[09.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
The 8GB iPhone is being sold for €100 less around O2 stores in Ireland today as part of a promotional campaign which runs until 25 May.

An O2 Ireland spokesperson, talking to siliconrepublic.com, said: “O2 Ireland can confirm that it will be offering the 8GB iPhone at a reduced rate of €299 from today, Friday 9 May until Sunday 25 May.
“The special offer is designed to create additional momentum for the device beyond what has been a very successful launch period and to expand its reach by making it available to an even greater number of customers for a limited time.”
When asked if this offer was preceding the arrival of a 3G iPhone, the spokesperson for O2 Ireland said: “That’s one for Apple to announce when it is ready.”
In the meantime, sources close to Apple say the Cupertino-based company will be releasing the 3G handset next month in June.
By Marie Boran

[09.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
Russian search engine Yandex and internet auction site eBay have more of a share in the European search market than long-standing search engines MSN and Yahoo!, figures from analyst firm ComScore have shown.

Figures for March 2008 show that while Google is still the out-and-out leader in the search space, cornering 79.2pc of the European search market, eBay and Russian site Yandex occupy the No 2 and No 3 positions respectively. EBay has 3.9pc of the market while Yandex has 2.2pc.
Yahoo! sites and Microsoft sites have 2pc and 1.9pc of the market respectively, putting them at fourth and fifth place in the rankings.
Elsewhere in the top 10, search sites belonging to two Polish properties – Nasza-Klasa.pl and QXL Ricardo – proved popular with searchers and attracted 1.3pc and 1.2pc of the European search audience in March. This places these Polish properties in sixth and seventh place, ahead of the nearest competition AOL and the Ask Network, which have 0.9pc and 0.8pc respectively.
Another Russian search company, Rambler Media, rounded out the top 10 with 0.5pc market share.
“With nearly 80pc of all searches conducted in March, Google is far and away the leading search property in Europe,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice-president, ComScore.
“However, we are seeing key local players show leadership in eastern Europe where English is spoken less than in western markets. With Russia’s online population now the fastest growing in Europe, it is likely that some of these local search engines will continue to gain traction and market share.”
By Niall Byrne

[09.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
One in three airline websites in the EU contain a serious breach of EU consumer law, EU Consumer Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, has said.

Presenting her mid-term report on the investigation into ticket pricing on airline websites in the EU, Kuneva said she was appalled to find there are serious and persistent problems for consumers throughout the airline sector, with half of all websites checked having problems.
The investigation so far has found that one in three websites examined contained a serious breach of EU consumer law, which has had to be followed up with enforcement action by national authorities over the past seven months.
Misleading pricing was the biggest problem found on airline websites, found in 58pc of the sites under investigation. Unfair contract terms were found in 49pc of those sites (focusing on issues such as wrong language, content of the small print and opt-in, opt-out boxes) and there were problems with non-availability of advertised offers in 15pc of cases.
Kuneva revealed these problems exist in all sectors of the airline industry and that a wide range of companies are affected.
On a more positive note, she said enforcement is working, with 50pc of the at-fault websites having been corrected since the pan-European investigation began last September.
“This is very positive. Many companies have responded quickly to contacts from national authorities,” she declared.
Legal constraints prevent the majority of member states from publishing company names at this stage, although Norway and Sweden have made public lists of company websites under investigation.
Kuneva urged more cross-border co-operation around enforcement, as levels of cross-border enforcement were only at 12pc.
“The airline and air travel industry must put its house in order. There is no desire within this Commission for additional regulation. The new airline regulation on pricing will come into force in the autumn, and that will make commercial obligations even clearer, but industry must comply,” she concluded.
The full investigation into airline websites is due to reach completion in May 2009, at which point more wide-reaching disclosures can be made.
By Niall Byrne

[09.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
The web really begins to get social when a user can take their online profile and use it on any other site they wish.

MySpace is stepping up with the Data Availability project, which allows users to take their personal profile data and plug it into other social networking sites.
So far Yahoo!, eBay, Twitter and Photobucket (also owned by News Corporation) have come on board and this feature will be rolling out in the next few weeks.
“The walls around the garden are coming down – the implementation of Data Availability injects a new layer of social activity and creates a more dynamic internet,” said MySpace co-founder and CEO, Chris DeWolfe.
“We, alongside our Data Availability launch partners, are pioneering a new way for the global community to integrate their social experiences web-wide.”
What this means is that MySpace users can share data and content including publicly available, basic profile information, photos, videos, and even their friend networks.
Popular microblogging service Twitter is excited about the venture: “We’re still exploring all the cool stuff we’ll be able to do with this Data Availability. We’ll keep you posted as we take advantage to make improvements to Twitter features and functionality,” said Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone.
This is not the first initiative by the big social sites to achieve a more integrated, social web. The OpenSocial Foundation, started by Google, while not about sharing user data does allow for widget sharing so that programmers can create applications that will sit as easily on iGoogle as they will on MySpace or Bebo.
OpenID is more of an initiative that will benefit the user and is an independent foundation with board members including Yahoo!, Microsoft, IBM, Google and VeriSign. The purpose of OpenID is one identity for many sites.
While OpenID and OpenSocial are making progress, the motivation and money behind MySpace with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp will push the Data Availability project.
By Marie Boran

[09.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
Some 62pc of companies quoted on the Irish Stock Exchange and 77pc of firms on the IEX (Irish Enterprise Exchange) don’t track visitors to their websites, a new report by StatCounter has revealed.

StatCounter also found that almost half (45pc) of FTSE 100 companies have no online tracker.
A tracker allows firms to measure the number and frequency of hits to their website, the geographical location of visitors, pages viewed, as well as keywords used to find the site and other features.
“The results surprised us,” said Jenni Cullen , finance director, StatCounter. “The website is now a core vehicle for communications with shareholders and potential investors. As with any marketing campaign, one would expect that quoted companies would want to know the impact of their investor relations communications as measured by website traffic and interest.”
While those companies which do not use a website tracker can conduct basic analysis through drilling down into their server data, Cullen said this was complex, time-consuming and limited in what it revealed about visitors.
StatCounter was founded in 1999 by Irishman Aodhan Cullen and is one of the largest website traffic analysis companies in the world. It supplies data to over three million web sites globally, mainly in the US where 40pc of its clients are located.
By Niall Byrne

[09.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
French multinational media company Publicis Groupe Media has acquired Dublin-based digital marketing agency Interactive Return for an undisclosed sum, it emerged last night.

Established in 1999, Interactive Return provides search engine marketing and web development and consultancy services to blue-chip clients like ESB, IDA Ireland, Tourism Ireland, Autotrader and Crowne Plaza Hotesl.
The company also organises and runs the annual Search Marketing World Conference and Expo.
“This is the first acquisition of note in the digital sector and we are delighted to welcome Interactive Return to the Groupe,” said Alan Cox, chief executive of Publicis.
Publicis Groupe Media has billings of €150 million and member companies include MediaVest, ZenithOptimedia, Starcom, Clear Blue Water and Captivate Digital.
“The addition of this highly respected company to our business firmly places us in a market-leading position with a total of 14 specialists across our two digital divisions,” Cox said.
“Online is the fastest-growing sector of the media market and is a crucial area for us to invest in. Total spend in this sector is set to grow by 40pc this year.”
Martin Murray, managing director of Interactive Return, said: “Publicis Groupe Media demonstrated to Interactive Return its unique vision for digital marketing and its role in integrated communications campaigns.
“We look forward to leveraging the organisation’s global resources to deliver cutting-edge online marketing solutions.”
By John Kennedy

[09.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
Grand Theft Auto IV is not just the fastest-selling video game of all time, it has also beaten Hollywood in the numbers stakes by shifting six million units globally in seven days with an estimated retail value of over US$500m, in comparison to this summer’s blockbuster movie Iron Man, which took in a mere US$210m in its first week.

The nearest another game has come to this record breaking figure is Halo 3 which sold US$300m worth of copies in the first week of its release.
“Grand Theft Auto IV’s first-week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date,” said Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two, the company that publishes GTA.
Zelnick may well be right considering the biggest movie release to date was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and this managed US$406m in the first six days of its release.
Added to record sales, the game is apparently driving up sales of the Xbox 360 console. The official blog – written by employees in Microsoft’s Xbox and Games divisions – reports that sales of the Xbox went up by a whopping 54pc as a direct result of the release of GTA IV.
Blog author and Xbox employee Chris Paladino said that retailers reported to Microsoft that 60pc of all Grand Theft Auto IV copies were sold for the Xbox 360 platform.
In contrast, Gamestop Ireland reports that GTA IV for the PS3 is outselling the Xbox version. Either way, getting your hands on a copy last week was nigh on impossible as the game flew off the shelves faster than shops could restock. By Marie Boran

[09.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
Figures marked up by media firm Nielsen indicate that mobile access to social networking sites is increasing in Europe and the US, with close to 2pc of mobile subscribers in many countries logging on via their handheld device.

In the UK, some 810,000 mobile subscribers, or 1.7pc of all mobile users in the country, visited social networking sites via their phone during the first quarter of this year.
This was twice as high as in major European countries like France, Spain and Germany, but on a par with the US where 4.1 million people or 1.6pc of the total mobile subscriber base now access sites like Facebook and MySpace using their phones.
In the US, MySpace.com, the leading social networking site among PC users, is also the most popular mobile internet social networking site. The site logged 2.8 million unique mobile users in December 2007.
Also in December, Facebook, which has the second-largest audience among social networking sites, had 1.8 million unique mobile users. By contrast, Facebook led mobile social networking sites in the UK with 557,000 unique mobile users per month in Q1 2008, while MySpace followed with 211,000 unique mobile users.
While Facebook and MySpace.com were also among the top social networking sites in other European countries during the first quarter of 2008, MSN’s Windows Live Spaces led in Italy (154,000 unique mobile users per month) and France (106,000), and ranked second in Germany (45,000) behind MySpace, which boasted 52,000 unique mobile users per month.
“Social networking is already a global phenomenon, and going mobile is the next big thing,” said Jeff Herrmann, vice-president of Mobile Media at Nielsen Mobile.
“In the UK and the US especially, we already see millions of users of MySpace.com, Facebook and other social networks interacting with their virtual spaces while they’re on the go.
“Consumer demand for mobile social networking may be a significant driver of mobile service pricing models, as evidenced by Vodafone UK’s recent move to offer unlimited internet access as a standard feature of its new monthly mobile price plans,” Herrman said.
By John Kennedy

[09.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
Some 400 jobs have been created by graduate companies of the http://www.gec.ie/ Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC) in Dublin, it has been revealed.

Companies that began life as start-ups in the incubation space now employ an average of 22 people, research by the GEC has shown.
Furthermore, the 18 graduate companies, which rank among their number recognised players such as Zamano, Prime Carrier, Capricorn Ventis and Open Jaw Technologies, expect to double their combined amount of employees over the next three years.
The average annual turnover of GEC graduate companies is €4m. The GEC was set up in 2000.
The companies predict their annual turnover will increase to €10m on average over the next three years, the research revealed.
The survey showed 100pc satisfaction among the graduate companies with their experience at the GEC, something which pleased GEC manager, John McInerney no end.
“We are delighted to be associated with the creation of such a high number of quality jobs within Irish companies,” he said. “It is reassuring to see that companies that once started life in the GEC have now grown to become successful enterprises, thus confirming the foresight of the founding members.
“In an era of increased entrepreneurship and continuous advancements in technology, there is a need for incubation space for small and early-stage businesses. We would welcome more developing companies to utilise the facilities and services which the centre has to offer to help their businesses grow and succeed.”
As part of the Dublin Business Innovation Centre group, clients of the GEC also have access to business advice and may source seed funding.
By Niall Byrne

[09.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
The Enterprise Europe Network in Ireland (EEN Ireland), a new business and technology partnering network for companies, was launched yesterday.

EEN Ireland expects to support up to 20,000 Irish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in accessing more than 3,000 European business opportunities using a technology and business partnering database via a dedicated website.
EEN Ireland will be overseen by Enterprise Ireland and the Chambers of Commerce in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Sligo and Waterford.
The wider Enterprise Europe Network has a substantial footprint covering 40 countries with over 4,000 specialist staff in 500 development agencies with access to more than 23 million SMEs across all business and technology sectors.
EEN Ireland expects to multiply its combined client base of Irish SMEs tenfold over the next three years to avail of these opportunities.
In particular, EEN Ireland has united with all the major players in the European business and technology partnering community to offer an accessible ‘one-stop-shop’ service. Its efforts will focus on giving SMEs information on European legislation, finding suitable business partners and identifying market opportunities, identifying and sourcing proprietary, licensable technologies from international sources and assisting with IP issues and licence agreements.
It will also offer assistance with licensing out proprietary technology, help SMEs access European research funding and facilitate involvement in EU policy-making.
“The new Enterprise Europe Network is a milestone in Ireland’s Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation and will be a key tool in the promotion of entrepreneurship and growth of enterprises in Ireland,” said Michael Ahern TD, Minister for Innovation Policy. “I call on all SMEs in Ireland to use this network to maximise your business potential.”
“Enterprise Ireland is fully committed to the aims of the network and is excited about working with the Chambers of Commerce in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Sligo and Waterford,” said Jan Gerritsen, Enterprise Ireland.
“By engaging with us, Irish SMEs can very quickly tap into a substantial and accessible business and technology partnering network with local support delivered right to their doorstep.”
By Niall Byrne