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Oonagh Reidy

HP To Unleash WebOS On PC & Tablet: Chief

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The ‘polar bear’ has arrived: PC giant’s new head honcho confirms it will release its own platform on all models from next year.
 


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Every PC with the HP logo “will include the ability to run WebOS” its new Chief Executive, Leo Apotheker, told Bloomberg. 

The platform will run along existing Windows software meaning Microsoft can breathe a sigh of relief. For now.     

However, the software giant will have to up the ante of its forthcoming Windows 8 in a bid to keep possible transgressers to HP’s new offering at bay.

The world’s largest computer maker acquired Palm, the creators of WebOS, last year for US$1.2 billion and clearly wants to put its money to good use helping to differentiate it from rivals Android and Apple’s iOS.

The OS will also run on its upcoming TouchPad tablet, Pre3 business smartphone as well as the Veer.

The fledgling platform currently has just over 6000 apps, which pales in comparison to the 350,000 currently available on Apple’s  ecosystem.

However, Apotheker also recognised the major shortfall HP has in the software arena and feels he can build on what already there and through strategic acquisitions to help expand its current portfolio.  

“You create a massive platform,” he said, referring to WebOS. “I happen to know something about software,” he added, hinting the future direction the maker, whose core PC business is worth US$41 billion, might take.        

 

The former Chief of software giant SAP, who’s nickname is ‘polar bear’ is also said to be on a mission to boost innovation and in house talent at his new employer as it looks to diversify in the future.

And he recently took to the skies to break the ice with staff visiting Hewlett Packard’s regional offices worldwide.  

“HP has lost its soul,” Apotheker said, referring to his predecessor Mark Hurt’s cost cutting drive.   

“You don’t mandate innovation,” said the German born CEO. “People need to be a little more empowered in this place.”      

This is of particular significance to Australia, considering HP is now the nations biggest selling PC, as revealed by IDC last week.    

The Palo Alto based maker pushed Acer off the top spot, emerging as the market leader among Aussie consumers with a 22 percent share, taking over from Acer, who slipped back to second place at 15 percent.

The computer  market here grew 20 percent last year selling 5.7 million units.   

 

Known for his hot temper, the German seeks to reassure he has his emotions in check.

“The one thing I’ve learned is to try to manage my temper better and get rid of cynics sooner,” he said.

Expedia Attack Rivals ‘Extortionate’ Web Fees

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The travel giant, Expedia, has launched a stinging attack on travel agents over booking fees but says consumers are also to blame.The largest online travel company globally, Expedia has just launched a new media campaign to heighten what they feel is the rip off of booking fees. 

“Some online travel companies charge booking fees of up to $50. We don’t.” the ad says.

The US owned travel ace announced it was cutting its fees permanently in May 2009.

The ad also goes on to state in no uncertain terms “we don’t charge flight booking fees,” referring to website surcharges, as opposed to airline fees which are seperate.  

“Across the rest of the world, they’re not charging those kinds of fees. That’s extortionate,” claims Expedia Worldwide president Scott Durchslag.

And it seems Aussie consumers aren’t entirely blameless, with Durchslag hinting lack of protest at the hefty surcharges isn’t helping eliminate them, despite the fact that recent surveys show Australians are unhappy with being forced to fork out on  such fees.

“I’m stunned consumers in Australia aren’t up in arms about this the same way they are about bank fees,” he said.

The Australian Federation of Travel Agents declined to comment on the issue when contacted by SmartHouse.

 

“In the US, about 50 per cent of travel is online,” he said. “Australia is about half that and across the rest of Asia it gets even smaller.”

According to Expedia, Webjet charges a $$50 fee on international flights, $35.90 on Asia Pacific and NZ fares, while Jetabroad also hike the price up $30.

However, it’s not as simple as that, argues Alana Theodore from Travel.com.au.

“We advise Australians to ensure they’re comparing apples with apples when booking airfares online,” she said.

“It’s not the size or existence of a booking fee that matters, but ultimately the price you pay at the checkout. Webjet also criticised the campaign as “the most pitiful and pitiable campaign ever heard”.

A quick scan of the skyways showed clearly which website was in fact the cheaper option.

On comparison of prices of a Qantas flight from Sydney to Melbourne return on exactly the same time and flight, we found Expedia won by just over $30 offering the fare for $225.70, compared to Webjet’s $256.60.

 

However, travel provider Webjet claims its strength in the Aussie market lies in the fact they offer low cost carriers like Virgin Blue and Jetstar on domestic flights.

Expedia usually offers Qantas and Regional Express.

“We are the only OTA (online travel agency) that has the low-cost carriers and that’s where the value is” said David Clark from Webjet.

Can Samsung ‘Boombox’ Player 4 Touch iPod?

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The Korean brand’s answer to the iPod touch is coming, the Galaxy Player 4 and 5.


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And it looks set to give Apple a run for its money, if the video reports from Samsung’s Spring Product Showcase in the US are anything to go by.

The 8GB Android Galaxy Player 4, which comes in white, has a 4 inch touch screen (Galaxy 5 is 5 inch LCD screen) and according to reports out of New York, is essentially a Galaxy S but without the phone. 

Music wise, it has built-in stereo speakers with surround sound, SoundAlive post-processing technology, and audio support for MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, and Flac. It comes with MicroSD slot for 32 GB of extra storage. 

“The Galaxy Player is a portable boombox to enliven any occasion,” its makers said yesterday. However, this multifunctional device is far from just simply a music player and allows games and e-books.           

Running on Android 2.2, (which can be upgraded to 2.3 Gingerbread, say Samsung) it offers Google Maps, Search by voice, GPS and a slew of other tools like Gmail and thousands of apps at its disposal.  

Specs wise the player is Bluetooth enabled, with WiFi, dual camera, camcorder, Skype and has flash support (Adobe Flash 10.1).

It also has flight mode for music lovers who don’t want to switch off and has Facebook and Twitter applications for social networking lovers. 

 

However, at this point there is no release date for Australia, although it will hit the US this spring.

No pricetag has been divulged either.

Facebook Gets Serious: Unleash Deals To Rival Groupon

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First there was Jump on It, Groupon and Deals. Now Facebook is looking to jump on the bargain bandwagon and launch a similar service from their ubiquitous social networking site.
And who can blame them? With over 550 million consumers at their fingertips, it could be one of the most strategically sound moves the social network could make as it looks to further monetise its operation.

And it’s not only consumers Facebook has in abundance. 

Mark Zuckerburg’s operation also has millions of business at its fingertips who it can entice to sell its services. Its latest announcement reads as an intent to expand its deal service and work more closely with business.

“Local businesses will be able to sign up to use this feature soon, and people will be able to find Deals in the coming weeks,” it announced yesterday.  

The groups deals service will allow users to share discounted deals with friends with hundreds of their  friends.

Its current deals service operates on a location base only and is more focused towards mobile users based on its ‘check in service”. Earlier this month it released new metrics that tell business ‘place owners’ the number of times people checked in or claimed a deal at their place.

 

Although online group deals are hot property right now, the network are testing the service in US cities of Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas and Austin, Texas, according to Bloomberg report.     

And growth of edeals looks set to explode from a million dollar to that of a billion dollar  industry, predicted to be worth almost $4 billion by 2015 in the US alone, over a 400 percent jump to what it was worth last year, at $873m.    

And it is an industry already well established here in Australia, with
US owned Groupon the most recent addition operating under the name
stardeals.com, joining the likes of Living Social, and Cudo. 

 

Chicago based Groupon was prevented from using its name here as an existing Aussie company, Scoopon, holds use of the name.

Confirmed: iPhone Goes Pale In Spring

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It has been said white is the new black.
And it looks like Apple could feel the same as its ubiquitous iPhone looks set to sport a paler demeanour from this summer season onwards, which has been confirmed by Apple’s VP of Marketing.


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“The white iPhone will be available this spring (and it is a beauty!).” Phil Schiller confirmed. 

The newly released iPad2, which is available in white, sold 1 million in its first days of release, and could have spurred the maker on into going for a pale shade for phones sooner rather than later. 

The white model was first announced by Steve Jobs at WWDC 2010, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference back in June last.

Telstra To Release Bigger Next G Plans

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It appears the best things come in small packages: new plans could include unlimited SMS and upped call and data credit.
According to rumours today, the telco is set to unveil new post pay packages, called Freedom Connect. It could also be likely these plans are for 12 rather than 24 month period, although this is not yet certain.

The new plans, which are said to be from an internal source, could be launched on March 29, are to come in packages ranging from $49 to $129.   

The basic $49 will include $450 of calls and text  and 1GB of data downloads, representing an increased $50 of call on its current 24 month package at that price.  

The $59 and greater packages all all set to offer free unlimited SMS and over $500 in calls. This is the telco’s latest bid to win over more mobile customers on to its next G network.
 
Last year it added 919,000 new mobile customers to its base, including 297,000 additional postpaid handheld customers, which represents some of its strongest growth in the past ten years and is clearly looking to keep momentum up in the face of intense competition from th likes of Optus and Vodafone.

It also sold 800k iPhone and Android devices in the last financial year, it recently said.

These price plans are likely to be confirmed within the coming days.
 

IPTV WILL Up The Ante: BBC Boss

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Catch up TV will add value to television, not take it away, the head of BBC Worldwide tells an Australian audience.

The BBC’s UK iplayer, funded by British licence fees, is a catch-up model, while the global iplayer, soon to arrive in Oz, will not offer catch-up but will be a mixture of current and classic content, says the BBC Worldwide.

The iplayer, the UK equivalent to ABC’s iView, was first set up back in 2007.

The IPTV service is an internet television designed to deliver programmes and other content , although is not yet available here, is likely to be a paid-for service for international viewers.

The iplayer radio service, however, is accessible online here.

Last month iplayer upped its UK offering to include links to other channels on its network like ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, Channel 4, E4, More 4, Film 4, Channel 5, 5, 5USA and S4C.

Users can also integrate it with their BBC Online account, which also allows access to Facebook and Twitter.

However, the onslaught of on demand services has led many to believe it could spell the end of TV as we know it although the BBC feel the opposite is the case.

“The iPlayer won’t cannabilise TV,” Jana Bennett, President of BBC Worldwide Networks and Global iplayer believes, who is the woman in charge of the global rollout of the streaming service.

BBC’s worldwide channels in Australia are UKTV, BBC Knowledge, BBC World News and CBeebies.

Instead, it will “add to audience experience” of TV and will give the medium further power, Bennett said at the Astra Pay TV conference yesterday.

And it looks like the ABC here feel the same and are seeking to integrate their iView service into new technology like iPad’s and Smartphones.

Late last year, the broadcasting house announced a  joint project with Samsung to add iView to its range of Internet-enabled televisions and Blu-ray players.

 

Spoiler Alert! BBC Ups Comedy, Drama TV In Oz

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The British Broadcasting House is to bring more comedic action, nature and drama to Australian screens. And it’s not before time.

Speaking at a Pay TV conference held in Sydney yesterday, the head of BBC international programming confirmed a truckload of  more “intelligent” content is on the horizon including the “groundbreaking ” Human Planet, and hit drama ‘Zen’, starring Rufus Sewell.

This is just part of the “Australian drama roll out starting in April,” Jana Bennett, BBC’s President of Worldwide Networks revealed.

“Intelligent programming is also on the up,” she added. UK TV exports to Australia grew 9 per cent last year alone and with the BBC invasion this looks set to gain added momentum.

And car fanatics, good news. There is to be more on location broadcasting like Top Gear Live winging its way to your screens. 

Other comedy type shows like Live at the Apollo are also hotly tipped, as a “rebirth of physical comedy” has taken place, Bennett said.

Two new hit comedy shows commissioned by the BBC, Miranda and Mrs Brown’s Boys, an Irish comedy, are also looking to be run here.

For lovers of the old school, a modern remake of classic Upstairs, Downstairs is also flagged.

And for David Attenborough fans soon to arrive will be BBC Earth, a block of programming solely dedicated to nature and wildlife.

The broadcaster will be hoping these shows, which have proved enormous hits in the UK will receive the same treatment on this side of the world.

 

 

A stream of UK and European based thriller and crime series such as The Killing, a Danish series, Criminal Justice and Sherlock are also set to hit our screens here.

The BBC channels currently available on Foxtel include BBC Knowledge, Knowledge HD and World News.

Brother, Samsung Top OZ Laser Multi Function

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Brother, Samsung and HP have all come out as top laser multifunction devices in Oz as the market grew 9 per cent last year.


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And brands are battling it out for market share amongst small to medium business as intense discounting and product launches are on the way in 2011, IDC predicts.

However, the results which covered the last three months of 2010 were weaker than expected, due to dropping business confidence, according to IDC’s Australia Quarterly MFD Tracker.

However, these results were weaker than expected.

Brands wise, Brother came out top of the pile with 32 per cent share, followed closely by Samsung (25%), HP (22%). 

 “In the second half of 2010, channels were flooded with stock as heavy pricing rebates were given during Q3 in an attempt to increase sales amongst vendors.

Channels had excessive inventory in Q3 and softened business confidence during Q4, causing slow down in re stocking , said Cheryl Looi, hardcopy peripherals analyst for IDC Australia.

“Not only printer-based and copier-based market leaders, such as Brother and Fuji Xerox expanded their portfolio to target the SMB segment, smaller players such as Oki and Dell did the same.”

“Aggressive price competition and more product refreshes will be expected in coming quarters, as copier vendors attempt to increase market presence in the growing SMB segment, ultimately benefiting end users.”

 

“SMB users should take note of the increasing options in the market to gain better value and obtain products that could better suit the different needs of their organisation,” added Looi.

Brother    32%
Samsung    25%
HP    22%
Fuji Xerox    6%
Lexmark    6%
Canon    3%
Others    6%