The force takes over

“Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” (www.theforceunleashed.com) from LucasArts is on track to become the best-selling Star Wars game of all time. Less than a week after its Sept. 16 launch, the game had already sold 1.5 million copies. Although LucasArts shipped more than 4.3 million units of The Force Unleashed around the world in preparation for the game’s launch, demand has led to the manufacture and distribution of additional copies.

“Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” completely re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force and casts players as Darth Vader’s “Secret Apprentice,” unveiling new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy seen through the eyes of this mysterious new character. The Force Unleashed is the first next-generation game developed internally at LucasArts, and is available on the Xbox360 and PLAYSTATION3. With outside developers LucasArts has created other versions of The Force Unleashed for the Wii, PlayStation2, PSP and Nintendo DS.

Huawei rises as Alcatel-Lucent struggles

Ericsson continues to lead the world’s mobile infrastructure market, but it faces stiff competition from Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent as well as from some Asian vendors, especially a buoyant Huawei.

“As of 1Q 2008, Huawei owned almost eight percent of the world’s cellular infrastructure market, compared to Ericsson at nearly 29 percent and Nokia Siemens at more than 23 percent,” said ABI Research senior analyst Nadine Manjaro. “But don’t be deceived by that disparity: Huawei is the vendor to watch, given its overall increase in market share over the last six quarters. And squarely in its sights is the number three vendor, Alcatel-Lucent, with a market share just over 13 percent.”

In the second quarter of 2008, Alcatel-Lucent suffered one of its worst quarters since its merger. During the first half of 2008, the company’s wireless infrastructure shipments decreased 63 percent compared to the second half of 2007. Two of its top customers in North America - Sprint and Verizon Wireless — completed EV-DO Rev A deployments, which led to decreased CDMA spending. Sprint alone reduced CAPEX by $1 billion compared to 2Q 2007. This led to an ouster of the company’s top management. Alcatel-Lucent’s board of directors has approved the appointment of Philippe Camus as the company’s non-executive chairman as of Oct. 1 and Ben Verwaayen was appointed as the company’s CEO.

“China is the leading wireless market and its top three operators plan to spend close to $80 billion on infrastructure over the next three years,” added Manjaro. “This, along with strong growth in India and Africa, might catapult Huawei into the lead within three to five years. At the very least, Ericsson is not likely to be in any kind of 'comfort zone as it tries to face down the growing threat from the muscular Chinese giant.”

Citizen media initiative

A new media company, AllVoices, has launched “Excellence in Citizen Media,” an online initiative to reward news and opinion contributors from all over the world with cash incentives. Through Feb. 19, 2009 contributors can earn up to $10,000 depending on the quality and viewership of their reports and photographs. Details on the initiative can be found at: http://www.allvoices.com/incentive.

In addition to the cash incentive program, contributors are recognized on the site for their journalistic efforts with “First to cover” badges for timely reporting, and ranking and display of contributed news on the home page. Home page ranking is determined by a combination of viewership, engaged discussion from the AllVoices community, aggregation, rating and reputation. Contributors are also highlighted on the home page.

Blu-ray faces tough times

The HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray format war ended in early 2008, with Blu-ray the winner. However, don’t expect a quick ramp up of Blu-ray player sales to standard DVD player levels any time soon, as prices for Blu-ray players are still high according to research from In-Stat. Meanwhile, the DVD hardware market will continue to decline, as DVD players have reached saturation in some markets and DVD recorders never caught consumers’ attention the way DVD players did.

Other research highlights include:

*The market for Blu-ray players and recorders will reach 5 million in 2008 with solid growth continuing if prices decline.

*Worldwide DVD player and recorder sales reached 142 million units in 2007.

*North America, Europe, Japan, and China have seen declines in their DVD player markets.

*Developing countries in other parts of the world are the only bright spots in the DVD player market.

Wish they were here

Ever wonder what real customer service could be from a mobile provider? In the USA, Sprint is offering a new program called, “Ready Now.” With Ready Now, at Sprint sales locations, Sprint staff set up the applications customers want on their phones and then explain how it all works — one on one. Customers are assisted from end to end — from helping select a mobile device, to explaining its features, to clarifying the billing. In market trials of Ready Now, the program’s performance consistently exceeded expectations — 92 percent of participants rated the Ready Now experience “Very Satisfying.”

“Mobility is all about data these days — what data you have, what data can do for you,” John Garcia, president of Sprint's CDMA unit Garcia said. “But data can be complex. Not everyone is comfortable with it. Sometimes it’s generational — more than half of customers under 30 use their phone's data features while only 12 percent of customers over 30 use them. The challenge is that the industry’s customer service hasn’t kept up with the increasing complexity of mobility. Ready Now, along with new phones and applications, reflects a wireless carrier stepping out of the box and personalizing the experience for customers."

Call for films

The GSMA and Mofilm are organizing the first Global Mobile Film Festival at the Mobile World Congress in 2009. They have put out an official “call for films” to international filmmakers.

“We have found there is avid interest and appeal in the idea of showcasing short films on the mobile screen, not just in terms of the ability to reach audiences in a very personal and direct way, but also in the potential scale and the viral nature of the medium,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer of the GSMA. “There are already more than three billion screens in the hands of users, and with increasing sophistication of mobile broadband networks and rapidly evolving device capabilities, the time is right to create a festival devoted to small screen movies and to invite international film makers to participate for the first time.”

The GSMA and Mofilm are seeking films up to five minutes in length, made both using traditional film-making techniques by established and upcoming film directors, as well as films made using mobile devices themselves. Submission forms and films can be uploaded on-line at the Mofilm website www.mofilm.com through the Nov. 28, 2008 deadline.

Barriers to ICT in business

Research commissioned by Dell and completed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in September, polled senior-level executives and managers in Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mexico, South Africa, Vietnam and the GCC States. It focused on four topics: the impact of ICT, barriers to ICT use, skills and training and policy factors.

The research’s key findings include:

*Among firms who have been unable to obtain the technology they need, 41 percent of respondents say its high cost has been the primary obstacle.

*45 percent cite insufficient national and local telecoms and Internet infrastructure as hindrances to better ICT use.

*36 percent state that a lack of adequate technology skills among employees prevents the effective use of ICT.

Complete results are available at www.dell.com/eiusurvey.