TechWire

Dear BlackBerry, Bubble Bash 2 isn't compensation for a week's email disruption

 

That’s it? You cut off our email and our web-browsing for three days and you offer us Angry Birds (or Bubble Bash 2, pictured) as compensation?
There must be some mistake here, Rim.
Offering a few BlackBerry apps for a day’s lost email is like offering me a ferry ticket to Swansea in exchange for a cancelled flight to Paris. I just don’t want the freebie.
Neither, I suspect, will many of the other millions of annoyed customers, whose email and internet business were seriously disrupted last week.
But don’t just take my word for it about the undesirability of your crappy offer. A BlackBerry owner is about ten times less likely to download an app to their device than an iPhone or Android owner is.
And it’s no mystery why. You, Rim, have a fraction of the number of apps that either Apple or Google have in their App Store and Market store, respectively. Those that are there often cost at least €5 each, way more than the 80 cents you spend on thousands of usable iPhone apps.
Even when you find something that looks interesting, the best you have to use it on is a small screen with a fiddly keyboard.
So you’ll forgive us, Rim, if we can’t help suspecting that you’re trying to kill two birds with one stone, here. You’re ‘apologising’ by trying to subsidise an unarguably lame part of your business.
Seriously? This is not a great way to win back friends. Especially seeing as many of your customers are on the cusp of leaving you anyway.
In the last six months alone, your BlackBerry market share in the US smartphone market has dropped from 24 per cent to 19 per cent (with Android market share going in almost exactly the opposite direction).
The same trend can be detected here in Ireland. Androids and iPhones are now becoming the default smartphones, even in conservative companies.
So spare us your mediocre apps offer, Rim. Give us a week’s free credit with our operator, instead. Better still, give us a month’s credit. It’s about the only shot you have of retaining business in the long run.

 

 

Daily tech notes...

 
With the cold weather possibly on the way back, be warned: Apple won't fix your broken iPhone if you use it below zero degrees celsius.

Speaking of smartphones and data allowances, got a Windows 7 phone? If so, better check it's not sending out between 30-50MB per day without you knowing. That's 1GB in 20 days, possibly leading to data bill misery.

Facebook is making its "new" profile layout compulsory, starting today. Hey, if it helps the company's stock price...

Notice an increase in your spam? You're not alone. Spam has rocketed in January, according to experts. And it's mainly down to one Russian botnet, Rustock (responsible for up to 50% of all world spam at its peak).

Nintendo: upcoming 3DS "might be harmful" to kids' eyes but, apparently, "is not dangerous".

My SBP colleague, Dick O'Brien, interviewed Ciaran Crean, co-founder of Mick's Garage. That company is going a bomb.

The first cinema-release movie coming out shot entirely on iPhones. By Oldboy's acclaimed director, Park Chan-Wook, no less.

Know what turns most people off eco-friendly hybrid cars? Their boring looks and design. The new Toyota Prius range, for example.

The first wannabe porn game for Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect. Can't see this one getting released.

Even before any of us have gotten Gingerbread yet, Android has a new mobile OS on the make: 2.4 'Ice Cream'. (Like hurricanes, they name each updated OS alphabetically, it seems.)

Anyone else think Pat Rabbitte bears even a slight resemblance to Angry Birds?

Tuesday at E3, in pictures

Here is what you would have seen walking around the E3 Expo at Los Angeles's Convention Centre today.

 

Star Wars: The Old Republic

EA has let loose its trailer for what will probably be the biggest video game launch in history. Star Wars: The Old Republic will be an online MMA game to start with. It's not out until next year.

You can tell by the way I walk

In my view, the best of Kinect's six launch titles is Dance Central, a dance-instruction game. It's fun to watch and to attempt. But there is very definitely a marked difference between what you're supposed to do and what most people end up doing. For male journalists, anyway,

"Coming in 2012..."

One of the frustrating things about E3 is the length of time until demo'd games are released to the public.

To date, most of the games we've seen aren't out until October at the earliest. Many, such as EA's Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (pictured below) will only be available in November or December. And some, such as  Star Wars: The Old Republic, won't be available for almost another whole year.

So what is the point, you may ask, of showing us snippets from games that we can't play until the year is almost out?

From the industry's perspective, it is simple. They want their expensively-produced games marketed as far in advance as possible. And when I say 'expensively-produced', we're talking up to $60 million.

The best way of understanding how the games industry operates now is to relate it to its closest sibling sector, the film industry. Films are marketed months in advance. Really big films often start their sales push a year away.

It all starts with 'exclusive' development reports and 'behind-the-scenes' photo essays of the title in production. Nine times out of ten, this content is soft marketing material, completely controlled by the developer and game publishing companies. The goal is that by the time the game becomes available -- and can therefore be independently tested and rated with no control -- the 'strengths' of the game will be imprinted on the public's mind.

We in the media do our bit to help this marketing process along, by breathless reports and soft interviews with the publishing companies. We do it because we think that you, the public, like to see pictures of games in development, even if you're being fed a marketing angle. (Think of property magazines: it's the same principle.) The developers know this and imply conditions to 'exclusives'. There's no solidarity in the media as to telling big corporations to shag off, either: no-one boycotted last week's Apple conference when Gizmodo was blackballed for its earlier iPhone scoop.

The key point here is the scale that the gaming sector has now reached as an entertainment industry. Films and music are facing a massive commercial drain, thanks to filesharing. But the world of console games faces no such money leak.

So get used to longer and longer lead-in times for video games: it is the industry that publishers are moving into.

First impressions of Kinect

A few thoughts on Kinect, Microsoft's new wave-your-hands-and-feet-to-play-the-Xbox-game accessory.

The Kinect has undoubted novelty value. The same sense of delight that kids first had in playing with the Wii's motion controllers is replicated here. But is its motion detecting technology good enough to reach beyond those who will buy it purely for novelty value? Will it hack the stress-testing of more sophisticated games that go beyond bowling or yoga? Having had a shot at some of the basic games, it's impossible to make a conclusion on this yet.

Kinect will launch with 15 titles. Today, we saw six of them. They are: Dance Central, a dancing game from Rock Band developer Harmonix; Kinect Sports, a game that offers football, bowling, track, and more; Kinect Joy Ride, a racing game; Kinect Adventures, a game for navigating down rivers and railroad tracks while trying to hit targets; Your Shape, an exercise game; and Kinectimals, a playing-with-animals game for kids.

Business wise, this is a very big gamble for Microsoft. It is betting a lot on Kinect.

So it goes without saying that Kinect is almost certainly likely to be a loss leader for Microsoft (as Xbox 360 was for three years). But that makes sense. This is about trying to get volume sales in the market, not chasing initial profit margin. By getting volume, the biggest and best game developers become interested in creating games for the platform. If the hottest new games then make it onto the platform, more people will buy the Kinect. And the cycle wil continue.

I asked the company's vice president for Xbox in Europe, Chris Lewis whether it was going to be a loss leader. He skilfully dodged the question, twice. But he did admit that it was important to establish Kinect as a platform. And he did say that Microsoft's Xbox division would continue to be in profit over the next year.

There's no price on the Kinect yet.But it is widely believed to be targeted at around the €150 mark. It will definitely be available before Christmas in Ireland, says Chris Lewis.

Get your freak on with Power Gig

First post from E3, the world's biggest video game expo in sunny Los Angeles.

One of the interesting aspects of this year's convention is the emphasis to be put on alternative ways of controlling games. We'll see Microsoft's wireless, motion-detecting Project Natal in full flow.

But there'll also be this tasty device: an actual, tunable six-string guitar that controls a (music-based) game. It's called Power Gig: Rise Of The SixString.

The game has signed up Eric Clapton, Kid Rock and Dave Matthews for songs that can be 'played' within the game.

Some respected commentators are touting it as the next Guitar Hero. It'll be compatible with Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Gaming is big business at E3. Will the Irish show up?

This time next week, I'll be up to my neck in wireless controllers, first-person shooters and 3D games.

That's because I'm off to the biggest video games expo in the world: E3. The conference holds added appeal for Ireland, following the announcement by uber-games developer, Electronic Arts, that it is to increase its presence in Ireland. (One of the games being worked on here will be the mega-budget Star Wars: The Old Republic.)

 (pic: TheKoalition.com)

Gaming is now big business. Major titles such as Gears Of War or Grand Theft Auto gross more than all but a handful of blockbuster movies. Even the marketing budgets for these games stretch to $20 million dollars.

The Irish gaming developer sector is small, but is growing. I hope to touch base with a few Irish firms at E3. Other than that, I'm looking forward to seeing just how extensive the gaming industry's is to 3D gaming.

I'll be blogging extensively from the conference next week. If you've any questions or notes, leave a message here or get me on Twitter (@adrianweckler).

 

Video review: Sony PSP Go

What next?

What should I be doing on this blog?

Playstation 3 drops to €400

Looks like the heat of competition is getting to Sony. It has just announced that it will drop its price to €400 on October 10th in Ireland.

But the machine will have a reduced 40GB hard drive, only two USB slots and no multi-memory card port. It also won't be backwards compatible with PS2 games, unlike the 60GB version.

Yee-haa!

Have gotten stuck in...

New toy

Just got my hands on an Xbox 360 Elite (with 120GB hard drive). Shame that you still need to buy the €170 HD-DVD drive as an accessory to play high def films. Still, that's the rest of the month gone...

PS3's Irish pre-sales figures: is the world going mad?

So who says the PS3 is too expensive for the mass market in Ireland? Well I did, for one. But boy, am I shaping up to be wrong. In casual conversation with a clerk in Xtravision's Finglas branch last night, he said that they has already exceeded their pre-launch sales target of 10. In fact, they've already sold 27. In Finglas. And most of them, he said, were fully paid up! Just to remind everyone, the basic console (with no games and only one controller) costs €630. A package with two games and a second controller, which Mr Xtravision said was the most popular option, costs €715. I asked him who the hell was shelling out such bread in one of Dublin's poorer neighbourhoods. I mean, we're nowhere near Christmas. "Kids," he said. "Teenagers and Leaving Cert types." That's a lot of communion or confirmation money.