NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 3 March
03-03-2009
by Bryan Collins
Online hotel bookings up 11 percent | iPhone is world's favourite mobile browser
Online hotel bookings grew by 11 percent last year according to the Gulliver Ireland Hotel Sector Review 2009. The review, which was launched to coincide with the 2009 Irish Hotel Federation Annual Conference, also revealed that six out of ten online hotel bookings in the country were made by Irish tourists. Nearly half of all hotel bookings were for Dublin-based hotels. There was also a 37 percent increase in the number of people bookings hotels in the North. Despite these positive growth figures though Gulliver acknowledged at the conference that the hotel sector faces a challenging year in 2009.
Spending on research and development in the Irish business sector reached EUR1.60 billion in 2007 and an estimated EUR1.68 billion in 2008. That's according to a new Business Expenditure on Research and Development report (BERD). The BERD report also revealed the number of research personnel employed in R&D across the business sector in Ireland rose to 13,861 in 2007 and found evidence of firms who were small performers of R&D in 2005 stepping up to become larger performers in 2007. "Despite the current global upheaval this government is committed to investing in Ireland's science base as one of the key cornerstones underpinning future jobs in Ireland and the lynchpin of our transformation to the Smart Economy," said the Tanaiste Mary Coughlan.
IT services provider Lionbridge Technologies has signed six multi-million euro contracts with organisations in the aerospace, technology, life sciences and services industries. Lionbridge estimates the value of the new deals at USD25-USD30 million per year. The deals include: a five year USD40 million contract with a power company; an USD8 million three-year deal with a manufacturing supplier; a USD10 million contract extension with an IT company; a three year USD7 million contract with a broadband communications provider; a one year contract with a US rehabilitation company, and a USD1 million master services agreement with an online employment firm.
The Western European market for smartphones "experienced a good performance" in 2008. That's according to the IDC's European Mobile Phone Tracker, which also revealed vendors shipped 9.3 million units during the final quarter of 2008, up 25.9 percent on the same period in 2007. And even though the overall mobile market saw a record fall of 13.5 percent during the last quarter of 2008, the converged mobile devices sector grew thanks to the launch of popular devices like the BlackBerry Bold. For the full year 2008, vendors shipped 31.9 million smartphones, 36.1 percent more than 2007. According to the IDC Nokia leads the Western European smartphone market followed by BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion, and Apple.
The iPhone is the world's most popular mobile web-browser, according to StatCounter Global Stats. The online web traffic service revealed the iPhone browser accounts for 24 percent of the mobile browser market, overtaking Opera which holds 22 percent. Nokia has 18 percent of the market followed by the iPod Touch at 14 percent, the BlackBerry at 5.8 percent and the Sony PSP at 3.4 percent. "We are talking about nothing less than a global phenomenon here," said Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder, StatCounter. "Apple through the iPhone and iPod Touch is making mobile internet browsing accessible to the masses. Globally, the iPhone has been consistently ahead of Opera since mid February."
More than half the world's population has, or pays to use, a mobile phone, according to a UN survey. The survey, by UN agency International Telecommunications Union (ITU), also revealed nearly a quarter of the world's 6.7 billion people use the internet. According the ITU, at the end of 2008 there were an estimated 4.1 billion mobile subscriptions, up from 1 billion in 2002. This figure represents six in ten of the world's population. Africa holds the number one spot for the rate of growth of mobile phone penetration. Some 28 percent of the continent's population own or pay to use a mobile compared to one in 50 at the start of the 21st century.
Business communications provider Damovo has appointed Karl McDermott as its new sales director. McDermott will head the sales and business development team at Damovo, and will be responsible for the company's overall sales strategy. McDermot has spent 20 years working in the ICT sector and joins Damovo from Cisco Ireland, where he was regional sales manager. Prior to that, he was systems engineer manager for Cisco Ireland and from 1995 to 1998 he managed the pre-sales team at 3Com. McDermot holds a degree in Engineering from UCD and has a master's degree in Engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada.
Wireless solutions company 802 Global has appointed Gavin Duffy as its partner manager for Ireland. Duffy will be based in Dublin and will develop the distributor's network of reseller partners across Ireland. Duffy joins 802 Global from EPS, where he was global sales manager with responsibility for market development. He has over 10 years' experience in the electronics and technology industry. His appointment comes after 802 Global's recent announcement of a STG1 million capital investment in the company by the former deputy chairman of ADT David Hammond.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 