Weekly Digest
Weekly Digest Issue No. 485
01-10-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
Motion controllers battle: game on | Acquisitions spark market optimism
New jobs hint at tech sector turnaround
There were more positive signs in the tech sector in Ireland this week, with software company SITA announcing it is to create 80 jobs in Letterkenny, Donegal. The new positions, which were announced by the Tanaiste Mary Coughlan on Monday, will primarily be in the areas of Java programming and quality assurance, and will be brought in over the next year. Both graduates and staff with experience in the sector will be hired as part of the expansion. The new jobs will bring the total number of staff at SITA's Letterkenny facility to 150. SITA specialises in air transport communications and IT solutions. Meanwhile, on Wednesday financial services giant Citi outlined its plans to double its staff in the capital, creating 50 new jobs by the end of 2010, as it opens a new global research facility. The centre will focus on the development of a next-generation intelligent payments solution. Citi said it plans to work closely with firms such as Microsoft and Cisco on the project. Coupled with the jobs news from last week, these announcements are a welcome sign that there is a light at the end of this long, dark recessionary tunnel.
iPhone to get sales boost with new deals
It was an eventful week for Apple's iPhone with the news that in the UK and Ireland Vodafone has been awarded a contract to sell the popular mobile handset. The move crushes O2's exclusive deal with Apple and sets up a potential price war in the region when Vodafone begins selling the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS from 2010. Pricing, tariffs and availability information will be announced locally in the future. The Vodafone news followed an announcement also this week from Orange, which said it had reached an agreement to sell Apple's iPhone in the UK later this year. While an exact date for the launch was not released, an Orange spokesman said the iPhone would be available on its network by Christmas. Not only that, China Unicom, China's second largest mobile carrier, confirmed it will begin to sell the Apple handset for a retail price of 5,000 Yuan (EUR500). The phone will be used to launch China Unicom's 3G service, and will hit shelves in October. Opening up to other operators in the UK and Ireland, as well as launching in the biggest mobile market in the world, can only mean good times ahead for sales of the iPhone.
Twitter gets major cash injection
Wildly popular micro-blogging site Twitter had a windfall this week with the news that it had attracted significant funding from a group of investors. The investors have been listed as Insight Venture Partners, T Rowe Price, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital and Benchmark Capital. "We closed a significant round of funding with a group of investment firms," Twitter co-founder Evan Williams announced in a blog post. "Twitter's journey has just begun and we are committed to building the best product, technology, and company possible." While the amount of funding has not been officially released, the Wall Street Journal has estimated it to be in the region of USD100 million, which puts a value on Twitter of USD1 billion. Not bad for a company that hasn't earned a dime yet. Earlier in the year the cyber rumour mill went into overdrive with talk of a possible link-up between Twitter and Google. While this partnership didn't materialise, it's worth mentioning that the USD1 billion Twitter valuation was bandied about at that stage. Now that Twitter has made some moves to develop an advertising model, it's taken the first step to turning its massive user base into revenue, and could well start making inroads into its reported value.
Motion controllers battle: game on
We've had the next-generation games console wars; now the battle has moved to motion controllers. Nintendo's win in the console wars was primarily down to its motion controller, the Wii-mote, which made a huge impact on the casual gaming market and propelled the Wii into first place ahead of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Now though, Microsoft and Sony are poised to release their own motion controllers and both parties are eager to talk up their respective products. At the Tokyo Game Show this week Microsoft revealed a list of games publishers who have all pledged support for its controller – dubbed Natal. Though a release date for Natal hasn't been mentioned yet, indications are that it could hit shelves in early 2010. For its part, Sony hasn't been sitting still. Also at the Tokyo Game Show the Japanese giant revealed some details about its unnamed motion controller, saying it plans to release the device in the spring of 2010. The controller will work in conjunction with the PlayStation Eye camera. Despite the fact that Nintendo has a couple of years head-start on both Microsoft and Sony, the upcoming releases are sure to have some on the Nintendo board rattled. With Wii sales falling in the most recent quarter, it looks like Nintendo may have to come up with a reply to this two-pronged threat.
Acquisitions spark market optimism
Wall Street has been buoyed by a spate of acquisitions involving a number of high-profile tech firms over the past couple of weeks. This week, document management giant Xerox announced it was to buy Affiliated Computer Services for USD6.4 billion. The acquisition forms part of Xerox's strategy to branch out into the IT services and business process outsourcing sectors. "By combining Xerox's strengths in document technology with ACS' expertise in managing and automating work processes, we're creating a new class of solution provider," Xerox CEO Ursula Burns said in a company announcement. The move follows Dell's acquisition last week of computer services firm Perot Systems for USD3.9 billion as it too expands into the technology services sector. Meanwhile, network equipment maker Cisco Systems has agreed to buy Norwegian video conferencing company Tandberg for just shy of USD3 billion in cash. The deal marks a further push by Cisco into the area of collaborative technologies, which enable people to work together from different locations. Tandberg develops a range of video conferencing products including high-end systems that compete with Cisco's telepresence product. One of Cisco's goals is to make video a key part of communication for small businesses as well as large ones and, eventually, consumers, said Ned Hooper, chief strategy officer at Cisco, in a Wall Street Journal report. The fact that large acquisitions such as these are being made at all indicates that the likes of Cisco, Dell and Xerox are optimistic about the future, a positivity that could well rub off on other players in the tech sector.
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