Sony C660X Yuga reportedly set to release as Xperia Z

We've known for quite sometime now that Sony has been working on a 5-inch smartphone, the Sony C660X Yuga. Now the Xperia Blog reports that the device will be dubbed as the Sony Xperia Z.  

The blog which cites a source over at XDA and says that the Xperia Z will be both water and dust resistant supporting an Ingress Protection (IP) rating of IP55 and IP57 (similar to the Xperia acro S and Xperia V). It also claims that the final dimensions of the Xperia Z will be 139 x 71 x 7.9mm. The device will be both water and dust resistant and is likely to feature a glass-back as seen in Apple's iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

The blog further mentions that the 5-inch 1080p (443 PPI) panel will come with OptiContrast technology, which is found in Sony televisions. This technology features a resin coating atop the display to reduce on-screen reflections.

Rumours of the device began floating in October when a known benchmarking site revealed that the C660X Yuga features Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and a CPU clock speed of 1.5GHz.

Just a week ago, Phone Arena reported that the Xperia Z aka Yuga will feature a quad-core processor from Samsung, 3GB RAM and an incredible 128GB of built-in storage. Not to forget, the device is likely to include a 5-inch full-HD display, a 16-megapixel camera and a large 3000mAh battery.

Another website posted a detailed hands-on with the phone boasting impressive specs on the Sony C6603 Yuga, some of which were rumoured earlier. The phone apparently features a 5-inch full-HD display at 440 PPI with Sony's Mobile Bravia Engine. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage, which is expandable by another 128GB.

Other features include a 12-megapixel rear camera (as opposed to the 16-megapixel mentioned earlier), micro-USB as well as USB host mode, 802.11 a/b/g/n in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz modes, Bluetooth 4.0, LTE and NFC.

With CES 2013 scheduled for January in Las Vegas, it wouldn't be surprising to see the phone make its official debut at the event.

Image Courtesy: Android Schweiz

Byond eyes Rs. 400 crore turnover from phones, tablets in 2013-14

Pune-based Byond Tech Electronics Monday said it is eyeing to sell over one lakh smart phones per month by launching new range in lower price bracket and targeting Rs. 400 crore turnover from smart phones and tablets in 2013-14.
"We are targeting to sell more than one lakh smartphones in India as demand for such phones is enormous and its market is growing very fast," company's founder and CEO Prashant P Bora.
Bora said the company has set a target of achieving sales of Rs. 400 crore from smart phones and tablets in 2013-14.
"In current fiscal, smart phones and tablets will contribute Rs. 100-150 crore in our total business, but in next fiscal, we expect our sales will reach Rs. 400 crore from both these segments," he said.
Having decided to spend Rs. 50 crore on brand building and advertising, the company has also signed bollywood actress Bipahsa Basu as brand ambassador for smart phones and tablets.
He said the company will soon roll out 10 new smartphones with 3.5 to 6 inch screen in the range of Rs. 4,000 to maximum of Rs. 13,000 per unit.
"Though the market for smart phones is huge across the country, we plan to target Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka for our smartphones," he said.
Byond has 50:50 joint venture with Chinese company Hongkong Leaguer Technology for manufacturing phones and tablets with manufacturing facility at Shenzhen in China. The company has manufacturing capacity of 4 lakh mobile phones per annum.
It is also Original Equipment Manufacturer for overseas brands like Sprint in Bangladesh, Connspeed in Vietnam, among others.

Facebook releases Poke iPhone app with self-destructing messages

Facebook has announced a new app that erases pictures and messages within 10 seconds of being sent, the Daily Mail reported.
It is an advanced version of one of the social networking site's original apps, the "poke".
The equivalent of a head nod or wink, the "poke" in its old form is rarely used today as the site has become more advanced.
It has now been reinvented to be called "Facebook Poke" and allows users to send fleeting messages, pokes, photos and 10-second videos to friends, the Mail said Saturday.
The messages expire after a set period of time, from 1 to 10 seconds, and cannot be retrieved by either party again, making it perfect for sending salacious images without leaving a trail.
Facebook Poke (iPhone, free)

Google, Amazon rivalry set to escalate in 2013

Google, Amazon rivalry set to escalate in 2013

When Amazon.com Inc CEO Jeff Bezos got word of a project at Google Inc to scan and digitize product catalogs a decade ago, the seeds of a burgeoning rivalry were planted.
The news was a "wake-up" call to Bezos, an early investor in Google. He saw it as a warning that the Web search engine could encroach upon his online retail empire, according to a former Amazon executive.
"He realized that scanning catalogs was interesting for Google, but the real win for Google would be to get all the books scanned and digitized" and then sell electronic editions, the former executive said.
Thus began a rivalry that will escalate in 2013 as the two companies' areas of rivalry grow, spanning online advertising and retail to mobile gadgets and cloud computing.
It could upend the last remaining areas of cooperation between the two companies. For instance, Amazon's decision to use a stripped down version of Google's Android system in its new Kindle Fire tablet, coupled with Google's ambitious plans for its Motorola mobile devices unit, will only add to tensions.
The confrontation marks the latest front in a tech industry war in which many combatants are crowding onto each others' turf. Lurking in the shadows for both Google and Amazon is Facebook with its own search and advertising ambitions.
"Amazon wants to be the one place where you buy everything. Google wants to be the one place where you find everything, of which buying things is a subset," said Chi-Hua Chien, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "So when you marry those facts I think you're going to see a natural collision."
Both companies have a lot at stake. Google's market capitalization of $235 billion is about double Amazon's, largely because Google makes massive net earnings, expected by analysts to be $13.2 billion this year, based on a huge 32 percent net profit margin, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. By contrast, Amazon is seen reporting a small loss this year.
Amazon shareholders have been patient as the company has invested for growth but it will have to start producing strong earnings at some stage - more likely if it grows in higher margin areas such as advertising. Google's share price, on the other hand, is vulnerable to signs of slowing margin growth.
Ad clash
Not long after Bezos learned of Google's catalog plans, Amazon began scanning books and providing searchable digital excerpts. Its Kindle e-reader, launched a few years later, owes much of its inspiration to the catalog news, the executive said.
Now, Amazon is pushing its online ad efforts, threatening to siphon revenue and users from Google's main search website.
Amazon's fledgling ad business is still a fraction of Google's, with Robert W. Baird & Co. estimating Amazon is on track to generate about $500 million in annual advertising revenue - tiny, given it recorded $48 billion of overall revenue in 2011. By contrast, 96 percent of Google's $38 billion in 2011 sales came from advertising.
But Amazon's newly developed "DSP" technology, which taps into the company's vast store of consumer purchase history to help marketers target ads at specific groups of people on Amazon.com and on other websites, could change all that.
"From a client's perspective, the data that Amazon owns is actually better than what Google has," said Mark Grether, the chief operating officer of Xaxis, an audience buying company that works with major advertisers. "They know what you just bought, and they also know what you are right now trying to buy."
Amazon is discussing a partnership with Xaxis in which the company would help Amazon sell ads for the service, Grether noted.
Amazon did not respond to an email seeking a comment.
Starting point
Amazon can bring in higher-margin revenue by selling advertising than it can from its retail operations. By showing ads for products that it may not actually sell on its own website, Amazon establishes itself as a starting point for consumers looking to buy something on the Web.
Research firm Forrester reported that 30 percent of U.S. online shoppers in the third quarter began researching their purchase on Amazon.com, compared with 13 percent who started on a search engine such as Google - a reversal from two years earlier when search engines were more popular starting points.
Amazon now sells ads that show up to the side of product search results on its website. There were 6.7 billion display ad impressions on Amazon.com in the third quarter, more than triple the number in the same period of 2011, according to comScore.
That early success is a "huge concern" for Google, whose business relies heavily on product searches and product search ads, said Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter.
Partly in response, Google recently revamped its product search service, Google Shopping, by charging retailers and other online sellers a fee to be listed in results.
Founded four years apart in the late 1990s, Bezos has long worried about Amazon's reliance on Google for traffic, according to people close to the company, while also being dubious about Google's high market valuation.
"He'd say: 'This is the first time in the history of the world where the map maker is worth more than the territory that it's mapping,'" recalled the former Amazon executive of Bezos' comments about Google's popular online mapping service.
Tensions build
Google's Android system is thriving but still has not cracked the nut of how to make money from mobile search ads and sales of digital goods like games, apps, music and video.
"If they can figure out mobile ads, that would truly be Google's second act," said Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru.
But Amazon launched a broadside against Google in 2011 with the creation of its own version of Android for its Kindle Fire tablets that replaces key Google money-making services, such as a digital music and application storefront, with its own.
Not unlike Apple, "Amazon wants to control the experience on their devices," said Oren Etzioni, a University of Washington computer science professor. "That doesn't make Google happy."
The two are also clashing in cloud computing software.
Amazon started its cloud business more than six years ago, providing data storage, computing power and other technology services from remote locations. Google only launched its cloud computing business this year, but the market is growing so quickly there is still room to grab share, Etzioni said.
"I would not write Google off," he added. "Amazon has the early lead but it's very early."
Transact or die?
Still, mobile gadgets and cloud computing are currently tiny businesses compared with the multibillion-dollar opportunity presented by advertising and online commerce.
Google recently acquired BufferBox, a company with a network of lockers that shoppers can use to receive packages. It is also testing same-day delivery in San Francisco, hinting at growing interest in a larger role in online retail.
It is not talking about its full plans for retail, but some analysts think features such as same-day delivery or "pick-up" lockers, are valuable features it can use to enhance its existing online ad business. An ad for shoes, for example, might also make the shoes available for pick-up in a locker nearby, said Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice.
If Google can own the search and the delivery, it will be able to provide the same experience as Amazon, with no inventory - "a higher margin, more efficient model," Chien said.
Earlier this year, Google launched a new certification service highlighting merchants that ship quickly and reliably and backing it with up to $1,000 in "purchase protection."
Google could create a database of products and send shoppers to a page that has a way to buy quickly through the company's payments service Google Wallet, Forrester's Mulpuru said.
Google could then send that transaction to the retailer who would ship the product to the consumer. That ability is critical, according to Schachter, who said if consumers lack the ability to purchase items through Google it will lag Amazon and eBay Inc.
© Thomson Reuters 2012

Amazon's influence felt far and offline

Amazon's influence felt far and offline

Bricks and mortar retailers like Nordstrom Inc and Walgreens have found a way to deal with growing pressure from Amazon, by joining forces with small e-commerce companies.
Through acquisitions, investments and partnerships with smaller, emerging start-ups, large retailers are breaking into new markets and tapping into the social media and marketing expertise of the firm's often tech-savvy founders.
And as consumers keep hitting the mousepad instead of the mall, the trend is likely to keep growing in 2013 and beyond.
U.S. retail e-commerce during the third quarter grew 17.3 percent from the year-ago period to $57 billion, or 5 percent of total retail sales, according to the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce. Total retail sales rose just 4.6 percent during the same period.
"It's a market-share shift," said Kristen Green, a venture capitalist at Forerunner Ventures who backs online companies such as men's retailer Bonobos and cosmetics company Birchbox.
It is also a change for retailers who have woken up to the threat from Amazon fairly recently.
"When I was meeting with brick and mortar retailers 24 months ago they weren't thinking about online," said Carlo Bronzini Vender, a senior partner at New York-based investment bank Sonenshine Partners who helped advise the sale of Drugstore.com to Walgreens. "Now people are being more proactive about it."
Looking for online smarts
The deals are frequently small, driven by retailers' attempts to master online, rather than to immediately boost sales. Women's clothing site GoJane, which Aeropostale Inc acquired in November, generated just $19 million in sales last year. Aeropostale net sales were $2.3 billion last year.
"They're buying learning, people and energy," said Bruce Cohen, a strategist at retail consulting firm Kurt Salmon. "They're buying labs to test and learn to see what works."
Other recent deals within the last year include Nordstrom's acquisition of flash sales site HauteLook and investment in men's clothing company Bonobos; Walgreens' acquisition of Drugstore.com and PPR SA's partnership with e-commerce site Yoox.
Fast growing e-commerce start-ups pegged by bankers as potential acquisition candidates by large retailers include vintage-inspired clothing site ModCloth, customized-jewelry site Gemvara and eyeglass company Warby Parker.
Missing out on digital expansion can sting. Wal-Mart Chief Executive Mike Duke said at a conference last week his biggest regret was not moving more quickly into e-commerce.
In fact, some prizes may have grown up too fast to be acquired.
Several online retailers have raised large funding rounds at such high valuations that venture capitalists say initial public offerings are likely the only way that investors can make back their money.
Among the list this year are One Kings Lane, a furnishings company that raised $50 million earlier this month; Zulily, a children's clothing company that raised $85 million last month; and Fab.com, a flash-sales site that raised $105 million earlier this year.
Web companies also see real-world benefits to offline partners.
Bonobos, which received a $16.4 million investment led by Nordstrom in April, now has access to the Seattle-based retailer's distribution network. Bonobos' fitted chinos, non-iron trousers and other staples are now available on Nordstrom's website and in their department stores.
"We realized there was a big portion of the available target market that we weren't reaching through online," said Jeremy Liew, a partner with Lightspeed Ventures and a Bonobos investor.
Since then, the company has opened five "offline showrooms" across the country in which men can try on clothing that they can then order from the Bonobos website.
Be Amazon or be different
Some venture capitalists view the rush to invest in online retail with a skeptical eye. Bessemer Venture Partners' Jeremy Levine, who backs companies including online diapers company Quidsi, sold two years ago to Amazon for $500 million, thinks investors need to be on guard.
"Online retail is a natural monopoly business and people aren't seeing it," he says. "These companies are going to start to feel serious pain from Amazon."
While it is relatively easy for smaller sites to generate meaningful sales in the short term, Levine says, the long-term outlook is cloudier. "As soon as Amazon decides it doesn't want you," he says, "they will just crush you."
Amazon's March acquisition of order-fulfillment company Kiva Systems will further widen the gap between the e-commerce giant, brick and mortar retailers and upstarts struggling to keep up, bankers and analysts say.
That is why Fab.com CEO Adam Goldberg says the company focuses on crafting personality for its site so browsing is fun. He also aims to triple the percentage of unique products to 15 percent of merchandise in 2013 from 5 percent this year.
"Nobody is going to beat Amazon selling the products Amazon already sells," says Goldberg.
© Thomson Reuters 2012

Samsung abused dominant position to deny Apple: European Commission

Samsung abused dominant position to deny Apple: European Commission

The European Commission charged Samsung Electronics on Friday with abusing its dominant position in seeking to bar rival Apple from using a patent deemed essential to mobile phone use.
The Commission sent a "statement of objections" to the South Korean group, with its preliminary view that Samsung was not acting fairly.
"Intellectual property rights are an important cornerstone of the single market. However, such rights should not be misused when they are essential to implement industry standards, which bring huge benefits to businesses and consumers alike," Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in statement.
Apple and Samsung, the world's top two smartphone makers, are locked in patent disputes in at least 10 countries as they vie to dominate the lucrative mobile market and win over customers with their latest gadgets.
The filing of competition objections is the latest step in the Commission's investigation. After notifying Samsung in writing, the company will have a chance to reply and request a hearing before regulators.
If the Commission then concludes that the firm has violated the rules, it could impose a fine of up to 10 percent of the electronics firm's total annual turnover.
Technology companies are increasingly turning to the European Commission as the European Union's competition authority, to resolve their disputes. The Commission is also investigating Google and Microsoft.
In the case of Samsung, its standard-essential patents (SEPs) relate to the EU's 3G UMTS standard. When this was adopted in Europe, Samsung committed to license the patents fairly to competitors, the Commission said.
However, it began seeking an injunction in 2011 in various EU member states against Apple's use of these patents. The Commission opened its investigation in January 2012.
Samsung said it was studying the Commission's statement. It said it would cooperate fully and "firmly defend ourselves against any misconceived allegations".
"Samsung is confident that, in due course, the Commission will conclude that we have acted in compliance with European Union competition laws."
© Thomson Reuters 2012

RIM shares dive as fee changes catch market off guard

RIM shares dive as fee changes catch market off guard

Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd plunged more than 20 percent on Friday on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on the business that has set the company apart from its competitors.
It was the stock's biggest, single-day, percentage price drop since September 2008. But shares were still nearly 80 percent above the year's low, which was reached in September. They started to rally in November as investors began to bet that RIM's long-awaited new BlackBerry 10 phones, which will be unveiled in January, would turn the company around.
The services segment has long been RIM's most profitable and accounts for about a third of total revenue. Some analysts said there was a risk that the fee changes could endanger its service ecosystem and leave the Canadian company as just another handset maker.
The fee changes, which RIM announced on Thursday after market close, overshadowed stronger-than-expected quarterly results. The company said the new pricing structure would be introduced with the BlackBerry 10 launch, expected on January 30.
RIM said some subscribers would continue to pay for enhanced services such as advanced security. But under the new structure, some other services would account for less revenue, or even none at all.
Chief Executive Thorsten Heins tried to reassure investors in a television interview with CNBC on Friday, saying RIM's "service revenue isn't going away".
He added: "We're not stopping. We're not halting. We're transitioning."
Since taking over at RIM in January, Heins has focused on shrinking the company and getting it ready to introduce its new BB10 devices, which RIM says will help it claw back ground it has lost to competitors such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.
But the new services pricing strategy came as a shock to markets, and some analysts cut their price targets on RIM stock.
RIM will not be able to sustain profitability by relying on its hardware business alone, said National Bank Financial analyst Kris Thompson, whom Thomson Reuters StarMine has rated the top RIM analyst based on the accuracy of his estimates of the company's earnings.
Thompson downgraded RIM's stock to "underperform" from "sector perform" and cut his price target to $10 from $15.
Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said the move was likely about stabilizing market share: "At the moment, they need to stem the bleeding."
He said the tiered pricing might line up better with RIM's subscriber base as it expands in emerging economies.
RIM's Nasdaq-listed shares closed down 22.7 percent at $10.91 on Friday. The stock fell 22.2 percent to C$10.86 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Countdown to launch
The success of the BB10 will be crucial to the future of RIM, which on Thursday posted its first-ever decline in total subscribers. Heins said on CNBC that the company expected to ship millions of the new devices.
He cautioned that this will require heavy investment, which will reduce RIM's cash position in its fourth and first quarters from $2.9 billion in its fiscal third quarter. He said, however, it would not go below $2 billion.
Still, doubts remain about whether RIM can pull off the transformation. Needham analyst Charlie Wolf said the BB10 would have to look meaningfully superior to its competitors for RIM to stage a comeback.
Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley said it was highly unlikely that the market would support RIM's new mobile computing ecosystem, and he remained skeptical about the company's ability to survive on its own.
"We believe RIM will eventually need to sell the company," said Walkley, who cut his price target on RIM shares to $9 from $10.
Baird Equity Research analysts said BB10 faced a daunting uphill battle against products from Apple, as well as those using Google Inc's Android operating system, and, increasingly, phones with Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 operating system.
Baird maintained its "underperform" rating on the stock, while Paradigm Capital downgraded the shares to "hold" from "buy" on uncertainty around the services revenue model.
"RIM has gone from having one major aspect of uncertainty BlackBerry 10 adoption to two, given an uncertain floor on services revenue," William Blair analyst Anil Doradla said.
RIM will have to discount BB10 devices significantly to maintain demand, Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu said.
The BlackBerry, however, still offers the security features that helped it build its reputation with big business and government, a selling point with some key customers.
Credit Suisse maintained its "neutral" rating on the stock, but not because it expected BB10 to be a big success.
"Only the potential for an outright sale of the company or a breakup keeps us at a neutral," Credit Suisse analysts said.
Separately on Friday, ailing Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia said it had settled its patent dispute with RIM in return for payments. Nokia did not disclose detailed terms, but said the deal included a one-time payment to be booked in the fourth quarter, as well as ongoing fees, all to be paid by RIM.
© Thomson Reuters 2012

Lenovo launches IdeaPad Yoga hybrids starting Rs. 61,790

Lenovo launches IdeaPad Yoga hybrids starting Rs. 61,790

Lenovo has launched the IdeaPad Yoga series of hybrid devices in India. The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga series features hybrid devices that double up as laptops as well as tablets. The two models launched are the IdeaPad Yoga 13 and IdeaPad Yoga 11.
The Windows 8 running Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 features a 13.3-inch 1600x900 multi-touch display. It is powered by 3rd generation Intel Core processors alongside 4GB RAM (upgradable to 8GB) and integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000. The IdeaPad Yoga 13 sports 128GB SSD storage, webcam, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth, HDMI, 1 USB 2.0 port, 1 USB 3.0 port and a 2-in-1 card reader.
Lenovo claims 8 hours of battery life on the IdeaPad Yoga 13 which is now available for Rs. 84,290.
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 is a Windows RT device that sports a 11.6-inch 1366x768 multi-touch display. It is powered by NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor alongside NVIDIA ULP GeForce and 2GB RAM. It comes with 2 USB 2.0 ports, webcam, HDMI, card-reader, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth, and 64GB SSD storage.
Lenovo says the IdeaPad Yoga 11's 4-cell battery is good enough for 13 hours of usage. The IdeaPad Yoga 11 is now available for Rs. 61,790.

EU to set out anti-trust case against Samsung soon

EU to set out anti-trust case against Samsung soon

The EU will set out its case against Samsung Electronics "very soon" following an anti-trust probe of the smartphone and mobile tablet market, Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Thursday.
"We will adopt a statement of objections very soon," Almunia said, meaning a document detailing the EU competition watchdog's possible objections.
"I don't know if it is at the end of this year or the beginning of next year," he said, adding that "we are on the last last steps of our internal procedures."
The Commission opened a probe in January on whether the South Korean tech giant was abusing its market position by seeking bans on sales of products made by its competitors in several European countries, alleging they were illegally using its patents.
Samsung said this week it would drop a legal request to ban Apple products in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands but would maintain lawsuits for alleged patent infringement.
Commenting on Samsung's decision to withdraw the requests, Almunia said: "We are very happy with this because one of the most important objections that we have when dealing with holders of standard essential patents is their possible abuses using their ownership (of patents)."
Samsung overtook Nokia as the top mobile phone brand for 2012 and has opened up a decisive lead over Apple in the smartphone market, market research firm IHS iSuppli said earlier this week.

Nintendo's TVii service brings television programming to Wii U

Nintendo's TVii service brings television programming to Wii U

Nintendo is switching on a television service that transforms the tablet-like controller for its new Wii U game console into a remote that changes the channel on your TV and puts programs from the Internet just a few finger taps away.
The TVii service will debut in the U.S. and Canada on Thursday, the company said. That's a delay from previous plans to have the service available when the game console went on sale in North America on Nov. 18. The TVii service launched in Japan on Dec. 8.
The aim of TVii is to bring order to the hundreds of channels on regular TV and the thousands of shows and movies available through apps from Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Hulu Plus and Google Inc.'s YouTube.
It's the first time a video game console maker has integrated live TV controls in a device and could be the extra incentive needed for on-the-fence shoppers ahead of the Christmas holiday.
Nintendo Co.'s Wii U console has a unique controller - the GamePad - which is covered with joysticks and buttons and boasts a front-facing camera and 6.2-inch touch screen. The GamePad also houses an infrared emitter that talks directly to your TV or set-top box.
TVii scans what's available and offers you the option of watching a show, sports event or movie on live TV or through apps that connect to the Internet. By the end of March, Nintendo says that it will integrate TVii with TiVo so that it will be possible to program a TiVo digital video recorder through the game console as well.
"This is a way to get every member of the household to pick up the GamePad hopefully every day," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America. "Hopefully this leads to a significant change in how consumers view and interact with their TV."
For years, home entertainment enthusiasts have had to grapple with a bunch of different controllers to work their televisions, set-top boxes, DVRs, disc players and game consoles. TVii has the potential to dispense with some of that hassle.
If you search for "The Walking Dead," for example, TVii will show you the next time it's on AMC and give you the option of buying previous episodes from Amazon or watching them on Netflix. If it's on now, you can change the channel from the GamePad. Users will be able to watch only channels they already get via antenna or through their TV provider, but search results will include all the options available, which could entice some people to upgrade their channel packages. Netflix and Hulu Plus require separate subscriptions that cost $8 a month each. TVii itself is free.
TVii also has a traditional channel guide and will recommend shows you might like based on favorite shows, networks and movies that you enter. Different users can have different profiles, and parental controls are included.
Nintendo hopes the service boosts sales of its console. About 425,000 Wii U units were sold in the first seven days on sale. That's faster than the rollout of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 when they debuted in November 2005 and November 2006 respectively, although initial sales are often constrained by supply, not demand.
Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities said the TVii service puts Nintendo a step ahead of its competitors, but he expects Microsoft to close the gap next year with a next-generation Xbox that includes a TV tuner. Microsoft hasn't announced such a device.
"It gives them a head start. I think they should be congratulated on making this a truly multimedia device," Pachter said. "I don't think that advantage is going to last very long."
Nintendo has also added social networking features to its service. A team of curators will watch the top 100 shows on live TV and post details and a screenshot of important events, such as "a great shot in a basketball game or an unexpected twist in 'Mad Men,'" according to Zach Fountain, director of network business for Nintendo of America.
Users can then comment on these moments and have those posts show up on Nintendo's Miiverse network, as well as Facebook and Twitter if they choose. Users that express emotions could wind up with a sad or happy-looking Mii avatar.
Live sporting events such as pro or college football will also be accompanied by scores and play-by-play summaries on the GamePad's screen.
One problem with the service could be the GamePad's battery life. Nintendo says the controller can be used three to five hours depending on activity and screen brightness before it needs to be charged. But TV ratings agency The Nielsen Co. says the average American watches nearly five hours of TV per day. Heavy users may need to keep the controller plugged in to a wall socket, or buy a $25 battery pack that its maker, Nyko, promises will double the battery life.