<IT WORLD>
Video games move to mass market
By Martin J Young

HUA HIN, Thailand - The big players in the video games industry gathered this week at the E3 conference in Los Angeles and their targets were the mass market, rather than the traditional gamer originally captured by the macho shooter Halo.

Both Sony and Microsoft were expected to follow Nintendo into the social arena, with "building communities" and "social gaming" the buzz words of the conference as the three industry gaming heavyweights fought for center stage.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is heading for a change of direction and audience as the company announced a change in its online games system, Xbox Live. The company aims to put the console "at the heart of the living room", claiming that the industry is rapidly becoming the largest in the entertainment sector, with games outselling both music and movies.

New titles and features were announced - many based on Nintendo's Wii, which has seen success with social and interactive titles such as Wii Fit. The console target market is now shifting towards a different demographic to include women, younger girls and older people.

The online character, or avatar-based system Microsoft proposes, is similar to that used by Wii. Sony is working on a system called "Home" for its PlayStation 3, which will offer similar social features.

Nintendo announced a new accessory for the Wii, called a Wiimote controller, which promises 1:1 motion mapping in future supported titles. The Japanese company also revealed a number of new sports titles for the console, while, for the more musically inclined, Wii Music will join the popular Guitar Hero and offer a semi-freeform environment that allows the player to choose from more than 50 instruments to play individually or in a group.

Talk of expanding the Nintendo DS handheld system beyond games also generated a stir as the company suggested that it may develop functions for hotels, restaurants and travel.

Not to be outdone, Sony announced a slew of new releases for its PS3 and PSP along with a new movie downloading service. The company's main focus was on the games themselves as opposed to market strategies and new technologies. The Home system was covered with new features in its online platform and the all-encompassing console for gaming, video, TV and music.

All three corporate players seem to be after the same thing - total domination in the home entertainment market. All are offering a social online platform where players can interact and compete and they all have their own media partners from which other content such as movies and music can be downloaded.

Although this battle has been primarily over the latest games and gadgets, there is so much more at stake. Today it is a games console, but tomorrow the unit is likely to control every piece of audio and visual information that comes in and out of your home ... at a price of course, and that is probably the only thing that will separate them.

Telecoms
Following the world-wide launch of Apple's latest 3G iPhone last week, a number of technical issues prevented the smooth introduction of the new device to the market. Shops packed with frustrated iFans were common across the US following the launch as staff struggled to activate the phones due to overloaded Apple servers.

AT&T, the sole carrier for the unit in the US, blamed Apple's iTunes software for synchronization problems. Original iPhone owners also faced problems as their units locked up if they tried to download anything from the Apple online mothership.

Although these issues were solved pretty quickly it does show that even companies noted for their reliability run into problems now and then. You would think that following the hype and promotion leading up to the big day a company the size of Apple would be prepared for such a demand and resultant strain on its systems ... evidently not.

Troubles aside, Apple has claimed this week that 1 million new iPhones were sold in 21 countries over the first weekend. The company has yet to determine whether the sales were to new customers or existing aficionados upgrading their old iPhone. This figure pales into insignificance when compared with mobile giant Nokia, which sells almost 10 million units per week. Analysts do expect Apple to reach this 10 million total target sales figure for their iPhone since its introduction by the end of 2008.

After months of silence, Apple has unleashed its legal arsenal against small-time Florida-based company Psystar for developing a Mac clone. As we discovered in April (see Mac attack over PC's Leopard capture, Asia Times Online, April 19, 2008), Psystar has managed to run Apple's flagship operating system, OS X Leopard, on off-the-shelf PC hardware.

Psystar has since been selling the computers online for US$400. Apple's "shrink wrap license" specifically requires that the software be installed only on Apple computers, and this is the base of its lawsuit. Apple is demanding that Psystar not only cease and desist with its sales but also recall all machines already through the door. It is a fight that the genuine Mac maker can't afford to lose - if it does, it could open the doors for other vendors to build cheap Hackintosh clones.

Hardware
Intel this week announced its latest Centrino platform, which goes by the imaginative name of Centrino 2. The brains are the same Core 2 Duo processor but the revision promises more computing horsepower, according to its creators. There is very little new about the platform, which is largely an upgrade from the current Centrino. It consists of a refreshed 45nm Penryn CPU, a new integrated graphics chipset and a wireless chipset. The Centrino 2, code-named Montevina, will offer six processors - two 8000 series chips at 2.26 GHz (P8400) and 2.4 GHz (P8600), three 9000 series CPUs at 2.53 GHz (P9500 and T9400) and 2.8 GHz (T9600). The top end model is a X9100 Extreme running at 3.06 GHz.

Industry
Following on from last week's Viacom vs YouTube privacy saga, in which Viacom demanded data on all YouTube downloads, the two have come to an agreement over the use of readers' viewing information. Viacom has agreed to let YouTube owner Google make the data anonymous, offering a large viewer database that blanks out private information such as member name and IP address.

Viacom stated that it is not interested in individual reader patterns but wants to establish a general picture on the viewing of copyrighted versus home-grown movies on the popular video sharing website.

Google seems to have swerved away from what could have been a PR disaster by keeping hold of private information on its readers. Even so, the case may have paved the way for others to sue the search giant on related copyright claims. The English Football Association Premier League and Scottish Premier League have already jumped on the bandwagon by filing their own separate class action suits against Google.

The final mention this week has to go to Yahoo for rejecting Microsoft's advances once again. Teaming up with billionaire investor Carl Icahn, Microsoft gave Yahoo 24 hours to accept a proposal that would restructure the company, giving Microsoft control over its search and online advertising division. Yahoo stated that the move would destabilize its business, which included a recent deal it had made with Google over online revenue sharing.

So what is the end result for the average web surfer? Paid search placements only by the looks of things.

Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.