Digital Marketing News Update - New Intel Ivy Bridge Mobile Chip, Spotify vs iTunes and More on Sony

Marketing Theory Article
20 mins

Intel chip to revolutionise mobile devices

Intel has announced a new chip which claims to improve performance but use less power. The chip has been code-named “Ivy Bridge” by Intel which is a nod to the technology behind its performance, something far too complicated for me to try to explain but has been likened to a skyscraper, making optimal use of space by building upwards.

 

Its success is thought to lie in the fact that while it improves performance it uses almost half of the power of 32nm chips which will extend the battery life for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

 

While Intel have yet to make significant inroads into the mobile market, this new processor could bring this partnership a lot closer. Most phones and tablets use low power chips based on ARM designs so Intel’s planned offerings could create a little competition and should certainly see improvements being made in improving mobile processors.

Editor: Its interesting how market awareness is starting to grow in relation to the speed of mobile devices. Iphone 5, from what gossip I’ve heard, is mainly a speed upgrade. A big deal was also made about the Ipad 2 speed increase. As we expect more and more from mobile devices, and expect long battery times, Intel could be on to a winner.

Sony update

While Sony has already failed to minimise the damage to their reputation caused by the recent hack, they now appear to be throwing salt on the wound by playing the blame game. In a letter sent by Sony to the US Congress, it implies that the attack only happened because its resources were distracted fighting a “denial-of-service” attack from Anonymous, an online vigilante group.

 

According to Sony, the timings of the two attacks are close enough to raise suspicion that they are linked and the more recent hack was planned to take place while Sony were to all intents and purposes looking the other way.

 

Their letter states “Whether those who participated in the denial of service attacks were conspirators or whether they were simply duped into providing cover for a very clever thief, we may never know,”

 

In a follow up story, Sony have also announced they are paying a top security firm to find the culprits of the attack and bring them to justice.

 

Reading these two stories has actually made me squirm in my seat a little bit on Sony’s behalf. While customers are fearing identify theft and feeling pretty cross at the interruption to their service, Sony are pointing fingers with an almost childish petulance. And on top of that seemingly concentrating their efforts on finding those responsible.

 

I’m not a customer of Sony’s online services but if I were I would be looking for a different response. I’d want to know why the system wasn’t secure enough to prevent this, I’d want to know that Sony had found the gap, that they’d fixed it and a reassurance that it was safe to resume the activities I’d previously enjoyed.

 

Sony really do seem to be completely unprepared to manage such a risk to their reputation and perhaps this incident will provide a valuable lesson. No-one is untouchable.

Editor: I’m surprised how poorly they have handled it but it does teach us all a couple of lessons. Prepare fro the worst and have some sort of crisis management approach. Do penetration testing on your sites ( or pay someone to do it) if you store any important data.

Spotify to launch their own iTunes.

Being a hardcore Apple fan makes this a total non story for me, but it seems Spotify is planning to create its own version of iTunes, allowing users to combine their music collections, including those purchased through Apple products, and stream on tablets and mobile devices including iPads and iPhones.

 

However its hard to see how this will work, given that any apps they build will have to go through Apple’s approval process and even then only subscribers will be able to make use of them paying between £5 and £9.99 a month.

 

In my experience, most users are either iTunes all the way or open source mp3, rarely both, so its difficult to see any real benefit this product will bring to either audience. Spotify already has an iPhone app for paid members to access their libraries on the go but the service is limited by the device’s access to a reliable 3g network.

 

And with the recent rumours that Apple is planning to open up iTunes to allow users to stream music from other sources, it’s unlikely Spotify will be able to produce something to topple the music giant off it’s spot.

 

It’s a bit like watching David fight Goliath but then again we all know how that battle turned out.

Editor: David vs Goliath?? Spotify would win in that case! I’ve told you about drinking while writing before….. However while talking all things Apple I must admit that I now prefer the Kindle app on an iPad/iPhone that using iBooks. You can’t read anything you buy in iBooks on your Mac currently and the selection of books is fairly limited. So basically my iPad has become a very expensive Kindle that plays Angry Birds.

Build a ü free personalised ¥ learning plan to see our course recommendations î for you

Free for 30 days

Build a å free personalised ¥ learning plan to see our course recommendations î for you

Free for 30 days