NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 24 August
24-08-2009
by Emmet Cole
Mobile users shop around for value | Nokia jumps on netbook bandwagon
Four in five (82 percent) of Irish consumers who have switched service providers did so in order to get a better deal and saved money as a result, according to a survey commissioned by the National Consumer Agency. According to the report, one in four consumers changed their mobile phone service provider. That trend is most noticeable in the 15-24 year old segment of the market, with 41 percent switching provider in the past year. In the broadband market 14 percent of consumers have switched service provider in the past year.
Galway is becoming a centre of excellence for technology and has the perfect conditions to be a destination of choice for other IT companies, according to Daragh Mac Loughlin, director of hosting company Letshost.ie. National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) graduate Mac Loughlin believes that the amount of highly skilled IT graduates emanating from NUIG and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), alongside lower set-up costs than in other parts of the country puts Galway in a strong position to attract leading IT companies to the region. Earlier this year Letshost.ie opened a second office in Oranmore, Galway, which now employs four people. Mac Loughlin's company also has a Dublin office.
Organisations in EMEA are adopting a lean IT strategy to address the current economic climate, according to a survey commissioned by IT management software company CA. The survey of 562 IT directors and senior IT managers across Europe found that over the coming year companies intend to invest in software that maximises value and minimises cost -- what CA describes as 'the core philosophy of lean thinking'. Leading the way is investment in service management (cited by 88 percent of respondents), IT security (79 percent), and infrastructure and operations management (76 percent). The majority (57 percent) of those surveyed are likely to fund such additional software purchases from operational expenditure budgets; the remainder are likely to fund them from capital expenditure budgets.
Budget airline bmi has initiated a year-long programme of improvements to its internet booking engine, moving from Amadeus WDS to Amadeus XML. The changes, which are expected to be complete by summer 2010, will include enhanced prime flight booking flow (reducing the number of steps involved from seven to five), 'shopping basket' functionality to include ancillary products such as hotels and travel insurance, and increased ability to provide promotional fares. By the end of 2009 the site will feature further supplementary products, such as car hire and airport parking and a 'manage my booking' facility. By the summer of 2010 a re-booking and group booking function, as well as the ability to book 'open jaw' and multi-leg journeys will be added.
Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has announced it is to make the move into the netbook market this year. First up will be the Nokia Booklet 3G netbook computer, which will use Microsoft Windows software and Intel's Atom processor. The device is expected to offer up to 12 hours of battery life and will weigh about 1.25 kilograms. Nokia is expected to unveil detailed specifications, market availability and pricing of the device on 2 September.
BT Ireland's transfer of consumer and small business broadband customers and voice telephone customers to Vodafone has been approved by the Competition Authority. According to the companies, there will be no change in service to customers in the short term and the companies are working together to ensure a 'seamless migration' of services.
Finally, Apple has announced that its new Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard will go on sale on Friday, 28 August at Apple authorised resellers. Apple's online store is now accepting pre-orders. Amongst the improvements promised to users are a more responsive Finder, Mail that loads messages up to twice as fast, and a 64-bit version of Safari 4 that is up to 50 percent faster and more resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins. Snow Leopard is half the size of Leopard and frees up to 7GB of drive space once installed. Snow Leopard will be available as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users for EUR29 (including VAT).
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 