Posts Tagged ‘million’
Microsoft targets 25 million more Xbox 360 sales, ‘huge announcement’ planned for E3
Author: Margo Tipton
Microsoft believes it can sell 25 million more Xbox 360s despite announcing the console’s successor, the Xbox One, earlier this week. The Xbox 360 launched back in 2005, and has sold an estimated 77.2 million to date. Growth has slowed significantly in recent months (despite the console outselling the PS3 in the US for over two years straight), and it only sold 1.3 million last quarter. Speaking to the UK’s Official Xbox Magazine, Interactive Entertainment Business Senior VP Yusuf Mehdi said that Microsoft is aiming to sell the additional consoles over the next five years.
Related Posts:
Tags: 
MessageMe chat app amasses 5 million users in 75 days across Android and iOS
Author:
Between WhatsApp, Viber, Google+ Hangouts and a raft of others, the mobile messaging app space is crowded, but recent entrant MessageMe has still managed to make notable headway. After a mere 75 days since its launch, the application has amassed 5 million registered users, up from 1 million in its first ten days. Now, the software is churning out an average of 1,500 notifications per second and handling approximately eight image uploads each second.
For the uninitiated, the app is attempting to woo chatty folks on Android and iOS away from its rivals with the ability to send pictures, doodles, videos, audio, music and location information between two people or a group of friends. Sticker- and money-sending features are poised to bring home the bacon for the firm, but CEO and co-founder Arjun Sethi recently told The Next Web that it doesn’t plan to activate them just yet, as it’s focusing on attracting more users first. If you’re itching for another outlet to dispatch notes to pals, hit the bordering more coverage links to grab MessageMe.
Via: The Next Web
Source: MessageMe Blog
Incoming search terms:
Related Posts:
White House looks to 3D printing with $200 million plan for military, energy manufacturing
Author: JohnnyBells
The White House is looking to 3D printing as a model to revitalize the American manufacturing industry. Oh, and to help design new weapons and equipement for the military. That’s the basis of a new $ 200 million public-private initiative announced by the White House this morning, which will create three new advanced manufacturing centers around the country. The White House is opening a competitive bidding process to universities and companies to host these centers, but all three will be modeled after a 3D printing institute launched in Ohio late last year, also funded by the government.
Related Posts:
OUYA Closes $15 Million In Funding Led By Kleiner Perkins, Boasts 12,000 Game Developer Sign-Ups
Author: Randy Miller
Today, gaming console and software company OUYA announced that they have closed a $ 15 million round led by Kleiner Perkins, and with participation from the Mayfield Fund, NVIDIA, Shasta Ventures and Ocean Partners. This marks one of the largest institutional investments to go to a project that had its humble beginnings on Kickstarter.
OUYA is a company that launched back in 2012 on Kickstarter under the guiding hands of Julie Uhrman, a video game industry veteran who believes that gaming should be affordable and enjoyable for everyone. She and the team developed a $ 99 Android gaming console, which hooks into the TV and comes with automatic access to free-to-try games. It launched on the crowdfunding site to much fanfare, scoring $ 8.6 million in funding, which ends up being around 9x more than OUYA asked.
Along with the $ 15 million round, which brings OUYA’s total amount of funding to $ 23.5 million, the company will also be bringing KPCB General Partner Bing Gordon on to the board of directors. Gordon brings with him years of experience from Electronic Arts.
Here’s what he had to say about the funding:
OUYA’s open source platform creates a new world of opportunity for established and emerging independent game creators and gamers alike. There are some types of games that can only be experienced on a TV, and OUYA is squarely focused on bringing back the living room gaming experience. OUYA will allow game developers to unleash their most creative ideas and satisfy gamers craving a new kind of experience.
The OUYA hardware has proven its spot in the market with the successful Kickstarter project, followed by an institutional investment led by a firm such as KPCB. “The message is clear: people want OUYA,” said Uhrman.
But the same story rings true for software, as the company has seen over 12,000 developers sign up for the platform to build games and monetize them in any way they’d like. This is up from 8,000 developer signups in March.
And if that weren’t enough, OUYA has been picked up by major retailers like GameStop, Best Buy and Amazon, with availability originally intended to begin June 4. OUYA is pushing that back to June 25, however, announcing the delay today as a result of a desire to be able to meet initial demand.
Clearly, the affordable gaming console speaks to people. But is it enough to make OUYA profitable? In an interview with TechCrunch, Uhrman explained that OUYA essentially breaks even on the hardware from the $ 99 gaming console, and that all games will be free-to-try. Curious if that was sustainable, we asked Uhrman if free-to-try would always be the case with OUYA games.
“Free to try is a core tenet of OUYA,” said Uhrman. “We wanted a gaming experience for the television that’s inexpensive to get into. Developers monetize however they’d like to, which is why we have games with unlockable demos inside a fully paid version, or micro-transactions, and even a donation based game. I’m looking forward to the first episodic, subscription-based game,” she said.
According to Uhrman, the latest round from KPCB and friends will go toward further supporting game developers and development, bringing in exclusive and unique OUYA content, and meeting the demand seen from all parts of the world, including Japan, Brazil, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
Related Posts:
Sony’s 2012 earnings show a net profit of $458 million, its first since 2008
Author: Charity Woods
We’ve already heard from Sony about the positive effects some of its recent moves are having on its finances, and now the company is revealing its detailed results for the last year. Sony has managed a profit of $ 458 million in 2012, its first in several years and a good sign after it projected such optimism in last years results. The most anticipated news is what it projects for 2013, a year where CEO Kaz Hirai has promised better integration between its products and of course, the PlayStation 4. Sony’s forecast projects sharply improved sales next year, however it expects the operating income to remain flat with a net profit of 50 billion yen ($ 506 million). The full results are available below, we’re looking through them now and will have more information shortly.
Developing…
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile, Sony
Source: Sony (PDF)
Related Posts:
Slacker lures 6 million new listeners, makes profit on both free and paid users
Author: Tech Blogger
When Slacker launched its big software overhaul in February, many were skeptical that a refresh could bring it back to prominence. Apparently, all that doubt was misguided: Slacker says it’s racked up 6 million new listeners in the past three months, 3.5 million of which are on mobile. They’re more involved, too — there are 100,000 new paying customers, iOS installs have tripled and members of all kinds tune in for an average of 25 percent longer. And did we mention that Slacker may even benefit from the rush? Where some peers face a constant fight to stay above water without enough premium customers, Slacker says both its ad-supported free radio and paid on-demand service are profitable. While there’s no guarantee the company will hold on to those bedazzled new users, it’s good to see renewed competition in a field with fewer and fewer participants.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet
Source: Slacker
Related Posts:
Microsoft tops 100 million Windows 8 licenses sold, promises Windows Blue update in 2013
Author: Mark Jeffries
For many observers, the real story for Windows 8 was never going to be the 60 million licenses sold during the holiday rush — it was always about the long term. The first indications of its post-launch impact are here, and show mixed results. In an interview on the company blog, Microsoft CMO/CFO Tami Reller says that it “recently” sold its 100 millionth Windows 8 license since the OS launched in October. That’s a healthy figure, but sales of about 10 million units a month between its January stat update and today show adoption hasn’t picked up again since the initial dropoff. The usual post-holiday lull no doubt played a part, although estimates of a much steeper drop in PC sales than usual suggest more was afoot. Microsoft doesn’t see an immediate problem however, touting both brisk Windows Store adoption — downloads of both free and paid apps surged from 100 million in January to 250 million — and the pending arrival of more affordable convertible notebooks, touchscreen laptops and all-in-ones later this year.
Oh, and about that Windows Blue update everyone’s been talking about? It’s at last official. Microsoft isn’t mentioning details beyond the Windows Blue codename, but it does promise that the upgrade should be available before 2013 is over. We’re looking forward to that extra level of personalization already.
Filed under: Desktops, Tablets, Software, Microsoft
Source: Blogging Windows
Related Posts:
Path app is adding 1 million new registered users a week
Author: Charity Woods
It looks like everyone loves stickers, because following its last update, Path is growing — fast. The social app is now pulling in a million users a week and has recently topped nine million. It’s picked up most of its new chroniclers and message-senders from English and Spanish speaking regions, particularly in South and Central America. In fact, 500,000 Venezuelans decided to start trying the app over a single weekend. According to Path’s co-founder, Dave Morin, search features added at the start of the year have increased user traffic by 50 percent, while the addition of extra stickers and filter purchases has meant its making its way up the top-grossing charts too. The chief exec adds that the growth appears to be organic, with users largely split equally across iOS and Android, although there’s nothing just yet on Google Glass user numbers .
[Image credit: Sticker Robot]
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile
Source: WSJ Digits
Related Posts:
Amazon first quarter profits fall to $82 million as sales income jumps 22%
Author: Mark Jeffries
Amazon’s Q1 for 2013 was a bit of a mixed bag. The company saw net income drop 37 percent year-over-year to $ 82 million, though its net sales were up 22 percent to $ 16 billion.
Developing…
Related Posts:
Provo council approves fiber network sale to Google, but city must front $1.7 million
Author: Natalie Wood
Provo, Utah’s plan to sell its cost-plagued fiber network to Google has been approved by the municipal council, meaning it’ll soon become the third Google Fiber city. However, while still not receiving any money upfront as earlier reported, it’ll now have to advance $ 1.7 million in equipment and engineering costs not part of the deal before, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. In exchange, each Provo resident will get a free 5-megabit internet connection for seven years and Google will have to upgrade the network to connect all the city’s homes. It’s not quite free, however, as the city’s 120,000 residents must still pay a $ 39 million bond for building the network — meaning they’ll shell out $ 3.3 million for each of the next 12 years.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
