NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 16 May
16-05-2007
by Ciara O'Brien
Amazon to launch digital music store | Electronics firm cuts jobs in Longford
Amazon has confirmed it will launch a digital music store later this year, with tracks in MP3 format and free from digital rights management restrictions. The new catalogue will include songs from EMI, which has already done a deal with Apple to sell restriction free tracks on its iTunes store. However, it is not yet known what other labels have signed up for Amazon's new store.
Video on demand (VoD) is set to be worth USD12.7 billion in revenue by 2011, analysts Ovum have predicted. If the forecast is accurate, this will make the sector one of the fastest-growing digital content services during this period. Ovum analysts described the new service as a "must have" vision of the future, rather than a revenue generator for telcos in the short term.
It was bad news for staff at Kimball Electronics in Co Longford, which is to cut 45 jobs at the plant. A further 20 staff on temporary contracts will also lose their jobs. The company is part of an international group which took over the Magna Donnelly Plant in Longford Town a year ago. The news won't come as too much of a shock to the 156-strong workforce, who were put on notice of possible job losses after the firm lost a major contract.
The South West Regional Authority (SWRA) has teamed up with regional research organisations and business development agencies in a bid to address barriers to exploiting public research and development. A seminar will be held on 28 May in UCC, in conjunction with the SWRA, Enterprise Ireland and CorkBIC, to outline how SMEs can benefit from new funding programmes for R&D. The event will outline the industry supports to help businesses access R&D both nationally and in Europe.
Irish owned Trend Digital Media has appointed Richard Maxwell as operations manager. Formerly employed by Intel as manufacturing supervisor at its Leixlip facility, and C&F Manufacturing in the Czech Republic, Maxwell will take over responsibility for the digital media manufacturer's supply chain including manufacturing, assembly, printing and order fulfillment.
Voice over IP is gaining ground, with subscriber numbers for retail sevices more than doubling during 2006 to 40 million worldwide. According to new research from Point Topic, this figure increases to more than 50 million when you take into account PC-to-phone and PC-to-PC clients, like Skype. Japan leads the way with 13.75 million VoIP subscribers, with the US at 8.9 million, and France with 6.6 million.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 