Weekly Digest
Weekly Digest Issue No. 509
01-04-2010
by Deirdre McArdle
Google vs China: what's going on? | iPad hailed by critics
Eircom unveils 'next-gen' broadband
Eircom on Monday kicked off its 'next-generation broadband' rollout. The service, which will see Eircom's entry-level broadband products upgraded from 1Mbps to "up to 8Mbps", will initially be rolled out in 24 exchanges in Dublin. The telco said the service will be launched in other urban areas including Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford by the end of 2010. Existing Eircom customers on 1Mbps, 3Mbps and 7Mbps will be upgraded to 8Mbps for free. A key feature of Eircom's so-called next-generation broadband is the telco's claim that users will not have to deal with any 'congestion' on their connection. "Next Generation Broadband demonstrates a commitment by Eircom to upgrade the quality of broadband services offered to customers. Customers will have a high performance experience, receiving their own dedicated 'online lane' on the country's new digital motorway," said Eircom CEO Paul Donovan.
While lobby group IrelandOffline welcomed the move to address the "congestion issue", it slated Eircom's offering in general, saying in a statement that the "vast majority" of customers are unlikely to get 8Mbps broadband. Eircom's products also came under fire by IrelandOffline. The telco has three consumer products (all offering 8Mbps) which are differentiated by usage caps. For EUR24.99 you get a 10GB download allowance, EUR29.99 gets you a 30GB allowance, while for EUR39.82 you can get an unlimited download allowance. Excess usage charges come in at EUR2 per Gigabyte (down from EUR10.24), and Eircom said there will be a monthly bill limit for broadband usage of EUR50. IrelandOffline has called this charging policy an "attack" on consumers. It criticised the usage caps as "paltry", saying a 10GB cap is not enough for the average tech-savvy family. See the full IrelandOffline statement here, and get more information on Eircom's new products here.
New jobs break through the gloom
Following last week's jobs bonanza was always going to be a difficult task, but there have been some positive announcements this week that shone through the air of NAMA-induced gloom. Citrix Systems Ireland on Tuesday announced that it is to create 30 new high-value jobs at its East Point Business Park base in Dublin. Recruitment is already underway, with the firm looking for technical support and escalation engineers, technical relationship managers, technical trainers and inside sales specialists. The move follows the creation in October 2009 of 20 positions by Citrix, and brings to 150 the number of people the firm now employs in Ireland. Dublin is Citrix's Customer Technical Support EMEA headquarters.
On Wednesday, it was quietly revealed that PC giant Dell is currently recruiting to fill approximately 100 new positions, primarily at its Cherrywood, Co Dublin, facility, but also in Limerick. In early 2009 Dell cut 1,900 jobs at its Limerick manufacturing unit, transferring them to a facility in Lodz, Poland. These new jobs cover a range of positions, according to a spokesperson.
In more good news, the latest statistics from the Central Applications Office (CAO) revealed there has been a resurgence of interest in IT courses among Irish students. First preference applications for IT honours degrees increased from 1,835 in 2007 to 2,623 this year. They now make up 4.2 percent of all first-preference applications for honours degree courses in the CAO system. Meanwhile, the increase in applications for ordinary degree/higher certificates in IT was more dramatic -- first preferences are up 24.7 percent this year following a 20 percent rise last year. This growing popularity of IT courses is a boon to the Government's 'smart economy' plans and good news in the medium term for Ireland's growth prospects.
iPhone poised for further growth
Ahead of last Thursday's launch of the iPhone on the Vodafone Ireland network, mobile services firm Digital Reach Group released a report estimating that there are 250,000 iPhones active on Irish networks. The group said that O2 makes up the highest proportion of iPhone mobile traffic at 35 percent, while 10 percent of the iPhone traffic was already coming from Vodafone, ahead of the company launching the handset. The remainder of the traffic is made up of Wi-Fi access. Based on its estimates, DRG said the iPhone is the most popular smartphone in the Irish market, followed by Nokia's E and N series and Blackberry's 8000 series, respectively. DRG based its figures on an analysis of mobile web traffic to its advertising network Adforce. The company noted that Google's Android system, a relatively new entrant to the Irish market, is making an impact on the market with a 0.5 percent market share, following the launch of HTC's Hero handset on Meteor last October.
Just how much the launch of the iPhone by Vodafone will affect the market remains to be seen. The mobile operator launched the device on 25 March but a request for information on how it's selling was not answered by Vodafone. Still, as the largest operator in the State with over 2 million subscribers, it's safe to assume that iPhone ownership is likely to take quite a jump.
iPhone ownership could also rocket in the US with the news that Apple is reportedly in talks to develop a CDMA-compatible iPhone, according to the Wall Street Journal, which quoted people familiar with the company. CDMA is used by AT&T's main rival in the US, Verizon, as well as by Sprint Nextel. Industry commentators are suggesting the move to develop a CDMA iPhone could signal an end to the deeply unpopular exclusive contract AT&T has with Apple to sell the iPhone in the US.
Google vs China: what's going on?
The ongoing saga between Google and China took a mysterious, some might say confusing, turn this week. The cyber tug-o-war between the pair seemed to degenerate considerably mid-week when Google searches suffered a series of disruptions. On Tuesday evening searches were severely affected, a problem that Google initially took responsibility for, saying the issue arose when it inserted new code into its system. However, just hours later, the search giant appeared to rescind that explanation, saying instead that China was behind the blockages. At that time the issues seemed to have been resolved. However, Wednesday brought a further layer of bewilderment when Google searches for words as harmless as "dog" or "hello" produced browser error messages.
In related news this week, Google confirmed the Chinese government is blocking its mobile internet services on the mainland. On Monday Google changed the status of its mobile services from "no issues" to "partially blocked" on an internal website designed to track the availability of its services in China. Google said the availability of its mobile services had started to "fluctuate". It remains unclear whether the disruptions will continue.
The reigning uncertainty and confusion has caused many industry analysts to suggest that Google may have bitten off more than it can chew in going up against the Chinese government. A report in the Financial Times claims that observers are calling Google's move to confront China's censorship rules "short-sighted". All of this confusion, analysts say, plays right into the hands of Beijing, with more and more Google users simply giving up on the search engine, choosing instead to use Chinese search engine Baidu.
iPad hailed by critics
With the Apple iPad launch now imminent (3 April), the first reviews of the much-hyped device have been trickling in this week from a select few reviewers who were given first dibs with the tablet. By and large, the assessments have been exceptionally positive, and will no doubt put a smile on Steve Jobs' face, and perhaps a gleeful hand rub too, a la Mr Burns. The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg said the "beautiful" device "has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop". David Pogue from the New York Times praised the iPad's convenience for consuming information, while Ed Baig from USA Today simply called the device "a winner". General consensus is that the iPad's battery life, at 12 hours, is impressive, as is its speed and, of course, how it looks.
Apps, arguably the driver of the iPhone's success, are emerging as a key area of interest for the iPad. Silicon Valley investor Kleiner Perkins has predicted that the iPad is likely to trigger a second wave of innovation in mobile apps, following on from the iPhone revolution, and in time to eclipse it. The investment firm has earmarked USD100 million to invest in start-ups developing applications specifically for the iPad and similar devices, reports the Financial Times. Indeed, frenzied developers are among those most eager to get their hands on an iPad so that they can begin creating compatible apps. For now, it's not clear how many apps will launch with the iPad on 3 April, but industry estimates pitch the figure at around 200.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 