Weekly Digest
Weekly Digest Issue No. 434
25-09-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
Bright start for tech sector jobs... | ...but Black Thursday ruins the mood | Google's G1 revs up the mobile market | Icahn pulls up a chair at Yahoo's table | Particle smash suspended as LHC put on ice | Let's talk about text, says EU | Credit crunch takes bite out of online ads
Bright start for tech sector jobs...
There was some much-needed good news on the jobs front on Tuesday, when approximately 315 new Irish jobs were announced by two tech firms. Sim2Learn, a Galway-based driver e-learning and training company, said it is to create 250 jobs across the country. Sim2Learn has developed a 360-degree driver simulation system that teaches people how to drive. The simulator consists of the cockpit of a car/truck/bus, with all primary and secondary controls, providing the learner driver with a real-life environment in which to learn. The virtual-reality driving environment is provided through several wrap-around, high-resolution computer screens. In response to growing demand for the service, Sim2Learn is to set up 50 high-tech driver training centres around the country. Meanwhile, US-based Netezza is to create 65 highly-skilled jobs over the next five years at a customer support and financial services operation in Dundalk, Co Louth. Netezza provides data warehouse equipment that helps store, retrieve and analyse large amounts of data.
...but Black Thursday ruins the mood
One hand giveth, the other taketh away. While Tuesday was a positive day for the tech sector in Ireland, Thursday well and truly rained on the parade, with a reminder that the global recession is only really getting started. Electronics company Tyco Sensormatic in Cork announced it would be letting go over 200 staff at it moves its operations to a lower-cost economy. The job cuts are to happen before the end of the year. Tyco Sensormatic assembles electronic anti-theft tags that are attached to merchandise in stores. The company used to employ 475 people at its Bishopstown facility before scaling down operations in 2005. Meanwhile, Limavady in Derry was dealt a huge blow on Thursday morning with the news that hardware manufacturer Seagate Technologies is shutting down its operations, with the loss of almost 1,000 jobs. While the closure was officially announced last year, the operation was kept open with a skeleton staff to run the facility. Operations will now be shifted to Malaysia. Seagate has been based in Limavady for 11 years. This news, coupled with the uncertainty of the future of the Dell plant in Limerick, which employs 3,000 people, will doubtless lead to countless sleepless nights for government officials, industry leaders and workers alike.
Google's G1 revs up the mobile market
Google's first step into the mobile phone world became official on Tuesday, with the launch of the first Android-powered phone in the US. Called the G1, the device will be available in the US from 22 October at a price of USD179, on a two-year voice and data contract, similar to that which Apple imposed on original iPhone users. The device has been built by HTC and will run on T-Mobile's network. Naturally, it comes heavily pre-loaded with Google applications such as Google Maps Street View, Gmail, YouTube and Android Market. The G1 will be launched in the UK in November by T-Mobile and across Europe from early 2009. Ireland wasn't mentioned specifically, though T-Mobile did say the phone would be released in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. While Vodafone Ireland told ENN it had no plans to launch the G1 in Ireland, a spokesperson for O2 Ireland said the operator would be seeing how T-Mobile gets on with the device over the coming months. "We will be watching developments with interest," the spokesperson said.
Icahn pulls up a chair at Yahoo's table
The new-look Yahoo board took their seats on Tuesday at their first meeting since the re-shuffle at the internet company. The board now includes activist investor Carl Icahn and two new directors that Yahoo chose and Icahn supported: Frank Biondi, former chief executive of Viacom, and John Chapple, former chairman and CEO of Universal Studios. The trio were given seats at the board table as part of a deal to stave off a stand-off at Yahoo's last shareholder meeting. The first order of business for the new board was approving a new round of discussions with Time Warner's internet arm AOL, according to sources quoted in the Financial Times. While this approval could lead the way to a re-opening of talks between the companies, active deal negotiations are not underway at this stage. The pair had previously discussed merging AOL with Yahoo's search business in order to deter Microsoft's takeover attempt of Yahoo. Another topic up for discussion at Tuesday's meeting was likely Yahoo's ad deal with Google, which is currently under the antitrust microscope. It will be interesting to see how Icahn will use his influence from within the boardroom when it comes to big decisions over the coming months.
Particle smash suspended as LHC put on ice
After a successful beginning to the world's largest physics experiment -- which involved sending beams of protons around a 27km underground tunnel at CERN -- work at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has, disappointingly, ground to a halt. The problem, a large helium leak in sector 3-4 of the LHC caused most likely by a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets, means the particle-smashing phase of the experiment has been put on hold until early 2009. Still, it's not the end of the world (er, figuratively speaking) though CERN Director General Robert Aymar has called the incident a "psychological blow". Before the scientists at CERN can fully understand just what went wrong, sector 3-4 needs to be brought to room temperature so the magnets can be opened up and inspected. (The magnets in the sector can only work in temperatures of around minus 271 centigrade). This will take around three weeks. CERN said it will then need to repair whatever went wrong, which will take them into their "obligatory winter maintenance period". This period would have been the ideal time for the scientists to analyse the data that would have been thrown up by the smashing of the particles.
Let's talk about text, says EU
The European Commission has taken a new step toward lowering the cost of using your mobile phone while abroad. On Tuesday, the Commission outlined a proposal that would limit the price of sending a text message from one EU country to another to no more than EUR0.11. Currently, it costs around EUR0.29 to send a text message across EU borders. The Commission also wants to introduce a EUR1 per megabyte cap on the wholesale price that operators charge each other. It also proposed that consumers be allowed to set their own maximum cost level; this would mean that their service cuts out when they've reached a certain level, thus avoiding unexpected billing charges when they return home from their travels. Smaller European mobile operators have long blamed the high cost of texting and downloading data while abroad as the main reason why the mobile web and email have failed to thrive in Europe. If the proposal is approved by member states and the European Parliament, the changes would take effect on 1 July 2009. It looks like Ireland will be one of the member states voting in favour of the proposal if Communications Minister Eamon Ryan's reaction to the announcement is anything to go by. "I will push in my role on the Council of Ministers for this initiative to be implemented as quickly and fairly as possible," he said.
Credit crunch takes bite out of online ads
After five years of full-throttle growth, it appears that internet advertising could soon be facing a slowdown. The seemingly untouchable market is feeling the knock-on effects of the global credit crunch as companies trim their advertising budgets. Media analyst group Enders has pared back year-on-year growth rates for the UK online ad market to 18.5 percent for 2008, from previous estimates of 28 percent. Display ads and classifieds are likely to be the worst affected segment, with Enders estimating display ads will grow by just 9.8 percent in 2008 and classifieds by 7.8 percent. These estimates are in sharp contrast to last year's growth of 30.5 percent and 54 percent, respectively. Apparently the key sectors that have been slashing their online ad budgets are financial services, recruitment and, unsurprisingly, property firms. All three have traditionally been big spenders on web advertising. Meanwhile, search advertising will continue to prop up the overall market, according to Enders, which said that search adverts will grow by 25.4 percent to STG2 billion this year. This is primarily because search ads "give a quicker and easier return on investment," the analyst firm said.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 