Tuesday, September 3, 2013

TechEye

TechEye

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Knackered Microsoft buys knackered Nokia phones

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 02:09 AM PDT

Failing Microsoft has bought failing Nokia's mobile business in a move that has surprised nobody.

Chief executive Steve Ballmer trousered up over $7 billion in a last desperate bid to make Windows a success on mobile phones - or handys as they call them in Germany. The billions include patents and stuff but don't include boots.

No wonder Steve Ballmer is set to retire soon.

Pirate Party UK: content industry wants a "music NSA"

Posted: 02 Sep 2013 07:39 AM PDT

The Pirate Party UK's leader, Loz Kaye, has hit back at the British content industry pressuring top ISPs to introduce a database of suspected pirates for copyright breaches.

Speaking with TechEye, Kaye said the industry "seems intent on turning ISPs into the music NSA".

Over the weekend, the Guardian revealed how BT, Virgin Media, BSkyB and Talk Talk are all being told to adhere to build a database of customers who illegally download content - with the purpose of proescuting persistent offenders at a later date.

The oft criticised Digital Economy Act - drafted to make fighting piracy easier for the content industry - was voted into law in 2010, but delays have meant it may not become active policy until after the 2015 general election. This has frustrated Britain's content industry, represented by the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI), which wants action soon.

It is expected that a database would be used to send letters to repeat offenders - at first. But it could later be used to target broadband customers by blocking them from using particular sites, temporarily disconnecting them, throttling web connections, or prosecution.

Prime minister David Cameron will sit down with the BPI, the industry group believed to be the driving force behind the measures, in mid-September. Piracy is expected to be a key area of discussion.

ISPs appear resistant to such blanket measures at the moment - with a Virgin Media spokesperson telling the Guardian that the current proposals are "unworkable", while TalkTalk said customers' rights "always come first" and would "never agree to anything that could compromise them".

They would likely be met with criticism from the public in light of recent privacy awareness campaigns from activists. A voluntary code would also leave room for smaller ISPs to capitalise - as Andrew & Arnolds did after David Cameron announced his now infamous pornography filter.

The Pirate Party UK's Loz Kaye suggested the proposals are in line with David Cameron's current policy approach to internet censorship and urged the Coalition government for "clarity".

"The content industry seems intent on turning Internet Service Providers in to the music NSA," Kaye said. "Having failed with the democratic and legal route as the Digital Economy Act is a lame duck, they now want to skip that and get ISPs to do the policing on their own. "This will be an unwarranted intrusion, with no clear positive outcome.

"The BPI apparently wants to take advantage of Cameron's current wish to blame the internet for everything," Kaye said. "The government's digital policy making is in chaos. We need clarity from the coalition - do they back site blocking or not?"

"Do they back throwing entire households off the Internet or not? Until there are some answers, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats can have no credibility on digital policy,” Kaye said.

Windows Phone market boosted by feature phone converts

Posted: 02 Sep 2013 07:10 AM PDT

Windows Phone has enjoyed a significant boost compared to recent months, reaching record market share of 8.2 percent across five top EU markets, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.

Android market share dipped a little in some key EU markets, however, Android devices still held the lion's share, followed by iOS, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

In the UK, Android share dipped slightly by 3.8 percent. iOS gained 7.8 percent of share, while Windows Phone gained 5.0 percentage points. This put Windows Phone just shy of a tenth of the British market, more than doubling to 9.2 percent from 4.2 percent in July 2012.

Of the new Windows Phone customers, 42 percent were making the leap from the feature phone - the classic mobile model before the touch-screen smartphone boom.

Despite some slight dips in market share that seem to be offset by gains from other manufacturers, Android performed exceptionally well across the European and China markets, making up roughly 70 percent of all smartphone sales for the past quarter.

iOS performed better in the States with 43.4 percent of all sales. Similarly, there was decent growth in Britain, France and Mexico.

Poor old Blackberry accounted for just 2.4 percent of sales across the big five EU markets, and 1.2 percent in the United States.

Kantar's Dominic Sunnebo said it's "easy to forget that there is a third operating system emerging as a real adversary".

"Windows Phone, driven largely by lower priced Nokia smartphone such as the Lumia 520, now represents around one in 10 smartphone sales in Britain, France, Germany and Mexico," Sunnebo said.

"Windows Phone's success has been in convincing first time smartphone buyers to choose one of its devices, with 42 percent of sales over the past year coming from existing feature phone owners," he said. "This is a much higher proportion than Android and iOS. The Lumia 520 is hitting a sweet spot, offering the price and quality that new smartphone buyers are looking for".

At the same time, it's worth noting the large amount of people who already have smartphones are locked in to their chosen OS - and for many, it's not worth losing content by jumping brands.

Microsoft and Nokia have chucked heaps of cash at marketing the rather nice looking Lumia range, but have so far struggled to match the amount of apps - or, indeed, device options - of rivals. 
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