage. And if you try to register for GMT it actually asks for credit card data. Yeah, I’m sure you’ll take good care of it!

GSMA wants to get Europe out of the recession

GSMA (GSM Association) unveiled the European Mobile Manifesto which sets out how the mobile industry will help achieve key European Union objectives to boost economic performance, improve efficiencies, protect consumers and increase the use of green technology. To do this, the mobile industry has undertaken to work more closely with governments, education and health authorities and technology manufacturers. The mobile industry is also calling upon the EU to provide a number of measures to support the initiative.

Through the Mobile Manifesto, the mobile industry outlines its goals to:

China and India capture 30%, USA and UK experience polarisation

Emerging markets now account for over two thirds of all mobile phone handset shipments with China and India leading the charge, according to a new global tracking service from Futuresource Consulting. “The global handset market will decline by around 3% in 2009, with consumers and businesses alike keeping hold of their handsets for longer,” says David Sidebottom, Digital Media Consultant at Futuresource Consulting. “However, China and India continue to buck the global trend, and our forecasts show year-end growth in both these countries, giving them a combined share of almost 30% of the total global handset market by the end of the year, compared to just 20% in 2006.

LTE tests in several frequency bands

Nokia Siemens Networks is conducting end-to-end LTE interoperability testing with four leading device vendors across several frequency bands required in different regions, including AWS, 700 MHz and 2100 MHz. The tests cover several steps in end-to-end network configuration based on commercial LTE hardware, including the Flexi Multiradio Base Station and the Evolved Packet Core, and standard compliant software. The availability of commercial LTE terminals from multiple vendors and proven interoperability with networks providers is a prerequisite for any operator to launch commercial LTE services. NSN

Digital photo frames move into negative growth

Digital photo frames have proven to be a popular option for enjoying the digital images captured by a growing number of camera-enabled devices. Unfortunately, the market has been directly impacted by the global economic downturn, which has caused a sharp reduction in discretionary consumer spending. IDC now expects the market will experience two years of negative growth in 2009 and 2010, followed by a slow recovery and returning to pre-recession shipment levels in 2013.

With 9.1 million units shipped in 2008, the worldwide digital frame market achieved year-over-year growth of 6.3%. The United States was the dominant region in 2008 with shipments of nearly 5.9 million units. The worldwide market is expected to decline by nearly 10% in 2009 with shipments falling to 8.2 million units while the U.S. market will decline by 11%. Single digit growth is forecast to resume in 2011 and continue to improve throughout the rest of the forecast period, resulting in a 2008-2013 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.4%.

The 7-8.9 inch frame category was the most popular market segment in 2008, representing nearly two thirds of the 9.1 million units shipped. Looking ahead, IDC expects this category will continue to represent the lion’s share of the market, although the 9-10.9 inch category is expected make notable gains over the next 4 years. Average selling prices (ASPs) will continue to decline throughout the forecast period with more than 60 vendors globally competing for market share.

Net may get clogged in a pandemic

The upcoming flu season highlights the need for organizations to have pandemic plans in place, but work-at-home (WAH) strategies may be in jeopardy as residential Internet bandwidth supply may not meet demand, according to Gartner, Inc. According to the Center for Disease Control, the rule of thumb for pandemic planning is that 40 percent of the workforce will not be in the workplace for an extended period of time. “All of the telecommunications carriers say their wide area networks (WANs) can handle the added capacity of a 40 percent increase. That’s fine for their backbone network, but the problem lies in what is referred to as the “edge” or “last mile” in the residential Internet access loop,” said Eric Paulak, managing vice president at Gartner.

Smartphone sales to outstrip notebooks

Gartner predicts that worldwide sales of smartphones will grow by 29 percent year-on-year to reach 180 million units in 2009, overtaking notebooks in total unit terms. The research firm adds that it expects smartphone sales revenue to reach US$191 million by 2012, higher than end user spending on mobile PCs, which is forecast to reach US$152 million by the same point. Currently smartphones account for 14 percent of overall mobile device sales, but Gartner expects by 2012 they will make up around 37 percent of global handset sales.

CNN – great layout, lousy tech content

I really use my “favourite’s toolbar” and some 3-4 years ago I added CNN.com/tech to it. Later I wanted to remove it, but sometimes, once every 6 months, I found some stories to read and I changed my mind about wiping it out. Actually last year I complained about the quality and the update speed of the Tech section on cnn.com. C’mon, it’s the greatest new machine ever created, you really don’t have great IT&C stories? No. Nobody cares. Maybe there are no IT editors at all. Recently, somebody told me about the layout change. Yea! It looks good, but there is no content change. Still sucks.

Apple: great new products in pipeline

“We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”

That’s like saying: we’re working ont hte new iPhone and the rumored Apple Tablet. I think. I’m sure therre’s a new round of rumors coming right now.

Yahoo Search – i’m not surprised if someone finds out Yahoo doesnt even has a search engine

The September qSearch report, which was released to clients today, shows the Microsoft (MSFT) search service had a 9.4 percent share, compared to 9.3 percent a month earlier.

Dominant search giant Google (GOOG) also saw a slight uptick to almost 65 percent. Yahoo (YHOO), which just began a $100 million marketing campaign, saw share drop a half-point to just under 19 percent.

Both the market shares of Ask and AOL remained constant at almost four percent and three percent, respectively.

From here.

Intel: better than expected

Intel reported third-quarter revenue of $9.4 billion. The company reported operating income of $2.6 billion, net income of $1.9 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of 33 cents.”Intel’s strong third-quarter results underscore that computing is essential to people’s lives, proving the importance of technology innovation in leading an economic recovery,” said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. “This momentum in the current economic climate, plus our product leadership, gives us confidence about our business prospects going forward. As we look ahead, Intel’s game-changing 32nm process technology will usher in another wave of innovation from new, powerful Intel Xeon server platforms to high-performance Intel Core processors to low-power Intel Atom processors.”

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