Napster posts small loss for Q3
Yesterday, the subscription-based online music retailer Napster announced that thanks to a 15 percent jump in revenue from subscriptions the company has posted a much smaller Q3 loss for 2007 than the comparable quarter a year before.
For the three month period that ended December 31st, Napster posted a net loss of $2.8 million USD, a huge drop compared to the $9.5 million USD loss they posted the year before for the same period.
The company, which survives primarily on its monthly music subscription service, announced last month that it will begin selling DRM-free tracks in MP3 format, putting another nail in DRM’s coffin.
Napster also said revenue for the quarter was $32.8 million USD, up 15 percent from the comparable quarter a year ago. The company also stated that they finished the quarter with 743,000 subscribers, a minuscule decline from the previous quarter.
Toshiba updates Gigabeat line
Toshiba has announced that it has updated two models in its Gigabeat media player line, one in the T series and the other in the V series.
The new T802 is an upgrade to the T401 and will add 802.11b/g wireless as well as doubling the capacity of memory from 4GB to 8GB. Users will be able to browse the YouTube-like GyaO service as well as download movies and podcasts. The player will be available first in Japan on February 15th for the equivalent of $279 USD.
The new V81, an update to the V41, will also see a doubling in capacity from 4 GB to 8 GB. Another new feature is the ability to play copy-protected videos. The player will launch on the same day as the T802 but with a heftier price tag of about $326 USD.
Nokia begins open beta test for N-Gage
According to the Nokia N-Gage website, users of the N81 mobile phone are now able to download the oft-delayed N-Gage mobile games platform as an open beta test.
The platform will allow mobile gamers to link up for multiplayer games and social elements in the same way Xbox Live does for Xbox 360 users.
The company says they are in the final stage before “full-scale deployment” and that the stage means increasing the user base.
For the beta, only the N81 and N 81 8GB are supported, as long as they are connected via service plans that support GPRS or have an accessible Wi-Fi connection. The company did note that the Chinese model of the phone is incompatible.
The games available now during the beta test are: Creatures of the Deep, Space Impact: Kappa Base, Block Breaker Deluxe and System Rush Evolution. 13 more titles will be released after full launch including FIFA 08, Brothers in Arms and The Sims: Pets.
Time Warner wants to sell AOL dial up service
After a multi-billion dollar failed experiment, Time Warner has made moves to rid itself of the still profitable, but quickly dying AOL dial-up internet division.
The company plans to keep AOL’s Web-portal and advertising sectors and only sell its dial up internet access division which has been losing subscribers at an exponential rate. Time Warner’s new CEO Jeff Bewkes had this to say at a recent conference call. “This should significantly increase AOL’s strategic options,” he said. It is notable to mention that at its peak in 2002 AOL had 30 million paying subscribers. It now has 10 million.
AOL has now been ramping up its advertising business but it still lagging behind the industry. For the Q4 2007, ad revenue for the company grew 18 percent while the industry averaged propelled ahead by 25 percent.
The separation of AOL from Time Warner’s growing content business should allow the company to focus on stronger, more profitable businesses. A rival executive noted that Time Warner has wasted billions of dollars trying to find the Right business model for AOL. “Follow the money. Platforms, not content businesses, are where the money has been made on the internet,” he added.
I’m sure Time Warner share holders can vouch for that last statement.
Verizon and Timbaland make an exclusive music deal
The star hip-hop producer Timbaland has announced that he has made a deal with Verizon Wireless to produce the first ever “mobile album” which will be exclusively available on V Cast.
For the deal, Timbaland will produce one song per month for every month during 2008, each time working with a different artist and touring the country on the Verizon Mobile Recording Studio Bus.
The hitmaker says the deal will help him reach out to more fans because “every place don’t get a CD (but) everybody has a mobile phone.”
He also added, “Just producing a mobile album has never been done. I’m the first to ever do it.”
Despite recent events in which artists have left labels in efforts to reach new fans, Timbaland says he will be sticking by Interscope. In fact, Interscope artists will be the only musicians he will be working with for his mobile album.
From Verizon’s point of view, the deal is a “marriage of promotional opportunity and a large distribution platform,” director of digital music Ed Ruth says. “Our goal is to show the music industry that we’re truly a viable distribution platform for them.”
Each new Track will be released as a full length download or ringtone and will be available only through V Cast for $1.99 USD.
Samsung gets sued over Blu-ray incompatibility issues
According to court papers filed late last week, the electronics manufacturing giant Samsung has had a class action lawsuit filed against it by early adopters of the BDP-1200 Blu-ray player which has had compatibility issues with a few Blu-ray discs.
The man behind the suit, a Connecticut man by the name of Bob McGovern, said he filed the suit “on behalf of thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands” of BDP-1200 buyers who only later found out that the player was “incompatible with numerous Blu-ray disc titles.”
Although the suit does not mention which titles the player is incompatible with or what makes them incompatible, McGovern alleges that “Samsung was fully aware” of the problem at the time of manufacturing yet it has still not updated or repaired the player.
The Fantastic Four sequel, one of the problem discs was previously reported but Samsung said that the problems were fixed by a firmware update. This is clearly not the case for McGovern and many other early adopters.
Update: Pirate Bay sees increase in Danish traffic
Although Tele2, Denmark’s largest ISP, was recently forced to block all access to the notorious torrent site The Pirate Bay, it seems once again the admin team over at TPB are having the last laugh.
The access block, from a technical standpoint, is very elementary and the admins even created a site to help Danish file sharers break the block and access the site. A new blog post seems to prove that their method is working and that all the IFPI has done has given more publicity to the already hugely popular site.
“…the number of visits from Denmark has increased by 12% thanks to IFPI,” reads the post. “Our site http://thejesperbay.org is growing more because of the media attention than people actually coming to learn how to bypass the filter - our guess is that alot of the users on the site now run OpenDNS instead of the censoring DNS at Tele2.dk.”
“We also started tracking some stats before and after the block. There’s no noticable difference between the number of users from Tele2.dk before and after,” the post added.
The Jesper Bay site simply teaches those how to use OpenDNS which will connect them to a global DNS instead of the ISP’s DNS server, breaking the access block.
International video game piracy is rampant, says ESA
The ESA(Entertainment Software Association) had filed a new Special 301 Report with the US Trade Representative which shows the growing struggles for growth in the international video game industry thanks to ever increasing piracy.
The report specifically mentions a few countries where piracy is highest, notably Canada, China, Malaysia, Russia and eastern Europe.
Michael Gallagher, CEO of the ESA, explained, “Countries that support computer and video game piracy discourage publishers from establishing viable and legitimate markets. The Special 301 process sends a strong message to them to clean up their act to avoid damaging trade sanctions.”
The ESA even went on to say that in some of the areas listed, piracy exceeded 80 to 90 percent. These included areas in southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central and South America. The ESA defines “piracy” as any “factory production of optical discs (such as CDs and DVDs); CD-R and DVD-R ‘burning’; cartridge counterfeiting; Internet downloading and file trading; as well as Internet cafe piracy.”
The report acknowledges that there are no short term fixes for the major problem areas but hopes that progress can be made in less problem areas such as Canada.
“This year our Special 301 filing highlights countries that urgently need to begin backing up their commitment to creativity and innovation,” added Gallagher.
“We look forward to working with USTR and other supporting government agencies to achieve tangible results and hopefully succeed in lowering piracy in these key countries.”
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Apple TV “Take 2″ finally available
After last month’s announcement that the Apple TV would see an update, the “Take 2″ upgrade is finally available.
Users simply need to navigate to the Settings menu and hit Software Update. It will then download and install.
The new update, the first major update to the device, will offer new features such as “the ability to purchase and download video and music directly from iTunes instead of having to use a Mac or PC first.”
The Apple TV now supports HD movie rentals through iTunes. The new service allows users to download movies for $2.99 for SD or $4.99 USD for HD. The videos can be played once and then expire after 24 hours.
Another new feature is access to photostreams on Flickr as well as on .Mac Web Galleries.
The upgrade is free to existing Apple TV users and is also included on all new units which now retail for $229 USD for the 40GB model or $329 USD for a 160GB version.
Mobile game sales are “flatlining”, says report
A new Juniper research report has stated that despite increased interest in mobile gaming, sales of games have “flatlined across North America and Western Europe”.
The total retail value of the mobile gaming market is expected to almost double in the next 5 years from $5.4 billion USD to $10 billion USD however “limited on-portal revenue share for publishers is driving some away from the sector and poor games marketing fails to capture customer attention.”
“The revenue share offered by Apple to games publishers is incredibly attractive,” said Dr Windsor Holden, author of the report, speaking about how iPhone gaming has helped bring increased interest to the market.
“The danger is that if operators do not respond with a similar business model, publishers faced with low margins may simply exit Java completely, thereby reducing consumer choice in the longer term.”
