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Angry Birds downloads soar past 100 million across all platforms
During a panel at this past weekend's South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Rovio exec Peter Vesterbacka told attendees that the company's bird-flinging pig terrorizer, Angry Birds, has been downloaded over 100 million times. As Vesterbacka revealed during GDC, more than 30 million of those downloads have been of the game's freemium Android version, and both the lite and paid versions topped 2010's iOS charts. Since its release on PSN in January, Angry Birds has also dominated PlayStation Minis sales. So many scared pigs! During his presentation, Vesterbacka went on to make a somewhat dubious claim, however, saying, "Tablets are killing consoles. Four generations of new tablets come before a new console, if one ever comes." While hardware iteration of tablets has certainly been speedier than that of consoles, we don't see tablets "killing" the home console market anytime soon. Nokia interim VP of services Tero Ojanpera apparently agrees with us, as he countered Vesterbacka by arguing that, despite the iPad 2's ability to output 1080p video, most folks won't ever plug their tablet devices into their televisions. Not to mention, Vesterbacka and company recently hired Remedy co-founder Petri Järvilehto to spearhead Angry Birds expansion to consoles. "We want to make Angry Birds a long-lasting global gaming franchise, and we see the console platforms as a way of delivering an even more entertaining, powerful and involving experience," Rovio CEO Mikael Hed said last month in an announcement of the company's intention "to take the Angry Birds success story to current and emerging console platforms."
Nokia execs reshuffled in Microsoft-centered Elopcalypse
Pardon us while we catch our breath... Nokia's bombshell of an announcement's going to require some serious internal tinkering to execute upon the new strategy. As such, there's a big-time reorganization effort being kicked off today in order to accelerate the company towards its new goals. Here are some of the highlights: Nokia's "applications and content store" (Ovi) will be integrated into Microsoft Marketplace Nokia Maps will be at the heart of Microsoft's Bing and AdCenter Microsoft will provide developer tools to Nokia (So no Qt?) Symbian is now described as a "franchise platform" with Nokia planning to sell 150 million Symbian devices into the future MeeGo emphasis will be on longer-term exploration with plans to ship "a MeeGo-related product" later this year (not products) The new leadership team that will drive the effort consists of Stephen Elop, Esko Aho, Juha Akras, Jerri DeVard, Colin Giles, Rich Green, Jo Harlow, Timo Ihamuotila, Mary McDowell, Kai Oistamo, Tero Ojanpera, Louise Pentland and Niklas Savander. Unsurprisingly, Alberto Torres, former head of MeeGo, has quit. Here are some of the key execs: Jo Harlow becomes the gal at the center of the Nokia's Elopcalypse with Smart Devices responsibility for Symbian smartphones, "MeeGo Computers," and Strategic Business Operations. Mary McDowell will drive the Mobile Phones division focusing on growth markets. Marko Ahtisaari will lead up design efforts Tero Ojanpera will lead Services and Developer Experience Niklas Savendar owns Markets Rich Green will head the CTO Office responsible for Nokia's technology strategy and related forward-looking activities So really, Nokia is maintaining most of its executive staff, unlike the rumors coming into today.
Nokia reshuffles management looking for gold
We're not alone in grumbling about Nokia. Investors are miffed -- to put it gently -- over Nokia's inability to ignite the industry (and profits) with innovative, high-margin handset sales since the launch of Apple's iPhone some three years ago. And let's not forget about that feisty upstart Google, Microsoft's revamped Windows Phone OS, or HP's new-found love for mobile devices. Investor unrest was made clear last week as Nokia shareholders gave CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo an earful. But as slow moving as Nokia can be, it's not immune to the situation by any stretch. Following up on its announcement to combine services and devices, we now have details about Nokia's planned re-org, the second in seven months. The goal, as described by OPK, is as follows: "Nokia's new organizational structure is designed to speed up execution and accelerate innovation, both short-term and longer-term." The heat will be on Anssi Vanjoki (pictured) to deliver as he'll be assuming responsibility for the Mobile Solutions group on July 1st. That gives him direct control of Nokia's MeeGo Computers (led by Alberto Torres), Symbian Smartphones (headed by Jo Harlow), and Ovi Services (led by Tero Ojanpera) -- the holy trifecta that interests us the most. Mary McDowell will head the Mobile Phones unit while Niklas Savander will head up the Markets unit. The loser in all of this appears to be Richard Simonson, the former CFO currently leading the Mobile Phones unit, but soon to be retired. Full press release after the break.
Nokia's Comes with Music service revenue to be shared with operators
Remember Nokia's Comes with Music (CWM) service? The service which includes a full year of free DRM'd music downloads with the purchase of a CWM cellphone. Up to this point, Nokia has refused to comment on the financial details of the service. Important since "free" is expected to be anything but free with those music costs tucked neatly into the price of the handset, the carrier's data plan, or both. In an interview published by Bloomberg, Tero Ojanpera, Nokia Executive VP, discussed CWM and says that, "In those cases where we cooperate with operators, there will be an arrangement so they can get a piece." Something previously hinted at by Nokia's CEO back in December. Still no word on who, beyond Universal, will offer their music on the new service or how much the new bundled handsets will cost. Ojanpera did repeat that CWM won't be available on existing Nokia devices. For its part, Universal says that DRM is a definite component of the service -- a possible deal-breaker if that DRM limits your CWM downloads to a single handset and PC for eternity.
Nokia's Comes with Music revenue to be shared with operators
Remember Nokia's Comes with Music (CWM) service? The service which includes a full year of free DRM'd music downloads with the purchase of a CWM cellphone. Up to this point, Nokia has refused to comment on the financial details of the service. Important since "free" is expected to be anything but free with those music costs tucked neatly into the price of the handset, the carrier's data plan, or both. In an interview published by Bloomberg, Tero Ojanpera, Nokia Executive VP, discussed CWM and says that, "In those cases where we cooperate with operators, there will be an arrangement so they can get a piece." Something previously hinted at by Nokia's CEO back in December. Still no word on who, beyond Universal, will offer their music on the new service or how much the new bundled handsets will cost. Ojanpera did repeat that CWM won't be available on existing Nokia devices. For its part, Universal says that DRM is a definite component of the service -- a possible deal-breaker if that DRM limits your CWM downloads to a single handset and PC for eternity.
Nokia changes its tune on touchscreens. Entirely.
In a complete reversal of its "not enthusiastic" stance on touchscreens voiced last week by Antti Vasara, the company's General Manager of Mobile Devices, Nokia has come out in favor of that completely unproven little technology. "Optical sensors and touch will be the next big things," said Nokia Chief Technology Officer Tero Ojanpera today, in the leadup to the CommunicAsia telecom fair. "I believe there will be a lot of innovation around these." Apparently he didn't get the "people don't like touchscreens" memo. And it's really too bad that Nokia's still waiting for demand to pep up before jumping into those scary waters, it'd be a shame to miss out on the "next big thing."
