NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 25 May
25-05-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
UK online retailers enjoying boom | Online travel sites attract 'lookers' and 'bookers'
Ireland's two national research councils have announced a major funding programme that will lead to the establishment of Graduate Research Education Programmes. The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) and the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Studies (IRCHSS) are jointly inviting Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to apply on a collaborative basis for multi-annual funding of these research programmes, which may last up to five years. An initial total of between EUR6 million and EUR10 million will be allocated in funding for the initiative.
Online ad revenues in the US last year jumped 35 percent from 2005 figures to USD16.9 billion, according to a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, reports eMarketer. Search, display, classifieds and lead generation all grew, and performance-based and CPM pricing both increased. Consumer advertisers continued to represent the largest proportion of internet ad spending. "Online publishers may continue to experience growth as marketing budget allocations to all interactive forms continue to increase," said Peter Petrusky of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Meanwhile, online retailers in the UK also enjoyed a boom year in 2006, according to a new study by Verdict Research, reports Silicon.com. Two milestones were achieved last year: total online spending topped STG10 billion, while online revenues reached 4 percent of total retail spending. Year-on-year growth for the sector was 33 percent. Report author Nick Gladding said there were three drivers fuelling the growth: the proliferation of broadband, the familiarity of consumers with online shopping and an increased commitment from retailers to online sales.
Microsoft Windows Mobile is set to win customers in the enterprise mobile market from Symbian and BlackBerry, according to a report compiled by consultants BRC. As enterprise mobile computing changes to combine more PC-like capabilities on handsets, a determining factor will be the number of tools available for extending corporate applications to mobiles. "RIM and Symbian have attracted millions of business users through Personal Information Manager (PIM) and e-mail, but without middleware solutions they will lose them to Microsoft," according to Jeff Ace, one of the report's authors.
The European online travel market is worth EUR28 billion, a 22 percent rise on last year, according to Ciaran Lally, MD of Ebookers UK and Ireland, who spoke on Thursday at the SMILE 2007 Conference. Lally revealed that of the leisure travellers online, 40 percent are what he calls "bookers", in that they search for and book their holidays on the internet, and 27 percent are "lookers", those that research holidays online but book offline.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 