Deals, launches and products
Nintendo found enough fans for its 3DS console in Japan that its limited 400,000 first day supply ran out immediately
Published: 3 March, 2011
Nintendo found enough fans for its 3DS console in Japan that its limited 400,000 first day supply ran out immediately. This is more of a marathon than a sprint however and that many could have easily gone on pre-orders alone, and we see Android becoming the natural platform for handheld games, and Sony has taken the boldest steps there recently, by porting its PlayStation software to Android. The 3DS hits Europe on March 25 and will no doubt also sell out then.
French satellite specialist Globecast said that Spain’s Starmax HD satellite direct to home platform will use its content aggregation, encryption, and delivery of the full bouquet of channels right across the country. Starmax HD is being touted as an affordable pay as you go service. The set-tops were made by Ferguson and DRM comes from Conax.
Broadband TV News says that Romanian multimedia company RCS&RDS, strong in both DTH and cable markets in Central and Eastern Europe, using the Digi brand, will use a new set top from Hyundai and Humax, which will be delivered in April, a hybrid box receiving both paid DTH and free to air terrestrial channels. The confirmation came from the Serbian subsidiary who said it will support the
DVB-S2 protocol with MPEG 4 compression.
UK research company Juniper Research says that mobile entertainment service revenues will reach $54 billion by 2015, propelled by, guess what, the surge in smart phone uptake and the rise of App Stores. Juniper reckons it was $33 billion last year already.
Qualcomm has thrown its hat into the portable gaming market in a deal cut with publisher Gameloft. The aim is to develop an enhanced mobile gaming experience by optimizing the Gameloft games for Snapdragon and its Adreno GPUs, including its new quad core Snapdragon chips planned for 2012, running almost exclusively with Android.
French cable operator Numericable says it has filed a legal suit against France Telecom in the Paris Commercial Court asking for €3.1 billion in damages, after France Telecom got Arcep, the regulator to agree that it could cancel a ten year old deal to give Numericable access to its cable ducts. It said that other operators should have the same terms, which have been worked out afresh by the regulator. This looks like it will be a legal challenge to Arcep’s power, and is likely, in our view, to fail.
Rovi has launched a music and video web library at www.AllRovi.com, using proprietary Rovi technology, including advanced search and recommendation features, which is in open beta. It will eventually offer access to three million TV programs, two million album releases, 27 million music tracks and 500,000 movies. Sounds a lot to us. Rovi also announced it has acquired SideReel.com, a TV website with content on 24,000 shows and 530,000 episodes.
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