Sony profits for the April to June period have more than doubled as robust demand for its cameras and a weak yen offset losses at its games unit.
Net earnings for the first quarter at the electronics giant rose to 66.5bn yen ($552m; £269m), up from 32.3bn yen last year.
The fall in the Japanese currency against the US dollar and euro helped boost the firm's overseas earnings.
But its Playstation 3 console continued to struggle in a tough games market.
PS3 troubles
Problems with the company's next generation games console - designed to compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii - caused its launch to be delayed.
Despite Sony cutting the price of the PS3 in the US, sales of the system still significantly trail Nintendo's Wii machine. Sony's games division saw losses widen to 29.2bn yen.
Sony said it aimed to increase shipments of the PS3 to 11 million units by 2008. On Wednesday, Nintendo upgraded sales forecasts of its Wii console to 16.5 million machines for the year to March 2008, up from a previous forecast of 14 million.
Elsewhere, performance was strong in Sony's electronics division, which benefited from strong demand for Handycam video cameras and Bravia liquid crystal display (LCD) television sets.
With sales of conventional TV sets in decline, Sony faces a tough battle to win a share of the flat-panel market against LCD TV market leader Samsung Electronics.
Sony maintained its operating profit forecast for the year to March 2008 of 440bn yen. This is up sharply from 71.75bn yen in the 2006/07 financial year when it was hit by costs relating to the delayed launch of the PS3 and a recall of faulty laptop PC batteries.
Monday 30 July 2007
Thursday 12 July 2007
E-Marketing growing Fast
The annual value of pan-European online advertising is set to reach 16bn euros ($22bn; £10.8bn) by 2012, more than double that of 2006, says a study.
The report by research body Forrester said online adverts would leap to 18% of market share, up from 9% currently.
It said 52% of people were now regularly online, spending more time doing so than watching television.
The UK will continue to see the most online advertising in the next four years, ahead of Germany and France.
European internet users now spend 14.3 hours a week online, compared with 11.3 hours watching TV, and 4.4 hours reading newspapers or magazines, the research group said.
As a result of this increased internet usage, 36% of people who go online said they spent less time looking at the television as a result.
The report said search engines would continue to dominate online advertising spend, followed by display advertisements and e-mails.
"After five years of dipping their toes into the online marketing waters, firms have come to realise that the net is a valuable medium for client acquisition, retention and market expansion," said the study.
For more information on Google Adwords campaigns call Ion e-Business for help.
The report by research body Forrester said online adverts would leap to 18% of market share, up from 9% currently.
It said 52% of people were now regularly online, spending more time doing so than watching television.
The UK will continue to see the most online advertising in the next four years, ahead of Germany and France.
European internet users now spend 14.3 hours a week online, compared with 11.3 hours watching TV, and 4.4 hours reading newspapers or magazines, the research group said.
As a result of this increased internet usage, 36% of people who go online said they spent less time looking at the television as a result.
The report said search engines would continue to dominate online advertising spend, followed by display advertisements and e-mails.
"After five years of dipping their toes into the online marketing waters, firms have come to realise that the net is a valuable medium for client acquisition, retention and market expansion," said the study.
For more information on Google Adwords campaigns call Ion e-Business for help.
Saturday 7 July 2007
FBI Tackles Zombies
The FBI is contacting more than one million PC owners who have had their computers hijacked by cyber criminals. The initiative is part of an ongoing project to thwart the use of hijacked home computers, or zombies, as launch platforms for hi-tech crimes.
The FBI has found networks of zombie computers being used to spread spam, steal IDs and attack websites.
The agency said the zombies or bots were "a growing threat to national security".
The FBI has been trying to tackle networks of zombies for some time as part of an initiative it has dubbed Operation Bot Roast.
This operation recently passed a significant milestone as it racked up more than one million individually identifiable computers known to be part of one bot net or another.
The law enforcement organisation said that part of the operation involved notifying people who owned PCs it knew were part of zombie or bot networks. In this way it said it expected to find more evidence of how they are being used by criminals.
"The majority of victims are not even aware that their computer has been compromised or their personal information exploited," said James Finch, assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division.
Many people fall victim by opening an attachment on an e-mail message containing a virus or by visiting a booby-trapped webpage.
Many hi-tech criminals are now trying to subvert innocent webpages to act as proxies for their malicious programs. Once hijacked, PCs can be used to send out spam, spread spyware or as repositories for illegal content such as pirated movies or pornography.
Those in charge of botnets, called botherders, can have tens of thousands of machines under their control.
Operation Bot Roast has resulted in the arrest of three people known to have used bot nets for criminal ends.
One of those arrested, Robert Alan Soloway, could face 65 years in jail if found guilty of all the crimes with which he has been charged.
In a statement about Operation Bot Roast the FBI urged PC users to practice good computer security which includes using regularly updated anti-virus software and installing a firewall.
For those without basic protections anti-virus companies such as F Secure, Trend Micro, Kaspersky Labs and many others offer online scanning services that can help spot infections.
The organisation said it was difficult for people to know if their machine was part of a botnet.
However it said telltale signs could be if the machine ran slowly, had an e-mail outbox full of mail a user did not send or they get e-mail saying they are sending spam.
The FBI has found networks of zombie computers being used to spread spam, steal IDs and attack websites.
The agency said the zombies or bots were "a growing threat to national security".
The FBI has been trying to tackle networks of zombies for some time as part of an initiative it has dubbed Operation Bot Roast.
This operation recently passed a significant milestone as it racked up more than one million individually identifiable computers known to be part of one bot net or another.
The law enforcement organisation said that part of the operation involved notifying people who owned PCs it knew were part of zombie or bot networks. In this way it said it expected to find more evidence of how they are being used by criminals.
"The majority of victims are not even aware that their computer has been compromised or their personal information exploited," said James Finch, assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division.
Many people fall victim by opening an attachment on an e-mail message containing a virus or by visiting a booby-trapped webpage.
Many hi-tech criminals are now trying to subvert innocent webpages to act as proxies for their malicious programs. Once hijacked, PCs can be used to send out spam, spread spyware or as repositories for illegal content such as pirated movies or pornography.
Those in charge of botnets, called botherders, can have tens of thousands of machines under their control.
Operation Bot Roast has resulted in the arrest of three people known to have used bot nets for criminal ends.
One of those arrested, Robert Alan Soloway, could face 65 years in jail if found guilty of all the crimes with which he has been charged.
In a statement about Operation Bot Roast the FBI urged PC users to practice good computer security which includes using regularly updated anti-virus software and installing a firewall.
For those without basic protections anti-virus companies such as F Secure, Trend Micro, Kaspersky Labs and many others offer online scanning services that can help spot infections.
The organisation said it was difficult for people to know if their machine was part of a botnet.
However it said telltale signs could be if the machine ran slowly, had an e-mail outbox full of mail a user did not send or they get e-mail saying they are sending spam.
Tuesday 3 July 2007
Record Demand For Final Harry Potter Book
Nearly 1.6m copies of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, have been pre-ordered online ahead of its release on 21 July.
According to online retailer Amazon, JK Rowling's seventh Potter book has become its most pre-ordered product.
Demand has surpassed a previous record of 1.5 million copies ordered ahead of the release of The Half-Blood Prince.
The latest film in the series, The Order of the Phoenix, has its European premiere in London on Tuesday.
The film opens across the globe on 11 July.
According to online retailer Amazon, JK Rowling's seventh Potter book has become its most pre-ordered product.
Demand has surpassed a previous record of 1.5 million copies ordered ahead of the release of The Half-Blood Prince.
The latest film in the series, The Order of the Phoenix, has its European premiere in London on Tuesday.
The film opens across the globe on 11 July.
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