Prime Minister of Great Britain, David Cameron, is set to announce big plans for establishing East London as one of the world’s great technology centers.
Looking to spur the creation of private sector jobs to make up for public sector losses due to state spending cuts, British Prime Minister David Cameron has identified the tech industries as a safe bet for government backing and investment in the UK.
Later today, he is expected to announce that the likes of Facebook and Google are set to invest in the East London Tech City plan. He wants the area, which include Olympic Park, to give Silicon Valley a run for its money over the coming years.
“Right now, Silicon Valley is the leading place in the world for hi-tech growth and innovation,” Cameron will say in a speech to businesses and entrepreneurs. “But there’s no reason why it has to be so predominant. Our ambition is to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the incredible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make east London one of the world’s great technology centres.”
He will report that the response from international technology firms and venture capitalists to the plan has been overwhelming, and announce several firms that have agreed to invest in the area, including Intel, Cisco and BT.
Result for: great britain
Nokia Corp., the world’s largest handset maker, has revealed that it will delay the launch of its “Comes With Music,” service in the United States despite previously having planned to launch it soon. The service will now be available in the U.S. sometime during 2010. The service first launched in the UK and then was followed by 9 other countries, showing up in emerging markets.
It’s performance in the UK hasn’t been notable however, but it does seem to do much better in emerging markets. It allows users to download and listen to an unlimited amount of music with their compatible Nokia handset for 12-18 months after buying the unit.
“Comes With Music has been below expectations in developed markets, though Nokia is having more success in emerging markets,” said Mark Mulligan, an analyst with Forrester Research. “In Western Europe and specifically Great Britain, Nokia has been hindered by not having a strong operator route to market.”
Nokia managed to link up with just one network operator in the UK, Orange. Network operators are very important in developed markets due to the subsidies that are offered to the customers to entice them into purchases. Other operators, including Vodafone, have already invested in their own branded music download stores.
Result for: great britain
According to Reuters, the media research firm Interpret has revealed that just about 60 percent of American consumers are now aware of Blu-ray as a disc format and that the number of households with Blu-ray players is approaching the 10 million mark.
The report, a survey of consumers aged 18-54, is unfortunately outdated already however, as it was conducted in mid-January, Right after Warner’s decision to go Blu-ray but before the recent demise of rival HD DVD.
The study did find some interesting stats however. Men 18-34 in the US had a Blu-ray awareness of 76 percent while awareness is at 56 percent in Great Britain, 49 percent in Germany, 45 percent in Japan and a lowly 30 percent in France.
An Interpret exec added that Blu-ray-backing companies “still have a lot to do. The format war is over, and they’ve taken Blu-ray from zero to majority awareness, but it doesn’t get easier from here, unfortunately”.
