Digital Media News (week 20)
Date:
08 May 2012
Weekly bulletin collating public sector, industry and company news for creative industries by David Hartley.
Public sector
From Creative Industries KTN
"Planning to attend Apple's World Wide Developers Conference (10-15 June) or Google's I/O Developer Conference (27-29 June)? Let UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) help you learn and connect with MORE App experts and platforms in just one visit!
UKTI plans to host the Multi-Platform App Developer Mission during the week of 18-22 June 2012 conveniently scheduled in the week between AWWDC (10-15 June) and Google I/O (27-29 June)."
Local industry news
From The Next Web
"Scottish online daily photo journal Blipfoto has secured second stage seed funding, bringing total investment to £300,000 ($485,000) and has announced that Ian Ritchie is to join as its chairman. The second round of investment comes from its private investment group and the Scottish Investment Bank Seed Fund. Ritchie, who is chair of a number of technology businesses, including iomart and the Interactive Design Institute, will now head up Blipfoto’s board as the company looks to manage its growth with eyes on the overseas market".
From scottishgames.net
"There’s a new hedgehog on the block, which could mean Sonic’s days as a highly overrated platform star, may be numbered. Thor is the star of a new Android game from the team at Glovik games, in Edinburgh."
General industry
From The Telegraph
"Microsoft’s investment in Nook values the Barnes & Noble subsidiary at $1.7 billion - £400million more than B&N itself. Matt Warman says it’s the way the book industry is going ... Microsoft's investment of $300million for a 17.6 per cent stake in the Nook business values the subsidiary at $1.7 billion. William Lynch, chief executive of Barnes and Noble, said the $300m will go 'mostly to fund international roll-out' of digital stores and develop Nook software for Windows."
From Tech Crunch
"Facebook announced today that it’s making money on mobile for everyone else by pouring traffic into their apps. Facebook says it drove 160 million visitors and 1.1 billion visits to third-party apps last month, up from 60 million visitors and 320 million visits in February. And now seven of the top 10 grossing iOS apps and six of the top Android apps integrate it to power discovery and virality."
From the BBC
"Filmmakers have long tried to use the web to promote their movies. Some of Hollywood's brightest minds are now trying to move the idea on further and have started to embrace new online methods of crafting creative ways to tell entirely new types of story. Mark Cieslak talks to Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead Director Edgar Wright about his online project the Random Adventures of Brandon Generator which lets the audience influence the outcome."
From paidcontent:UK
"Hoping to spark both the suddenly sagging U.S. TV market and Google’s struggling Android-based TV platform at the same time, consumer electronics maker LG has confirmed that it will release in the U.S. two new smart TV models based on Google TV software later in May ... New Google TV devices are also expected from Samsung, Vizio and Sony later this year, with Sony expected to expand the platform into Europe in September."
From gamesindustry.biz
"Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts and current CEO of Digital Chocolate, says mobile app developers will be forced to turn to publishers once again as app stores become too crowded. In a video interview with BigWorld Technology at GDC 2012, Hawkins explained that virtual shelf space on app stores is already at a premium."
Reports
From Tech Crunch
"The mobile industry will reel in more than $1.5 trillion in revenues in 2012, with 28 percent of that, $400 billion, attributable to mobile data, according to new research out from analyst Chetan Sharma. He notes that within the revenues expected for mobile data, non-messaging revenues led by apps, mobile web browsing and streaming media have finally overtaken those of traditional messaging like SMS."
From The Next Web
"The Publishers Association (PA), the UK trade organisation serving book, journal, audio and electronic publishers, has today published its annual Statistics Yearbook for 2011, revealing that consumer e-book sales grew by more than three times (366%) last year, hitting £92m. Moreover, as Bookseller reports, sales across all digital formats accounted for 8% of all books in terms of value."
From The Next Web
"A quarter of all TV sets shipped globally in 2011 were Internet-connected, a figure that is predicted to rise to almost 70% by 2016, according to a new report by market research and consultancy firm IMS Research… It’s thought that the growing shift towards connected TVs will result in more than $117bn in revenues... “Internet connectivity is becoming a standard on high-end TV sets, and it’s increasingly being added to mid-end televisions,” says Veronica Thayer, market analyst, IMS Research, and author of the Connected TV Sets – World – 2012 report."
Compiled by David Hartley