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  • Can Blu-Ray Now Be Called Mainstream?


    The drop in the average price of Blu-Ray players is, not surprisingly, fuelling sales of the high-def disks.

    But figures out from NPD show that the effect of cheaper players could finally be giving the format mass market appeal.

    High hardware prices has long been given as a barrier to Blu-Ray technology becoming widely accepted.

    The average price of Blu-ray players dropped nearly 34 per cent over the last year, falling from USD $393 in Q1 2008 to USD $261 in Q1 2009.

    This, according to NPD’s Blu-ray Report, helped Q1 2009 sales of standalone Blu-ray players (not including PS3) to reach more than 400,000 units, marking a 72 per cent increase over Q1 2008.

    Sales totaled USD $107.2 million in the first quarter.

    Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD, said the rising penetration of high-definition televisions and lower Blu-ray player prices are broadening the format’s market opportunity.

    "Even as options expand for accessing movies digitally, Blu-ray is carrying forward the widespread appeal of DVD into the high-definition marketplace."

    Amidst these positive notes for Blu-Ray, NPD reports that 58 per cent of adults surveyed were still "not very familiar" with Blu-ray.

    Some work still to be done then.

  • HD Uptake Drives ZON's Q1 Figures


    Portugal’s leading cable provider ZON has doubled the take-up of its HD DVR.

    Called the ZON Box, it was installed in 93,000 homes in the first quarter of 2009, pushing total installations up to 184,000 – 12 per cent of the total customer base.

    ZON has attributed the success of the high-def product to an increase in per subscriber RGUs to 1.94, as ARPU grew by 3.5 per cent year-on-year to EUROS 32.7.

    The total number of subscribers receiving digital extended basic increased from 399,800 to 539,600.

    Premium pay-TV subscribers increased slightly to 835,300.

    Operating Revenues increased to EUROS 201.5 million in 1Q09, a year on year growth of 7.1 per cent giving an EBITDA increased to EUROS 64.3 million.

  • Apple Expected to Extend iPhone To Multiple Carriers


    Apple will almost certainly break with its exclusive AT&T agreement and allow other carriers to support the iPhone, according to analysts.

    Citigroup’s research firm say that while the arrangement with AT&T has benefitted Apple, the company is likely to open its smartphone to more US operators within the next two years.

    Analyst Richard Gardner cites a number of reasons for this, including the fact Apple is in a strong position and so can have its demands met by carriers.

    These extend to generous data plans, a lack of co-branding and an absence of revenue sharing at the App Store.

    What is also likely to be a major issue for Apple is the potentially dwindling pool of new iPhone users at AT&T.

    It is estimated that rivals Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile combined could offer a target market of up to 150 million subscribers by 2010 (although only around 20 per cent are likely to become iPhone owners).

    While it has been suggested that AT&T is interested in paying to extend exclusivity, the cost to do so might be prohibitive.

    As Gardner points it would need to be high since the revenues offered by going with multiple carriers are large.

  • PayPal App Introduced To Android


    Making payments just got a little easier for owners of an Android phone with the news that PayPal has introduced its app in the Android Market.

    The e-commerce business says that the app gives users easy access to many of its popular features.

    The eBay subsidiary also stresses that for those worried about security, it uses the same technology and safeguards that they have for the web client.

    Some of the features include:

    • Direct integration with the contact list – Users select a name from contacts to make a payment
    • Recent history – A smartphone can be used to look at transactions over the last couple of months
    • Balance checks – balances in any of the currencies held can be shown

  • HP and RIM Announce Strategic Alliance to Mobilize Business on BlackBerry


    RIM and HP are partnering together to offer Blackberry business users some features which they say will allow mobile workers to increase their productivity levels.

    Among the first applications and services for the smartphones is printing service that enables users to easily print to the nearest printer.

    Called CloudPrint for BlackBerry, it will allow users to store and print documents, photos and web pages while traveling using the smartphone.

    The service is printer-agnostic and driverless and requires simple Internet access.

    Another offering will allow the management of companies’ BlackBerry smartphone deployments to be outsourced.

    HP and RIM plan to design and launch other offerings targeted at the growing number of global mobile employees.

  • Intelecom Launches CoIP Handset Combo


    Intelecom has announced that it has obtained the rights to sell the 1World1Phone mobile phone.

    The VoIP communications provider will sell the handset separately as well as a package with the 1Button to Wi-Fi adapter.

    The latter is a consumer located, VoIP switching device developed by WorldTel Xchange that enables both fixed VoIP (Home phone) and cellular VoIP (CoIP) wireless calling for the individual and commercial enterprise consumer.

    Intelecom said the new phone is 3G, Quad Band compatible and has dual SIM cards and it functions like two phones with an unlocked GSM.

    It also features a removable back so that the batteries can be changed for longer usage when charging facilities are not available.

    1World1Phone is compatible with all the 36 carriers operating in the US. It can also work with all GSM carriers worldwide.

    The phone has a memory of 2 Gigs and the device is capable of supporting 4 Gigs, 8Gigs or16Gigs memory cards. The company plans to sell memory cards and also SIM cards suitable for 130 countries.

    Earlier this year, Intelecom entered into a strategic alliance with WorldTel Xchange which developed the 1Button to Wi-Fi COIP (Cellular Over Internet Protocol) technology which allows it to sell the product.

    It can be used on any cell phone, PDA, BlackBerry or Apple’s iPhone to convert it into a Wi-Fi phone for covering large areas.

    Customers will be entitled to five hours of international calling which comes with the adapter.

    Intelecom also announced its entry into the Web 2.0 and social network arenas by launching a fully monetized green social platform called My Social Income or MSI, where up to 50 per cent of the advertising revenue and the profits received from the sale of its 1 Button to Wi-Fi COIP, 1World 1Phone, Web 2.0 communications and marketing suites will be shared with all its members.

  • Cost Savings Drive SMBs To IP Telephony


    Small to medium-sized businesses primarily shift to VoIP services because of the cost savings they offer.

    That’s the conclusion of a new report from Infonetics Research, which also points to powerful features as a secondary motive for SMBs to switch to IP telephony.

    It cites the fact that the growth of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunking is outpacing other VoIP services as evidence of the importance of price in enterprises’ decision-making.

    The report found that global VoIP services grew 33 per cent in 2008 to USD $30.8 billion. The researchers include hosted VoIP, hosted UC (unified communications), integrated IP access, managed IP PBXes, residential VoIP, SIP trunking and other types of IP voice access in its definition of VoIP services.

    They found that while business VoIP services represented only 31 per cent of the total, they grew faster than residential services during the year.

    Managed IP PBX, hosted IP PBX and hosted UC services accounted for three-fourths of the business VoIP total.

    Diane Myers, directing analyst at Infonetics, said demand for residential and business VoIP services continues to grow through the economic downturn because of the cost savings they provide.
    She said that as a result, in 2008 the VoIP services market had healthy growth of 33 per cent to USD $30.8 billion.

    "For the first 3 months of 2009, service providers experienced an average of 40-50 per cent year-over-year growth for IP Centrex, indicating the demand for outsourcing and managed solutions remains healthy," she said.

    "We expect hosted UC services to take off, with worldwide revenue doubling between 2009 and 2013, and we forecast SIP trunking service revenue to hit an 89 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013."

    Other highlights of the report include:

    • NTT, France Telecom, and Comcast took the lead as the world’s largest VoIP service providers in 2008
    • Deregulation plays a significant role in the adoption of VoIP in some countries, such as France, where it costs only USD $0.02 per minute for fixed-to-fixed line calls worldwide, making PC-based services such as Skype irrelevant
    • Residential VoIP growth in Central and Latin America has grown stronger in the past year, particularly in Brazil where Embratel ended 2008 with 1.8 million subscribers to its NetFone service
    • In 2008, there were 106 million residential VoIP subscribers worldwide, the majority in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) and Asia Pacific, where competitive operators and incumbent carriers are in an aggressive battle for subscribers

  • Microsoft Includes VoIP Ban in App Store Restrictions


    Microsoft is to ban apps that enable VoIP services over carriers’ networks from its Windows MarketPlace for Mobile store when it launches in the second half of this year.

    The VoIP app restriction is among the 12 application types forbidden in a list of "rules" announced by Microsoft.

    Earlier this week, a Gartner report forecast that traditional network-based mobile carriers face the real prospect of losing a major slice of their voice traffic and revenue to new non-infrastructure players that use VoIP.

    While the Microsoft ban is limited to VoIP services it is unclear whether developers will be able to offer VoIP apps using Wi-Fi.

    That will not be known for sure until the store is up and running with apps.

    InformationWeek points out, however, that Skype already works over 3G on Windows Mobile phones.

    It suggests the ban on them must be a concession that the carriers wrung out of Microsoft in return for carrier billing.

    Other prohibited apps include those larger than 10MB, those that promote or send users to alternative app stores for the same application, and ones that change the default browser, search client or media player on the device.

  • Virgin Tests 200Mb Broadband, Plans To Boost HD Channels


    Virgin Media has just begun a broadband customer pilot to test real-world deployment of 200 Mbps speeds – making it the fastest implementation of Docsis 3.0 technology in the world.

    Services offered in Japan and the US currently reach 160 Mbps and 101 Mbps respectively.

    Through the pilot, Virgin Media will be testing applications consumers may be using regularly in the future, including entertainment services using HD and 3D TV and broadband content.

    Virgin said the pilot will be running for at least six months before results are analysed to understand potential consumer usage and to assess the commercial viability of such ultrafast services.

    A significant part of the pilot will also involve assessing related in-home technologies.

    In a separate announcement, the UK digital cable TV operator said it plans to add up to five new HD channels this year to keep pace with growing demand for high-def programming.

    Virgin Media, which just announced first quarter net losses of GBP £154m, said it is in discussions with a number of HD programmers.

    Currently the operator only carries a single linear high definition service, BBC HD, but offers further HD content solely on an on-demand basis.

    It has added 270 hours of HD material to its VOD system.

    Virgin said that 611,900 customers – 17 per cent of its digital TV subscriber base – currently take the V+ high definition PVR. This is up from 521,500 at the end of December.

    The need to beef up its HD content should be a priority.

    Virgin rival, BSkyB, last week announced it added 80,000 net new subs for its Jan-Mar trading and saw HD premium subscribers to its 32-channels of HDTV pass the 1m mark.

    Virgin Media’s total revenue in Q1 2009 was down to GBP £935.7m, compared with GBP £948.5m for the same period a year earlier. Its net loss widened to GBP £154m, from £104m.

    In its first quarter results announcement, Virgin said: "We are working to ensure our TV service stays ahead of changes in consumer behaviour.

    "We expect to increase our High Definition content steadily to complement our existing linear and on-demand line-up.

    "We are currently negotiating with several broadcasters with a view to launching at least five new HD channels in the third quarter of 2009."

  • Vudu Extends Content To 3rd Party Hardware


    Vudu is to make its 14,000-plus movie library available on Entone set-top boxes and DVRs.

    The deal is the first time Vudu’s content, including around 1,500 HD movies, has been made available on third-party hardware.

    Entone supplies set-top hardware to smaller regional US telco video providers, many of whom have limited or non-existent video-on-demand offerings.

    Users of Entone units will only require a software upgrade to add the entire functionality of the Vudu BX100, including on-demand access to HD and HDX movies.

    While Vudu has cut the price of its entry-level box to USD $149, the possibilities offered by extending its pay-per-view content to a much wider audience are huge.

    By moving from being a box manufacturer to a service provider, Vudu could extend itself into network-enabled consumer electronics.

    This would allow it to join the likes of Netflix and Amazon Video-on-Demand as a supported feature in everything from HDTVs and Blu-ray players to home theater systems and game consoles.

    Entone said Vudu-compatible Entone set-top boxes are expected to get the software upgrade sometime this summer.

    It should include all the features available on the existing Vudu hardware, including the Vudu Labs features that include access to YouTube and Flickr.