Dell says Windows 7 price is possible barrier

Windows 7 pricing is potentially an obstacle to Windows 7 adoption for some users, though in just about every other aspect the operating system is beating Vista, according to a Dell marketing executive.

"If there's one thing that may influence adoption, make things slower or cause customers to pause, it's that generally the ASPs (average selling price) of the operating systems are higher than they were for Vista and XP," Darrel Ward, director of product management for Dell's business client product group, said in a phone interview, referring to the various versions of the Windows 7 operating system that are expected to appear.

Ward continued. "In tough economic times, I think it's naive to believe that you can increase your prices on average and then still see a strong swell than if you held prices flat or even lowered them. I can tell you that the licensing tiers at retail are more expensive than they were for Vista."

In the business market, Windows 7 Professional is expected to be more expensive than Windows Vista Business, the version that Professional is replacing, he said.

Some schools and smaller businesses may not be early adopters due to price. "Schools and government agencies may not be able to afford (the additional cost). Some of the smaller businesses may not be able to enjoy the software as soon as they'd like," Ward said.

Pricing aside, Ward said momentum behind Windows 7 is big compared with Vista. "When Vista came out we didn't have the motivation to do the types of services that we're doing now. We didn't have the clear customer demand for such services," he said. "We do have a visible number of customers, large and small, who are actually waiting for Windows 7 and who have already put plans in place to target the transition to Windows 7, they're asking Dell for help. That demand and this opportunity is stronger than it has been in the past," Ward said.

And Dell is already getting its service organization in gear for Windows 7. "Our professional service organization is beginning to structure service offerings specifically designed to help customers migrate their images, their applications, and their management infrastructure, security capabilities and so forth."

More than half of Dell's business customers are still using Windows XP and these customers will eventually have to upgrade, according to Ward. "XP cannot live forever," he said.

Windows 7 XP mode is something Dell supports. "It's one of the things that Microsoft is doing that we think is helpful. Putting an instance of XP virtual machine in the higher end SKUs (models). This is another alternative for compatibility. We'll fully support that in our product and consulting services." he said.

Driver readiness is good, with some exceptions. "Driver readiness--it looks pretty healthy compared to the past. (There are) some things that haven't been worked out. The WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Lab) drivers for AMT VPRO is a little behind," he said, referring to Intel's Active Management Technology, which allows remote access to PCs for security, maintenance, and management.

Generally, however, Windows 7 is much further along than Vista was at this stage, he said. "But if you look at the ecosystem enabling for Windows 7, it is much further along that it was at the same time for Vista," he said.

Fuente: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10242555-64.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

45.7 million Wii Sports, 22.9 million Wii Plays sold

Nintendo reveals new stats for 27 first-party platinum sellers; Nintendogs hits 22.2 million, New Super Mario Bros. 18.4 million, Wii Fit 18.2 million, Mario Kart Wii 15.4 million.

Nintendo may be facing weakening demand in its home market, but its products continue to enjoy substantial demand in other regions across the globe. Yesterday, that demand came into focus when the publisher reported a 9.9 percent rise in its fiscal year earnings, to ¥1.83 trillion ($18.5 billion). A resounding clamor for software on both of Nintendo's best-selling platforms helped fuel that growth, with 197 million DS and 204 million Wii games sold during the period.

Today, Nintendo provided an update on sales figures for its first-party-published games, revealing that it now has 27 games that have broached the million-unit mark. First among those best-sellers remains Wii Sports, which is sold as a stand-alone in Japan but comes packed in with Nintendo's console in North America. The sports minigame compilation has now sold 45.7 million units since its November 2006 launch, easily outpacing Wii Remote pack-in Wii Play's 22.9 million units.

DS software sales offer a bit of a closer race in the best-selling game category. Nintendogs remains ahead of the pack, having now sold 22.2 million units through the publisher's fiscal year. However, New Super Mario Bros. and the original Brain Age aren't far off the animal-training simulator's heals, with the former having sold 18.4 million units and the latter at 17.4 million units. All three games have previously been the subject of hardware bundles.

A full list of Nintendo's million-unit sellers can be found below.

Nintendo Wii
Wii Sports - 45.7 million
Wii Play - 22.9 million
Wii Fit - 18.2 million
Mario Kart Wii - 15.4 million
Smash Bros. Brawl - 8.4 million
Super Mario Galaxy - 8 million
Mario Party 8 - 6.7 million
Link's Crossbow Training - 3.8 million
Animal Crossing: City Folk - 3.4 million
Wii Music - 2.6 million
Mario Super Sluggers - 1.3 million

Nintendo DS
Nintendogs - 22.2 million
New Super Mario Bros. - 18.4 million
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day - 17.4 million
Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - 16.8 million
Mario Kart DS - 14.6 million
Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day - 13.7 million
Animal Crossing: Wild World - 10 million
Super Mario 64 DS - 7.5 million
Mario Party DS - 5.8 million
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness - 4.5 million
Pokemon Platinum - 3.7 million
Kirby Super Star Ultra - 2.3 million
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia - 2 million
Rhythm Heaven - 1.9 million
Personal Trainer: Cooking - 1.8 million
Professor Layton and the Curious Village - 1.6 million*

Fuente: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6209412.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;1

What Will Fix the Venture Capital Crisis?

Everyone agrees that the venture capital industry is in crisis. The question is how to fix it.

The drought in acquisitions and initial public offerings of venture-backed companies means diminishing returns for investors and fewer new jobs.

At the National Venture Capital Association’s annual meeting in Boston last week, the group presented a four-step plan to address the problem. At Harvard Business School, a group of professors offered their own ideas.

The N.V.C.A. plan calls first for the return of small investment banks and accounting firms. These helped small tech companies go public until the dot-com bubble burst and then they disappeared. In order for start-ups to start going public again, the big banks and accounting firms must partner will smaller ones to reinvigorate them, the N.V.C.A. said.

The second feature of the plan deals with new forms of exits, such as SecondMarket and other exchanges where start-ups can sell shares on the private market. The third thing it seeks is tax benefits, such as a more competitive capital gains tax rate for I.P.O. investors and tax incentives for clean tech companies. Finally, it wants regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and financial statement requirements to be eased for tiny companies trying to go public.

“It can’t be fixed with a stroke of the pen, but without fixing this problem, literally innovation will be at bay in this country, precisely at the time competition is increasing from abroad,” said Paul Maeder, a general partner at Highland Capital Partners.

At Harvard, two professors of venture capital and entrepreneurship had their own ideas.

Josh Lerner teaches a class on venture capital and will publish a book this fall called “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” on how public efforts to spur entrepreneurship and venture capital have, so far, failed.

He said the venture capital industry needs to focus on three other ideas to fix its problems.

First is patent policy. Patent litigation costs so much and takes so long that it is burdening small tech companies, he said.

Instead, he suggests a patent policy similar to that in Europe. There, he said, inventors can challenge patents with the patent office before patents are approved. In the United States, on the other hand, most patents are granted quickly and protesters have to go to court to fight them.

When there are patent trials, they should not be jury trials, he said, even though that has become increasingly common in the last two decades. Patent disputes are so technically and legally complicated that it is difficult for a jury to fairly decide the case in a short period of time, and they are almost always sympathetic to the patent holder.

The second change Mr. Lerner suggests is using federal funds to support start-ups, not just big, struggling companies.

“In our efforts to rescue failing giants, we are spending all this money keeping buggy whips afloat,” he said. “It seems a little crazy to say we’re going to invest all this money in sunset industries, not emerging companies.”

Third, the United States needs to do a better job keeping foreign-born scientists and entrepreneurs in the United States. He said it was inevitable that as countries like China and India became wealthier, they would also develop intellectual institutions and begin retaining their smartest people.

Lee Fleming, who teaches entrepreneurship to students from the business school as well as other programs like engineering, has another suggestion. American universities should more openly and generously disseminate technological ideas developed on their campuses, he said.

Only about one in a thousand technologies end up being blockbusters, yet universities in the United States negotiate as if they all are, he said. Entrepreneurs can sign a contract for intellectual property from some foreign universities in half an hour, while a similar agreement can take two years in the United States, he said. That contradicts universities’ mission to disseminate knowledge, he said.

“When universities start seeing tech transfer offices as profit centers, it can very quickly turn into counterproductive policies,” he said.

Fuente: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/what-will-fix-the-venture-capital-crisis/