In what started as a class assignment, Austrian law student Max Schrems from the University of Vienna is fighting Facebook for “right of access,” a European privacy principle that allows users to request all the data an EU entity has about them.
Schrems formed an advocacy group called “Europe vs. Facebook,” encouraging Facebook users worldwide to request copies of their data. He has sent complaints to the Irish Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) to force Facebook to comply with EU law.
“Just this month,” Ars Technica writes, “Facebook changed the way it presents privacy information to new users, largely at the suggestion of the ODPC. Back in September, Facebook said it would disable facial recognition for European users, also under pressure from Irish authorities.”
“[Schrems] is now going to have to sue not only Facebook, but also the ODPC to say that it has imposed too low a threshold. That’s a very, very hard standard to meet,” says Eoin O’Dell, an Irish law professor. “…it’s a very important social strategy [in terms of public awareness], but on the legal side I think it’s going to be very hard to win now that there has been significant engagement [from Facebook] with the ODPC and vice versa.”
Schrems is trying to raise $384,000 to fund the multi-year legal battle “that might significantly redefine how Facebook controls the personal data on over one billion people worldwide,” suggests the article.
“We do have privacy laws which, by the letter of the law, are rather strict. In the end we’re not really enforcing it right now — that’s the politically interesting thing about the Facebook case,” notes Schrems. “To me it’s an experiment; you have a win-win outcome. On the one hand, Facebook gets off the hook and that would be great, because then we have to change the law. Or [on the other hand] it’s a landmark case, saying actually there is enforcement.”
Rewards-based social TV service Viggle announced it will acquire GetGlue for $25 million in cash and 48.3 million shares of stock. Under the terms of the deal, Viggle will operate both brands.
GetGlue is “a social network based on check-ins for entertainment,” reports CNET. Its founder and CEO Alex Iskold will join Viggle as a senior exec and member of its board of directors. All 35 GetGlue employees will be part of the new company.
Launched in January 2012, Viggle rewards users for checking into TV shows by offering them points that can be used for gift cards and products from the likes of Amazon, Best Buy, Fandango, Hulu Plus and iTunes.
“GetGlue, an app that operates like Foursquare for entertainment, gives users virtual stickers for checking in while watching shows or movies,” explains CNET. “Those virtual stickers are then turned into real-life ones and mailed to users for their collection.”
The company was launched in 2007 and currently claims over 3.2 million registered users and more than 500 million entertainment ratings and check-ins.
“Viggle is raising the funds to buy GetGlue with investments from other companies that would like to see the two unite,” explains the article. Greg Consiglio, Viggle president and COO, says the investors “could be a media company, or could be somebody in the media strategic space, someone with hardware you might use to check in with.”
Current GetGlue media partners include ABC, Comedy Central, Fox, HBO, NBC, Showtime, USA Network and Warner Bros. Television. Viggle has a number of ad partners and relationships with Verizon and DirecTV.
At the Monaco Media Forum last week, one digital media banker said social TV companies will find it hard to prove their worth. “When social TV companies say, ‘We can enhance engagement by 700 percent, the advertisers say, ‘So? We’re happy with the engagement we have.’ As far as the TV infrastructure goes, it ain’t broke,” suggests Terence Kawaja.
Kawaja is a former GCA Savian media M&A advisor who founded Luma Capital. He acknowledges the second-screen trend, but doesn’t see it as a strong business opportunity when considering the control TV networks have on advertising.
“That’s all well and good — but it’s on the margin,” he says of second-screen businesses. “The thing they teach you in startup school is, solve an existing problem. There’s no problem in TV — at least, not for the people who are funding it.”
Naturally, online companies think differently. “I love television but I don’t think the current state of television advertising leverages all the potential TV has,” says Benjamin Faes, Google’s media and platform director for northern and central Europe.
Google and other companies are working to make TV ads personalized like many Web ads are. These efforts could prove fruitless if they directly conflict with the current Hollywood dominance.
“A lot of digital guys say ‘TV is dead, video’s going to take over,'” Kawaja says. “Not so fast — the producers have a cabal that’s not going to be disrupted any time soon. This is really a lop-sided playing field.”
“Television ad spend is $70 billion in the U.S. Compare that to online video monetization that’s roughly $2.5 billion,” he continues. “The $70 billion is growing. This cabal is going to make it very difficult to disintermediate.”
But according to digital companies, the TV industry could soon lose it all. “Even if, today, ad spend is growing on TV, if the TV industry does not act soon, the total amount of value will decrease,” counters Stephanie L’Hospital of France Telecom’s Orange.
Recent Nielsen reports saw sharp declines in “live” viewing of the top broadcast networks, and television executives were quick to point the finger at digital video recorders. However, a new study shows that DVR viewing has fallen in sync with live viewing.
According to Nielsen, Fox had 25 percent fewer viewers for both live viewing and delayed DVR viewing. Similarly, ABC lost 11 percent of its live viewers and 7 percent of its audience watching programming a week later. CBS had a 12 percent decline in live viewership and 10 percent in viewership measured up to a week after the show aired. NBC, however, saw a rise in both categories — 10 percent for live and 14 percent for delayed viewing.
“The data are likely to underscore concerns about traditional television viewing, suggesting that people are either watching broadcast television shows through on-demand services, or are turning to alternatives such as online video,” the Wall Street Journal suggests.
The article notes that the audience watching up to a week after the broadcast tends to be 30 percent larger on average than the audience of the initial airing.
Networks are calling for advertisers to take into account viewing that occurs up to a week after when considering ad buys. Currently, only viewing delayed three days is considered, but even if the window is expanded, the networks are unlikely to see any increased ad revenue as DVR viewers typically skip ads.
Some executives suggest a lack of buzzworthy shows or the presidential election could have effected declines. But analyst Todd Juenger is unsure.
“One possibility is that fewer individuals in any given home are watching TV. ‘You could theorize that now the high school kid isn’t watching the TV anymore,’ Mr. Juenger said, adding that another culprit could be video on demand, which isn’t captured in time-delayed ratings.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal is allowing Samsung to add the iPhone 5 to the list of Apple products infringing its patents. Meanwhile, he also approved Apple’s move to include the Samsung Galaxy Note, Galaxy S III and the Jelly Bean operating system in its patent violation claims.
In August, Samsung was found guilty of violating Apple’s patents and forced to pay $1.05 billion in damages. Earlier in February, Apple filed a second lawsuit against Samsung, “alleging that various Samsung smartphone and tablet products including the Galaxy Nexus infringed eight of its patents,” Reuters reports.
In response, Samsung filed a cross-complaint that Apple’s iPhone and iPad infringed on eight of its patents.
“U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh issued a preliminary injunction against pretrial sales of the Nexus in June. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned the sales ban on October 11,” explains the article.
Apple’s addition of the Jelly Bean operating system is the first direct action against Google in its patent lawsuits with Samsung.
Even though Apple did not oppose adding the iPhone5, Judge Grewal warned the Silicon Valley tech giant to “think twice before opposing similar amendments reflecting other newly released products — e.g. the iPad 4 and iPad mini — that Samsung may propose in the near future.”
In terms of profit share in the mobile market, Apple is undoubtedly the winner. But as Android gains in market share, Apple could face a downfall if it doesn’t forfeit some of its profit margin to compete with cheaper — yet quality — devices.
Mobile is largely a “platform market,” meaning third-party companies build products and services on OS platforms, Business Insider explains.
“Building products and services for multiple platforms is expensive, so platform markets tend to standardize around a single leading platform,” the article states. “As they do so, the power and value of the leading platform increases, and the value of the smaller platforms collapses.”
“In a platform market, having dominant market share is critical to maintaining long-term profit share,” the article continues, rebutting the idea that Apple is safe by just dominating profits.
Both Android and Apple have grown market shares at the expense of other platforms. But Android has grown substantially more by appealing to customers with smaller budgets.
The article debunks some arguments against Android, such as: it is hugely fragmented; Apple is in the “premium” segment of the market and doesn’t care about the rest; Apple’s content, apps, and services ecosystem is better than Android’s; and, developers can’t make money on Android.
“As the market matures, Apple will not be able to protect both its market share and its profit margin — it will be forced to choose between one or the other. And given the importance of market share in a platform market, the smart strategic decision is almost certainly to protect market share,” BI concludes. “Unfortunately, protecting market share will almost certainly mean that Apple’s extraordinary profit margin will drop in the coming years, probably significantly.”
Valve Software’s digital distribution platform Steam, which has gained 50 million PC users, could threaten console ecosystems as it expands into the living room and potentially creates its own operating system.
“With Big Picture Mode, a new feature in the latest Steam beta release, Valve’s adding an interface designed specifically for your TV,” reports The Verge. “The company is also actually building game controllers in its labs, and has already produced three different prototypes.”
Moreover, Valve is developing virtual reality headsets — another way the company can draw in developers.
“Earlier this month, Valve opened up a beta of Steam for Linux to 1,000 lucky users. Valve didn’t do it quite alone: the company enlisted the support of Nvidia to write Linux drivers, and is working with Intel and AMD as well,” the article explains.
The move suggests the company could be looking to build its own OS. “Valve could take the same approach that Google took with Android by licensing the operating system to hardware manufacturers, and create a new platform in the process.”
“Meanwhile, the company’s also experimenting with a program called Steam Greenlight that has the community vote to publish indie games on Steam, possibly attracting innovative, desirable diamonds in the rough that would otherwise appear first on PlayStation Network or Xbox Live Arcade,” the article states.
“If Valve can own the software and hardware stack with Steam OS and the Steam Box, it will be able to offer a single platform with better specs, a dedicated fanbase, intriguing new hardware, games that just work, and proven delivery mechanisms that get gamers to buy and buy often. If Valve pulls it off, it could be enough to win the living room from Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft.”
Engadget reviews the Wii U, Nintendo’s new $300-350 ecosystem that looks to combine stylus, microphone, motion-recognition, touchscreen and physical controls for one involved gaming and media experience.
The console itself “looks almost exactly like the original Wii,” albeit a little longer, rounder, and outfitted with an HDMI port and more powerful internal processing.
“Like the GamePad it supports, the Wii U console is glossy, fingerprint-loving plastic,” notes the review. “The dust and cat hair in our test apartment love the exterior of the Wii U. We do not.”
The GamePad weighs 1.1 pounds, but is comfortable to hold. On average, the battery life lasts 3.5 hours and takes 2.5 hours to recharge. The device has NFC connectivity and can be used as a universal remote to do basic commands for “most” HDTVs.
“Sadly, overall, the GamePad controller gives off a relatively low-grade impression; it looks and feels like a toy,” suggests the review, which provides additional details regarding software and available games.
“Nintendo promised consumers a modern HD gaming console, and the Wii U — what’s there of it thus far — delivers on that promise. Games look gorgeous (HD Mario!), the risky controller [separate from the GamePad] is another successful control innovation and there’s a ton of promise on the horizon. What’s missing, sadly, is a huge part of the puzzle — so huge, in fact, that it’s impossible for us to pass judgment on the whole package just yet.”
“Without Nintendo Network, Miiverse, Nintendo TVii, or any streaming/on-demand video content — not to mention promised backwards compatibility — the Wii U doesn’t compete at all with even last-gen consoles (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 just became last-gen, in case that isn’t clear),” explains the post. “But Nintendo launched a patch just four hours ahead of launch containing at least some of that functionality, so we’re reserving judgment until we’ve spent time with its post-update features.”
Hulu has launched a new gaming portal that enables users to find previews of new titles through trailers, customer reviews and release information.
The Hulu Video Game hub — the second new channel Hulu has launched this month — is currently Web-only, but a mobile version for Hulu Plus-connected devices is in development.
“The Fox/CBS/Disney-ABC co-owned Internet video-streaming service is looking to lure in more viewers with a dedicated home for game trailers, reviews, and essential information (like release dates),” reports VentureBeat. “It also looks pretty with large high-definition image headers for featured titles.”
The portal hosts a review show called “Electric Playground” and episodes of gaming culture. There is also a section dedicated to programs and movies that relate to games.
“YouTube’s gaming channel sees millions of views each day. The latest ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ trailer, released only two days ago, already has 7 million views on Google’s video site,” notes VentureBeat.
“If Hulu can get in on that action, it’ll start producing respectable ad revenue at a relatively small cost, since publishers are the ones paying to produce the content.”
As Chinese consumers make the move to smartphones, the billion-plus mobile phone subscribers represent a potential expansion opportunity for manufacturers, and a challenge for Apple.
“Based on recent data reported by Chinese research firm, Analysis International, which has tracked smartphone sales for the past several quarters, Apple may have a challenging time replicating the market share success its iPhone has seen in other countries: In the third quarter of 2012, Android accounted for 90.1 percent of all smartphone sales in China,” GigaOM reports.
The post includes a graph from Analysis International that shows Google’s Android consistent rise in adoption from Q2 2011 to Q3 2012. Nokia’s Symbian platform controlled almost a third of the market in 2011, but quickly dropped off to less than 5 percent by the last quarter.
“Analysis International also tracked the average selling price of handsets by platform and that helps explain the situation,” notes the post. “While costs for all smartphones have been decreasing in China, the average Android handset costs about one-third that of an iPhone.”
As consumers switch from feature phones, low- to mid-end Android models are still large improvements, even if they don’t offer all the bells and whistles of Apple’s phones.
“I suspect Apple will still sell more than enough iPhones in China to add billions of profit for the company,” the post states. “But any ideas of iOS taking a large portion of the market in China — or India, for that matter — have to be tempered due to the fast growth of Android.”
According to a new report from Gartner, global sales of smartphones rose 47 percent in the third quarter compared to last year.
Samsung and Apple accounted for nearly half the market while Nokia took a slide from third place in market share down to seventh.
Android increased its share among operating systems from 52.5 percent to 72.4 percent. Nokia’s Symbian and RIM’s BlackBerry platforms fell sharply, while Samsung’s Bada rose to fourth place.
Total cellphone unit sales declined as smartphones continue to gain in popularity.
“More than 427 million phones were sold in total during the third quarter, 3 percent down on the same quarter a year ago, Gartner said, but up slightly on the 419 million devices shipped in the second quarter,” reports CNET.
“Meanwhile, smartphone sales are continuing their upward trajectory compared to feature phones — 169 million smartphones were sold during the quarter, an increase of 47 percent year-on-year.”
GameStop plans to close 200 of its stores around the globe next year. The world’s largest video game retailer says 3 percent of its outlets — primarily in Canada and Australia — are operating unprofitably.
The Texas-based company operates 6,650 stores worldwide. It recently reported that third quarter sales were down 8.9 percent from a year ago, to $1.77 billion. However, these figures are better than originally estimated and GameStop’s shares rose 4.25 percent to $24.48.
CEO J. Paul Raines notes the company is showing “strong resilience in the face of challenging category headwinds, and the new categories of digital and mobile are creating new profit pools that we are exploiting aggressively.”
“The retailer heads into the U.S. holidays weighed down by a two-year industry slump as players gravitate to mobile and online play from console-based games,” reports Bloomberg. “Raines said the company managed to expand margins in a ‘tough video game market’ by expanding into the re-sale of Apple iPads and other mobile devices and growing its digital download business.”
Investors are watching this month’s launch of Nintendo’s Wii U, the first major console release in six years, to see if it will have an impact on purchases of packaged games.
“GameStop hopes the start of a new console cycle with the Wii U launch and just-released high quality games like Microsoft Corp’s ‘Halo 4’ and Activision Blizzard’s ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II’ will boost hardware and software sales this holiday season,” notes Reuters in a related article.
While some American game developers have shied away from free-to-play models, the genre could soon become a dominant force in the gaming industry as developers creatively construct games to make the experience better for both the gamer and the developer, writes GamesIndustry.
Many current free-to-play games annoy users because they “effectively put a tax on fun” by employing dwindling energy levels that need to be replenished. However, the article notes: “The future is digital, and the elasticity that freemium offers will be to everyone’s benefit.”
“A lot of games that we like and enjoy today could very easily be free-to-play: ‘Fallout 3’ or ‘Skyrim’ could be, the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ series could be,” suggests game designer American McGee. “Any game in which there is a world, and you’re going around acquiring items and interfacing with shops, any of those could work under a free-to-play model… I suspect that if you’d launched ‘Fallout 3’ as a free-to-play title rather than paying $60 for the disc it would have had equal or greater success.”
Brandon Beck of Riot Games has a different view of the future of free-to-play games. He argues the shift to free-to-play may take longer than people think, and that it may never fully happen.
“I don’t think the industry has figured out the right free models for many types of games — even your standard console platformer,” he notes. “So a rush into free-to-play may end up limiting the kinds of content choices that are available to players.”
“That would be a travesty, because we all want to see rich, linear eight-hour experiences continue, as well as many other kinds of games that don’t fit into the conventional free-to-play box,” he adds.
Developers agree that free-to-play has great potential, but it will only realize that potential if companies develop better, more interesting, and more creative games, argues GamesIndustry.
Activision set a new sales record for its latest first-person shooter when “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” hit $500 million in sales on its opening day.
“That easily outguns first-day sales of ‘Halo 4,’ which Microsoft said on Monday totaled $220 million,” AllThingsD notes. “Activision’s war-themed title also easily beats last year’s blockbuster release, ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,’ which achieved $400 million in sales within 24 hours, and about $1 billion after 16 days.”
Notably, Microsoft’s “Halo 4” sells exclusively for Xbox while “Call of Duty” is available on Xbox, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U. Also, the latest “Call of Duty” only got a score of 84 on the review service Metacritc compared to a 91 for “Halo 4.”
Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick says the new release was impressive even by Hollywood’s standards.
“With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe ‘Call of Duty’ is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row,” Kotick says. “Life-to-date sales for the ‘Call of Duty’ franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Star Wars,’ the two most successful movie franchises of all time.”
StoryVisualizer (or StoViz), a new PC-based technology, can reconfigure video sequences around specific characters to create a “personalized video episode” based on a specific character, writes New Scientist.
StoViz uses image analysis to isolate actors’ faces and the backgrounds in certain scenes. The technology also analyzes audio to find key words that help compile similar scenes and stories.
“The software then assembles a group of scenes that its video and audio algorithms have decided are semantically similar, and therefore hopefully represents the same plot line,” explains the article.
Hervé Bredin of the Computer Sciences Laboratory for Mechanics and Engineering Sciences in Orsay, France has been working with a team at the Toulouse Institute for Computer Science Research to develop the technology. The team has tested StoViz on TV series with different formats: “Malcolm in the Middle,” “Game of Thrones” and “Ally McBeal.”
“The system could easily be activated via a screen menu, says Bredin, and perhaps in the not-too-distant future you might simply say the name of your favorite character to a Siri-like voice interface,” suggests the article.
The technology could be useful for people who need to catch up on a series or wish to understand the backstory behind a character. But some question if the technology is actually useful.
“I frankly wonder about the character of a viewer who would wish to use this when up to date with a series,” says Simon Parnall of pay TV systems maker NDS.
