NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 19 May
19-05-2009
by Emmet Ryan
Vodafone sees customers, ARPU drop | Mobiles, laptops exempt from TV licence
Vodafone Ireland had a total of 2.26 million customers for the year ending 31 March 2009, according to its latest results. This included 83,188 customer who use the mobile giant's fixed line and DSL broadband service. The total figure is down from 2.33 million customers as of 31 March 2008. Highlighting the trend of falling user spending, monthly ARPU (average revenue per user) decreased 6 percent during the 12 month period from EUR41.60 to EUR39.10.
The Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has announced that he will exempt mobile devices and internet services, such as YouTube from the requirement for a television licence. According to a statement, mobile phones, standard PCs with a broadband connection and laptops with TV cards will not require a TV licence. Minister Ryan said that once the Broadcasting Bill is enacted these types of technology will be exempt in order to allow for technological development.
Revenue at travel software firm Datalex for the first four months of this year was almost 10 percent behind expectations at USD9.5 million. In a trading statement, the firm said this was in line with the same period last year when currency movements were stripped out. Costs were also down, according to Datalex, coming in 8 percent below budget at USD10.9 million. The company said transaction revenue was up 46 percent on a year earlier at USD4.7 million.
Infrastructure software firm Citrix has announced a new addition to its NetScaler product line. The new nCore technology will allow existing NetScaler appliances to deliver Web 2.0 applications and cloud services for up to seven times more users with no extra hardware investments required.
Nokia plans to cut a further 490 jobs as part of its global cost cutting program. The Finnish mobile phone maker said it would cut 170 jobs in logistics, production management and production support and would offer a voluntary resignation package for up to 320 employees working at its Salo plant in Finland.
Acer has introduced its first 11.6-inch netbook. The Aspire One A0751h offers a less cramped keyboard than rival offerings in a segment of the market that is continuing to see growth despite the overall decline in the PC market.
Stock picking system developer Zetes has appointed Niall Griffiths as its new sales director for Ireland. Griffiths joins Zetes from CDC Software where he held the position of general manager for Ireland and was responsible for developing a multi-million euro operating division for the US-owned software company.
Ireland's SME bosses are spending quite a lot of time working at weekends, according to a new study by O2. The O2 annual business survey found that 84 percent of those surveyed occasionally work at weekends, while 69 percent said they do so more than once a month.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 