Sony Ericsson takes cues from Apple, RIM app store pricing
Sony Ericsson opened its PlayNow Arena app store to developers, taking elements from both Apple and Blackberry maker Research In Motion’s pricing models.
The company is sharing 70 percent of revenues after taxes and service charges, mirroring Apple. However, it’s setting a minimum price for paid apps of about 3 euros across euro-zone countries and 3 pounds in the U.K. Following in Research in Motion’s footsteps, the price floor is conceivably a protection against shoddy apps… Continue Reading
Live blogging: Microsoft’s E3 2008 press conference — partnership with Netflix announced
[updated]
Here’s an updated view of the Microsoft press conference. Summary: Microsoft made progress tearing down the old Sony hegemony, but it’s not chipping away much at Nintendo’s newfound dominance.
The Final Fantasy series (except for 11) was a Sony exclusive for many years. Now Microsoft has knocked that out, to some degree, by winning over Square Enix to make Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360, at least in Europe and the U.S. That’s just as… Continue Reading
Sony now streaming music for free on imeem
Sony BMG has become the latest music label to offer its entire music and video catalog for free streaming on imeem, a Web site focused on letting users share music playlists.
Warner Music Group did the same in July (our coverage). The deal is significant because it represents one more fissure in the once united stance among music labels to stick with a paid model and digital rights management. Increasingly, music is being streamed for free,… Continue Reading
Publishers move to split ebooks into pieces
Ever wondered what happened to the promise of the ebook?
In the ‘90s, when the Internet took hold in a big way, publishers half-heartedly looked to ebooks — electronic versions books as a way to boost sales.
The efforts generally failed, due to poor reading devices, customer reluctance to pay full retail prices for digital versions, and overly cumbersome DRM and competing document standards that restricted ebook portability from one reading device to another.
Even today, while… Continue Reading