Goodbye freedom: has altered its call plans and upping the price of nattering on your mobile.
Oonagh Reidy
IBM: PC On The Way Out..Like Typewriters
The king of the PC today has confirmed what we all suspect: the computer is a dodo.
Push The Button: Acer Snazzy 14″ LED Gateway Unleash Social Hot Keys
Gateway has gone social. Acer owned notebook giant Gateway has given its ID and NV models a spec and social makeover.Gateway ID47 line breaks new ground in the ultra compact department, says its makers, fitting its 14-inch HD widescreen back-lit LED display into a chassis used for 13.3″ models. The ID’s are easily carried in a briefcase or book bag.
Happy Birthday iPhone! Cult Is 5
5 years ago no one heard of an iPhone, Androids were robots and everyone was still clinging to Nokia’s.
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Today, “iPhone” the device with a cult following (cue crazy queues, midnight vigils and general hysteria for new device), is owned by millions around the globe.
“This revolutionary device set the stage for explosive growth in the smartphone market, drastically changing the complexion of the mobile industry and,the entire digital landscape in just a few short years, ” said analysts comScore marking the 5th anniversary of the launch of the first GSM iPhone back in June 29, 2007.
In July ’07, barely 9 million Americans owned a smartphone – today nearly 110 million claim ownership to one and by the end of the year will become the new mobile majority and most likely the same for most developed countries.
Marketing savvy Apple has sold over 100 million iPhones since that fateful day back in ’07, when it was released to the masses having been unveiled by CEO Steve Jobs the previous January.
Soon after, Google owned Android followed suit after with its answer to Cupertino’s smart mobile technology and everyone from Samsung to HTC and even Nokia realised the future was smartphones.
Its last few quarter to April has seen Apple break all living records selling a massive 35.1 m devices -an 88% jump and sold 37 m the prior period, one of its biggest numbers yet
Read: Apple V Android: “Two Horse Race” STILL On
The original iPhone released accounts for just 2% of current iOS smartphones, with new generations making the original “virtually obsolete”, says comScore’s and has introduced five different versions of the cult device, since then.
Nearly 3 in every 4 Apple iOS uses are on iPhone 4, which accounts for the largest share at nearly 40%, and the newest model 4S, released in October.
“As the iPhone reached critical mass and gained wider consumer adoption ….iPhone owners, too, have evolved,” says comScore analyst Sarah Radwanick in a blog.
So who are iPhone owners in 2012?
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| Image: comscore |
In 2007, over 60% were owned by young males and were an elite bunch (almost half had incomes of $100,000 or greater).
But this is changing as now ownership between men and women is almost equal – 53% v 47%.
The biggest ownership by age is still 25-34 category at 46%, but the youngest and oldest age groups also lay claim to many an Apple phone and users aren’t even that wealthy anymore (despite iPhone often hefty pricetag attached).
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iPhone owners earning $50,000-$75,000 represent the fastest growing income segment, and now account for nearly 1 in every 5 owners.
Today, iOS ranks as the No. 2 smartphone platform in the U.S. after Android, commanding 31.9 percent share of the market with its 35.1 m iPhone owners in May.
“With consumer adoption on the rise and the continued integration of new, innovative technologies, we can only imagine what the next five years will bring,” says Radwanick
“But despite how quickly leadership positions can change in this market, something tells me that iPhone will still be blazing new trails into the future…”
And she’s probably right. But who knows what iPhone 5 will bring….
Google Light: SolarCity Here We Come!
Captain Planet: Internet powerhouse is turning into a green power machine.”Imagine sitting on your patio watching the sun’s rays pass overhead, knowing that they power your home with clean energy,” declares Google.
The search giant is investing $280 million to help fund SolarCity projects, a third party company which encourages use of solar energy to power their homes and buildings.
But far be it for Google to stay on the sidelines and it has ” launched a partnership to offer SolarCity services to Googlers at a discount,” it said yesterday.
“This is our largest clean energy project investment to date and brings our total invested in the clean energy sector to more than $680 million.”
And tear up your power bills, Googlers as this will “cost less than what you would have paid using just the grid,” it added.
SolarCity’s “innovative” financing model covers installation and maintenance of the system over the life of the lease, “prepay, or pay nothing upfront after which requires monthly solar lease payments.
The search engine has already invested in several large-scale renewable energy projects, announcing multimillion investments in wind farms in the US states of California and Oregan already this year.
“We think “distributed” renewable energy (generated and used right at home) is a smart way to use solar photovoltaic (PV) technology to improve our power system since it helps avoid or alleviate distribution constraints on the traditional electricity grid.”
Google engineer Michael Flaster has been using the solar system at his Menlo Park, Calif. since March of this year.
Coles Up But Officeworks Sluggish
Wesfarmers first quarter 2013 sales are “pleasing”, the retail CEO said today.
The retail giant and owner of Coles announced its retail sales results for the first quarter of the 2013 financial year. Home improvement and food and liquor were the big winners in Westfarmers’ first quarter, up 4.7% and 4.2% (3.7 per cent on like-for-like basis) in 12 months.
However, sales at its Officesupplies division, which includes Officeworks retail network, rose just 0.3% to $362 million, despite having opened 5 new stores during the quarter sales period 25 June to 23 September.
Westfarmers Managing Director Richard Goyder said he was pleased with the result and his stores were well positioned to tackle the Christmas rush.
“Pleasing transaction and volume growth was achieved in the period, ahead of sales growth, as Coles continued its focus on improving product quality, service and value,” he said.
“Officeworks recorded good growth in online sales, offsetting challenging conditions associated with a subdued trading environment for many of its small to medium sized business customers and high levels of deflation in technology related categories,” Westfarmers MD said.
Officeworks’ online sales were ‘strong’ enjoying double digit growth, while store sales declined by 0.2%,. The company said it was continuing to invest in the online platform, in line with its “every channel” strategy.
Westfarmers Home Improvement and Office Supplies boss, John Gillam, said Officeworks was working hard to improve its “every channel” offer to customers in order to offset challenging trading conditions.
The retailer is also continuing to make good progress in the B2B segment of the market.
Bunnings’ total store sales increased 5.1 per cent for the quarter, and did well in consumer and commercial segments despite the subdued housing market.
Store transaction growth remained robust, reflecting a positive response to the evolving Bunnings offer.
“Good progress continues to be made on key strategic initiatives, particularly in service, merchandising and our supply chain.”
Target sales also rose 2.2% to $853 million, although comparable store sales declined 4.1 per cent.
Discounter Kmart’s sales were up slightly higher than Target’s, at 3.1%, the eleventh period of solid comparable growth.
Goyder said all of the retail divisions are making strong progress in their strategic plans and were well positioned ahead of the Christmas trading period.
Coles experienced food and liquor price deflation of 3.2 per cent during the quarter. They opened one new store and closed three, with a total of 747 at the end of its first quarter.
Nokia Slashes 3500 Jobs, ‘Painful’ Cuts Bite
Major cost cuts are the order of the day for the Fins as axes thousands of staff. Nokia are close factory in in Cluj, Romania by the end of 2011, which will hit an “estimated” to 2,200 employees, it said yesterday.
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| Nokia N9, one of its latest releases here. |
Another 1,300 employees will go at its mapping division, which includes NAVTEQ, purchased in 2007 for $8.1bn.
This come as Nokia’s high-volume Asian factories “provide greater scale and proximity benefits.” Recently, the giant’s Indian plant, one of its biggest landed in hot water, having been accusing of paying staff below average wages.
The layoffs will take effect in 2012, CEO Stephen Elop confirmed. Other support operatins jobs will also go including Sales, Marketing and Corporate Functions, as previously announced.
The cuts are part of $1 billion savings Nokia, once the darling of the phones market, are looking to make as it refocuses is efforts on high end smartphones like N9 (pictured), as it battles out against stiff competition from the likes of iPhone 4 as well as Android’s Samsung and HTC.
The cuts aim to bring “efficiences and speed” to help pull it out of the black hole that was the 368m euros net loss it delivered in the second quarter, while net sales slid 7% to 9.3bn euros.
But even more worryingly, it is also looking to slash operations on native soil Finland as well as reviewing the long-term role of its manufacturing ops in Salo, Komarom, Hungary, and Reynosa, Mexico.
It also said it plans to focus its “feature phone manufacturing on those locations with optimal proximity to suppliers and markets” and “gradually shift focus to customer and market-specific software and sales package customization.”
These changes will take effect in 2012.
Elop plans to consolidate ‘location and commerce’ assets including NAVTEQ, closing operations in Germany and Malvern, US.
“We are seeing solid progress against our strategy, and with these planned changes we will emerge as a more dynamic, nimble and efficient challenger,” said Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO.
“We must take painful, yet necessary, steps to align our workforce and operations with our path forward.”
However, Elop moved to reassure its biggest market, Europe, that it was still staying local.
“Europe is core to Nokia’s future. In addition to our headquarters, we have a strong R&D presence in Europe.”
The staff reductions are expected to take effect by the end of next year.
“Nokia remains committed to supporting its employees and the local communities through this difficult change. “
Telstra + SAP Deal With Accenture
SAP will now be ran from Telstra’s cloud
Telstra and SAP have announced a new deal with Accenture,to provide a suite of hosted solutions to enterprise and government.
As part of the agreement, Telstra will provide SAP licensing, network, and storage infrastructure, while Accenture will manage system integration, migration, maintenance and help desk services.
Telstra have already had a partnership deal with SAP in play.
The locally hosted SAP solutions can be delivered to Telstra customers from its cloud infrastructure.
The alliance allow customers access expanded capability and is delivered through a single, integrated, end-to-end service model from a secure cloud environment, Telstra said today.
Enterprises and government agencies that want to achieve business agility and cost management through the cloud, will be able to migrate their existing on-premise SAP environments to Telstra or build new SAP systems into a fully managed private cloud.
State of the art mobility and analytics functionality are being jointly developed through this alliance, Telstra said.
Mark Pratley, General Manager Cloud Services, Telstra Enterprise & Government, noted that the partnership was part of Telstra’s $800m investment in cloud services.
“These new solutions will provide the ability for customers to move SAP into the cloud in a simpler, secure and scalable manner from a single, reliable source.
“Both Telstra and Accenture will continue to innovate and develop more hosted SAP solutions that will significantly reduce the cost of ownership and a new way to deliver business applications.”
“SAP’s cloud strategy is fundamentally centered around helping companies of all sizes to effectively leverage cloud computing according to their needs,” said Jeremy Goddard, Head of Business Solutions and Cloud, SAP Australia and New Zealand
“This agreement with Telstra will provide customers with the options they need when choosing to move to a cloud environment by delivering flexible cloud offerings.”
Its Over: R Murdoch Abandons BSkyB Takeover But Hacking Cancer May Spread To Oz
Rupert Murdoch’s burgeoning media empire was dealt a new blow today, forced to abandon its bid for jewel in the crown British broadcaster BSkyB.
Tab Uprising: Microsoft To Unveil Samsung Windows 8 Tab Next Week – Reports
Look out Android and iOS, there’s a new tab player in town. But how big a player Microsoft Windows for tablets is, codenamed W ‘8’, will be revealed by Windows President Steven Sinofsky to developers next week.
But the big surprise, is the fledgling OS will be demoed on a Samsung tablet, no less.
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The Korean giant is no stranger to the Microsoft OS and already runs a smartphone on Windows Phone 7, although for the most part is an Android devotee.
There is no other news about other possible carriers jumping into bed with Microsoft, although we have heard it may launch its own branded slate.
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But with just 30,000 applications compared to Android 250K and Apple 400K-odd, Microsoft will be looking to seriously impress developers with its tile brainchild and lure them to the platform.





