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Industry News
China Launches Online Map of the World
Oct 23rd
China’s State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping has launched an official online map service called Map World.
The service is simple to navigate, even though it’s in Chinese. A zoom slider on the left and various views (map or satellite) populate the upper right corner. Zooming into most parts of the world will only result in a blank page after a certain zoom level, except in China and Taiwan where the images are available in higher resolutions.
The 2D part of the service is similar to Google Maps. A 3D viewing tool, that should make the viewing experience similar to Google Earth, is also available.
According to Asiaone News, 31 companies have been granted a mapping license, including Nokia, Baidu, Alibaba and others which could spell trouble for Google Maps in China.
Still, the Google Maps service is currently available (in a censored form) in mainland China at the address ditu.google.cn.
The map is available at www.tianditu.cn or www.chinaonmap.cn.
Google Broadband Gets Its First Trial
Oct 22nd
Google’s ultra high speed fiber network — which they claim can offer speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second —is about to get its first trial outside the Googleplex.
The trial is pretty small and is only being rolled out at Stanford University, not far from the Googleplex to a samll group of faculty and staff owned homes on campus.
Google has again stated it has no plans to get into the ISP business, as many originally speculated. They have said it is just a move toward making the Internet faster.
Do you think this is another bold move by Google to take over the world, or improve the world?
49% of Small Business Owners Use Smartphones
Oct 22nd
At present we are seeing more smart phones being sold than actual computers. This will the inclusion of iPads and other such mobile devices such as laptops and bluetooth headsets old technolgies such as pagers are a distance memory.
According to a recent Foresters Survey of nearly 10,000 small business owners, it seems that a huge 49% of small business owners are reported to own smartphones. The stats break down like this:
35% – BlackBerrys 33% – iPhones 25% – Androids 7% – Windows Mobile devices.
The survey also interestingly shows that even though 82% of Americans own a phone, 50% have internet on their phones but only 17% actually have smartphones. It would seem at the moment most users are opting for a cheaper model.
Viewing A Mobile Phone Website Design Versus Viewing Website Designs On PC’s
Whichever way you look at it website design / Ecommerce Web Design needs to cater for this new wave of mobile digital experience. Viewing a website design on a computer is a completely different experience to viewing the same website on a mobile device, smartphone of no smartphone.
An average time spent viewing a website on a computer is between 3 – 4 minutes (depending on the website), whereas More >
Apple App Store is Down
Oct 21st
Apple’s online store has was temporarily taken down, just hours before the company’s “Back to Mac” event is scheduled to start.
It looks like a new Macbook Air could be making its way into the store as we speak. It may be time to trade in some of your hard-earned pocket money for a shiny new toy from Steve Jobs’s workshop.
Mobile Ad Spending to Top $1 Billion in 2011
Oct 20th
The spending levels on mobile advertising is set to grow nearly 50% to exceed the 1 billion dollar mark in 2011 according to figures from researcher eMarketer.
This figure has sky rocketed recently due to the acquisition by Google of AdMob and Apples introduction of the iAd.
This shows that mobile advertising is actually growing faster than social media advertising. In August, eMarketer estimated that social media ad spend would grow over 20% this year to $1.68 billion in the U.S. That compares to the torrid 79% growth rate now projected for mobile, which brings the size of the market to $743 million by the end of 2010.
Albeit much smaller in total figures the growth is significantly more, saying this though the projections are that this will slow down pretty dramatically soon.
Productivity Heads to the Cloud
Oct 20th
Microsoft is stepping up its commitment to the cloud by launching the new Office 365, a service combining Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online with the cloud.
Kurt DelBane, president of Microsoft’s office division, announced at a San Francisco press event that Office 365 is a subscription service that integrates cloud-based syncing, collaboration and accessibility to businesses and organizations worldwide. So long as a device supports ActiveSync, customers can access their e-mail, calendars, team websites and office web apps from anywhere. The inclusion of Lync also means that Office 365 has videoconferencing capabilities.
There are two editions of Office 365. Office 365 for Small Businesses is designed for organizations of one to 25 people. It’s a pre-built package that includes Office Web Apps, Lync, e-mail sync and more. It doesn’t require IT support on the user’s end and will cost $6 per user per month.
The second version is Office 365 for Enterprises. Unlike the small business version, the enterprise edition can be customized based on an organization’s needs. It can be customized so different teams have different access levels to Office 365’s features. The enterprise edition comes with everything in the small business version, plus single sign-in, Office More >
Internet to Surpass 2 Billion Users This Year
Oct 20th
The total number of internet users will grow past the 2 billion mark before the end of 2010, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has reported.
Currently the world population is estimated to be 6.86 billion which means that around 30% of the population will be online next year. A further 226 million users will join the rest of us online this year, 162 million will come from developing countries which despite the fast growth still has a long way to go to catch up with the developed world.
At the end of 2010, 71% of the population in developed countries will be online, compared to only 21% of people in developing countries. Europe making up 65%, Americas 55%, Asia/Pacific 21.9%, leaving a mere 9.6% of the population online in Africa.
The ITU, United Nation’s agency for information and communication technologies, sees the introduction of broadband as the most important element in helping these developing countries “Broadband is the next tipping point, the next truly transformational technology. It can generate jobs, drive growth and productivity and underpin long-term economic competitiveness”, said ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure.
This numbers show why companies are investing in ecommerce web design solutions and ensuring their companies website design portrays them More >
Google – Billion Dollar Business
Oct 16th
During today’s Q3 earnings call, Google not only discussed its impressive earnings, but it did something it has never done before: It broke down the numbers from some of its key businesses, including YouTube and mobile.
Google CFO Patrick Pichette made it clear in the call that not only had Google (Google) never disclosed these numbers before, but it’s something it probably won’t do in the future, either. This was a one-time glimpse into the current state of Google’s mobile, display advertising and YouTube (YouTube) businesses.
Here are the key numbers that Google SVP of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg shared during today’s call:
* Display advertising: The company’s annualized run rate for display ad revenues is approaching $2.5 billion, according to Rosenberg. Google called it its next billion dollar business, and that it’s already here. Much of Google’s display ad business comes from its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick.
* YouTube: While Google didn’t reveal specific revenue numbers for YouTube, the company did say it is monetizing 2 billion views per week, up 50% from last year. Recent reports suggest that YouTube is approaching $1 billion per year in revenue.
* Mobile: The annualized run rate for Google’s mobile business is $1 billion this year. More >
E-book Sales Up 193% So Far This Year
Oct 16th
While print book sales continue to decline, e-book sales are up 192.9% this year to date, according to figures gathered from 14 publishers by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).
E-books now make up 9% of all trade sales in the U.S.; last year, they made up a mere 3.3%.
E-book sales have reined in $263 million thus far in 2010, and $39 million in August alone — a 172.4% increase over last year’s sales numbers.
Meanwhile, sales of paperback and hardcover books continue to decline across the board. Hardcover sales of children’s and young adult fiction came in at $77.8 million, an 8% decline from the previous month and a 14.6% decline from August of last year. Paperback sales in the category were down 15.1% for the month, a 7.6% decrease year-over-year.
At $83.8 million, adult hardcover book sales actually increased by 5.2% compared to the same period last year, although the category experienced a heavy 24.4% drop from the previous month’s sales. Paperback sales performed similarly, increasing by 4.1% year-over-year at $124.9 million, a 18.3% decline from the previous month.
Print sales are still strong in the education category, however: Hardcover and paperback books posted increases of 10.2% and 15.7% respectively, up roughly More >
More Smartphone Buyers Choose Android Over iPhone
Oct 16th
In the past six months, smartphone buyers in the U.S. were more likely to choose Android-powered devices over any others, including iPhones.
The Android platform has been strongly challenging Apple’s mobile offerings for quite some time now, and the release of the shiny new Froyo (a.k.a Android (Android) 2.2) OS leaves little to be desired.
Software aside, Android-powered hardware is as diverse as it is impressive.
Android phones range from affordable models suitable for families with kids (e.g., Motorola’s Charm, a surefire winner for the teen girl set) to high-powered, 4-inch, 8-megapixel superphones fit to satiate the geekiest of gadget fiends (Droid X and Galaxy S, anyone?).
All of those reasons, coupled with network diversity and relative affordability, have catapulted Android phones to a leading position for new gadget-buyers this year — no mean feat, considering that the iPhone 4 produced the “most successful iPhone launch ever” — which was accompanied by as much media hype as fan frenzy.
Data from Nielsen shows that despite a successful launch for the iPhone 4, Android devices still rose to capture 32% of the market of new smartphone buyers between January and August 2010.
Now, that’s not to say that Android is the number-one mobile OS just yet. While More >