New Technology Reviews!.: announcement

UK-bound Netflix loses 800,000 customers in Q3

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;">
<div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="UK-bound Netflix loses 800,000 customers in Q3" class="aligncenter" height="211" mce_src="http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8943/netflixlogo47075.jpg" src="http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8943/netflixlogo47075.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="282" /></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The excitement behind the announcement that dominant US movie streaming giant Netflix is coming to the UK has been dampened by an alarming subscriber drop-off across the pond.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Netflix lost a whopping 800,000 subscribers in the United States in the third quarter of 2011, seemingly because of the massive customer backlash against a price hike earlier this year.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The company controversially split its disc rental and streaming packages asking customers to spend $7.99 each on something they'd been paying $8.99 for as a combined package.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
As a result, most customers have chosen one solution or the other, with only seven per cent of its user base signed-up for both the disc rental and streaming options.</div>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Best days behind it?</h4>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Now, with a UK launch officially pencilled in for the early months of 2012, it raises fears that Neflix's best days may already be behind it.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Subscriber numbers for this quarter came in a 23.79m, down from 24.59 in the previous three months.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
In a statement to shareholders, the company said: "Our opportunity is to be one of the leaders of this transformation (to video streaming) with the best streaming video subscription service on the planet.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
"The last few months, however, have been difficult for shareholders, employees, and most unfortunately, many members of Netflix.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
"While we dramatically improved our $7.99 unlimited streaming service by embracing new platforms, simplifying our user‐interface, and more than doubling domestic spending on streaming content over 2010, we greatly upset many domestic Netflix members with our significant DVD‐related pricing changes, and to a lesser degree, with the proposed‐and‐now‐cancelled rebranding of our DVD service.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
"In doing so, we've hurt our hard‐earned reputation, and stalled our domestic growth. But our long‐term streaming opportunity is as compelling as ever and we are moving forward as quickly as we can to repair our reputation and return to growth."</div>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
No Starz</h4>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Despite that vow, the company is also struggling to keep customers sated with fresh streaming content for its streaming package after failing to renew a deal with the Starz Play distribution network.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
That means US subscribers will soon loose a huge array of popular content including recently added movies like Toy Story 3, TRON: Legacy.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The company also confused customers with a heavy-handed, short-lived decision to remove its disc rental business from the Netflix name and call it Qwikster. That decision was reversed within weeks.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
So with the UK already in love with LOVEFiLM and with Sky and Virgin's on demand offerings extremely popular, can Netflix really make its desired impact on UK soil?</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">UPDATE: </span>Shares in the company dipped a massive 26 per cent in after hours trading.</div>
</div>
</div>

UK-bound Netflix loses 800,000 customers in Q3

The excitement behind the announcement that dominant US movie streaming giant Netflix is coming to the UK has been dampened by an alar...

iPhone 4S first impressions

iPhone 4S first impressions

The iPhone 4S was launched today, and unfortunately we weren’t present at the event for a hands-on, first impression of the phone; but w...

IFA 2011: IFA 2011 sees giant push towards connected TVs

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;">
<div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="IFA 2011: IFA 2011 sees giant push towards connected TVs" class="aligncenter" height="212" mce_src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//classifications/IFA2011/LW980T-R15%20-%20Smart%20TV%20Contents-470-75.jpg" src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//classifications/IFA2011/LW980T-R15%20-%20Smart%20TV%20Contents-470-75.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="282" /></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
From one end of IFA 2011 to the other, the hottest tech trend has undoubtedly been the rise and rise of internet-connected TVs in general and Smart TVs in particular.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Proof of that comes in the announcement on Thursday that LG, Philips and Sharp were teaming up to promote an open standard for TV apps that aims to emulate the success of smartphone and tablets appsm, with rival TV makers and application developers being encouraged to climb on board.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The reasons why TV makers would want to do so are clear: first, 3D is fast becoming the default for new TVs available in the shops and so TV makers will soon need something new to sell; it could enable them to claim back some of the home entertainment territory lost to PC makers in recent years; and, presumably, they stand to make a whole chunk of change on imposing Apple-style levies on developers who want to get their apps on TVs.</div>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Open standards</h4>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The new Smart TV standard will be based on other open standards such as HTML5, CE-HTML and HbbTV that will enable application developers to reduce the number of platforms they have to support and so speed up application development - or at least that's the hope.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The potential benefits to all of us as TV viewers is that we'll be able enjoy a more relaxing interactive, TV-centric experience than you can enjoy with laptops and smartphones already, whether that's chatting to friends on Facebook or Twitter, catching up with your TV viewing using services like BBC iPlayer or even streaming movies or playing multi-player games.</div>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Can't we all just get along?</h4>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The big but - and it <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">is </span>a big but - is whether rival TV makers will be prepared to play ball. Sony, Panasonic, Samsung and Toshiba have yet to sign up to the Smart TV standard, making them potentially very formidable opponents. Sony, in particular, is very fond of promoting its own proprietary standards, although it's arguably had a lot more losers than winners in recent times.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Another potential problem is what happens to the applications themselves: are we prepared to see our internet-connected TVs infested with malware brought by unfettered access to an Android-style marketplace? Or will TV makers seek to limit our freedom to choose and use the apps we want by creating an Apple-style walled garden?</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">What do you think? Sound off in the comments</span></div>
</div>
</div>

IFA 2011: IFA 2011 sees giant push towards connected TVs

From one end of IFA 2011 to the other, the hottest tech trend has undoubtedly been the rise and rise of internet-connected TVs in gene...

Lenovo ThinkPad, IdeaPad tablets coming later this month?

<div><img alt="Lenovo ThinkPad, IdeaPad tablets coming later this month?" class="aligncenter" height="208" src="http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/1504/lenovotabletsdates.jpg" style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" width="294" /></div><br/>Well, what do we have here? From the looks of it, we've got ourselves launch dates for a slate of new Lenovo tablets. A little note from the outfit's Affiliate Program, pictured above, shows the Android-packing IdeaPad K1 will, unsurprisingly, debut in late June or July, with a June 28th arrival being pegged for its rumored ThinkPad tablet. What's more, we could see a refresh of the company's IdeaCentre nettop coming our way August 30th. Looks like this summer could be a hot one for Lenovo, but we'll just have to wait and see how things pan out.<br/><br/><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/26/lenovo-thinkpad-ideapad-tablets-coming-later-this-month/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>

Lenovo ThinkPad, IdeaPad tablets coming later this month?

Well, what do we have here? From the looks of it, we've got ourselves launch dates for a slate of new Lenovo tablets. A little note from...