asia-pacific
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Netflix releases worldwide subscriber stats by region for the first time
For the first time, Netflix is reporting its international business operating results by region. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Netflix shared its streaming revenue and membership info for the US and Canada; Europe, Middle East and Africa; Asia-Pacific and Latin America. This change in how Netflix reports its earnings data highlights how important markets outside the US have become -- especially as Netflix faces new competition.
Release dates roll in for World of Tanks Xbox 360 Edition
I see tanks of green, Red tanks too. I see them boom for me and you. And I think to myself What a wonderful World of Tanks. In related news, Wargaming.net's World of Tanks Xbox 360 Edition hits retail on August 12 in North and South America, August 14 in the Asia-Pacific region, and August 29 in Europe. The "Combat Ready Starter Pack," as it's subtitled, is priced $20/£16 and it comes with extras detailed here, including a Panzer 38H Tier 2 German light tank. Must be a big box.
iPhone 5 worldwide sales sorted by region
Sameer Singh of TechThoughts did some number crunching to break down iPhone sales based on geographic location. He approximated shipments for sales and looked at the US, UK, Japan and Asia-Pacific in his analysis. Not surprisingly, he found that demand for the iPhone peaks in the launch quarter and then declines in the subsequent quarters. This trend is seen in the US, UK, Japan and even in Asia-Pacific, which is surprising. Asian-Pacific countries like China are considered to be emerging markets with a large, untapped reservoir of customers. You would expect sales to continue to grow and not reach saturation in one quarter. Singh hypothesizes that the iPhone 5's high price tag is limiting its expansion in China, and claims that the smartphone growth in that region will be driven by low-cost, entry-level handsets. In the past, Apple has been unfazed by results suggesting the iPhone won't successfully break into emerging markets. Tim Cook repeatedly has said in Apple's quarterly earnings conference call that he believes customers will pay more for the high-quality design and improved performance of the iPhone. Cook also pointed out Apple offers the older models of the iPhone at discounted prices. Even though they are a year or two old, the lower-priced iPhones usually offer a better set of features than their entry-level Android counterparts.
ZTE launching Grand X LTE on China Mobile in Hong Kong
ZTE's LTE-capable version of its Grand X smartphone will arrive on China Mobile's GSM network at the end of this month. The Grand X LTE (T82) is the company's first single-chip LTE handset, coming with a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 8-megapixel rear camera and Ice Cream Sandwich. It'll arrive in Hong Kong on August 31st, setting locals hack HK$3,180, before being rolled out to the rest of Asia-Pacific from Q3.
Facebook and others invest in 6,214-mile Asia-Pacific undersea internet cable, friend request lag to plummet
It's almost become a truism that internet connections from the Asia-Pacific region to the rest of the world can be slow and lag-ridden, but that assumption is about to be knocked flat if Facebook and others in a Time Dotcom-led consortium have their way. The alliance is investing a combined $450 million into the Asia Pacific Gateway, a 6,214-mile undersea cable that will run between Japan, Malaysia and South Korea. The fiber optic pipe will not only help reduce the need to route large volumes of traffic through Singapore but, in many cases, send much of that traffic straight to American shores -- a big help when Facebook and much of the web industry still hosts most of its content on the Eastern side of the ocean. Although faster speeds won't be in place until the summer of 2014, by which point the more direct connections might be absolutely necessary, it still gives hope to those of us who want to poke friends and upload photos in record time.
Huawei's LTE mobile WiFi gear coming to Europe and Asia Pacific by July, for all the use it is
Huawei's capping off the good week it had at MWC by announcing that its 4G Wireless Network Card (E3276) and Mobile WiFi (E5776) will arrive in Europe and Asia Pacific by July 2012. Of course, only Germany, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Finland in Europe and Japan in Asia have fully working LTE networks. We're not so sure if the company's also committing to a launch window for its similarly enabled phones but it wouldn't be unreasonable to hope that we'll see those turn up around the same time. If you want more details, you should know where to go by now.
SWTOR launches in the Asia Pacific region
Jury-rigged methods to create an Oceanic server are needed no longer: Star Wars: The Old Republic has officially launched -- a day early! -- in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. BioWare is offering both the standard and digital deluxe version (the latter through Origin) for sale to interested space jockeys. The prices for both the client and subscriptions are in step with what we've seen from the North American and European product. Asia Pacific players who not only jump on board but either subscribe or use a 60-day game card by the end of April will also receive a Founder's Medal, which grants an in-game title. BioWare is aware that many players in these countries have already begun to play on NA servers, and as such the studio is offering a "limited-time opportunity" to transfer for free to a local server in late April. Entire guild transfers, however, will not be possible. The SWTOR FAQ page has more information about the transfer process and payment methods available.
Google to build a trio of data centers in Asia, earmarks $200 million for expansion
IT specialists in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong better start polishing their resumes, because Google is rolling into town. Yesterday, Big G announced plans to build a brand new data center in each of the three Asian locales, as part of an expansion slated to cost at least $200 million. When completed, these complexes will represent the company's first fully owned and operated data centers in the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region -- where, according to Asia policy communications manager Taj Meadows, Google is "seeing large numbers of new users coming online every day". The facilities in Hong Kong and Taiwan are expected to cost around $100 million each, though the price tag for the Singapore branch remains a mystery. Big G hopes to finish construction in one to two years, though it didn't say when it would begin -- nor, for that matter, whether seawater tunnels would be involved.
Apple's Asia-Pacific profits reportedly soaring
Apple might be growing in the US thanks to brisk sales of the MacBook Air and the expansion of the iPhone 4 to Verizon Wireless, but in Asia-Pacific, the Cupertino company is exploding. Over the past five years, Apple's revenue has climbed from US$14 billion in 2005 to $64 billion in 2010. During that time, international revenue grew a staggering 727%, while US revenue grew 268%. Profit showed a similar trend with Asia-Pacific increasing by a whopping 2,991% in the last five years. US profit also grew, but only at a comparatively small rate of 682%. This upward trend is expected to continue in the current 2011 fiscal year. Last year, Apple reported $8.25 billion in sales to the Asia-Pacific region. We are half way through this year and Apple has already reached $5 billion in sales. Its sales are expected to quadruple year-over-year, and Apple hasn't even tapped into China's lucrative mobile phone market. Apple sells the iPhone through China Unicom, which has 170 million subscribers (a number that pales in comparison with 600 million subscribers on China Mobile). Overall, China has over 900 million mobile phone users. If Apple could produce an iPhone for China Mobile and China Telecom, its resulting revenue and profits could go off the charts.
Intel Core i5-580M and Core i7-640M highlight Sony's Asian laptop refresh
Sony's decided to litter its Asian portal with a smattering of blood-red "coming soon" signs, signifying an unannounced but seemingly very real wave of laptop refreshes. The F Series gets to play with NVIDIA's new 425M mobile GPU, but the real hotness is to be found in the Z Series, which get access to 2.8GHz Core i7-640M and 2.66GHz Core i5-580M CPU options from Intel. You'll recognize both as mostly roadmap fodder until now, and they're joined by the i5-560M, which makes its debut on a couple of Sony's midrange consumer lines. Basically, it's a whole lot of new silicon in what look like the same old enclosures, but that's not going to stop us from speccing out a Quad SSD-equipped VAIO Z just for the fun of it. We can probably expect these upgrades to journey westward soon as well, so why not hit the source link for a little bit of advance reconnaissance? [Thanks, Wes]
Motorola Milestone to get Android 2.2 in Europe and Korea in late Q4, Dext 2.1 upgrade looking bleak
Until now, Milestone owners could do nothing but to envy Droid users rocking the Froyo upgrade; however, according to Motorola's recently published timeline, the former device is now slated for the same dessert party in Europe and Korea in Q4 -- specifically, "beginning at the end of this year," which could well mean the majority of users won't get the update until 2011 (!). Meanwhile, said upgrade is still "under evaluation" for Canada, Latin America, Mexico and Asia-Pacific sans Korea. But here's the real heartbreaking news from the same chart: unlike their American counterparts, the Dext and Backflip will not be getting an Eclair update in Europe, Latin American and Mexico, while Canada and Asia-Pacific still have a glimpse of hope. Sure, it's not like Motorola's earlier timeline laid any concrete details for the European Dext, but there was definitely a date for the Latin America flavor. What concerns us the most is that back in January, Motorola did make a promise -- which has since been deleted but forever cached by Google -- to its European fans on Facebook: "[the] Dext will get the Android 2.1 upgrade as well." We have the full shameful statement after the break. In case you still care, other devices mentioned in the timeline include the US-only Devour (no 2.1 update), Cliq XT / Quench (2.1 in late Q3 / early Q4; under evaluation for Canada and Asia-Pacific), Droid X (Froyo upgrade in late summer, which we knew), Motoroi and Titanium (2.2 in Q4 in Korea for both). If you're still mourning over the canned update for your Dext, let us remind you that there's no stopping you from updating your Android slider manually; alternatively, there's no harm in sending Sanjay a nice postcard, either. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Update: Miraculously, the offending Facebook status link is now back online...
Skype VP says company isn't developing software for Windows Phone 7 (Update: it's 'on the roadmap')
Consider the bombshell dropped. Skype, the godfather of VoIP apps and an increasingly ubiquitous piece of mobile as well as desktop software, has just let it be known that it's not planning on bringing its goodies to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 OS. Dan Neary, the company's Vice President for the Asia Pacific region, said that it's "not developing software for the new Windows Mobile software due later this year," but seemed reluctant to expand on the reasons why. Perhaps, like Mozilla, the Skype devs felt they weren't getting access to the right tools. Whatever the reason, this would be a major competitive disadvantage for Microsoft's great new hope on the mobile front, which is already expected to launch with a few things missing. Then again, we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves as this isn't an official renouncement from Skype, merely a statement of the status quo -- and from a regional exec at that. All we can take away from it for now is that the road ahead looks a bit bumpier than before for WP7. Update: Looks like this quote might've been taken out of context. MobileTechWorld followed up and learned that while Dan Neary left out Windows Mobile and Windows Phone from a list of currently supported platforms (which makes sense, since one is dying and the other isn't out yet), he said Windows Phone 7 "is on the roadmap." The question seems to be more of a "when" than an "if" they'll start building it.
iBookstore expanding internationally ... eventually
The announcement of the iBookstore wasn't particularly surprising -- analysts had expected such a move from Apple for months. What was somewhat surprising was that as of the initial announcement of the iPad and its tie-in with the iBookstore, there were no announced plans for international versions of Apple's e-book marketplace. Up until today, the only officially announced venue for the iBookstore has been the United States. According to MacRumors, a new job listing has been posted on Apple's website for "Manager, iBooks Asia Pacific & Canada." Part of the managerial position's role includes being "the primary person responsible for building the book business in Asia Pacific and Canada" -- for now, "Asia Pacific" is only loosely defined as "Australia, New Zealand, and other countries." It stands to reason that Apple will eventually want to expand its iBookstore to all markets currently served by the iTunes Store, but as MacRumors notes, no job postings have yet appeared for Europe, Asia, or other regions. Considering how prohibitively expensive paper books are here in New Zealand, I'm greatly looking forward to the launch of the iBookstore. In the US, ebooks generally aren't priced competitively compared to their paper cousins (something I've never been able to comprehend), but in the South Pacific, ebooks are very attractive alternatives to paperbacks, which can cost upwards of NZ$20 each. Once the iBookstore makes it down here, Apple has at least one guaranteed customer -- as long as the iBookstore isn't restricted solely to the iPad, that is. [Via MacRumors]
Sony Ericsson gets real with PlayNow Kiosk mobile entertainment service
Sony Ericsson is trying just about anything to garner revenue during these less-than-stable economic times, but we just can't imagine this one gaining any sort of traction worth gloating about. Nearly a year to the day after PlayNow Arena broke cover, SE is officially rolling out PlayNow Kiosk in the Asia Pacific region. Put as simply as possible, these kiosks will be situated in over 80 Sony Ericsson stores in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia (during the first wave of rollouts), and users wielding SE handsets can plug in to browse / download TV shows, games, ringtones and music. Details around exact content choices and pricing are still being kept under wraps, but so long as our favorite EMF tracks is on there, you'll see nothing but smiles from us.[Image courtesy of Canada]
Fujitsu Asia Pacific intros the L1010
Like your laptops available in soft, colorful tones? Looking for something a bit entry level? Fujitsu may have just the thing for you. The company has just introduced its L1010 mid-priced laptop (in Asia, at least), and it looks like just the right thing if you're not trying to break the bank or win friends and influence others. The L1010 packs a Core 2 Duo CPU atop the PM45/GM45 Express Chipset, a 1280 x 800, 14.1-inch LCD display, an NVIDIA 9300M GS graphics card with 256MB of RAM, WiFi, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, and HDMI outs. The laptops come in white and pink gold, black, turquoise blue, pink and purple color configurations, though the press release somehow fails to make mention of RAM or hard drive options. Fujitsu is mum on price and release date, but we'd say not too expensive, and fairly soon.[Via iTech News Net]
Sony intros unsightly BRAVIA T Series HDTVs in Asia-Pacific
Whoa there, Sony. Usually your designs are fairly impressive -- sleek, if nothing else -- but this all new BRAVIA T Series is most certainly not pretty. Boasting "powerful side speakers with a choice of Dual Tweeters or a 3D Woofer [saywha?] with side duct for a complete entertainment experience," these sets sacrifice style in order to flank a set of speakers on the side of the panel. For those that can look beyond it, you'll find a BRAVIA Engine 2, Intelligent Picture and MPEG Noise Reduction, with models ranging from 19- to 32-inches. The new range is scheduled to hit the Asia-Pacific market next month for undisclosed prices -- not like you'll be inquiring anyway, right?[Via SonyInsider]
IAHGames changes Granado Espada model again - returning to free-play
After announcing that Korean MMOG, Granado Espada, would be commercial on 30 August, 2007, Asia-Pacific operators IAHGames have announced that the MMO will be free-to-play at some (as yet) unannounced date in the Asia-Pacific region in the very near future (The game is, as we understand it, already free-to-play in North America, having gone free-to-play on 21 August 2007). That's Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Granado Espada (also known in North America as Sword of the New World, where it is operated by K2 Network), won the 2006 Korean awards for Best Graphics, and for Game of the Year. Reviews and responses in North America have been more mixed, but Granado Espada does provide some interesting departures from more regular MMO fare.
O2 reducing Asia Pacific presence, to eventually withdraw?
Though it doesn't even operate any networks of its own in the region, O2's Asia Pacific outpost has been known to release (or tease us with) some of the more lustworthy Windows Mobile devices out there. They apparently aren't lustworthy enough, though, with DigiTimes reporting that O2 is looking to reduce its footprint in that part of the world or -- horror of horrors -- withdraw altogether. The company has apparently stopped placing orders and taking delivery of existing ones from its Asian ODMs -- Quanta, Gigabyte, and Arima -- a pretty solid reversal from its recent trumpeting of four new Windows Mobile-based models for the second half of the year. O2 naturally claims that it's simply "adjusting its product strategy" and has no plans to withdraw, but with no new hardware in the pipe, what else could it possibly mean?[Via the::unwired]
