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NBN Co $520M Loss FY12

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CANBERRA – NBN Co’s spending on communications and marketing tripled to $11.2 million in the 2011-12 financial year.
NBN Co said its results, tabled in Parliament of Friday, were within the range of other fledgling companies delivering a not-to-be unexpected operating loss.

The NBN group generated an operating loss of $520 million for the 12 months to June 30; operational revenues were just $2 million.

Total expenses increased to $564 million from $344 million a year earlier as the rollout of the $37.4 billion network accelerated.

NBN reports the main areas of operating expenditure during the 12 months were in building core capabilities.

Employee-related expenses reached 222 million.

Directors’ fees and board expenses increased to $2.6 million from $561,000 a year earlier.

The NBN Co paid its former chief financial officer, J P Beaufret, $708,000 during the year, as well as termination payments of $286,000 to departed head of business development, Christy Boyce, and $375,000 to the former head of commercial strategy Tim Smeallie.

Total remuneration for NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley declined slightly to $1.96 million.

Corporate head Kevin Brown was paid a total of $1.08 million, up from $1.04 million a year earlier.

Court Denies Google Appeal

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The US Supreme Court has scotched Google’s attempt to overturn a ruling in favour of Oracle over software copyright.

The court’s decision has held up a prior ruling that certain kinds of programming instructions are entitled to copyright protection, as Oracle argued. 

Google and some other industry groups had argued that treating the instructions as creative works protected by copyright could hurt the ability of companies and programmers to take advantage of standard software functions and make different programs work together.

The move is the latest development in a case dating to 2010, when Oracle alleged Google’s Android smartphone operating system infringed copyrights on Oracle’s Java programming technology. 

The technology, which originated at Sun Microsystems, includes a programming language and a layer of software that helps programs work on multiple kinds of operating systems and hardware.

CheckPoint On Guard With VMware

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SAN FRANCISCO – Check Point, which claims to be the largest pure-play security vendor globally, has inked a deal with VMware that will see the two collaborate on advanced security systems for the software-defined datacentre.Check Point says its vSEC virtual network security now

integrates with the VMware NSX network virtualisation platform to enable

customers to consistently manage and enforce security for all datacentre

traffic.

Customers can accelerate security service deployment and get the same level of

security for traffic inside their datacentres as Check Point provides at the

perimeter gateway, the company says.

Put Down That Phone: Canberra Sees $18bn Gain In Digi-Comms

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Comms Minister Malcolm Turnbull has used a report commissioned from Adobe and Deloitte to launch a push for most communications between Australian citizens and the Federal Government to be made digitally rather than by traditional channels.

The report, commissioned by the Government’s new Digital Transformation Office, claims a 20 per cent reduction in transactions made via traditional channels over a 10-year period could result in total savings of about $17.9 billion for government.

The cost of implementation, including effects on tax returns, passport registrations and benefits payments, would be $6.1 billion for new ICT and transitional arrangements, the report estimates.

Other key challenges identified by Adobe/Deloitte include policy bottlenecks and bureaucratic inertia; budget and capability constraints; digital exclusion and divide; lack of competition, privacy and security; and moving government staff to new roles.

The report notes that, of the estimated 800 million transactions with citizens at the federal and state levels each year, 40 percent are still completed using traditional channels, such as phone or in-person.

It claims a transition to what it calls “digital government” would bring an estimated net benefit of $20.5 billion, or approximately $880 in net benefits per Australian citizen or $2000 per household. (Er, any chance that, if we plebs agree to go digital, we could get the two-grand upfront, Malcolm? Ah, thought not – Ed.)

Going totally digital can have disadvantages, however. For instance, just to download a copy of the Adobe/Deloitte report, you need to fill out a form with a minimum 12 questions including details of your phone number, e-mail address and “how many employees in your organisation/department”. Officialdom still rules, it seems.

Seek Investors Bail Out

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Dick Smith wasn’t the only online operator to see its shares drop yesterday. Also taking the plunge was ASX-listed Seek, the Top 50 jobs site that claims a market capitalisation of more than A$60 billion.

Its shares tumbled 11 per cent to an 18-month low after its report for the year to June showed net profit of $249 million. That was up significantly on the previous year, but not enough to satisfy investors.

CEO Andrew Bassat was caustic about the investors who bailed out. “We could have delivered $200 million and invested $10 million less and our share price would have gone up,” he said. “(But) we would have been a weaker business with a higher share price.”

Numbers, Profit Jump At iiNet

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ISP iiNet has reported a net profit of $70 million, up 11 percent, for the year to June, in its last set of figures before being swallowed by TPG – a move that received the green light from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Friday.

Revenue for the year was put at A$1.118 billion, also up 11 percent.

The number of broadband customers iiNet is bringing to TPG was put at 989,000; they will add to TPG’s subscribers to give it a total of around 1.7 million, overtaking Optus as the No 2 broadband operator.

The increase in revenue was attributed to continued organic growth in residential and business broadband customers; continued expansion of the services and products; and increased mobile hardware sales following launch of the latest iPhones in November 2014, as well as acquisition of a 60 percent interest in Tech2 Group.

Samsung Pay On Way – With Amex

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Samsung will bring its Samsung Pay mobile payments to Australia, among a number of countries, in 2016, the Korean company has revealed at the Mobile World Congress.

However the service will be introduced in partnership with American Express, which may limit its appeal. Because of its high charges, Amex is shunned by many merchants in Australia.

Samsung said it planned to launch the payments service in China shortly and in a number of other countries, including Australia, later in the year.

The service will work with existing devices such as the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge +, Note 5, and A5 and A7, as well as the new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, Samsung said.

PC Market Grows 71.9M Units In Last QTR

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Falling prices in mobile computing and the proliferation of faster and cheaper communications infrastructure has seen the rate of PC shipments worldwide increase by 16 percent to top 71.9 million units in the latest quarter, research group Gartner reports.

Falling prices in mobile computing and the proliferation of faster and cheaper communications infrastructure has seen the rate of PC shipments worldwide increase by 16 percent to top 71.9 million units in the latest quarter, research group Gartner reports.

The growth rate has been even faster in the Asia-Pacific region, Gartner says – but Australia appears to be lagging behind the global rate.

Gartner’s survey of the worldwide PC market for Q2 2008 shows mobile PCs driving growth in all regions.

The quarter also saw a sharp decline in the average selling price (ASP) of desktop PCs, particularly in the US, Europe, Middle East and Africa on the back of economic worries.

In Australia preliminary figures, due out next week, show growth in the double-digit range.

“As a whole in Australia, mobile PCs, notebooks and laptops are driving demand,” Lillian Tay, Gartner principal analyst client computing market in Asia Pacific, told CDN. “In Australia we expect growth at a minimum of 10 percent for the period.

 

“The market for desktops is flat so the trend is for continuing demand for mobile PCs ­ even for first time buyers,” she says.

“We are seeing more and more adoption of mobile computing from young professionals. You only have to look at the stores, like Harvey Norman, which all have the presence of notebooks far outweighing desktops.”

Tay says in the Asia-Pacific region, PC shipments totalled 20.1 million units, up 18.1 percent from the second quarter of last year.

In the region mobile PC shipments grew 45.6 percent in the quarter,” Tay told CDN. “Prices have come down and performance increased.

“They now represent not just a desktop replacement. There is so much more choice in models, specifications and form factors. You only have to go into any retail shop and the machines jump out at you with different colours and graphics. The current offerings also have better sound quality and prices have come down so much.”

 

E-book readers take a pounding

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An estimated 1.53 million e-book readers were shipped globally during the second quarter of 2012, according to Taiwan’s DigiTimes news service. That was up 5.5 percent on Q1 – but down a thumping 63.1 percent on Q2 last year.

The result suggests the e-reader bubble may have burst, with tablets and smartphones – as with so much else – taking over the role of electronic reading devices.

DigiTimes notes that, with new Kindle and Kobo readers due to be launched in the second half of 2012, global shipments for the year should reach 10.65 million units. That’s less than half the 27 million units said by DigiTimes to have shipped in 2011.

Facebook Spy Drone Set To Fly But Could Be Shot Down

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Facebook says it has completed building its first full-scale drone, to be used in bringing Internet connection to certain remote parts of the world – though, given fears of US cyber-espionage, it may not be welcome in quite a few of them, and indeed may be shot down if it ventures into hostile space.

The drone has the wingspan of a Boeing 737. Facebook says it plans to put the device through its paces in the USA later this year.

The plane weighs 400kg, and can hover between 20 and 30km above the altitude of commercial aircraft, so that it is not affected by problematic weather or flight plans.

The drone, which was built in 14 months, is able to fly for 90 days at a time, a Facebook  executive said. Helium balloons will be attached to the aircraft to float it up to operating height. The drones have a wingspan of 42 metres.

Because the planes must constantly move to stay aloft, they will circle on a 3km radius. During the day, they will float up to 90,000 feet (3km) and at night will drift down to 60,000 feet (20 km) to conserve energy – that is, if hostile nations do not shoot them down.