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Norton Drops Text 100 Also Facing Problems With Cisco

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Symantec subsidiary Norton has dumped PR agency Text 100, which has handled the PC security outfit’s publicity needs since 2007. The PR Company is also facing the loss or a major downsizing of the Cisco consumer electronics account which it won 18 months ago after Cisco axed the entire Flip Camera division.

A statement e-mailed to media late yesterday by Natalie Connor, PR senior manager at Norton, said: “The decision to end the partnership with Text 100 is in line with the changing business and communication requirements.”

She thanked Text 100 for its “valuable partnership and continued support in building the Norton brand in Australia.

The e-mail said Symantec’s consumer team will “continue to source for a new communications partner in Australia and will make a formal announcement in due course”. In the meantime, Norton’s PR activity will be conducted in-house.

Parent Symantec uses a different agency, Max Australia.

New Boss At Google OZ

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After a three-month search, Google Australia and NZ has hired a Murdoch group executive as its new managing director. Nick Leeder, former deputy chief executive of The Australian newspaper, will slip behind the executive desk in late March.

He replaces another former newsman, ex-Fairfax executive Karim Temsamani, who was promoted to run Google’s mobile ad sales business in the US. Temsamani left in October.

At News Ltd, Leeder has been working on the group’s plans for publishing paid content via the Internet, including the online and iPhone versions of The Australian. He scored a farewell accolade from News chairman John Hartigan, who said that, together with CEO Richard Freudenstein, “he tripled traffic and revenue at News Digital Media and over the past 12 months has brought new focus and drive to The Australian’s commercial operations.”

At Google, Asia-Pac president Daniel Alegre made it plain he expects to tap into those talents. He said: “Google is investing significantly in Australia and New Zealand to help businesses of all sizes, from small and large advertisers to advertising agencies and publishers, grow online. In the next year, Nick will help us to increase our investment locally and better serve our users, advertisers and partners.”

Cisco Launches Video Conferencing

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Continuing its push beyond networking equipment, Cisco Systems has burst into the video-conferencing market with an expensive system that offers three high-definition video screens, multiple cameras and high-quality audio.Continuing its push beyond networking equipment, Cisco Systems has burst into the video-conferencing market with an expensive system that offers three high-definition video screens, multiple cameras and high-quality audio.

The aim – and brand – is “TelePresence”, designed to create virtual meetings so realistic that it seems meetings thousands of miles away are taking place in the same room. High-quality screens as well as speakers and HD cameras are positioned to catch every gesture and nuance and make users feel as if they are in the same room.

Natch, TelePresence doesn’t come cheaply. Consequently, Cisco says it can grow into a billion dollar business in five to seven years. Cisco’s chief development officer Charlie Giancarlo. said he wouldn’t be surprised if in three to four years consumers viewed Cisco as a video company.

But many analysts are sceptical, saying Cisco’s pricing is too expensive, and that other telepresence (lower-case) vendors have failed to convince more than a handful of companies that the investment is worthwhile.

Cisco says its TelePresence system has been in the works for nearly two years. It’s not alone. Competing (lower-case) telepresence products come from Hewlett-Packard with its Halo Collaboration Studio, Teliris, Polycom and LifeSize Communications.

Cisco’s basic TelePresence 1000, targeted at one-on-one meetings or small groups, costs US$79,000. TelePresence 3000, for larger meetings, is installed in the form of a small conference room with three high-definition screens which display participants at life-size. It costs US$299,000.

On top of that, they require high-bandwidth telecommunications, broad enough to handle HD video.

Only 10-15pc of Cisco’s customers have the necessary communication infrastructure, says Marthin DeBeer, VP of Cisco’s emerging markets technology group.

Lee Doyle, an analyst with IDC, estimates that fewer than 100 new-wave telepresence systems from all makers have been installed worldwide.

And Elliot Gold, president of TeleSpan Publishing, pours cold water on the gear, saying companies can adopt less-sophisticated forms of video conferencing for as little as US$7000.

WiMax Struggles To Get Traction

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WiMax may be battling to gain a significant part of the Australian market for high-speed wireless Internet access, a new five-year forecast from IDC suggests. The report says mobile broadband offerings have taken a “substantial lead”, offering “superior coverage and high speeds at competitive access costs.

WiMax may be battling to gain a significant part of the Australian market for high-speed wireless Internet access, a new five-year forecast from IDC suggests. The report says mobile broadband offerings have taken a “substantial lead”, offering “superior coverage and high speeds at competitive access costs.

“WiMax broadband offerings must rapidly respond to these value propositions by the end of the decade or face relegation,” says analyst Jerson Rau, who prepared the report, titled Australia Mobile and Wireless Broadband
2007-2011 Forecast and Analysis: Future Proof.

Yau told CDN the report did not suggest the outlook was necessarily bleak for the government-subsidised Opel (Optus-Elders) $958 million project to build a $1.9 billion WiMax and ADSL2+ broadband network in Australia’s regional areas. The IDC report had largely been completed before the Government awarded the Broadband Connect deal to Opel, he said.

However Yau believes other would-be WiMax operators, who include Unwired and Austar, are suffering by the long delays in rolling out the new technology, and have yet to develop a clear roadmap, while 3G mobile operators have experienced rapid rollouts and takeup, and have a very clear roadmap.

 

“Mobile broadband offerings have taken a substantial lead in the Australian mobility broadband market with superior coverage and high speeds at competitive access costs. WiMax broadband offerings must rapidly respond to these value propositions by the end of the decade – or face relegation,” he said.

In 2006 IDC says the Australian mobile broadband (MBB) market topped 287,000 subscribers, contributing A$115.7 million in service revenues. The wireless broadband (WBB) market had 125,300 subscribers who generated A$100.3 million in service revenues.

It predicts that up to 2011, MBB subscribers will outnumber WBB subscribers “by a healthy margin due to the high-tempo developments on the mobile platform owing to the 3.5G upgrade roadmap.”

IDC recommends that both MBB and WBB service providers should “increasingly attack the greater broadband market with highly competitive pricing aligned with business and consumer expectations. These stakeholders should consider a heightened state of market aggressiveness against fixed-line broadband and upcoming municipal Wi-Fi services if they hope to outplay their competitors.”

PBL On A Roll Off The Back Of Foxtel Ten Deal

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An updraft of investor interest swept shares in Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) up nearly four percent to $17.90 yesterday, as Foxtel and Network Ten inked a digital retransmission agreement.

The move catapults Ten into the electronic program guide (EPG) market it had previously refused to consider – and sets the stage for a marketplace battle with the TiVO personal video recorder to be marketed by Seven and Engin.

Under the new arrangement, Ten will allow its signal to be retransmitted on the Foxtel digital platform, meaning viewers will be able to access Ten’s programming details using Foxtel’s electronic program guide. Previously Ten and Seven have declined to have anything to do with Foxtel’s EPG, which allows Foxtel subscribers to pre-program TV recordings.

“For the first time,” Foxtel and Ten said in a joint statement, “Ten’s signal will be available to Foxtel satellite subscribers in Brisbane,
Melbourne and Geelong, Sydney and the NSW Central Coast.”

Foxtel already has cable and satellite retransmission arrangements with SBS, the ABC and Nine, and analogue transmission of 10 to cable customers, but yesterday was the first time Ten has agreed to the EPG.

Along with Seven, it has held back, and now Seven stands alone, presumably banking on the future success of its TiVo deal. TiVo has been a huge hit in the US, where the maker has deals with major cable companies, but take-up in
Australia could be more problematic.

The PVR is to be launched early in 2008 by Seven Media Group, a joint venture between Kerry Stokes’ Seven Network and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
VoIP outfit Engin, 34pc owned by Seven, will be retail distributor.

Whether or not SBS, the ABC, and Nine are now free to also participate in Seven’s TiVo model, was not clear yesterday. Viewers of Ten on Foxtel were promised access to the full range of Foxtel digital services including Foxtel iQ personal digital recorder functions. Foxtel and Ten expect to launch the offering next month. PBL holds a 25 percent stake in Foxtel, News
Corp holds a further 25 percent, and Telstra holds the remaining 50 percent.

Yesterday’s statement also said Ten’s high definition (HD) service will also be retransmitted via cable when FoxTel launches its own HD offering in 2008.

After the announcement was made on the ASX yesterday, PBL shares rose 68 cents to $17.90. Shares in Telstra inched up by six cents to $4.66 and News fell 13 cents to $26.15. Ten was down one cent to $2.37.

Portable Computing Booming

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Portable PC sales are taking off in a major way worldwide – they’re the main factor in a 16.7pc spurt in overall PC sales in the current fourth quarter, IDC reports. By 2011 the research firm predicts notebook and laptop PCs will be outselling desktops two to one in the US, and by a smaller but still significant margin in the rest of the world.

IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, released yesterday, says overall PC sales have accelerated this year after a slow second half in 2006. Annual growth for 2007 is expected to reach 14.6pc, up from 10.1pcv in 2006.

Increasing demand for portables is the major reason for the overall takeoff in PC market growth. In Q3 worldwide growth of portable PC sales reached 37 percent, the fastest rate in more than a decade.

“The rapid transition has boosted portable share of client PCs to nearly 45pc in the third quarter, and will likely reach 50pc by the end of 2008,” IDC reports.

The market watcher expects total PC shipments worldwide to grow from 235 million in 2006 to 389.6 million in 2011. Of these 82.4 million were portables in 2006 – and IDC is tipping 208.7 million portable shipments in 2010.

The swing to portables is strongest in the US. In 2006 shipments there comprised 39.4 million desktops and 26 million portables; in 2010, IDC is tipping only 29 million desktops – but 53 million portables.

Analyst Richard Shim says the main factors behind the swing to portables include: falling prices, the narrowing performance gap compared with desktops, improving wireless connectivity, and expanded access through retail channels.

– IDC’s definition of a PC includes desktop, notebook, ultra-portable and x86 server models, but does not include handhelds.

EBay Shelves Auctions For New Model

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EBay is to switch its emphasis from online auctions to Amazon.com-style fixed priced listings, after the US company confirmed it is replacing CEO Meg Whitman with John Donahoe, currently president of eBay’s auction business.

Whitman will retire in March, the company confirmed yesterday. Donahoe lost no time announcing things will be different under his reign. Within an hour of his appointment being announced, he told analysts that the company must move “quickly and aggressively” to make eBay more appealing to buyers and sellers.

In an effort to reinvigorate growth of the core eBay site, Donahoe said he would shift eBay’s emphasis from auctions to fixed priced listing.

“Auctions will always be the core of the core of eBay, it’s what makes eBay unique,” Donahoe said. But he noted that fixed priced sales already account for 40 percent of eBay’s marketplace revenue, and are growing.

 

“We are following our users. They like convenience so what we are simply doing is putting a more explicit focus on that,” he said.

Donahoe said the company will also announce a new fee structure next week, featuring lower upfront listing fees and higher final sale fees.

EBay shares dropped about 9 percent after the company said it expects 2008 revenue of US$8.5-8.75 billion, which at its midpoint represents 12pc growth  far below the US$9 billion, or 18pc growth, that analysts had expected.

Sales in its latest quarter were up 27pc at $2.18 billion ­ but growth was led by non-auction business such as the retail-like “fixed price” sites, like PayPal, with 35pc revenue growth; Web phone company Skype; ticketing site StubHub; and classified ads and other advertising.

March Of The Zombies: Aussie ISPs Strike Back With iCode

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Most Australian Internet service providers today will introduce a new voluntary code of practice – dubbed the iCode – in a bid to combat the growing problem of “zombied” computers.

The iCode is an initiative of the Internet Industry Association (IIA), but has the backing of the Australian Government. According to IIA chief executive Peter Coroneos the initiative is attracting the attention of governments worldwide as they grapple with the problem of hordes of infected machines coming under the control of criminals and potentially, terrorists.

IIA says zombied computers can capture and forward passwords, send information to others without the knowledge of users, wipe information stored on machines or cause personal computers to attack other computer systems worldwide – all without the owners of the computers being aware of what is happening.

The iCode – which today will be introduced by around 80 percent of Australian ISPs, according to the IIA – is said to work hand in hand with the Australian Internet Security Initiative (AISI) established by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

AISI will remain a major source of intelligence to ISPs about possible network infections, Coroneos says.

The iCode meanwhile will enable ISPs to inform customers if their computers are infected and advise them on how to deal with the threat. Web-based resources will include self-help tools, as well as guides to professional help, including house calls if necessary.

More info is promised at www.icode.net.au.

McKinsey Inks New NBN Deal

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The Federal Government has hired the firm behind the controversial $25 million NBN implementation study – McKinsey – to pen another multi-million-dollar report.The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has hired McKinsey for $4.98 million to consult for USC Co, the company charged with ensuring basic telephone services are available under the universal-service obligation, according to The Australian newspaper.

The contract, and the likelihood of yet more consultancies, was foreshadowed in documents obtained by the Oz under freedom-of-information laws, which say the department wanted McKinsey to look at the scoping, costing and funding of USO Co.