Starting slightly earlier this year than normal, Apple has released its 12 Days of Christmas companion app for its upcoming promotion in the UK and other parts of Europe, along with Canada. The promotional period, which runs from December 26th to the 6th of January, offers a free "gift" from the iTunes Store every 24 hours -- usually a song, app, movie rental or e-book.
A recent research study from carrier Orange has that, in Europe, tablet usage cannibalizes TV viewing. In contrast, smartphones tend to complement TV consumption. The research also found that tablet users are more likely to make purchases using the device than their handset counterparts.
Vuzix has announced that its Tac-Eye LT, a rugged monocular display mounted on Oakley's SI Ballistic M-Frame 2.0 protective glasses, is now available for customers in Europe. The system integrates a small AMOLED display with 852x600 resolution, enabling users to view content from a wearable computer or other video sources.
European speaker maker Libratone has introduced two new speaker systems, the Live and Lounge, that are designed to work with Apple's AirPlay standard. The Lounge system is the larger of the two, offering Scandinavian aesthetics and a combination of ribbon-based tweeters and midrange drivers that are designed to disperse sound in different directions.
Nikon appears to be the company behind a marketing campaign labeled "The Big Hands." Individuals in Europe have begun receiving postcards referencing The Big Hands and showing people holding their hands as if they are taking a picture with a camera, however the camera itself is absent from the images.
The Council of the European Union has voted to extend copyright protection terms for sound recordings by 20 years. The move was widely supported by the recording industry, pushed through as a way to "help aging sessions musicians" by ensuring that royalties would not be cut off as the copyright holders were ready to retire.
A new study exploring the effects of cellular radiation has found no relationship between cellphone use and cancer in children and adolescents. The European study, which was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, aimed to focus on the potential risks for young users, amid concerns that children are more sensitive to radiation than adults.
Apple has reportedly continued to experience a strong surge in revenue from overseas markets, according to data collected by analyst firm Capital IQ. Although the company's performance in the Americas has been spectacular, sales growth in Europe, Japan and the Asia Pacific has been even stronger. The company is said to have received only 41 percent of its overall revenue from international markets in 2005, however the overseas portion jumped to 56 percent by 2010.
Samsung has confirmed pricing and launch details for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9 in select European countries, including Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. Customers in Sweden will be the first with a chance to buy the larger tablet, which is scheduled to arrive at the local mobile carrier TeliaSonera on June 29.
Europe's Committee of Ministers has recommended placing new limits on electromagnetic emission levels. This would include banning mobile phones and other devices from classrooms and schools. The new rules would also force Wi-Fi and cell transmission tower builders to consult with local authorities and interest groups before constructing any new towers.
Microsoft has confirmed that Spotify will soon be available for Windows Phone 7 handsets. The music streaming service, currently limited to European markets, is also being offered as an app for Microsoft's aging smartphones running Windows Mobile 6.
Nokia has expanded its X-series handsets to include the X2, an entry-level music phone. The candybar design integrates a 2.2-inch QVGA screen and dual speakers inside the 13mm-thick housing. Music-centric features include dedicated playback keys, FM stereo support, and a microSD slot for memory expansion up to 16GB.
The European Commission has initiated part of its new roaming regulations for cellular providers based in countries of the EU. As of Monday, carriers are now required to introduce cut-off mechanisms designed to protect against "bill shock" when subscribers utilize data services while traveling throughout countries in Europe.
The UK's Office of Fair Trading has asked to review the proposed merger between France Telecom SA and Deutsche Telekom AG’s British units. The two companies do business in the UK as Orange and T-Mobile, respectively. Currently the deal is being examined by the European Commission, which will rule on the request by March 1. A review by the British agency would most likely delay the merger until next year.
A multi-channel strategy is at least partly responsible for Apple's high fourth-quarter growth in Europe, says Pascal Cagni, Apple's general manager and VP for Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India. Whereas growth was 20 percent in the Americas and 25 percent worldwide, combined European revenues advanced 45 percent. Some $2.491 billion was accumulated in the region, as compared to the $4.297 billion produced in the Americas.
Several alleged screenshots from a Norwegian GameStop inventory system show what appears to be several 250GB PS3 bundles, according to Joystiq. The gaming systems have been paired with titles such as Need for Speed: Shift, FIFA 10, Uncharted 2, and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time.
The iPhone 3G S appears to be selling swiftly in the European market, with O2 anticipating 50-percent higher sales than the iPhone 3G launch. The carrier is observing a ten-fold increase in average foot traffic, with entry in prime locations limited to customers purchasing a new iPhone. Availability in Italy has been expanded, with a third carrier set to offer the devices.
Several European carriers, including Orange in France and T-Mobile in Germany, have announced pricing for the iPhone 3G S. The new handset will be available from Orange on June 19th, with the 16GB model carrying a price of €149 (~$205 USD). Customers choosing the 32GB variant will have to pay €229 (~$315 USD) for the device.
HTC has sent invitations to a press event to be held in London, UK, according to PhoneMag.com. The teaser simply reads "Come see..." but does not provide any additional details regarding the focus of the event. The company already announced the HTC Snap earlier this year, although a number of reports have provided details surrounding the Android-based Hero handset. The device is said to launch exclusively through Orange in Europe later this year.
Developing European Union guidelines could force Apple to adopt a more user- and environmentally-friendly approach to batteries, reports say. The legal body is currently in the process of drafting a "New Batteries Directive," which would expand on the present set of guidelines designed to make it easier to remove, dispose of and/or recycle old batteries. The present directive indicates that companies must make it simple to remove batteries from electronics; the proposed one would insist that batteries can be "readily removed" for replacement or disposal.
Select resellers are stocking a 4GB version of the new iPod nano, in spite of Apple's announced capacities, a report claims. Although the Nano is officially available only in 8 and 16GB versions, Dutch resellers HTR are said to be carrying a smaller model. A Belgian reseller, Lab9, suggests that Apple has released a limited number of 4GB players to resellers, which are generally being priced at €119.
The European Commission has ordered music copyright organizations to allow pan-European licensing schemes, says the Associated Press. At present, companies looking to sell music throughout Europe must negotiate agreements with 24 separate collecting societies, scattered throughout the European Union. While this may protect national industries and culture, the Commission has ruled that it also breaks antitrust regulations, giving the societies monopolies in their respective homelands.
The European Composer and Songwriter Alliance has come out against proposed changes to how online music royalties are collected, writes the Associated Press. The conflict stems from an ongoing investigation by the European Commission, aimed at addressing antitrust concerns relating to the lack of Europe-wide royalty schemes. The Commission notes that currently, national copyright agencies have effective monopolies in their respective regions; there is also a need to negotiate as many as 27 separate royalty schemes for an album, something which may be hampering the spread of European music.
Apple will likely allow carriers to subsidize the sales of the iPhone, but will lose a portion of the monthly revenue, a new report claims. Supporting previous reports of an expected carrier subsidy in the UK, The Financial Times says that the iPhone is set to be sold at significantly lower prices in both the US and Western Europe -- perhaps as much as $200 lower than the price of the current iPhone (available for $399 in the US). The move, the report claims, is a "tacit acknowledgement by the US technology company that its previous sales strategy was not sustainable," although may have been a necessary for Apple to hit its self-created 10 million iPhone sales target for the calendar year, the report claims.
The 3G broadband version of the iPhone should be on sale in at least some European countries before August, according to the New York Times. The newspaper cites an unidentified source "close to the situation," who says that the timing is connected to plans by Vodafone and Telecom Italia to release the phone across the continent. Specifically, Apple is said to want the 3G version on sale in new countries before the peak of the European vacation season, a time when many people might like to make use of functions such as the phone's mobile web browser.
Apple could be re-evaluating its iPhone exclusivity agreements in future global releases as it expands into Europe, Asia, Central, and South America. Spanish language news site CincoDias writes that the same business methodology that Apple used to successfully launch the iPhone in the US doesn't necessarily mean the approach works globally. The publication cites poor European sales – when contrasted to North American numbers – especially due to individuals compromising the device's exclusivity through alternative means.
In brief: We have a review of FileMaker's Bento, dates for the KORE 2 workshop tour have been announced, Zerofractal Studios has debuted Tree3D, European Country Keynote themes are available, and 1 million copies of Parallels have been sold ... We have posted a review of FileMaker's Bento. In Bento, you choose customizable forms and a number of containers, each with a specific use. Bento veers away from the more technical database jargon and refers to its databases as Collections in a library and compares them with iTunes playlists. Text entry boxes still use the term fields, like its big brother FileMaker, but Bento includes templates so that you can skip the frustrating design process completely.
Apple's general manager of operations in Europe, Pascal Cagni, has vowed that the company will improve sales of the iPhone on the continent. "We can incontestably do better in Europe," Cagni tells French newspaper Les Echos. While not completely disastrous, sales of the iPhone have been lower than expected in Europe, with France having only recently passed the 100,000 unit mark. Both Germany and the UK have slashed prices in order to boost sales, although this is likely to clear stock in advance of a 3G iPhone.
Apple is working to greatly expand the reach of its iTunes trademark, a filing at the European Trademark Office reveals. While Apple already owns multiple trademarks related to its combination music and video software, the new application would see the number of applicable categories jump from four to 19, making it extremely difficult for other companies to poach the name. Apple has in the past encountered conflicts with names such as "iPhone" or "iTV," due to other companies laying early claim. Problems with the latter resulted in the Apple TV.
Changes in the European iPhone market may have a dual significance, argue analysts with Piper Jaffray. Following a 75 percent price cut in Germany earlier this month, the UK has also slashed the price of the 8GB iPhone by 37 percent, to reach £169 ($335). Piper argues once again that this is a sign European carriers are attempting to clear out stock in advance of a 3G iPhone, anticipated for June; it may also however be emblematic of sales below expectations, a factor typically attributed to the iPhone's unusually high price in Europe, and a widespread acceptance of 3G that Apple cannot currently deliver on.
The European Parliament has voted to abolish a plan to permanently ban illegal filesharers, writes IDG News. Under the rules of the plan, those caught sharing copyrighted music, video and other material would have been prevented from even connecting to the Internet for unspecified amounts of time, possibly permanently. "The vote shows that MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) want to strike a balance between the interests of rights holders and those of consumers, and that big measures like cutting off Internet access shouldn't be used," according to EP spokeswoman Malene Folke Chaucheprat.
The European Trademark Office recently published 55 newly registered iPod icons, and were originally filed with Munich office of Bardehle, Pagenbert, Dost, Altenburg, and Geissler. The icons more or less cover the gamut of those offered by the iPod, relating to videos, podcasts, notes, iPod radio, games, voice memos, and the Nike+ sport system. The icons appear on current generation iPod nanos and Classics, as users navigate menus to examine their libraries, among other things.
The release of Apple's iPhone has helped to buoy the smartphone market in general, analysts pointed out at yesterday's Smartphone Summit in Las Vegas. Mark Donovan of M:Metrics observed that the number of American with smartphones doubled last year, reaching 14.6 million. This is notable not just because of previously lackluster sales, according to Donovan, but because it represents a faster growth rate than that for cellphones overall. As a gauge of the iPhone's influence, it is remarked that although 188 million Symbian phones have been sold since the OS' birth in 1999, Apple managed to sell 3.7 million iPhones in the space of six months during 2007.
The European Commission has approved the contribution of €99 million in French funding to a potential Google competitor, writes Agence France-Presse. The Quaero search engine project represents a collaboration between 23 different companies, including France's Thomson; it has not, however, so far found enough funding to get started, as its costs in the next five years are projected to be €199 million. The Commission itself has expressed doubts about Quaero, saying it "is not spontaneously underpinned by the market owing to divergent interests within the consortium and to uncertainties regarding the project's chances of success."
Apple has filed for a new trademark with the European Trademark Office, simply entitled Thinnovation. Apple has been using the term in slogans ever since it revealed the MacBook Air on January 15th, inserting it primarily into web and print advertising. These uses are the focus of the International Classifications in the trademark filing; the trademark would also apply to installation and maintenance, as well as educational and training purposes.
The end for Wi-Fi hotspots may already be in sight, claims the chief marketing officer of telecom multinational Ericsson. Speaking today at the European Computer Audit, Control and Security Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, Johan Bergendahl commented that at least in Europe, cellular broadband is growing so rapidly that it is surpassing any rate ever achieved by either mobile or fixed voice networks. "In Austria," says Bergendahl, "they are saying that mobile broadband will pass fixed broadband this year."
The prices of European Xbox 360s will be cut substantially as of March 14th, a new report claims. The account cites a number of "well-placed games industry sources," along with a variety of UK retailers, who together suggest that the quoted date will see prices fall by €50 across the continent. The cut is also said to be applicable to all versions of the 360, including the Arcade, the standard model, and the high-end Elite. The latter two consoles should for example cost approximately £150 and £240 in the UK.
(Updated with Belfast information) Apple is planning to open at least three new stores in Europe (Italian), according to one report citing an official Apple map. The Cupertino-based company is branching out with retail outlets in Monaco, Zurich, and Geneva. The stores are clearly marked on a company map that was recently updated, confirming rumors about a Monaco-based location. Apple has posted job listings for the three new stores, but has yet to specify opening dates or exact locations, according to Macitynet.it. [corrected]
The percentage Macs occupy in the US computer market should double within the next three years, a new analysis claims. The research firm Gartner is predicting that by 2011, Apple will control over 12 percent of US computer ownership, making the company a major player, if still likely to be dwarfed by Windows vendors Dell and HP. Market share is also expected to double for Apple in western Europe.
People are still paying too much for roaming data use in other countries, says Ofcom, the official regulator of media and telecommunications in the UK. The group is pressuring cellular carriers to reduce their charges within the European Union, which can sometimes be prohibitively expensive; Ofcom chief Ed Richards notes that last summer, the average roaming price for 1MB of data was £4.11. "It could cost tens of pounds to download a single PowerPoint presentation," Richards has told the Financial Times.
As a pan-European policy, telecom companies have no obligation to hand over the personal information of those accused of illegal downloading, the European Court of Justice has ruled. The decision is a response to a Spanish court, which requested guidance in a case involving Telefonica SA and Promusicae, a trade organization for film and music producers. The Associated Press writes that Promusicae had asked for the names and addresses of suspected file sharers, but as the ECJ is now arguing, there is no EU law requiring this information to be handed over for civil cases.
Within the next six months, music prices on the UK iTunes Store will drop to fall in line with other European countries, Apple has announced. The company notes that while iTunes pricing is already standardized between countries such as Germany, Ireland, Spain and Sweden, the UK has for some time paid greater song prices; Apple blames this on unnamed record labels, who it accuses of charging more for distribution in the UK than they do elsewhere. The company says it may "reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK" with labels that do not drop their own fees to the European standard.
Apple is expected to announce steps in the near future to resolve charges from the European Commission, which state that its iTunes Store violates EU law by offering varying pices on a country by country basis. Following the forthcoming announcement, the European Union regulator will likely announce the closure of the case, according to Reuters.
A new, formal complaint has been filed with the European Commission, directed against an anti-piracy levy present on the continent, Reuters reports. The complaint was made to Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, but neither he nor Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy could say who made the complaint, except that the party objected to "obstacles to the free movement of goods."
Like Canada, all but two countries of the European Union -- Britain and Ireland -- collect varying amounts on items such as blank CDs and MP3 players, the money from which is used to compensate for illegal copying. In France and Finland for instance, the levy helps pay for cultural activities.
Miglia today began shipping the TVMini2 digital tuning device designed specifically for Mac users, and announced new promotions for European as well as UK customers looking to purchase iMacs. The TVMini2 features a stylish ultra-slim design to serve as the smallest USB device of its kind available, according to Miglia. It slots neatly into a USB 2.0 port, without blocking any other ports/outlets, including the MagSafe on MacBook Pro systems. Miglia's TVMini2 is priced at £60 in the UK or €80 for European customers.
Apple's iPod and iPhone rank among the top gadgets so far this holiday season in Europe, according to a comScore study designed to track the frequency of online searches. The firm studied 20 different models of gadgets from the game console, mobile phone, and portable music player markets across the UK, France, and Germany during the first three weeks of November. The study found that Apple's iPod is the second most popular item with 3.5 million searches, while the company's iPhone is the fifth most searched device.
The DVB-H (digital video broadcasting, handheld) format championed by Nokia is now ratified as Europe's standard for portable digital TV, the European Commission says today. Although the continent-wide organization had chosen the format in the summer, a vote by European Union members voted in favor of choosing the standard. This will demand that any cellphone, computer, or other device made for mobile TV in these countries must use the format for their networks. Such a decision will avoid fragmenting the market and encourage companies to develop hardware knowing they can ship a large amount and reduce the overall price, the EC says.
