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Monday 16 May 2011

Nokia Ditching Ovi [ 16-05-2011 18:08 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: Nokia Translation by: Paul Smith

The times they are a changing ... and no more so than at Nokia. It's been a bit of a tumultous time for Nokia, partnering up with Microsoft, ditching Symbian, effectively abandoning MeeGo and now Ovi is next for the chop.

Yes Ovi, the brand Nokia used for its maps services amongst other things, will be no more. Nokia are 'evolving' i.e. changing it's branding so that it's services will simply be branded with its own name i.e. Nokia. It's really not a surprising move of course when you put it into the context of the deal with Microsoft. Nokia's map service is scheduled to be made available across the Windows Phone ecosystem and seeing as most people who don't own a Nokia handset probably think Ovi is a type of fruit it does make more sense to use the more familiar Nokia branding.

The full transition won't be overnight of course, it will take time and is expected to last well into next year.

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RIM Recalling 1,000 PlayBooks [ 16-05-2011 17:44 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: BGR Translation by: Paul Smith

RIM is issuing a recall on 1,000 BlackBerry PlayBooks. The reason? They're not working properly. Ok seriously, the affected units have been shipped with an OS build that "... may result in the devices being unable to properly load software upon initial setup".

Thankfully for RIM most of the affected tablets are in the distribution channel and not actually in the hands of customers, however, some are. Those with a device experiencing the problem are advised to contact RIM.

Interestingly a reader of BGR sent them a video of his PlayBook, bought on launch day, showing the device unable to boot up properly. Now that doesn't sound like the problem described with this recall so is it possible that the PlayBook is being afflicted by two sepaarte issues here? Time will tell. You can check out the BGR video below:

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Low PSone Xperia Play Game Sales Don't Bother Sony Ericsson [ 16-05-2011 17:27 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: CVG Translation by: Paul Smith

The Xperia Play was launched amid much fan fare and in a sense the excitement was justified, after all this was the biggest thing to happen to Android gaming, arguably even mobile gaming, in a long time. So how is it getting on now that it has been released? Well not all that well if some games sales figures are to be believed.

Since the launch back in early April the five PSone titles that were launched with the handset have clocked up a rather dismal number of downloads. Indeed not one of them has managed to sell more than 1,000 copies so far. PlayStation LifeStyle provides the following figures:

Cool Boarders 2 - 100-500
Destruction Derby - 500-1,000
Jumping Flash - 50-100 (eek!)
MediEvil - 100-500
Syphon Filter - 100-500

Those are pretty pathetic numbers I think you will agree. That hasn't stopped Sony Ericsson from putting a brave face on it though. Head of market development at Sony Ericsson Dominic Neil-Dwyer responded by saying that the Xperia Play was 'shaking up' the market. Riiiiight ...

I'm going to quote Neil-Dwyer's full statement here so you can see his comments in context.

I think there's also an awareness thing for people that are getting their hands on the device and where they are choosing to purchase games. There's only a few, at the minute, PlayStation One titles there, and there's more coming on a regular basis, and there's the whole PlayStation as a content provider exclusive to the device, the story about that, that will emerge and people will see.

So, there's no concerns, it's a revolutionary device, it's shaking up the market, we're very pleased with it. In terms of getting the PlayStation Certified program out, generally, we're very happy. I think we'll make a full assessment of if it has achieved our expectations fully, further down the line, so we're very happy.

So what does all of this mean in plain English? Well basically it means that Sony Ericsson are hoping sales pick up once more content is made available. The sales figures are low at the moment because of lack of choice is what seems to be being said in this statement. I can buy into that theory, but it still doesn't address why the numbers are that low.

There is also a wonderful piece of contradiction in the statement. On the one hand Sony Ericsson are saying that there is no concern whatsoever and then right afterwards they say they will need to wait and see if the the PlayStation Certified programme lives us to expectations.

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