Bricks and mortar was never cheap as Gerry Harvey has found out. This week, he bemoaned the high renting costs in Australia, which he claims is preventing expansion of his bricks and mortar electronics empire.
Oonagh Reidy
iPhone 5 Cloak And Dagger ‘Secrets’ By Optus, Telstra
Aussie telcos are jumping fast on iPhone 5 bandwagon. As Vodafone launched pre registration for the “biggest release of the year” Telstra are opting for a similar “secret” tack.
“Shhh it’s a secret… Register and you’ll be amongst the first to know at,” urged the Telstra Facebook page yesterday.
“Be among the first to know when the latest hot new phone becomes available,” the telco teased and although like Apple itself did not specify anything, you can bet your bottom dollar it is the cult device, which has a confirmed launch date of October 04.
Read Lets Talk iPhone 5: Apple FINALLY Reveal All 4 Oct Here
i5 will hit the shops just weeks later, although no exact release dates for Australia have been given away yet but judging by telco’s enthusiasm it looks to be soon. Telstra are also looking to rid itself of old stock, flogging its iPhone 3GS 8GB for $429 on pre pay.
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And not to be left behind, Optus have also jumped aboard the iPhone gravy train, writing a teaser on its Facebook page: “Getting Excited? Register for the Latest Updates on New Optus Smartphones!”, and goes on to say “Optus gives you 5” – a less subtle approach than rivals Voda and Telstra.
However, one unenthused Facebook user wrote in response to Optus: “Sounds like iPhone 5 but might just be deceiving so they can send you more crap, and before you know it you’ll have bought an android rather then the iPhone 5”.
And on an unrelated note, we couldnt help but laugh on discovering a Facebook page called “Have you been to India? Na, I’ve spoken to Optus” with over 36,000 ‘Likes’.
Score! Samsung Nets Maria Sharapova
Tennis ace is set to turn her hand to LCD’s.
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| Image : Bloomberg |
Samsung are to sponsor tennis ace Maria Sharapova in three year deal, which will cover mobile phones, tablet and TV’s, reports Bloomberg.
The agreement covers just Russia at present but may go worldwide next year, according to her agent.
Siberian born Sharapova already endorses Nike, Tag Heuer and Danone water and has also modelled for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
She is currently the highest paid female athlete in the world so no doubt Samsung paid a pretty penny to get the star on board.
Sharapova has won has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles including 2008 Australian Open and has been ranked world no. 1 in singles on four separate occasions.
The 24 year old, who is currently ranked No 2 in the world has previously had deals with Motorola and was a global brand ambassador for troubled Sony, although that deal finished last year.
It’s Rudd V Gillard… But Where’s Conroy?
Its a K Rudd V Julia G showdown next Monday as both Labor leaders, past and present, vie for the top prize.
![]() Pictured: Julia Gillard and Stephen Conroy: They’re laughing now, but will they still be as jolly on Monday? |
But where does Minister for Broadband and Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy, stand on in this power battle?
Conroy is a 110% Julia Gillard devotee, and made his position very clear on the Nine Network this week, declaring Labours MP’s were relieved when Rudd resigned as Foreign Minister on Wednesday and criticised the constant “sniping’ from Camp Rudd in recent few months.
The “constant undermining, the constant leaking, the constant publication of lists claiming to be Rudd supporters is damaging the government,” he said.
Conroy also reiterated his support for the Prime Minister, saying: “Julia Gillard has and continues to have the overwhelming support of the parliamentary Labor Party.”
“I think there’s a great sigh of relief in the caucus that we’re finally going to resolve all this,” he added, referring to next Monday’s 10am leadership ballot where Labour MP’s will decide, once again, who will be their leader after Mr Rudd declared his resignation in Washington at 2am local time Wednesday, just after 6pm AEST.
A bold Conroy also predicts Mr Rudd will lose the leadership race, suggesting its a matter of “when” and not “if” he loses the race for the hearts and minds of Labor MP’s and warned Rudd must back off when this happens.
“There has to be an acceptance from Mr Rudd when he loses the ballot that he will desist from this campaign, desist from this destabilisation,” he told reporters yesterday.
“The best person to beat Tony Abbott is the person who can run a functional, competent government that is consultative and treats the cabinet and treats the caucus and the people of Australia with respect.
“Only one person fits the bill … and that’s Julia Gillard.”
“What we need is an end to this comedy. If this was to go on, Tony Abbott will be the next prime minister,” he added.
Conroy was speaking prior to an address at the 10th Annual Australian Broadcasting Summit Sydney Convention Centre, yesterday.
But will he be forced out of his beloved Comms portfolio which he has held for several years if K Rudd gets back in?
With comments like these uttered yesterday, it is very likely.
His office was not answering calls when contacted by SmartHouse for comment yesterday.
But either way, it looks as if there is a major cabinet shake-up pending, even if Ms Gillard remains Labor’s top dog.
What then becomes of his pet project the $36 billion National Broadband Network now in full swing, if he is forced out of his portfolio?
The NBN was announced as a pre-election Labor promise in 2007 so it will go ahead gung-ho even if Rudd gets back in but other issues like web censorship, press regulation and funding of ABC are other pressing issues on the Communication agenda.
“The truth is I can only serve as Foreign Minister if I have the confidence of Prime Minister Gillard and her senior ministers,” Rudd said in his resignation speech yesterday.
And it is clear Sen. Conroy is not one of them. But who would replace Conroy if he is given the sack by Rudd is still unclear.
Ms Gillard speaking at The Lodge yesterday said she “just wants to get things done.”
“This has moved to a distraction from governing itself. This is not good enough. Australians are rightly sick of this and they want it brought to an end.”
“When the ballot is called I will re nominate for the Labor leadership and I expect the support of my colleagues when I do so.”
10am Monday it is then, folks.
What A DoDo! Telstra, iiNet Network Crash
Telstra and iiNet customers are not happy campers this afternoon after both networks suffered a severe network outage, forcing potentially millions offline.
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Telstra’s entire network suffered an outage which began around 1:55pm this afternoon- from its Next G mobile service, fixed line broadband, BigPond mail service as well as connection to international sites.
And its all Dodo’s, fault, apparently.
The CEO of ISP Dodo, Larry Kestelman, said one of its (minor) network routers “was causing an issue between ourselves and Telstra, that’s had larger ramifications than it should have with other providers,” he told Gizmodo.
“Even though everything is up and running now, the two companies are still investigating the root cause of the problem.”
Disgruntled Telstra users were met with ‘No Internet Connection’ according to Whirlpool community bloggers, who began posting problems just before 2pm today, and the service outage hit all main metro areas including Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra and Gold Coast.
Telstra phones were showing 3G data connected, but there was no data movement.
“Not working in Canberra either it seems.. Both iPad/iPhone no workies :-(“, one Telstra user said.
Another said: “Next-G down, Cable down, adsl down. Nationwide.”
“Telstra is down. No data,” another forlorn Internet-less user declared. (Check out #Telstra Outage on Twitter for more tweets).
Optus and the Commonwealth Bank were also said to be hit by the network problem.
“Telstra lost connectivity progressively to its international data network at around 1.40 this afternoon meaning customers could not access international websites from either their mobile or fixed services,” a company spokesperson confirmed.
“Customers who couldn’t access international sites were then overloading domestic sites causing major issues in accessing Australian sites as well.
However, the “vast majority” of customers have been progressively coming back on line since 2.25pm this afternoon and Telstra’s engineers are continuing to monitor the network and identify the cause, the spokesperson added.
“We are also experiencing a high volume of calls to our customer service centres which means some customers may be having difficulties getting through at this time.
“Customers accessing our online services may also be experiencing difficulties. We will continue to keep our customers updated.”
And across at Perth based telco, iiNet, it too was experiencing similar issues related to the Telstra outage, across its network since 10:52am Western Standard Time.
“Customers trying to access external websites and services may experience delays and timeouts. iiNet Upstream provider is currently investigating.” according to a notice posted on the company website.
However, it is unclear how many users were affected.
Engineers are working on the “majority of issues and estimated time of restoration is today at 17:00:00 WST”, it confirmed.
What JB Hi-Fi Did Next
As the latest casualty Allen + Billy Hyde goes into administration, we get reaction from one of retail’s survivors, JB Hi Fi.
Ouch: Telstra’s $30M Bill Whopper
Thought your recent phone bill was high? Well, Telstra have been forced to stump up a whopping $30m to fix its faulty billing systems, which saw a multitiude of errors.
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This major bill was in part to clean up the mess created by Telstra’s “error riddled” Siebel billing system according to The Australian, which cost millions to install under previous boss, Sol Trujillo.
The Siebel billing system, which helps the telco process millions of customer bills is still subject to problems despite its best efforts and has now been forced to use Oracle’s Identity Management system, at a cost of $30m, to remedy the situtation.
So, rather than the multiple layers of architecture used by Siebel, the Oracle system is more seamless using a single layer of access and will improve the billing process for all Telstra customers.
It allow users with multiple bills be recognised as a single user, thus will give users access to all their separate accounts online, simultaneously.
“The investment in this technology will allow us to be much faster in service and capability. And it will also get us closer to the holy grail of separating individual and user roles,” said Gerd Schenkel, Telstra’s digital boss.
“So if you order a mobile phone through a corporate contract you will have different access privileges in that application than you do with your own consumer product. In the new system we will have much better access and visibility to that and we will be able to attach identity and access credentials to a single person.”
This comes as Telstra announced its first Facebook app yesterday, meaning customers can log onto the social network 24/7 and get rep response within the hour. The Facebook app is to go on full release this June.
Vodafone also uses the Siebel system although it too ran into trouble last year after claims its billing and call records for up to four million customers were openly available online.
HTC Charm Offensive For ‘Sublime’ Rhyme
HTC are pulling out all the stops for the Oz launch of Rhyme – its new chick phone. 3.7″ WVGA super LCD HTC Rhyme runs Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread with 4 GB onboard memory, 768 MB RAM, 8 GB microSD pre-installed, 5 Mp front camera with auto focus and power LED flash, HD 720p video recording.
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HTC’s new slimline Rhyme has serious charm, apparently.
“Attached to your bag, the Charm alerts you of calls, missed calls, and messages. It also keeps your phone within easy reach and goes with anything,” purrs the Taiwanese creator.
Other than that not much is known about pricing or availabilty although the device does appear on one Aussie mobile site Mobicity, on pre-order for $629 outright.
But here’s another one for the ladies: put Rhyme into a docking station and it turns into a picture frame.
“Rhyme is the ultimate stylish device so what better way to celebrate so what better way to celebrate, than with a sublime experience in a world class spa and salon,” HTC Australia wrote in an launch invite this week.
And what’s more, HTC are treating attendees to “a relaxing range of 30 minute express spa treatments” at exclusive Hair & Day Spa next Thursday, offering attendees manicure & pedicure, massage, facial or scalp and even hair treatments in a bid perhaps to attract the female contingent. (I can’t see the male journlists falling over themselves for a mani/pedi).
Attendees of the launch taking place next week will also be buttered up with canap_s and refreshments. (Will let you know if the charm works, next week).
PC ‘Weak’ as Microsoft Admit ‘Post-PC’ World
Global PC demand is falling as consumer lovingly embrace iPhone and tabs.
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| Can Windows 8 save PC market? |
That’s according to Gartner analysts, who predict Worldwide PC shipments are to total 368 million units in 2012, a 4.4% jump on last year.
However, Australian PC shipments are set to decline 2% this year, with desktops expected to drop 12%, although notebooks will rise 2%.
However, this dreary forecast is set to reverse in 2013 as shipments are predicted to hit 400m by year end, according to the PC forecast just released.
But the PC market will have to play catch up in bringing “a new level of innovation that consumers want to see in devices,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.
“The real question is whether Windows 8 and ultrabooks will create the compelling offering that gets the earlier adopter of devices excited about PCs again.”
And speaking of good old PC lord, Microsoft, its former tech guru, Ray Ozzie, admitted the post-PC era is firmly upon us at a tech conference Wednesday. Ozzie left the company suddenly in 2010.
“People argue about ‘are we in a post-PC world?’. Why are we arguing? Of course we are in a post-PC world,” he said at a conference in Seattle, Microsoft home turf, reports Reuters.
“That doesn’t mean the PC dies, that just means that the scenarios that we use them in, we stop referring to them as PCs, we refer to them as other things,” he said.
Microsoft has come a long way since his departure, he admitted.
“I’m happy about some things and I’m impatient about other things,” he added.
And while the bad world economy and supply issues with SSDs played a key part in the weaker market, changing consumer dynamics was of “far greater” to vendors, say Gartner.
2011 redefined the landscape of the device market with the advent of mobile computing on tabs like iPad, Apple and Android smartphones, say analysts.
The use of e-mail, social networking and Internet, traditionally the domain of the PC, are now being used across mobile devices, making them in some cases more attractive propositions, said Atwal.
Consumers will now look at a task that they have to perform, and will determine which device will allow them to perform such a task in the convenient way, rather than the other way around.
Ultrabooks will garner greater attention in the latter half of 2012 as the industry looks to reinvigorate the market.
However, PCs will face even more competition from Android and Microsoft media tablets, as well as the new iPad, unveiled yesterday, Atwal noted.
“Moreover, we expect the shift to the personal cloud will also accelerate as consumers increasingly adopt cloud-based services as part of their digital ecosystem,” he added.
And of the declining Aussie PC market, local Gartner analyst, Eileen said:
“Consumer spending is getting slower in mature markets like Australia, and Gartner foresees this situation will continue in 2012. Meanwhile, the impact of the HDD shortage that occurred during Q4 2011 will be somewhat delayed, we think most serious in 1H 2012.
“We also don’t foresee good performance in the desk-based PC market. The fast adoption of media tablets is having a heavy impact on traditional PC market growth.”
Emerging markets, which currently have low PC penetration rates, are key to worldwide growth in both the short and long-term, and Gartner expects market share increases from just over 50% in 2011 to nearly 70% in 2016.
iResign: Apple Shares ‘Bruised’ 2% After Jobs But Is He Really Out?
No Jobs, but the show must go on. That’s what the US market appears to be saying today, with shares falling 2% upon opening this morning, after CEO Steve Jobs gave his shock resignation yesterday.
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| Steve Jobs with his brainchild the iPad. |
Apple Chief Operating Office (COO) Tim Cook is now to take over the top job at Cupertino.
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| Jobs pictured in 1985. |
The Wall Street Journal said people familiar with the situation say Mr. Jobs continues to be active at Apple, despite taking a leave of absence earlier this year and is closely involved in the company’s product strategy.








