Spencer Platt | Getty Images News

According to sources close to the situation, Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz and Accel Partners’ Kevin Efrusy will be stepping down from the board of Groupon.

Schultz’s departure will be effective today, but Efrusy — who was critical to the initial funding around the Chicago-based daily deals site — will not be standing for re-election at the company’s annual meeting in June.

The departures are voluntary, but sources said the pair will be replaced by two new directors with significantly more fiscal oversight experience, whom one source characterized as “accounting types.”

(Update: Groupon just posted a press release noting the board departures, with the names of the new board pencil pushers: Daniel Henry, CFO of American Express, and Deloitte Vice Chairman Robert Bass. Henry joins immediately in Schultz’s place. Full press release below.)

It is a move that is critical, given Groupon’s recent series of missteps around its financial reporting that have hurt both its reputation and, more importantly, its stock.

Interestingly, several sources noted that Schultz almost left the board right before Groupon’s public offering last fall, after several ongoing disputes with its management, but stayed on so as not to scuttle its IPO.

The board of the company has not involved itself as prominently in the accounting messes at the company, but it appears as if they will begin to now.

It must, given Groupon shares have been trading at a low of $11. Its stock has dipped to $10.98 today.

As Tricia Duryee wrote recently about the fall:

At that price, it is now worth just over $7 billion, down 57 percent since the company went public last November and well off the more than $10 billion it was valued at as tech’s hottest start-up of 2011.

Ironically, Groupon’s current market valuation is actually not much more than the $6 billion offered for it by search giant Google in late 2010.

The fall of Groupon has been swift, from the honorific of being the fastest-growing company ever to one that cannot keep control of that runaway growth.

That’s perhaps no surprise.

Perhaps most significantly, Groupon went public in just four years, delivering the biggest tech IPO since Google.

The quicksilver move was typical for it. In just two years’ time, the company ballooned from 37 employees to 9,625 and from serving five markets in the U.S. to 175 in North America alone. And that’s leaving out massive expansion abroad. In the past year, Groupon has acquired roughly 17 companies, including many international copycats.

The company also has entered many new segments, expanding from selling lower-priced and simpler deals on restaurants and spas to more complex and pricey arenas, including travel, physical goods and luxury items.

But Groupon is now learning that its original business does not work across just any segment, especially to more discerning customers of its higher-level and more expensive offerings.

In fact, it was those newer and potentially more lucrative markets that forced the company recently to revise the company’s fourth-quarter report after returns skyrocketed on luxury items, such as Lasik eye surgery.

The problems forced Groupon to lower revenue in the period by $14.3 million and net income by $22.6 million. It is now reporting a wider net loss of $64.9 million on revenue of $492 million, pushing it further away from its goal of profitability.

The company also disclosed at the time that independent auditors had noted “material weakness” in its financial controls. In addition, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission was examining Groupon’s revision. 

With many companies, investors might have shrugged off such accounting issues, but the impact on the stock has been greater since they are only the latest in a string of similar mistakes at Groupon.

In its pre-IPO period, for example, Groupon was forced to restate revenues after counting both its portion of the revenue and the revenue that goes to the merchant together. It also had to dump a controversial accounting metric that made the company look more profitable than it was, because it did not include important costs, such as critical online marketing expenses to attract new customers.

Those came after the company retracted a statement by Eric Lefkofsky, Groupon’s co-founder and executive chairman, who told Bloomberg in an interview that Groupon would be “wildly profitable.”

At least the wild part was accurate.

Much of the blame for these missteps by Wall Street is being aimed at CEO and co-founder Andrew Mason, the iconoclastic 31-year-old entrepreneur who is largely responsible for defining the company’s culture, as well as Jason Child and Joe Del Preto, the chief financial and accounting officers, respectively.

Child joined the company in December 2010, coming from Amazon, where he held several roles over a 10-year period — including VP of finance, international, and director of investors relations. Prior to joining Amazon, he worked at Arthur Andersen as a certified public accountant.

Del Preto has been Groupon’s chief accounting officer for the past year and, before that, he was the company’s global controller for three months. Before Groupon, he was controller and VP of finance at Echo Global Logistics and also served as controller at InnerWorkings, the same company where Mason was a computer programmer in his early career.

Mason, of course, is the best known and the person most responsible for establishing the company’s whimsical culture and managing — or mismanaging, depending on how you look at it — Groupon’s hard-charging growth.

It will also be up to him to turn it all around, as the company sinks in both value and investor regard. Since the restatement, Mason has said little about how he intends to do that. In February, when Mason concluded Groupon’s first-ever earnings call, he said: “Thanks, guys, this was a lot of fun, and I look forward to many more of these.”

It’s not clear fun will be on the agenda at his next outing on Groupon’s first-quarter call in mid-May.

Here is the official press release from Groupon on the board changes:

Groupon Appoints Two Directors to Board Daniel Henry, CFO of American Express, and Robert Bass, Vice Chair of Deloitte

CHICAGO — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Groupon, Inc (http://www.groupon.com) (NASDAQ:GRPN) today announced that Daniel Henry, the chief financial officer of American Express Company and Robert Bass, a vice chairman of Deloitte LLP will join its Board of Directors. Both will serve on the Audit Committee with Audit Chair, Ted Leonsis. Daniel Henry was appointed to the Board on April 26, replacing Howard Schultz, who has stepped down from the Board. Robert Bass will stand for election at the annual stockholder meeting to be held on June 19 following his retirement from Deloitte, replacing Kevin Efrusy, who will not stand for reelection at that time. “With their deep financial, accounting and operational experience, Dan and Bob will provide invaluable expertise to the Board going forward,” said Eric Lefkofsky, Groupon Chairman.

Daniel Henry, 62, has been the Chief Financial Officer of American Express Company since October 2007. Henry is responsible for leading American Express Company’s finance organization and representing American Express to investors, lenders and rating agencies. He has also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of U.S. Consumer, Small Business and Merchant Services and joined American Express as Comptroller in 1990. Prior to joining American Express, Henry was a partner with Ernst & Young.

Robert Bass, 62, has been a vice chairman of Deloitte LLP since 2006, and a partner in Deloitte since 1982. He will retire from Deloitte on June 2, 2012. Bass has specialized in e-commerce, mergers and acquisitions and SEC filings. At Deloitte, Bass is responsible for all services provided to Forstmann Little and its portfolio companies and is the advisory partner for Blackstone, DIRECTV, McKesson, IMG and CSC. He has also previously been the advisory partner for priceline.com, RR Donnelley, Automatic Data Processing, Community Health Systems and Avis Budget. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York and Connecticut State Societies of Certified Public Accountants.

“I’m thrilled to have been a part of Groupon’s development,” said Kevin Efrusy. “The Company is well on its way to becoming the operating system for all local commerce.”

“Howard and Kevin helped guide us on our journey to becoming a public company and I want to thank them and acknowledge their contributions,” said Groupon CEO Andrew Mason.

“During my tenure on the Board, I was impressed by the game-changing opportunities that Groupon has delivered for both merchants and customers on a global scale,” said Howard Schultz. “Groupon has a strong sense of mission and purpose, and as I move on to focus on my other time commitments, I wish them the very best.”

Groupon’s stock continued a downward spiral three weeks after it revised its fourth-quarter results to account for higher than expected returns during the holiday period.

Friday, shares of the Chicago-based deals site closed at a new low of $11. At that price, it is now worth just over $7 billion, down 57 percent since the company went public last November and well off the more than $10 billion it was valued at as tech’s hottest start-up of 2011.

Ironically, Groupon’s current market valuation is actually not much more than the $6 billion offered for it by search giant Google in late 2010.

The fall for Groupon has been swift, from the honorific of being the fastest-growing company ever to one that cannot keep control of that runaway growth.

That’s perhaps no surprise.

Perhaps most significantly, Groupon went public in just four years, delivering the biggest tech IPO since Google.

The quicksilver move was typical for it. In just two years’ time, the company ballooned from 37 employees to 9,625 and from serving five markets in the U.S. to 175 in North America alone. And that’s leaving out massive expansion abroad. In the past year, Groupon has acquired roughly 17 companies, including many international copycats.

The company also has entered many new segments, expanding from selling lower-priced and simpler deals on restaurants and spas to more complex and pricey arenas, including travel, physical goods and luxury items.

But Groupon is now learning that its original business does not work across just any segment, especially to more discerning customers of its higher-level and more expensive offerings.

In fact, it was those newer and potentially more lucrative markets that forced the company to recently revise the company’s fourth-quarter report after returns skyrocketed on luxury items, such as Lasik eye surgery.

The problems forced Groupon to lower revenue in the period by $14.3 million and net income by $22.6 million. It is now reporting a wider net loss of $64.9 million on revenue of $492 million, pushing it further away from its goal of profitability.

The company also disclosed at the time that independent auditors had noted “material weakness” in its financial controls. In addition, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission was examining Groupon’s revision. 

With many companies, investors might have shrugged off such accounting issues, but the impact on the stock has been greater since they are only the latest in a string of similar mistakes at Groupon.

In its pre-IPO period, for example, Groupon was forced to restate revenues after counting both its portion of the revenue and the revenue that goes to the merchant together. It also had to dump a controversial accounting metric that made the company look more profitable than it was, because it did not include important costs, such as critical online marketing expenses to attract new customers.

Those came after the company retracted a statement by Eric Lefkofsky, Groupon’s co-founder and executive chairman, who told Bloomberg in an interview that Groupon would be “wildly profitable.”

At least the wild part was accurate.

Much of the blame for these missteps by Wall Street is being aimed at CEO and co-founder Andrew Mason, the iconoclastic 31-year-old entrepreneur who is largely responsible for defining the company’s culture, as well as Jason Child and Joe Del Preto, the chief financial and accounting officers, respectively.

Child joined the company in December 2010, coming from Amazon, where he held several roles over a 10-year period — including VP of finance, international, and director of investors relations. Prior to joining Amazon, he worked at Arthur Andersen as a certified public accountant.

Del Preto has been Groupon’s chief accounting officer for the past year and, before that, he was the company’s global controller for three months. Before Groupon, he was controller and VP of finance at Echo Global Logistics and also served as controller at InnerWorkings, the same company where Mason was a computer programmer in his early career.

Mason, of course, is the best known and the person most responsible for establishing the company’s whimsical culture and managing — or mismanaging, depending on how you look it it — Groupon’s hard-charging growth.

It will also be up to him to turn it all around, as the company sinks in both value and investor regard. Since the restatement, Mason has said little about how he intends to do that. In February, when Mason concluded Groupon’s first-ever earnings call, he said: “Thanks, guys, this was a lot of fun, and I look forward to many more of these.”

It’s not clear fun will be on the agenda at his next outing on Groupon’s first-quarter call in mid-May.

But let it be said that Mason is also well aware of the risks. He’s framed and hung in the lobby at the company’s Chicago headquarters a number of gushing magazine articles from the tech boom about once high-flying companies, such as Myspace and Napster, that later faded.

Mason said he did so as reminder of how not to build a company. And, to emphasize that point, a cover of his own grinning visage sits right in the center of them all.

Though it won’t arrive in the U.S. until Feb. 22, Sony’s newest handheld gaming device has stumbled out of the starting gate in Japan. The device sold 321,400 units in two days, but on Monday, Sony issued an apologetic statement after complaints emerged that the Vita was freezing and crashing.

But, for what it’s worth, there is a common thread between the two products: Sony’s new gadget was developed in part by one of the original creators of one of the most successful consumer-electronics devices of all time.

As the PlayStation blog reports today, the look and feel of the Vita was designed by Takashi Sogabe of the Sony Corporate Design Centre. It also notes that Sogabe, who has been at the company for 27 years, worked on the original Walkman.

While it probably isn’t entirely accurate that he worked on the original Walkman (since it came before Sogabe’s time), a bio on Sony’s Web site gives him credit for a “See-through Walkman,” and a “Beautiful Walkman.” He also worked on the PlayStation 3 and Sony’s e-reader.

The PlayStation blog will be posting a full interview with Sogabe later, but today’s post did offer some details.

Sogabe said the design team came up with various versions of the Vita, including one with a sliding back, and another that snapped shut like a clamshell.

He also said that they tried to incorporate two touchpads in place of the dual analog sticks, but that they weren’t accurate enough.

(Takashi Sogabe image courtesy of Sony)

(Walkman images courtesy of Wikipedia)

The free update will allow users to control the console using their voice and gestures, or even their Windows Phone (if they have one).

In addition, Microsoft will begin to add more than 40 content providers to the console to increase the catalog of live and streamed TV, movies and music.

Microsoft has announced nearly all of these details previously, including some of its content partners, so today’s announcement serves as a reminder now that the final product is ready to go.

Last week, I met up with Michael Suraci, Xbox’s director of marketing, to get a preview of the updates.

According to Suraci, Kinect, the motion sensor that launched last year, is a central part of the update. When it was introduced, it seemed that all it was good for was dance games, but clearly Microsoft had much bigger plans for the camera and the microphone.

Now users can speak naturally to the Xbox, which tears down a number of barriers to family members in the household that weren’t comfortable with the clunky controller. If Microsoft pulls it off, it could teach people that televisions are meant to be talked to, just as Apple has taught people that screens are meant to be touched.

An unknown subset of the nearly 60 million Xbox owners worldwide that have purchased Kinect will be able to use all the new features in the update.

But everyone will have access to many of the updates.

One major improvement is in navigation. For example, the old interface required the user to decide which category they wanted to go into. For example, games, video or music. Then, they had to choose the application, like Netflix, ESPN or Zune.

In the new user interface, the person can search across all of the categories and apps.

As Suraci demonstrates in the video, a user can say: “Xbox: Bing, ‘Fast and the Furious.’”

The results show all of the content that matches that criteria across games, music, video and other categories. The style of the user interface will be recognizable to anyone using a Windows Phone. The format will also be carried over to the upcoming Windows 8 update.

During Suraci’s demonstration, the software got confused a couple of times, but still, searching by voice will be much faster than typing in a string of words, letter-by-letter, using the controller to scroll through the alphabet.

Going forward, the Xbox could replace the need for a second set-top box in the household, but as Peter Kafka has mentioned before, it’s not a service for customers looking to cut the cord. In order to stream live TV, or watch movies, you’ll either have to pay for a subscription — like Verizon FiOS or Comcast’s Xfinity — or pay a la carte.

On Tuesday’s launch, the amount of content that will be available in the U.S. will be somewhat disappointing. But later in December and in early 2012, you will start to see integrations with Verizon FiOS, YouTube, HBO GO and Xfinity On Demand, TMZ, UFC, Wal-Mart’s Vudu service and others.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111204/heres-how-microsoft-is-adding-voice-control-and-gestures-to-the-xbox-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110607/three-key-takeaways-from-nintendos-wii-u-plus-photos/ http://allthingsd.com/20110607/three-key-takeaways-from-nintendos-wii-u-plus-photos/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:34:14 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=83967 Nintendo unveiled its next-generation console this morning at E3, shocking the industry with the first tablet-sized controller for gaming in the home.

The Japanese-based games company has revolutionized the market before, and after today’s announcement, it’s obvious that it wants to do it again.

Nintendo did not offer any details on price or timing–other than that it will come out next year. But in the presentation this morning and in a hands-on briefing for media following the announcement, we got a good look at some of the Wii U’s capabilities and how it could change the way we play games in front of the TV.

As the major implications of the device are processed over the next year, here are the three major takeaways from today’s announcement:

1. The Wii U marks the entrance of Nintendo into hardcore games:

Up until now, Nintendo has served a family-friendly niche with games like Super Mario Bros. and Zelda. But going forward, it’s branching into its competitors’ territory by making the Wii U hardware capable of supporting HD graphics and hardcore game play.

During the press conference, game publishers said they would support this move by developing hardcore games for the Wii U.

John Riccitiello, the CEO of Electronic Arts, said over the years he’s made several appearances on stage at E3 to support his partners, but this was the first time he has ever done it for Nintendo. “Imagine a shooter like Battlefield with jaw-dropping graphics brought to you on a Nintendo system with a break-through controller,” he said.

Here’s a look at the quality of graphics on the TV:

The Wii U controller also has high-end graphics, too:

2. The Wii U will compete for the iPad’s time:

In many ways, Nintendo is not just competing against Microsoft’s Xbox or Sony’s PlayStation, but any device that people are using in the home while sitting on the couch. The Wii U also offers a competitive response to Apple’s iPad.

The Wii U has a 6.2-inch touchscreen display and a forward-facing camera, and will be used for more than a remote to the videogame console. For instance, users can browse the Internet, draw sketches on the screen with a stylus, play standalone games like Othello, view photos and participate in video chat.

It can also be used with the Wii Fit’s balance board to weigh yourself without ever having to turn on the TV.

Nintendo said the controller is not designed to leave the home and therefore, we surmise, they don’t intend for it to compete against its own portable 3DS gaming device.

Nintendo demonstrates how the Wii U is used for Web browsing:

3. Nintendo won’t stop here. You can bet there will also be a digital strategy:

To be sure, today’s sneak peek was only a glimpse into the future.

Nintendo touched on the hardware capabilities of the Wii U and how it will interact with the Internet, but from what we are hearing separately, there will be a strong digital component.

Riccitiello alluded to it on stage. “We are changing games from a thing that you buy to a place that you go,” he said. “Nintendo’s next platform has deeper online capabilities. This is an unprecedented partnership between EA and Nintendo.”

For perspective, the Wii U tablet is about the same size as an open 3DS:

More From E3

• At E3, Xbox Lets Kinect Lead the Charge on Gaming, Live TV Ambitions
• Justin.tv Broadcasts Gamers’ Every Move on TwitchTV
• Who Needs War? Sparks Will Fly in EA’s New Sims Game for Facebook.
• Sony Unveils Vita Gaming Device at E3; Will Launch This Year for $249
• E3: Nintendo Unveils the Wii U With Tablet-Style Controller
• Three Key Takeaways From Nintendo’s Wii U (Plus Photos!)
• No Hacks to Report at Xbox, But Microsoft Isn’t Letting Its Guard Down
• Forget About 99 Cents, What If You Could Rent Mobile Games for 25 Cents?
• Digital Game Revenues Hit $5.9 Billion in 2010

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110607/three-key-takeaways-from-nintendos-wii-u-plus-photos/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110419/sonos-john-macfarlane-talks-about-new-android-controller-launching-today-and-more/ http://allthingsd.com/20110419/sonos-john-macfarlane-talks-about-new-android-controller-launching-today-and-more/#comments Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:00:01 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=42796

Yesterday afternoon, BoomTown pumped Sonos CEO John MacFarlane full of fancy tea and queried him about today’s rollout of its new Android controller for the innovative wireless music players.

As has been previously reported, the Santa Barbara, Calif. consumer electronics company will finally be launching an app for the Google mobile operating system.

Sonos will also be releasing a free software update for its software to make it easier to play Apple AirPlay music sources, as well as offer multitasking for the Apple iPad and Apple iPhone.

Until now, Sonos has been boosted by its Apple app that allows you to control its various players wirelessly with a smartphone or tablet.

The impact of the iPhone and the iPad on sales of its various devices has been clear enough, with just under one million sold. But the move to Android is key given the explosive growth of the mobile platform.

Here’s the video interview I did with MacFarlane, as well as an image of the app on an Android phone:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110419/sonos-john-macfarlane-talks-about-new-android-controller-launching-today-and-more/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110303/sony-move-creator-richard-marks-on-the-future-of-motion-control-but-he-doesnt-call-it-that/ http://allthingsd.com/20110303/sony-move-creator-richard-marks-on-the-future-of-motion-control-but-he-doesnt-call-it-that/#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 03:24:08 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=3274 The Microsoft Kinect, which gives users the ability to play hands-free on their Xbox, was a runaway hit of the holiday season, selling eight million units.

Meanwhile, Sony released a similar accessory for the PlayStation 3 called the Move, which sold 4.1 million during the first two months.

The two devices signal a wave of new gaming techniques by moving your body and arms — and brings what the Nintendo Wii started to the next level.

All three motion-controlled platforms help introduce gaming to a new demographic, who would have never envisioned themselves being comfortable picking up a controller that has a dozen or so differently colored buttons.

For Sony and Microsoft, it also breathes new life into their aging gaming systems, by creating new reasons to buy games, or even the console.

Sony charges about $100 for one controller and one game; and Microsoft charges about $140 for the Kinect plus one game.

So, is it a fad?

Richard Marks, who created the Sony Move, said no we’ve just gotten started.

“I don’t call it motion-control, even though Sony does. We are adding a level of finesse to gaming that hasn’t been there before. By calling it motion-control, it’s selling it short,” he said.

While most of the popular titles for the platforms so far are centralized around dancing or sports, Marks said the technology has the ablity to add a lot more to the gaming experience.

In fact, that’s one big difference between the Move and the Kinect.

“The traditional controller is intimidating, so this is addressing that audience, but it is also addressing the same core gaming audience.”

With the addition of a gun attachment, players can then use it to participate in hard core games, such as Kill Zone 3, where users pull a trigger to shoot someone and physically duck behind obstacles, so they don’t get shot.

At first, he said they didn’t know how traditional gamers would react to adding Move to these games, but as it turns out, it makes the game feel much closer to reality. ”People don’t want to die as much, so they end up playing the game slower. It personalizes it more,” he said.

But adding Move to both casual and hard core game titles is just the beginning.

He says the technology has the ability to be so precise, you can imagine reaching your hand into a 3D world and picking up an object to inspect it. Or, in an intense fight scene, you could create a shield to defend yourself, by grabbing two sides of a imaginary fabric and stretching it to block a shot — using both hands.

He argues that’s a much more better experience than pushing a button. “It’s not a fad and it won’t replace the controller, but is good for when you want a special input.”

Where he thinks the technology will stop short is when it comes to bringing it to other devices.

The images in Minority Report, where Tom Cruise is moving around objects in thin air is not the best use case. “Doing that for eight hours a day is not practical. It’s being oversold because it’s cool. There’s more natural interfaces for that…The Move is a game controller, it was never desinged to be for the desktop.”

Here’s a video of Marks, who elaborates on his vision for the future of motion-controlled gaming, or uh, whatever he wants to call it:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110303/sony-move-creator-richard-marks-on-the-future-of-motion-control-but-he-doesnt-call-it-that/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20110113/video-game-sales-lagged-in-2010-despite-xboxs-high-scores/ http://allthingsd.com/20110113/video-game-sales-lagged-in-2010-despite-xboxs-high-scores/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:44:58 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=1639 Microsoft’s Xbox dominated the charts at the end of 2010, despite year-over-year revenue declines for both videogame hardware and software.

The latest statistics released today from NPD Group estimated that consumer spending on game content totaled between $15.4 and $15.6 billion, which was flat to down 1 percent, compared to 2009. Meanwhile, sales of new physical videogame hardware, software and accessories were also down–6 percent, to end the year at $18.6 billion.

Microsoft was able to counteract those industry-wide trends through the successful launch of its Kinect hands-free controller and strong sales of the hit game Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Sales of the Xbox 360 jumped 42 percent year-over-year, and was the only platform to register an increase in unit sales. In fact, December 2010 was the best month ever for Xbox 360 sales after selling 1.9 million units.

After the figures were released today, Microsoft used the moment to toot its own horn: In a statement, it said it had pulled units from its January and February production to keep up with holiday demand for both Xbox and Kinect–and it still sold out in some circumstances. Now it’s scrambling to catch up.

At CES, Microsoft said that roughly eight million Kinects had been sold after being on the market for roughly two months, and that over 50 million Xbox 360s have been sold worldwide over the lifetime of the console.

The videogame industry is very cyclical, with software sales often trailing new hardware sales. Without new console introductions from the usual suspects, Microsoft has tried to increase sales by repositioning the Xbox as an entertainment hub, and relied on the Kinect to make the console appeal to a wider audience outside hard-core gamers.

Nintendo is hoping that its new 3DS gaming handheld will boost sales–however, it doesn’t come out for another couple of months, so it missed the critical holiday season and will face competition from smartphones.

NPD Group concluded that in December the Wii and the 360 platforms generated the greatest dollar sales of all platforms at 32 percent and 31 percent, respectively. That’s across all categories, including hardware, software and accessories.

Other than Xbox, there were some bright spots, but it wasn’t enough to offset overall declines. NPD Group said the highlights included digital downloads, mobile apps, social network games and non-digital stuff, like used games and PC games.

The numbers released today are early estimates. NPD Group said it will issue its final analysis in March.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110113/video-game-sales-lagged-in-2010-despite-xboxs-high-scores/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110104/turning-a-tablet-into-a-board-game/ http://allthingsd.com/20110104/turning-a-tablet-into-a-board-game/#comments Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:04:28 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/?p=1590 At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, companies from around the world are gathering this week to show off various tablet computers—much like last year. The good news about the Year of the Tablet Part II is that developers have had the past year to churn out cool tablet apps.

One area of apps involves gaming. I’m not just referring to the single player, heads-down games that consume a person for hours until she beats her own best score, or the scores of strangers around the Internet—though plenty of those exist for the tablet. I’m talking about old-fashioned board games, the kind that involve sitting around with friends or family and actually having fun together. Some of these apps are purely digital. But one company is bringing real board-like elements to tablet games.

This week, I tested a game that successfully marries digital and analog games by using the first physical device to digitally interact with the Apple iPad screen. The $40 Duo by Discovery Bay Games (yoomigame.com) doesn’t plug into the iPad, nor does it connect to the iPad via Bluetooth or other means. It sits on the iPad screen in a specific spot and uses a built-in light sensor on its underbelly to interpret light signals displayed on the iPad screen during a game.

To play the Yoomi game with Discovery Bay Games’ Duo, players drop jewel-like tokens onto the top of the device to vote on possible answers to questions.

The first accompanying game app to use the Duo, called Yoomi, is free from the Apple App Store and can be played by kids as young as 3 years old. It simply asks players to guess what one person would choose between two possible answers, or options, both of which are displayed as digital cards with text and images on the iPad screen. Cards include options like, “dig a hole to China” or “find buried treasure.” Up to six people or teams can play, and each receives a set of jewel-toned tokens that they’ll try to get rid of before the other players by guessing each person’s choice. Playful music and sound effects accompany each game.

Players cast their votes by placing tokens on one of two spaces atop the Duo, a plastic hollow device with clear sides and a tiny black switch. Each space represents an answer, and the person about whom everyone else guesses privately chooses one answer by reaching into the Duo and touching the iPad screen to select the answer.

After the other players cast their votes, a Reveal button on the iPad screen uncovers the chosen answer. Suddenly, the space at the top of the Duo representing the correct chosen answer drops like a trap door, collecting all tokens that were there. The iPad is passed to the next person and play continues, with each person selecting an answer for others to guess until one person or team is out of tokens.

At first, I was skeptical that the Duo and the Yoomi game could replicate playing with traditional board games. Since so few aspects of my life aren’t touched by digital technology, putting down my laptop, iPad or BlackBerry to play a board game always feels like a treat. But I found that while playing Yoomi, the iPad becomes the game board, stationed in the center of a table or circle of friends and passed around for each person to cast a vote.

Since the iPad has plenty of additional functions, playing a game on it may invite distractions from the outside world. Other apps continued to work in the background on my iPad, like my Facebook and Entertainment Weekly apps, which send occasional pop-up notifications onto the screen. The thought of personal Facebook messages popping up would be enough to embarrass any teen into not wanting to use his or her iPad to play with family members. On a good note, the chime indicating I received a new email on the iPad was automatically silenced during game play.

And of course, the iPad costs at least $500, so even though the $40 Duo is relatively affordable, the whole set won’t fit most family budgets.

Still, several advantages come from using a digital game that incorporates physical components, like tokens and a device that collects those tokens. Instead of holding a controller and staring at a TV, like with video games, players need to look up at one another to see how many tokens each person has and who’s winning. And the Yoomi game questions are provocative enough that people will want to ask one another why they chose their answers or voted a certain way.

One of the most exciting things about this technology is its ability to use a light sensor for communication between the iPad screen and another object. Discovery Bay Games CEO Craig Olson said the company might consider using this technology for other products such as a health-related device that, when placed on the iPad screen, allows data to be automatically recognized and recorded.

Like other digital apps, Yoomi can be updated with new content to replenish the 150 pairs of digital cards that come loaded with this free game; another 150 pairs will be sent in an update later this year. Mr. Olson said people tend to burn through digital games much faster than traditional board games, and the ability to send new game material without manufacturing and delivering physical parts is a real boon.

The people working at Discovery Bay Games know a thing or two about traditional board games: Numerous Discovery Bay Games employees worked at Cranium, the charades-esque game that gets people humming, whistling, drawing with closed eyes and miming. Duo is likewise deliberately designed to encourage interaction with others.

In the next nine months, some 12 to 15 other iPad app games will be released for use with Duo, including a $2.99 Smithsonian Fact or Fiction game and a $2.99 Discovery for Kids–Astonishing Comparisons game.

This summer, Discovery Bay Games will start releasing other physical devices that will work with the iPad and range in price from $30 to $60. Some will use the light-sensor technology while others will use different signaling methods to communicate with the iPad. These will launch in conjunction with lead titles, like a Highlights for Children game and a Saturday Night Live game. Mr. Olson said the company is developing for the Android platform as well as for Windows 7 devices.

For now, the Duo and Yoomi are a fun way to add technology into family game night, with continuously updated content keeping game material fresh. As games improve to take full advantage of the other tablet functions, they’ll become even more enjoyable and interactive.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katie.boehret@wsj.com

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Notice to Readers

Starting today, The Mossberg Solution column becomes The Digital Solution. It will still be written by Katherine Boehret and edited by Walter S. Mossberg.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110104/turning-a-tablet-into-a-board-game/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101229/whats-in-store-for-technology-in-2011/ http://allthingsd.com/20101229/whats-in-store-for-technology-in-2011/#comments Thu, 30 Dec 2010 02:03:49 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1707 It has been a big year in personal technology, from the debut and early success of Apple’s iPad, to the rise and continuous improvement of Google’s Android smart phone platform, to the continued surge in social services led by Facebook and Twitter.

So I thought I’d take a look at the challenges and opportunities facing some major players in consumer tech in 2011. As with all my columns, this one is focused only on products and services provided directly to consumers, rather than to businesses. Also, as usual, this column isn’t meant to offer investment advice or to evaluate the management skills or financial condition of companies. It is a look at the products and competitive positions of the key contenders as they enter the new year.

Apple: Coming off a highly successful 2010, in which it introduced a new category of portable computer—the multitouch tablet—and sold millions of the product, Apple will have to withstand an onslaught of competitors by wowing consumers again with the second version of the iPad. At the same time, it will have to make a widely expected transition for the iPhone from a single carrier in the U.S., AT&T, to a second, likely Verizon. This could present a new opportunity to reach lots of new customers, but the sleek phone will have to work well on different network technology. At the same time, Apple will be hoping its planned new Macintosh operating system, Lion, can preserve the surprising momentum of the high-priced Mac, which the company is trying to enhance with certain iPad-like features, such as an app store and longer battery life.

Apple’s iPad will face an onslaught of competition in the coming year.

In 2011, Apple also is likely to try to address two areas where it has been weak: cloud computing and social networking. Both its MobileMe cloud service and its Ping social network had rough starts, and MobileMe charges $100 a year for services others give away. Apple is so popular, it has a huge opportunity to link users of its family of devices and of iTunes via the cloud and social networks, but it will have to aim higher and execute better. The second area where it likely hopes to improve is in the living room. The new, cheaper Apple TV is selling better than its predecessor but still lacks much Internet content. To break through, Apple will have to strike landmark deals with media companies.

Google: The search giant, also riding high, is now in so many product areas it competes with nearly everyone. In its core search business, it must focus on fending off a surprisingly strong challenge from Microsoft’s Bing by giving consumers more attractive, actionable results. Its Android operating system is a big hit, but still isn’t as polished or easy to use as the iPhone’s software, and even a Google official admitted it is still “an enthusiast product for early adopters.” One big test will be the forthcoming Honeycomb version of Android, meant for tablets that challenge the iPad.

A separate group at Google will try in 2011 to revolutionize the PC operating-system business and muscle in on incumbents Microsoft and Apple. Its new Chrome OS will power notebooks that essentially act as Web browsers, and run programs stored in the cloud, not on a hard disk. They also store all your files in the cloud. We’ll learn in 2011 how many consumers are comfortable with that approach.

Google also may take another whack at social networking, where it hasn’t made much of a dent after its Buzz service failed to take off. And it will have to rework its overly complex Google TV effort to bring Internet video to the living room.

Microsoft: The software giant still generates strong consumer loyalty with its older products, like Windows and Office and Xbox, all of which have had updates in the past year or two. But it faces big challenges in two hot areas: smart phones and tablets. Its new Windows Phone 7 platform has some nice design features, but also some missing capabilities that need to be addressed. Initial sales seem respectable, but will have to accelerate to get Microsoft back in a game it once led. The company also is a long way from the 300,000 apps available for the iPhone or the 100,000 for Android.

In tablets, Microsoft is hinting that a new version of Windows is being designed with a tablet focus to complement its PC focus. That product can’t be too late, given the rapid rise of the iPad and the many planned Android and other tablets for 2011. One golden opportunity Microsoft has is to expand the reach of its brilliant Kinect technology for games to other forms of computing. This system can recognize individual users and interpret gestures without the use of a controller device.

Meanwhile, Microsoft hopes to seize on a surge in concern about privacy to help keep its diminishing lead in browsers by building new privacy features, unavailable so far in other browsers, into the 2011 version of Internet Explorer.

RIM: The BlackBerry maker had a good 2010 in some ways, though sales were propped up by two-for-one giveaways, and consumer surveys show enthusiasm fading for the iconic smart phone. It needs a radically new user interface to keep up with iPhone and Android, and a lot more third-party apps. But it can’t afford to alienate its fan base. The company has an answer: a new software platform called QNX, but is vague on when that will show up on the BlackBerry. For 2011, RIM’s big move will be a new QNX-based tablet, the PlayBook, which looks speedy and highly attractive in the limited demos RIM has provided. What isn’t clear is how much the PlayBook will be aimed at consumers, as company officials have consistently stressed its appeal to businesses.

HP: The technology behemoth’s laptops and printers have proved popular with consumers. But it hasn’t had any real presence in smart-phones, tablets or consumer cloud services. To solve the problems, in 2010 HP bought innovative but struggling Palm, whose smart-phone operating system, webOS, and phones, the Pre and Pixi, got good reviews but sold poorly and didn’t attract many third-party apps. In 2011, HP hopes to use its ample money and talent to revive webOS with new phones and tablets to challenge Apple and Android. A successful Palm re-launch, with the new initiatives from RIM and Microsoft, would be good for consumers by providing more choice and competition. HP also hopes to boost home printing with a new line of printers that can print anything emailed across the Internet and wirelessly print from Apple’s hand-held devices.

Facebook and Twitter: The twin leaders in social networking were red-hot in 2010, attracting vast numbers of users. They have huge opportunities for further success, but face challenges. Smaller services, like social-coupon company Groupon, continue to emerge with new social and community ideas consumers like. Apple and Google could be big headaches if they get social right in 2011. Facebook must continue its recent initiative to let members share personal details with more limited groups of friends, and to find ways to make money while offering more privacy, which has been a thorn in its side. Twitter is on a mission to get more than an active minority to post, while convincing people it is a valuable way to keep up with news and opinion even if you never post.

Despite the poor economy, the consumer-tech companies continue to show vibrancy, innovation and success. But every year brings challenges and surprises, and 2011 promises to be another fascinating ride.

For all of Walt’s columns and videos, go to the All Things Digital site, walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101229/whats-in-store-for-technology-in-2011/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101220/microsoft-eyes-wider-net-as-xbox-turns-to-entertainment/ http://allthingsd.com/20101220/microsoft-eyes-wider-net-as-xbox-turns-to-entertainment/#comments Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:30:22 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=838 The Kinect has been an early hit for Microsoft, but an even bigger moment to celebrate will be if the new gaming accessory can help move the Xbox beyond the hard-core gamer demographic to appeal to a mass audience for general living-room entertainment.

In the first 25 days at market, Microsoft sold 2.5 million Kinect accessories and now aims to sell five million this holiday season. The sales helped the Xbox become the best-selling console in November.

The Kinect is a motion detection system similar to the Nintendo Wii, but is hands-free and doesn’t require any controllers. Xbox 360 owners can purchase one for $150.

During our visit last week to the Xbox offices in Redmond, Wash., Craig Davison, the senior director of marketing for Xbox LIVE, told us the goal is to broaden the audience for Xbox. He said the competition is no longer limited to PlayStation or the Wii, but extends to Google TV and Apple TV.

Hard-core gamers enthralled with Call of Duty and Halo may shudder at the prospect, but the trend is already in play.

But adding a new kind of player to the platform is critical if Microsoft wants the console to be an entertainment hub. Kinect allows users who’ve never picked up a controller to play, and brings new functionality to hardware, which historically has been marketed as something that must be replaced frequently.

Game console owners are most likely to use the boxes to play games and watch DVDs, but after that, Nielsen reports, entertainment services are a close third. Video-on-demand and streaming services such as Netflix, MLB Network and ESPN3 account for 20 percent of Wii users’ time, 10 percent of Xbox 360 users’ time and 9 percent of PlayStation 3 users’ time.

Davison said the demographics for Xbox started to shift in 2008 when it introduced Netflix streaming to the console. Since then, it has launched a partnership with ESPN, and will launch Hulu Plus early next year. It’s even helping out the top line: Close to 85 percent of Xbox Live’s revenues come from games, with the remainder coming from Zune, he said.

Here are some other numbers to consider:

–Since the launch of Zune on Xbox 360 in November 2009, the pace of HD movie and TV consumption–downloads and streaming–has more than doubled.

–In the last year, Microsoft has seen a 157 percent increase in the time spent watching movies over Xbox LIVE.

–42 percent of Xbox LIVE users who spring for Gold status at $59 a year are watching an average of one hour of TV or movies every day–or more than 30 hours a month.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101220/microsoft-eyes-wider-net-as-xbox-turns-to-entertainment/feed/ 5 http://allthingsd.com/20101203/oops-was-that-a-playstation-phone-i-dropped/ http://allthingsd.com/20101203/oops-was-that-a-playstation-phone-i-dropped/#comments Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:47:23 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=325 We’re not sure if it was left in a bar for someone to find, but a video of the rumored PlayStation phone is now making the rounds.

It’s not the first we’ve seen of the Android-based device. Engadget posted photos last month, though the new video (below) gives more of a feel for the device in action.

Why hadn’t someone already thought of putting a game controller on a phone? Oh, wait, Nokia tried that back with the N-Gage (pictured here, for those who never had the pleasure). Of course, it didn’t have Android and required developers to create all-new games that consumers had to then buy.

It will be interesting to see whether this phone, when and if it makes it to market, is compatible with any other Sony products and if existing Android games can take advantage of the phone’s controller without having to do a big rewrite of their code.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101203/oops-was-that-a-playstation-phone-i-dropped/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101117/google-tv-review/ http://allthingsd.com/20101117/google-tv-review/#comments Thu, 18 Nov 2010 02:07:11 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1621 The quest to bring the full range of Internet video to your TV in a simple way continues, but it isn’t going well. The latest team to try—Google, Logitech and Sony—has made an admirably bold effort, but, like others before, it has missed the mark, at least in its first effort.

Google TV—software built into hardware made by Logitech and Sony—is very different from competing products, such as Apple TV and Roku. Unlike the others, it aims to merge Web video and regular TV in one simple interface, via one box, with one easily usable controller. Also, unlike the others, it isn’t limited to just customized channels that bring specific Web-video services to the screen. It lets you browse to almost any website with video, and play it on the TV.

But, for now, I’d relegate Google TV to the category of a geek product, not a mainstream, easy solution ready for average users. It’s too complicated, in my view, and some of its functions fall short.

You can get Google TV in three ways. One is through a small, black $300 set-top box called the Logitech Revue. The second is through a special Sony Blu-ray player that costs $400. The third is through a Sony TV with built-in Internet that starts at $600. All are much costlier than the $99 Apple TV or the $60 Roku, but they offer more of the Internet’s video and make the effort to integrate it with cable or satellite programming.

Logitech Revue for Google TV

Google TV cleverly piggybacks onto your existing cable or satellite box and can control it, at least to some extent. So there is no switching of inputs or remotes required, at least theoretically, to go between Internet video and regular TV—something that has plagued competing systems. But if you try to watch an Internet version of a show from a big network site or from Hulu on your Google TV device, it’s blocked, because the studios want to channel those shows through your cable or satellite box.

I tested Google TV using the Logitech Revue product, though I also met with Sony and had a briefing on their version, which looks and works pretty much the same. Setup took 12 steps and about 40 minutes and went pretty smoothly. It might have been worse if, as Logitech warns, your cable or satellite box requires you to install special cables to allow the Revue’s controller to operate it, or if you use a separate audio system. You need an HDTV with HDMI jacks on your TV and cable or satellite box to use the Logitech Revue.

The controller on the Revue is a wireless keyboard. Yes, that’s right, a keyboard, something you might find unattractive in the living room and no better than what you might use if you just plugged a PC into the TV.

Logitech does offer an optional “mini” controller for $130, but it is essentially a tinier keyboard with minuscule buttons and track pad crammed into a smaller space. It is more complex to operate than the big keyboard and much more complicated than a typical TV remote. Sony’s box comes with a similar, complex-looking mini-controller.

The key to Google TV, however, is the software, not the hardware. There is a home screen with a list of core functions, but, Google being Google, the principle activity is meant to be search. You just start typing what you want to see and Google TV brings up a list of hits from both regular TV and the Internet.

Unfortunately, in my tests, this search-and-viewing process was frustrating. For one thing, you only get a few results, and in my experience, they usually weren’t the right ones. When I was looking for the telecast of the Mark Twain Award ceremony for Tina Fey, all Google pointed me to were short clips on YouTube. I had to do a full Web search (a standard option in the brief list Google gives you) and then navigate through a standard Google results screen, which was unreadable at 10 feet without zooming in, to find the full show on the PBS website.

When I finally got to the PBS page, we watched the show, but it was noticeably pixelated on our large TV screen, even though my Internet connection is very fast.

In another case, I wanted to see the new Beatles-themed ads from Apple, but Google’s first results didn’t include them. The closest they came was an old fictional ad on the topic produced by a fan years ago. I manually navigated to Apple’s website, where the ads were prominent, but found that Google TV doesn’t support QuickTime, Apple’s video format. (The company says it plans to do so in a future release.) I knew the ads were also on YouTube, so I went there and eventually found them, with some effort, but they stuttered on playback.

To use the Logitech Revue for Google TV, you need an HDTV with HDMI jacks on your TV and cable or satellite box.

I was similarly frustrated by finding and using regular TV shows from my cable box. Unless you have a box from Dish network, Google TV can’t search in your recorded shows, or allow you, when it finds a show coming up, to set it to record. You’ll likely switch to your regular remote to do those things, which defeats Google’s aim of integration.

Also confusing is Google TV’s home screen, which has overlapping categories. For instance, there is a Queue, for some of your favorite podcasts and sites, and a Bookmarks for others. There is an Applications menu that takes you to specially designed apps that spare you from navigating the regular Web, such as the Netflix video service or Pandora Radio. But there is also a Spotlight category that has customized, simplified websites that, to an average user, amount to the same thing. And, so far, you can only search for the names of most applications, not any content they contain.

Google plans to add the Android Market of third-party apps to Google TV. That could be good, adding more functionality. But it also risks adding more complexity, unless Google redesigns the interface.

Google TV has its strong points. The integration of Web video and regular TV, while flawed, is a smart move. There is even a picture-in-picture feature that lets you keep watching TV while, say, using Twitter or any other Web function. And the Logitech box has an optional $150 camera that allows you to make free video calls. It worked well in my one test. Logitech also allows you to control the Revue from an iPhone or Android app.

But this is a 1.0 product. For now, I’d suggest average users dying to watch Internet video on a TV, either plug in a PC or use one of the wireless systems, like Intel’s Wi-Di, that wirelessly beam video from a PC to a TV. Or, you could wait for Google TV to improve.

Find all his columns and videos at walt.allthingsd.com Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101117/google-tv-review/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101103/microsofts-kinect-is-under-pressure-to-connect/ http://allthingsd.com/20101103/microsofts-kinect-is-under-pressure-to-connect/#comments Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:00:39 +0000 Nick Wingfield http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=31990 Microsoft Corp. is betting a new product called Kinect will deliver a bigger audience for its Xbox 360 videogame console by letting people play games without a traditional controller.

But Kinect, when it goes on sale Thursday, will also be the most visible test in years of whether Microsoft can churn out breakout consumer products from its huge investment in research and development.

Microsoft faces increasing pressure from investors to show a payoff from those investments, which amounted to $8.7 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30–bigger than the R&D budget for any other tech company. Microsoft has poured a chunk of that money into improving existing products and services like its Bing search engine, as well as more traditional franchises like Windows and Office.

Kinect will be especially visible: an entirely new $150 device sold at retail outlets and aimed squarely at the consumer market, a field in which Microsoft has been more sluggish to respond to trends than Apple Inc. and other competitors.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101103/microsofts-kinect-is-under-pressure-to-connect/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101102/sonos-marches-its-wireless-music-system-into-china/ http://allthingsd.com/20101102/sonos-marches-its-wireless-music-system-into-china/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:00:09 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=36597

Sonos, maker of the well-known wireless multi-room music system for the home, announced at a press conference in Beijing, China, today that it will soon be selling its products in the important Asian market.

The move by the Santa Barbara, Calif., consumer electronics company is a big expansion, putting its players in the hands of a growing base of more affluent Chinese customers by later this month.

“The consumer market is really developing and the Chinese customer wants the best products for music delivery,” said Sonos CEO John MacFarlane in an interview with BoomTown earlier this week. “We have had a fair amount of growth outside the U.S. and we expect it to only continue.”

MacFarlane said all Sonos products, which make a lot of use of Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices as controllers, will be localized in China.

The company said Sonos China will be headquartered in the southern China city of Shenzhen. The new managing director of the Chinese division will be Yaling Zhang, who previously served as managing director of Archos China.

Here’s the official press release from Sonos:

SONOS BRINGS WIRELESS MULTI-ROOM MUSIC TO CHINA

Sonos Controller for iPad and Entire Sonos Product Lineup Localized in Chinese
Sonos China Opens Shenzhen Office and Names Yaling Zhang Managing Director
Sonos China Launches www.sonos-china.com

BEIJING and SANTA BARBARA, California–November 2, 2010–Sonos, the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the home, today announced that the award-winning Sonos Multi-Room Music System will be available in China beginning later this month. The Sonos system will be available for purchase in China at select audio video retailers.

At a press conference today in Beijing, Sonos founder and CEO John MacFarlane introduced the Sonos product family and the upcoming localized Sonos Controller for iPad. MacFarlane announced that Sonos China will be headquartered in the southern China city of Shenzhen, and will be the company’s second office in Asia.

MacFarlane also introduced the new Managing Director of Sonos China, Yaling Zhang. Zhang, who previously served as Managing Director of Archos China, is a consumer electronics veteran who has successfully introduced new brands and new ways of experiencing entertainment to the Chinese consumer.

“More than half of Sonos’ business is conducted outside of the United States,” said John MacFarlane, founder and CEO, Sonos, Inc. “As we enter the world’s largest music market, we have a tremendous opportunity to introduce the Sonos music experience to even more music loving consumers.”

MacFarlane continued “We’re committed to doing business in China the right way, with localized products, a local office, local leadership and a local Website. We’ve found that leader in Yaling Zhang who has both the background and experience in introducing new consumer electronics brands to the Chinese market.”

For more information about Sonos please visit www.sonos.com. To learn more about Sonos China and the Sonos Multi-Room Music System in China, please visit www.sonos-china.com.

And, apropos of nothing, here is an interesting video by Sonos of its also recent Apple iAd deployment:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101102/sonos-marches-its-wireless-music-system-into-china/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100921/sony-enhances-playstation/ http://allthingsd.com/20100921/sony-enhances-playstation/#comments Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:25:44 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/?p=1402

Bocce, part of the Sports Champions game, which comes with Move.

If you’re still just pressing buttons to play video games, now you have another reason to get up off the couch and really get into the action of a video game.

This week, Sony’s PlayStation 3 continues the motion sensor video-gaming trend with its PlayStation Move (us.playstation.com). Move comes in a $100 bundle for people who already own the PlayStation 3, or $400 for the system and the bundle.

Nintendo helped spark this trend in 2006 with its Wii, a video-game console, which is played using remotes with built-in motion sensors. The Wii inspired all sorts of people to play video games—including some who never played one before—because its remotes weren’t intimidating and worked with gestures familiar to people, like swinging a tennis racket or rolling a bowling ball.

Sony’s PlayStation move takes this concept a step further. Its Move motion controller remote has three built-in sensors and a sphere on one end, making it look a bit like a microphone. The sphere’s position can be tracked in 3-D space by a camera called the PlayStation Eye, which plugs into the PlayStation 3 and sits atop your TV. This camera lets the PlayStation know how you’re moving the controller and where you’re holding it. Instead of a camera, the Wii uses a sensor bar that emits infrared signals detected by the Wii remote.

The Sony PlayStation Move bundle comes with a motion controller remote that has three built-in sensors and a sphere on one end, making it look a bit like a microphone.

Sony (SNE) claims these enhancements give PlayStation Move precision and accuracy, and for the most part, I found this to be true. I especially liked when virtual images of the equipment I was “using” appeared on the TV screen, which made it seem like I was actually holding a bat, sword or tennis racket. I was so engaged with the on-screen images, I almost forgot I had a controller in my hand.

My experiences with the Nintendo Wii, which costs $200 less than the PlayStation Move and PlayStation 3 combined, have always been enjoyable. I’ve found many of the Wii’s games to be approachable for almost anyone. Nintendo helped its cause a year ago when it brought out the Wii MotionPlus—a small accessory that plugs into the Wii remote to give its gestures added sensitivity; in my tests, it worked well. The Wii’s action will be enough for some not-so-serious video-game players not willing to pay more for another console.

The PlayStation Move will get some competition in November when Microsoft releases Kinect for the Xbox 360. This video-game console tracks body movements but doesn’t require a remote control. Instead, gestures like hand waves work to control games, making one’s entire body a sort of remote control.

I’m not a serious gamer. As always, this column is written for mainstream consumers and I tested PlayStation Move with those people in mind. I played games like table tennis and disc golf from the Sports Champions game that comes with the PlayStation Move bundle, as well as downloadable titles like a precision block-building game called Tumble.

I also played EyePet, a game that involves taking care of a creature by washing it, dressing it in stylish costumes and playing with it.

In games like Tumble, I found that the PlayStation Move motion-control remote generated precise movements such as the ability to tilt a cube exactly the way I wanted to get it to stand on a stack of five blocks—or in one case, accidentally cause the stack to crash to the ground. Likewise, while I played table tennis, I quickly figured out how a slight flick of my wrist could generate more spin on the ball in a way that felt more realistic than with the Nintendo Wii.

Archery, part of the Sports Champions game, which comes with Move.

I was impressed by the detailed animation and scenes in the PlayStation Move games that I played. In disc golf, for example, I played against three opponents who each had their own set of unique celebration flips or dances. And the golf courses in the game showed trees and water hazards that looked pretty realistic. A special bird’s eye view followed my disc’s trajectory from the second I flicked the wrist holding my motion controller until it landed.

EyePet is especially fun—and not just for kids. I named my EyePet “Domino” and taught it to jump through a hoop that virtually appeared on-screen at the end of my remote. I gave Domino a “checkup” by turning the motion controller into an X-ray-like device. This told me his brain needed a boost of creativity but his heart was happy.

There are currently 15 games that will work with PlayStation Move and a spokesman for Sony says 15 additional games will be available by the holiday season. The average price for these games is $40, though downloadable games cost less, including the $10 Tumble.

The $100 PlayStation Move bundle has the motion controller, PlayStation Eye camera and a game called Sports Champions, which includes disc golf, gladiator dual, archery, beach volleyball, bocce and table tennis.

The PlayStation Eye camera can track four controllers at once, though some games—like Start the Party—are designed to let people pass their controllers from one person to the next. Other webcams can’t be substituted for the PlayStation Eye to use with the PlayStation 3.

A $20 shooting attachment fits over the controller and makes it look and act like a handgun. This can be used in first-person shooter games like Killzone 3, due out in February, as well as in arcade shooter types of games like The Shoot, available in October. (I didn’t get these games in time to test them.)

If you already own a PlayStation 3, you’ll enjoy the added precision and fun that the $100 PlayStation Move bundle offers. But for casual gamers who don’t want to spend so much, the less expensive Nintendo’s Wii will probably suffice.

Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100921/sony-enhances-playstation/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100817/full-d8-demo-microsofts-project-natal-now-called-kinect/ http://allthingsd.com/20100817/full-d8-demo-microsofts-project-natal-now-called-kinect/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:15:50 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=32251

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Today is our final video post, and the honor goes to Microsoft (MSFT) for its innovative Project Natal, which has recently been renamed Kinect.

The new gesture-based controller for the Xbox requires that consumer use hands, arms, legs and even heads to interact with the game, but nothing else.

To show it off, Walt Mossberg and I employed the services of my No. 1 son, Louie Swisher, who was aces at trying out the games. Me–not so much.

Here’s the video of the Project Natal/Kinect demo at D8:

Want to see it bigger? Click here.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100817/full-d8-demo-microsofts-project-natal-now-called-kinect/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100615/kinect-digital-home/ http://allthingsd.com/20100615/kinect-digital-home/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:33:00 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=42586

“In this 10-year time frame, I believe that we’ll not only be using the keyboard and the mouse to interact, but during that time we will have perfected speech recognition and speech output well enough that those will become a standard part of the interface….And with the digital cameras that we’re seeing on these machines, with the software behind them, at a minimum they’ll be able to recognize when a user is there, who the user is, what gestures they’re making, and have that be part of the interface.”

– Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, 1997

“Bill Gates: Imagine a game machine where you’re just going to pick up the bat and swing it, or the tennis racket and swing it.

Walt Mossberg: We have one of those.

Kara Swisher: It’s called a Wii.

Bill Gates: No, that’s not it. You can’t pick up your tennis racket….That’s a 3-D positional device. This would be video recognition. This would be a camera seeing what’s going on.”

– Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, D5, 2007

Microsoft’s new Kinect motion control system has been squarely targeted at the gaming market, but the company has far greater plans for it: To bring to fruition a vision that Chairman Bill Gates has been talking about since early in the decade–a “disappearing computer” at the heart of the “digital home.”

By extending Kinect’s motion and voice control beyond gaming–to music, video and all manner of media content–Microsoft (MSFT) is positioning it as a new control paradigm for the digital living room, one in which facial recognition logs us in to Xbox Live, voice commands operate an Xbox-controlled home music system and a few simple gestures allow us to select and stream a movie from Netflix (NFLX) or watch a game on ESPN.

“With Kinect for Xbox 360, we’re making entertainment controller-free, simpler and more social than ever before,” Marc Whitten, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Xbox Live explained during the Kinect launch event Monday. “Imagine a world where you can watch a movie without a remote, play a game without a controller, all in the comfort of your living room.”

Gates was imagining just that more than a decade ago, and now it seems his digital living room is finally here. The question now is: Where does Microsoft go next? If the company is able to establish the Xbox 360 as a central hub for home entertainment, will it set out on a more ambitious path? To bring the smart home into the mainstream with more accessible, intuitive home automation?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100615/kinect-digital-home/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100611/full-d8-tech-demo-video-microsofts-project-natal/ http://allthingsd.com/20100611/full-d8-tech-demo-video-microsofts-project-natal/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:15:16 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=29396

Since Microsoft will be officially unveiling its Project Natal at the Electronic Entertainment Expo gaming show next week in Los Angeles, take a preview gander of it in action at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference recently.

At E3, the software giant will give the innovative gesture-based controller for the Xbox a spanking new name and will likely announce other related features.

We already showed off Natal at D8 last week, saying “the experience is somewhere between the Nintendo Wii and Tom Cruise’s computer in ‘Minority Report,’ with hands, arms, legs and even heads interacting with the game.”

As we also noted, the system works using cameras and microphones, along with some fancy programming, to remove the controller pad from play. With Natal, Microsoft (MSFT) aims to include groups outside of the typical young male demographic in gaming.

Here’s the video of the full session of the demo, which includes the game-playing stylings of my No. 1 son, Louie. And, yes, me too–as you will see, I stink at online games.

Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100611/full-d8-tech-demo-video-microsofts-project-natal/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20100312/index-invests-25-million-in-sonos-plus-a-video-interview-with-vc-mike-volpi/ http://allthingsd.com/20100312/index-invests-25-million-in-sonos-plus-a-video-interview-with-vc-mike-volpi/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:00:57 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=25424 Earlier this week, BoomTown had lunch with Michelangelo “Mike” Volpi, the high-profile tech exec who turned into a venture capitalist recently at Index Ventures.

We also did a video interview (see below) about his new life as an investor, based in London, although Volpi managed to leave out the big news.

That would be a just-inked $25 million investment by Index from its growth equity arm in wireless home music system maker Sonos, as well as a new board seat there for Volpi. (Sonos’s hot new S5 unit is pictured here.)

In an interview this morning, Sonos CEO John MacFarlane said the money would be used for expansion at Sonos, which is just about to introduce its products to China and Japan.

“This investment is going to help us grow,” said MacFarlane. “We have wind at our back and this will help us a lot in keeping up that momentum.”

MacFarlane said the focus for Sonos, which has garnered $65 million–from BV Capital and mostly angel investors–with the Index investment included, is growth. He declined to give Sonos’s valuation in the new round.

The private company has been profitable, MacFarlane said, but its goal is to break even as it takes advantage of interest in its devices globally. Only about 35 percent of its business is now in the United States.

While running a small independent consumer electronics company is a dicey proposition, MacFarlane said Sonos is not interested in selling, as Pure Digital–maker of the Flip digital camera–did to Cisco (CSCO) a year ago for $590 million in stock.

In fact, Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Sonos, which is well known for its innovative top-line (and high-priced) music players, recently moved its business more mainstream with the introduction of the S5 unit in November.

The S5 allows control of the system via an Apple (AAPL) iPhone and only costs $399. (Here is a review of it by The Mossberg Solution’s Katie Boehret.)

The basic idea? A smart speaker paired with a smartphone.

The S5 has been a big seller and has increased product registration–when the software is activated by a user–by five times previous numbers so far, according to the company.

That could get a further boost with the April launch of the iPad, which seems perfect for controller software apps.

“The popularity of the iPhone is great for us,” said MacFarlane. “And we’ll do something great with the iPad.”

It will be nice to have a big score for Volpi, the former Cisco wunderkind. In fact, he invested in one of MacFarlane’s previous start-ups, Software.com, in 1995 when he was in charge of a variety of businesses there.

But the affable Volpi hit a bad patch recently while CEO of a much hyped but ultimately failed video service called Joost. It was that job that landed him in even hotter water.

In the wake of the decline of Joost, which he left to join Index, he was personally sued, along with Index, by its litigious co-founders over Index’s planned investment in Skype, the online telephony service they also co-founded.

Confused? Well, it was confusing.

And not the best start in the investment business for Volpi, after Index pulled out of the high-profile deal in a settlement of the lawsuits.

But, that’s “ancient history,” as Volpi said in the video interview below, which focuses on what’s next.

(News of the Index involvement in Sonos was first reported by TechCrunch earlier this week, though it did not have any details on the amount of funding.)

Although he did not mention the $25 million Sonos funding specifically in the video, Volpi does discuss his bullishness for consumer electronics.

Volpi presumably hopes others share his enthusiasm.

Here’s the video of my interview with him:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100312/index-invests-25-million-in-sonos-plus-a-video-interview-with-vc-mike-volpi/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100301/new-freescale-chip-could-price-kindles-to-move/ http://allthingsd.com/20100301/new-freescale-chip-could-price-kindles-to-move/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:01:35 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=35790 Freescale Semiconductor, an ARM licensee and the company responsible for the chips used in the majority of e-book readers, has developed some new silicon that it claims could help drive prices of the devices below $150 before the end of this year.

The i.MX508 applications processor, as Freescale has christened it, integrates an ARM Cortex-A8 processor core and E Ink’s hardware-based display controller into a system-on-a-chip that the company claims delivers twice the performance of its previous eReader chips (it runs at 800 megahertz). It also happens to be more energy-efficient and significantly cheaper.

According to Freescale marketing director Glen Burchers, the chip will cost less than $10 in volume quantities and will drop the unit price of e-readers that use it by at least $30.

“There’s a big unsaturated market out there, and price is a big factor,” Burchers told Bloomberg. “We do see the price of e-readers coming down this year, and Freescale is trying to facilitate that. That’s a lot of what this chip is doing.”

For Freescale customers like Amazon (AMZN), the i.MX508 couldn’t come at a better time. With Apple (AAPL) about to redefine consumer expectations for e-readers with its multipurpose iPad, Amazon will increasingly need to differentiate its single-purpose Kindle on price.

Dropping the retail price of the basic version of the device to around $150 from its current $259 would certainly do that. If that’s possible. Obviously, the cost of E-Ink displays and the Kindle’s other components need to come down as well.

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