PS1 Sales:
In 1988, Sony and Nintendo began working to develop the ‘Super Disc’.

Soon after Sony and Nintendo parted and the ‘Super Disc’ was never introduced.

In 1991, Sony produced a modified version of the ‘Super Disc’ as part of their new console known as the Sony PlayStation.

The Sony PlayStation could only play Nintendo games to begin with and so only two hundred models were manufactured.

In 1994, PlayStation X was released and was no longer compatible with the Nintendo games, which allowed them to become the best selling game console.

PlayStation game consoles cumulative production and shipment reached 40 million units by August 21st 1998

PS2 sales:
PS2 – first went on sale in March 2000 – sold more than 50,000 in its first week on sale in the UK, 14months earlier than the first PlayStation.

PS2-only game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was the fastest selling video game ever and broke the UK sales record in its first weekend of release. By 2004 it had sold more than 677,000 copies.

During the run-up to Christmas, Microsoft’s Xbox had been winning the race up until the last week in sales.

The sales figures suggest that I may be a largely adult audience driving demand, since Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has an 18 certificate.

In 2005 both Xbox and PS2 reduced console prices to around £100, in preparation for the launch of their next generation consoles.

In the US, 2005, sales were order to halt, and Song was ordered to pay Immersion Corp $90 million in damages, due to infringement on its technology to make game controllers vibrate in sync with action in video games.

PS3 sales:
In Japan – November 2006, Nintendo Wii has been outselling PS3 be two to one.

22-28 Jan 2007, Nintendo’s console was outselling PS3 by a margin of four to one.

Sony’s PS3 sold 19,996 consoles compared to 83,754 Wii consoles, PSP also outsold PS3 with 35.700 sold altogether.

Sony in the past said it would be shipping 100,000 PS3s into Japan for the launch – however a lot less than the number of Wiis Nintendo was sending.

PS3 was due to launch in the US on 17 November 2006, but Europeans will have to wait until March 2007.

In Q3 of 2005 the video Ipod was released. The graphs start to peak. The Ipod then starts to decrease in sale as it is just after christmas but it then starts to rise again in Q3 of 2206.

Industry –
29th January ipod released a cheap version of its mac computer and low-cost ipod.
Apple are hoping that ipod fans will be wooed to using there mac computers rather than Microsoft windows.
Ipod are now looking to create a gamestation as there next product

Rivals –
Ipod phone – rival (Motorola rokr)
Been compared to ipod phone and called bland.
Ipod nano makes the slender razor look chunky
All ipods new makes seem to knock off anything on the market.

Prediction from rivals:
Boost companies fortunes…limited market share…full short of ipods success…not innovative or new…
“they are just jumping into the party where everyone else is” – Peter Skarzynski.

By Hollie, Laura, Claire and Kirsty

Second Generation of the iPod
*In July 2002 second iPod released.
*Windows PC version(linked with Yahoo)
*No USB connectivity(not a problem for Mac users)
*iTunes version 3.0 released(still jus for Macs)
*Adverts for Windows Applications.

Third Generation iPod
*Released in April 2003
*In 3 sizes
*USB function now
*No separate software for Mac’s and Windows PC
*In September 2003 more models released
*New version of iTunes 4.0(US based customers)
*iTunes available to Windows PC’s

iPod mini
*First released in January 2004
*Comes in 5 colours
*10Gb and 15Gb model

*Second iPod mini in February 2005
*Increased battery power
*Excellent value for money
*Gold model dropped

Forth generation iPod and iPod Photo
*Go on sale September 2004
*Low price
*20Gb and 40Gb models

*iPod photo- released in October 2004
*Colour screen
*Improved battery life’s
*The ability to store pictures
*Comes in 40Gb an 60Gb capacities

iPod shuffle
*In January 2005 release of the Shuffle
*First iPod without a screen and no hard disk.
*Flash memory
*Ideal for joggers and sports people
*Cheapest iPod to be released.
*Comes in 512Mb and 1Gb

iPod Nano
*Released in September 2005
*Replaced iPod mini
*Available in two colours (black and white)
*Were the most popular until the iPod video’s
*They had colour screens
*Led to some faults in some of the iPods
*The iPods were becoming scratched or broken .
*The most ‘sexy’ iPod
*iTunes 5 with a new polished look (playlists, folders)

iPod Video
*Released in Christmas in 2005
*Replaced the iPod video
*Came in 30Gb and 60Gb
*Was thin, with 2.5 inch wide screen.
*New iTunes 6.0 released it was now able to download music, video’s and certain TV shows.

Updated versions of Nano’s , Shuffles and video iPod’s
*In september 2006 a new version of the iPod shuffle was released even smaller. (tie clip)
*Release of iTunes 7.0 which can now download music, TV shows, movies and games.
*In October 2006 a limited version of the iPod was released. (red for AIDS)
*In febrauary 2007 the shuffle was released in 5 colours.

iPhone
*Was realeased in January 2007
*A combination of a phone ad a music player
*It has a screen that is almost as big as the footprint of the unit.
*Controlled by touch screen.

Most watched video podcasts of 2006:

1) ABC World News
2) Keith and The Girl
3) X-Play
4) CNN The Grist
5) Rumor Girls
6) ESApod
7) ICONS
Democracy Now!
9) Diggnation
10) TED Talks

Most listened to audio podcasts of 2006:

1) WMMR’s Preston and Steve
2) Radio Leo
3) CNN News Update
4) World Soccer Daily
5) Radio Nostalgia Network
6) Cramer Radio
7) The Geoff Show: Virgin Radio
Daily Noise
9) Wall Street Journal This Morning
10) Computer America

Music industry and podcasting

Sony BMG has decided to dip its toes into the world of podcasted music with its recent agreement with marketing agency Rock River Communications Inc., making it the first (and only, for the time being) major music label in the US to license music for podcasts. Rock River Communications are the agency that creates promotional mix CDs for companies like Volkswagen, The Gap, Verizon, Chrysler, and more to hand out at retail stores and dealerships. Rock River, in an attempt to move past CD-only distribution, is now creating promotional podcasts for Chrysler and Ford Motors.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ford and Chrysler are both paying Sony BMG a flat fee to license music for podcast distribution for one year. This shows their is money to be amde in podcasting

Britain had the most legal downloads, with 10 times more downloads (to 10 million) in the last six months. In the USA they have almost tripled – to 159 million.

There are currently lawsuits in progress in UK, US, Japan, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands and Italy for music piracy. The offenders are most probably men aged between 20 and 35 who live in urban environments. The average fine for illegal music donwloading is about 3,000 euros.

There are currenlty 300 legal digital music websites, three times as many as existed a year ago. Digital music services have registered 2.2m subscribers around the world, which is up from 1.5m in January. The two most popular are iTunes, offering 1.5m tracks and Napster, which offers 1.2m.

A blog on http://www.businessweek.com states that Techdirt and Paidcontent dug through two conflicting surveys from Jupiter research and CLX and the most logical line on the audience for podcasts is … no one knows. This is probably not surprising as podcasting is a young technology and a stable market for the audio recordings hasn’t developed yet. The only statistic that is concrete at the moment is males are more likely to download podcasts than females.

The internet has been around for about five (!) years now, and the longer people have been web users the more hours and the more activities they report engaging in.

The most important factors of internet access are:
* education
* age
* college education

Factors which DO NOT affect usage are:
* race/ethnicity
* gender

65 year olds show more than a 40% drop in their rates of internet access, compared to those under 25 years old. Age really reflects generational differences, adn thus shows what to expect in the future.

Social contact is lost even with as little as just 2-5 internet hours/week, and it rises substantially for those spending more than 10 hours/week, of whom up to 15% report a decrease in social activities.

Even with less than 5 hours/week of internet use, about 15% of full-time or part-time workers report an increase in time spent working at home. And as their amount of internet use rises above 5 hours/week, a growing number – up to an additional 12% – even report spending more time working at the office, as well as at home. For heavy internet users with regular jobs, a substantial portion of their total internet use is likely to take place at the office to begin with – and it seems to be keeping them there for longer hours, in addition to invading their home.