The term “digital home” has been tossed around for a number of years with few indications of how big the market actually is. Small startup companies and potentially-disruptive technologies are regularly identified as the key players in what was, in 2008, a $553 billion U.S. market. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Updated with comment from Sony: Everyone talks about how great “choice” is, as if having an alternative to the existing status quo is automatically good. But what if the alternative is lame? Then there really isn’t much of a choice, is there? Sony today introduced two […] Read more »
The emergence of a commercially significant electronic book (e-book) market in the past three years has been the result of two quite-recent technological developments. The first, and most critical, has been a breakthrough in the technology for manufacturing reflective electronic paper displays (EPDs), allowing for the introduction of affordable, lightweight and portable e-book readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader.
The second has been the rollout of reliable “3G” wireless broadband networks, which have made it possible to deliver digital books directly to reading devices without the intermediate steps of downloading files to a PC and then transferring them to a reader. Direct-to-device sampling and delivery, particularly with Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPhone, have enabled impulse-driven e-commerce, which has been critical to early consumer adoption of e-books.
The technology for e-books, however, remains nascent. The Kindle and its ilk are very much first-generation devices that deliver the minimally acceptable experience. Further development of the business will be closely tied to future technological developments, including flexible and color displays, format standardization and rich-media applications. As the market grows, there are numerous opportunities for other technology players, from social networks to cloud service providers and more. This report examines the trends and opportunities ahead. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Sony’s Q2 Sales and Operating Revenue Down 19.2%; sales of Bravia LCD TVs dropped 27 percent; company blamed poor quarter on bad global economy and appreciation of the yen. (The Wrap) JK Wedding Video Boosts Chris Brown Record Sales; direct link to buy his song “Forever” […] Read more »
When Blake Krikorian made the rounds in 2004-2005 to tell people about his new device called the Slingbox, the founder and then-CEO of Sling Media employed a pretty smart tactic: He coined a term – placeshifting – to describe what exactly it was his company’s flagship ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In recent years, virtual worlds (also known as massively multiplayer online games, or MMOs) have shown tremendous growth in terms of user numbers and revenue. However, the market for them is currently in tremendous flux, with the most well-known sub-genre — the subscriber-based fantasy role playing games (MMORPGs) — suffering a growth plateau, due to the dominating success of World of Warcraft. At the same time, user activity in “freemium” virtual worlds continues to explode, most especially in the tween/adolescent market, which is likely to reach a market saturation point soon, though monetization prospects for all but the established players remain uncertain. The explosion of social networks, which share numerous traits with virtual worlds, have created a new potential audience for this genre, while the mass adoption of web plug-ins and smartphones like the iPhone have opened up new markets for the genre.
In this transitional period, many of the best investment and growth opportunities to watch are not the worlds themselves, but the solution providers offering developers the means to better monetize their existing MMOs. Opportunities also exist in niche MMOs that appeal to consumers seeking entertainment outside the established fantasy and kids social MMO space. However, new players that would enter this already crowded market must foster a community of users by rewarding user-created content and continued engagement, while also being architected with multiple revenue streams and play platforms. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Add Sony TV sets to the long list of hardware devices that will stream Netflix movies. Netflix announced this morning that starting this fall, net-connected Sony Bravia TVs and older Bravias that use the Internet link module will be able to access its “Watch Instantly” movie […] Read more »
One of the most oft-cited benefits of netbooks is how much they cost, in that they offer much of the basic computing power of a laptop or desktop for a much lower price. This week, however, the focus shifted to how the prices for these handy […] Read more »
While Nintendo‘s Wii has proven itself to be a formidable gaming platform, it lags behind the competition when it comes to offering video content. But that is about to change. Kind of. In Japan. Sonic Solutions announced today that it is partnering with Fujisoft to bring […] Read more »
The U.S. wireless data market grew 5 percent quarter over quarter and 32 percent from first quarter 2008 to reach $10 billion in mobile data service revenues. It marked the first time the U.S .market has achieved the $10 billion milestone. Given the strong growth in data revenues shown by the top carriers and the increase in service revenues overall, it appears that (at least for the time being) the worst is over for the mobile industry. In summary, the recession has been all but a tiny blip (from the service revenue perspective) in its growth trend, and the U.S. mobile market has weathered the downward spiral in the economy better than its counterparts in other developing nations. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Sony unveiled its PlayStation Go mobile media device at E3 today and extended its video delivery service to its line of PlayStation mobile devices. The slimmed-down Go doesn’t use physical media (no shiny little discs!); instead all content is downloaded to the device via Wi-Fi. At […] Read more »
Spike TV will air the web series Angel of Death on its cable channel this summer, continuing Spike’s recent trend of acquiring online content. Angel, which stars stuntwoman Zoe Bell as an assassin (see our review and our interview with Bell), was produced by Sony’s Crackle.com […] Read more »
Prime View International, a Taiwanese company that makes an e-readers display part, said today it would purchase E-Ink, a company that provides the digital ink technology in the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, for $215 million. The two companies have been partners in developing the Sony […] Read more »
We already have some pretty cool options when it comes to watching and creating video, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely satisfied. I want more. I want a TV that’s only 3mm thick. I want a DVR that I don’t have to install, or even touch. […] Read more »
