Gotel Jamaica on a comeback?

Wireless News,Jamaica -Gotel Jamaica, the fixed wireless company which started up in wake of the post Cable & Wireless landline monopoly, then died, is gunning for a comeback. Insider sources tells TechWatch Caribbean, that they are planning to come back into the game to offer mobile and internet services and under the same name.
BUT:They have a lot of badwill on their books for bad service and that's for those who actually got the service at all. There are many who are still waiting for their service after putting in applications.
More on Gotel coming.

Online music comeback kid snags half million subscriptions

Online Music News,USA -Napster the punished pioneer of online peer-to-peer music sharing has made a comback and now bosts half a million in subscriptions and claims US$100 Million on its balance sheet.
Bouyed by their numbers and expectant about the future of the company, Napster also added that their subsciption figures do nnot include the 50,000-plus college students who subscribe though Napster's campus program.

Motorola digs deeper into IPTV trend

IP TV News, USA- Motorola announced that it has bought the Swedish IPTV Set-Top Box Company Kreatel, making it clear that they intend become a majot player in the Internet TV space.
The acquisition of Swedish company Kreatel will add European customers and give Motorola control over Kreatel's set-top boxes which allow phone and cable companies to offer broadcast TV, V-O-D and other services over Internet networks.
Motorola competes against Scientific-Atlanta, which was bought out by Cisco Systems, an American internet networking company late last year for US$6.9 billion to tap into the growing market for Internet TV.
N.B. The Jamaican Internet TV flag is currently being carried by Firestream, www.firestream.tv/iptv/ which is a joint project by Aura Technologies and DC Digital.

Domain name sex.com sells for US$14 million

Internet News, US - Sex sells period and when it's online real estate in the form of a domain name, it sold for US$14 Million. The controversial domain name was sold to Boston-based Escom LLC from the former owner Gary Kremen's company,Grant Media. Note well that sex in its many manifestations have still been the most profitable revenue earner online since people been using the net worldwide.

Techies join in on the Jamaican tshirt industry boom

Digital Lifestyle News,Jamaica-Over the last two years The Jamaican tshirt industry has been booming,with over a dozen new tshirt labels throwing their vnecks and roundnecks into the competive ring. Jamaican techies have joined in.
Without questions the drop in the cost of software and computers have made the barrier to entry low, with the only obstacles being creativity and marketing savvy. While most of the shirts being bilboards for Jamaican culture,songs and slangs,the techies are doing their own thing invoking sayings from the digital culture. One of the first is a Systems Administrator and Linux Group User called Dale. This is a sampling of his stuff.

How many iPods does it take to make an Apple Happy ?

Apple News-...14 million to be exact. And that's how many iPods, the American company Apple sold in the last quarter of 2005, the happy Apple Chief Steve Jobs announced at MacWorld this week. This figure is a leap from the 4.5 million sold in the same period of 2004 and includes the eight million of the new video iPods launched October 12 last year. Additionally, the number of iPods sold far exceeded the 1.25 million Macintosh computers sold in the same quarter.

Ain't it pretty!

iPod News - As cool as this thing looks, and although JBL would like you to believe otherwise, we're pretty sure the JBL On Time ($TBD) doesn't do time travel. What we are pretty sure of is that it kicks ass. It features halo acoustics that provide 360 degrees of great sound, a large, backlit LCD, an iPod Universal Dock,an alarm clock, AM/FM radio, a line-in for other audio products, and the coolest habitat yet for an iPod. More Pics after the jump.
Source: gizmodo and uncrate.

Kingston public WiFi hotspots update

Wifi News-These are the public WiFi Hotspots we know of in Kingston, most are free, I believe the hotspot in the airport is for a fee. Check them out:Indies Bar & Grill on Holbord Road, Café What's On at Devon House. Casson's the English Pub at Braemar Avenue,Christopher's Jazz Café at The Quad, Cuddyz in New Kingston Shopping Centre,Häagen-Dazs in Losushan Shopping Centre, Norman Manley Int'l Airport-Departure terminal.

And now it's 1.5bn mobile phones worldwide

Mobile News- The growth in the number of mobile-phone subscribers is nothing short of spectacular. In 1990 there were just over 11m of them worldwide. Today almost 1.5 billion consumers own mobile phones of various shapes and sizes.Source: moconews

Mobile Marketing Making Money

Mobile News-Marketing through the "mobile channel," or the mobile phone, has turned into a multibillion-dollar industry and here are the numbers to prove it. At the end of 2005,there were three million U.S. and six million European users who opted in or registered to receive marketing information over their mobiles.
Add to that,some 15 percent of the 350 billion text or SMS messages transmitted monthly are marketing messages, according to Yankee Group, an industry research firm. What the research also found was that most of his opt-in subscribers are 18 to 34 years old and are interested in receiving exclusive news, coupons and content.
source: moconews

The American Growth Trend of VOIP

VOIP News, US/JA - The number of residential net phone subscribers in the US is set to grow from three million in 2005 to 27 million by 2009,according to data released by IDC,an American market intelligence firm.
Home subscribers will lead growth in the VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) market, IDC said, as leading traditional service providers start rolling out net phone offerings. The company noted that the technology is finally starting to overcome what has so far been a trend of slow growth.
And the growth trend is reflected in Jamaica. The race already is on - We have Caribbean Net Talk,Netstream Global,Cable & Wireless's Net Speak,Televoice,Netvoice and Merit Communication's triple play called Flow.
IDC's release also said that lower calling rates is what's attracting customers to net phone plans but carriers will have to educate consumers about the features and functions of services to avoid a pricing war, the company said. This could mean offering converged services in the future.
"VoIP must prove that it is more than just a cheap replacement for [traditional phone] service," William Stofega, senior analyst at IDC,said in the released statement. "To do this, carriers will need to offer services that are compelling and affordable. The winners will use the flexibility of IP to design services that differentiate themselves from their competitors."
FYI: In Europe ,VoIP subscribers multiply from 2.2 mln in 2004 to 27.8 mln in 2008

So you want to make money from ring tones

MObile News, USA - Well here's a breakdown on who makes money and how much from the sale of a ring tone.MocoNews,a mobile news blog shares the detailed breakdown of the revenue share arrangements in mobile master tones in U.S.
The example shows how the sale of 50 Cent "Candy Shop" master tone might break down, based on a retail price of US$2.50:
-A carrier like Verizon typically receives about $1.12,or 45 percent.
-The parent label receives about $1,or 40 percent of the total,and out of that pays the artist a royalty. At an estimated 18 percent royalty,50 Cent would receive about 29 cents.
-The publishers collectively receive about 25 cents,or 10 percent. From that share, the writers are each estimated to receive between 9 cents and 11 cents.
-Performance societies like the American Society of Composers,Authors and Publishers,would receive an estimated 3.5 percent of the total,or roughly 9 cents.
Source: moconews