вторник, 18 марта 2008 г.

Roo Group Plans To Acquire Swedish Mobile Video Firm Kamera


Troubled online video firm ROO Group (OTCBB: RGRP) has announced another deal as it prepares to ditch New York for Dubai: The OTCBB-traded company says it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Kamera, a Swedish provider of mobile video. The firms have signed a content distribution agreement, and Roo has paid a $300,000 advance, giving it the right to acquire Kamera at some point in a specified period. The final purchase price has not been announced. Roo says it prizes Kamera's European operations, and argues that there are product synergies between the two companies. Kamera claims distribution partnerships with Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), MSN, Orange, Telefonica (NYSE: TEF), O2, Hutchinson and China Mobile. It was formerly a unit of World Television, but was bought out by management and outside investors in 2005.



-- Kamera did revenue of $2.9 million in 2007 and is predicting revenue of $5.6 million for 2008. It's still running at a "very small" operating loss.



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Автор: Inferno в 07:18 | Комментарии: 0

Rising Star enjoys Wii chart success

No More Heroes debuts at four in Wii charts














Critically-acclaimed Wii release No More Heroes has made it to fourth in the Wii charts, according to Chart Track.

The result follows a concentrated PR campaign by publisher Rising Star Games and game designer, Suda51. The game, which received much acclaim from the specialist press, also made it into the top 20 in the All Format Charts.

"We are weeping with delight. Especially as sales should improve further with the TV campaign moving up a gear from tonight,” said Rising Star managing director Martin Defries. “It is a verification of all the posturing and ambitious claims made these past months.





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I think a 'told you so' would be apt at some point.”

“Thanks to Nintendo and the Wii console. Thanks to Mastertronic for their sales efforts and all our retail partners. Most of all thanks to Grasshopper for the greatest of products"

The latest in Rising Star’s Harvest Moon franchise, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, also hit store shelves last week. Making it to 18th in the Nintendo Wii Top 30.


New Steel PS3 heading to Japan

Yet another PS3 colour heads to the East, whilst original Metal Gear Solid is confirmed for PSN














Seemingly not content enough with the release of both Ceramic White and Satin Silver versions the PS3, Japanese weekly games magazine Famitsu reports that a new Steel version of Sony’s machine will arrive in conjunction of the release of Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4.

The game, which will be released worldwide on June 12th, will retail in the region for YEN8,800 (around £45). The Special Edition will cost YEN9,800 (£50) whilst a bundle including both the Steel console and the Special Edition will cost YEN51,800 (£270), according to Kotaku.





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Meanwhile, Famitsu also reports that original PSOne hit Metal Gear Solid will be hitting Sony’s PlayStation Network in the Spring and will be compatible with both PS3 and PSP.

There has to date been no word on any new colour PS3 SKUs being planned for the European market.

Image source: Kotaku


Analysts question EC's DVB-H endorsement

Questions raised around spectrum policy and how adoption will be enforced.




The analyst community has not wasted any time passing judgement on yesterday's decision by the European Commission to endorse the Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld standard (DVB-H) for broadcast mobile TV.

While the move was widely expected following initial moves made by the EC towards DVB-H last summer, Ovum analyst Matthew Howett suggested it might be difficult to harmonise spectrum use for the technology across all territories.

He said: "Opting for a single standard is useless if there is no common spectrum available to deploy it. The UHF band, which is the most favourable band for DVB-H deployments, is due to be opened up once the digital switchover is completed around 2012.

"However, at the moment there is no consensus on what this band should be used for. This is a problem since given the nature of spectrum airwaves do not stop at national borders. Neighbouring member states will need to agree how this spectrum band should be used to ensure that interference does not occur.”

So far only Ofcom in the UK has set out its plans and decided not to reserve spectrum for particular uses. Howett's full discussion of the decision can be read by clicking here.











Others, meanwhile, have questioned whether there's a need to endorse a standard at all.

Chris Williams, a telecoms partner at Deloitte, said: "Whilst there are some advantages to technology standardisation in terms of economies of scale and ensuring interoperability, it would be preferable to let standards gain their own momentum competitively in the market rather than mandating them. As such, the GSMA appears correct in suggesting that it is inappropriate and unnecessary for legislators to pick technology winners.

He added: "Circumstances will define best (and indeed possible) technology choices in each country. We would also question whether Ofcom will be well disposed to follow this lead given that they have moved away from licensing technologies years ago and are auctioning several bands of spectrum suited to a variety of mobile TV technologies.

"A challenge for consumers without an agreed standard would be understanding the competing offers of service providers and interoperability between standards."


GameStop to open 600 new stores

Record financials prompt major expansion into ‘more immature European markets’














US specialist retail giant GameStop has reported sales and net earnings rises of 33 per cent and 82 per cent respectively, spurring on an ambitious target to open up to 600 new stores by the end of the year.

The world’s largest games retailer reported reported sales and earnings for the fourth quarter and the fiscal year ended February 2, 2008 today, and the company also issued guidance for fiscal 2008 and an outlook for the year to follow.

It noted that GameStop has become the world's fastest growing retailer in the Fortune 500 with sales of $7.1 billion for fiscal 2007, an increase of 33 per cent over fiscal 2006. It also boasts a 24.7 per cent increase in comparable store sales, the opening of 586 new stores and a 50 per cent increase in operating earnings.





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GameStop now plans continued growth “in the more developed video game markets of the US, Canada and Australia, as well as building new stores in virtually all of the more immature markets across Europe.”

In 2007, GameStop opened 586 new stores worldwide. Operating cash flow funded all of the new openings and also provided a year end cash balance of $857 million.

Its full-year financials for the fiscal year 2007 include net earnings of $288.3 million - an increase of 82.1 per cent compared to 2006.

Take a look at what GameStop chairman and chief executive officer R. Richard Fontaine thought of it all here.


Xbox 360 UK sales leap 36%

Price drop gives hardware a healthy pre-Easter boost; PS3 sales rise six per cent in same period














Official UK industry monitor ChartTrack has told MCV that Xbox 360 sales have risen 36 per cent since last Friday – when the platform holder sliced the ERP of the console to as little as £159.99.

The rise came in a period where other hardware struggled – with only PS3 enjoying a slight sales rise of six per cent, as every other console on the market dipped. Software sales also dropped week-on-week across the gamut of platforms – including 360.

The 360 jump couldn’t match the whopping 260 per cent rise Microsoft enjoyed after cutting the consoles price for the first time in August, 2007 – when it introduced the Elite model onto the market.

“During week 11, Xbox 360 enjoyed a 36 per cent jump on week 10, which is a nice refreshing uplift for the console” ChartTrack director Dorian Bloch told MCV. “That was just for the Friday and Saturday after the price cut. Microsoft will be especially pleased to see that the overall hardware market was down – that’s every format except PS3, which saw a very slight six per cent rise.

“We need to wait two or three more weeks to see if the 360 sales surge will carry on. I would predict that it will increase again over the Easter period. It’s a bit of an odd year for the industry – Easter is early, and doesn’t coincide with the end of Q1 – when publishers traditionally release very big games – like it usually does.





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“Software sales dipped slightly on 360 despite the rise in hardware sales, but that’s no surprise: the week before saw the release of big titles such as Army Of Two and Bully. And with hardcore games like that, their natural audience like to get their hand son them in their first week.

“The 260 per cent rise Xbox 360 enjoyed in August last year coincided with the introduction of Elite and Bioshock coming onto the market, which obviously gave it a massive boost.”

Microsoft lowered the price of all three Xbox SKUs last Friday.

The estimated retail price (ERP) for its entry-level Arcade SKU dipped to €199.99/£159.99 – a drop of €80/£50.

The mid-price console, Xbox 360 Pro, which includes a 20GB hard drive and one wireless controller, was given a new ERP of €269.99/£199.99 – down from €349.99/£249.99.

And the 120GB Xbox 360 Elite, was priced at €369.99/£259.99 – a saving of €80/£40.


iPhone Owners' Content Consumption "Off The Charts": Report


Another study lauding the iPhone's ability to drive consumers to try out mobile content. Mobile measurement firm M:Metrics released a report today that found that the iPhone is the most popular device for accessing news and information on the mobile web, with 85 percent of iPhone users accessing news and information in the month of January, as compared to 58.2 percent of other smart phone users and 13.1 percent of the market average. M:Metrics senior analyst Mark Donovan said the iPhone was "delivering off-the-charts usage from everything to text messaging to mobile video." Other stats from the report include:



???Mobile TV or video: 30.9 percent of iPhone owners watched mobile TV or video as compared to the 4.6 percent market average, and more than double the rate for all smart phone users at 14.2 percent.



???Social networking: 49.7 percent of iPhone users accessed a social networking site in January--nearly twelve times the market average and more than double that of other smart phone users Twenty percent of iPhone owners accessed Facebook, versus 1.5 percent of the total mobile market.



???Music: iPhone users love music, with 74.1 percent them listening to mobile music in January, compared to 6.7 percent of the total mobile audience and 27.9 percent of smart phone users.



???Widgets Drive Content Consumption: Two featured widgets, YouTube and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps, are extremely popular among iPhone users. 30.4 percent iPhone users accessed YouTube and 36 percent used Google Maps. In comparison, only one percent of all mobile subscribers accessed YouTube and 2.6 percent checked out Google Maps.



???iPhone Demographic: No surprise here. iPhone users tend to be in much the same demographic as other smartphone users. They are more likely to be: male, aged 25-34, earn more than $100,000 and have a college degree, than the average mobile subscriber.



More details on iPhone stats in the release.




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Автор: Inferno в 04:41 | Комментарии: 0