Hilton Invasion Continues
Paris Hilton has been out of the spotlight for a while, so she has turned to the web to try and juice her celebrity ratings a bit. A web exclusive mini-series, “A Day with the Hiltons,” starring Kathy Hilton and her two daughters, Paris and Nicky, began appearing last week. The series covers the winners of the “Kathy Hilton — My Secret” Mother’s Day contest, in which a lucky mother and daughter duo receive an expense-paid trip to Los Angeles to spend the day with the Hiltons. What fun! Delete me now!
The series follows Kathy, Paris and Nicky — women committed to luxury and the finer things that life has to offer. During the episodes they talk about beauty, family and much more while they visit a salon, attend an intimate brunch and spend the afternoon shopping. “A Day with the Hiltons” has six installments and is being distributed by TV Guide Broadband, a company that is trying to convince people to watch more short-form video entertainment programming on Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/tvguide), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/tvguide) and Veoh (http://www.veoh.com/users/tvguide).
ASIMO Draws Attention to Music
Last Tuesday night Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) as it performed “The Impossible Dream” to open a special sold-out concert featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Honda hopes ASIMO’s appearance will draw attention to the DSO’s music education programs, and particularly the DSO’s effort to encourage and support the involvement of children in the world of music.
ASIMO is designed to help people and Honda believes that these robots will someday assist the elderly and disabled in their homes. Honda has been utilizing ASIMO as its ambassador for various cultural initiatives worldwide. The robot has recently made appearances in Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Germany in addition to its conducting gig in America.
Since introducing an “all-new” ASIMO in 2005, Honda has continued to develop the robot’s intelligence technologies. Now, multiple ASIMO robots can work together in coordination. The company has released a video showing two robots acting autonomously and working together to deliver refreshments to Honda’s office guests.
Honda’s latest innovations include the development of an intelligence technology that enhances smooth movement by enabling ASIMO to choose between stepping back and yielding the right-of-way or continuing to walk based on the predicted movement of oncoming people. Honda also developed a new intelligence technology related to ASIMO’s ability to perform tasks such as carrying a tray and pushing a cart. In addition, ASIMO can now automatically charge its battery when its remaining battery level falls below a certain level.
Advancements in the robot’s comprehensive system allow multiple ASIMOs to share tasks by adjusting to the situation and working together in coordination to provide uninterrupted service. For example, if one ASIMO is idled while recharging, other ASIMO robots will step in and perform assigned tasks. See ASIMO in action at http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/.
Delay in Writing Vista Apps
Only eight percent of North American software developers are currently writing applications to run on Microsoft’s Vista operating system, while half are still writing programs for XP, according to Evans Data’s Spring 2008, North American Development Survey. These same developers forecast a fragmented Windows market in 2009 with only 24 percent expecting to target Vista and 29 percent expecting to continue with XP.
“Developers have taken a wait and see approach to Vista,” said John Andrews, Evans Data’s President and CEO. “The new operating system has had more than its share of problems and the desire to move from XP on the Windows platform is still lagging – that coupled with interest in alternative operating systems is suppressing development activity and that in turn will further erode Vista’s acceptance.”
Other versions of Windows, including 2003 and Windows server 2008, when added to the above numbers bring the total forecast for Windows development in North America to just over 67 percent expecting to target some form of Windows in 2009. Over 15 percent expect to target Linux.
Blu-Ray Sales Disappointing
Blu-ray has won the high-definition format war, but that hasn’t led to the anticipated surge in sales of players and products. Many analysts thought sales of Blu-ray disc players would spike when Toshiba decided to drop out of the high-definition HD DVD market in February. However, a Harris Poll has found that US consumers aren’t inclined to purchase the advanced DVD players any time soon.
In the US, ownership of standard DVD players is practically ubiquitous but just four percent of those surveyed reported owning Blu-ray disc players and only five percent own a Sony PlayStation 3. Only nine percent of those surveyed report being likely to purchase a Blu-ray disc player within the next year, even when made fully aware that Blu-ray is considered to be the definitive technology for high definition. Although one-third of US consumers report owning a high-definition television set, just ten percent of them own Blu-ray disc players.
“Since Blu-ray disc player pricing averages more than $300, which is well above the cost for the latest generation of standard DVD players with up-converters, Blu-ray disc players may be encountering price sensitivity despite the advanced technology,” said Joan Barten Kline, VP, Harris Interactive Media & Entertainment Practice.
What Will Become of the HD-DVD Player? Like the BetaMax loyalists of yore, almost half of those US consumers who currently own an HD DVD player say that they will just continue to use it and continue purchasing HD DVD’s as long as they are available.
A study by IDC confirms that worldwide there will be slow adoption of Blu-ray by consumers. Overall PC market growth, driven by portable PCs, will give the worldwide CD/DVD market a moderately positive outlook in 2008 and lead to increased demand for slim drives. Despite the availability of Blu-ray drives, DVD burners will continue to be the leading volume product until 2012. However, as the PC market’s adoption of DVD burners becomes saturated and increasingly commoditized, Blu-ray adoption will accelerate in 2009 and Blu-ray drives will become the majority of the total market value in 2012.
“DVD burners will remain the bread-and-butter business,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director, Removable Storage at IDC. “Despite Blu-ray’s win over HDD in the format war, Blu-ray drive adoption will be limited in 2008 because of their high price and only moderate consumer interest.”
