Microsoft's Xbox 360 has just made its debut in Spain. The European launch of the eagerly awaited new game console comes in the wake of a first week sell-out in the United States.
Microsoft has timed the launch to take advantage of the Christmas season (around 80% of game consoles are sold over Christmas) and steal a march on rivals Sony and Nintendo, whose newest offerings (PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Revolution) are not due out until mid or late 2006.
Things have changed dramatically since the days of space invader machines. The so-called “next-generation” consoles are powerful multimedia devices that allow users not only to play games, but also watch movies, view photo slideshows, listen to music or even chat online. And it's no longer just a fight over the game console market; the battle now is for control of the digital home.

It's no secret that Microsoft loses money on its game consoles. But that, apparently, is a price it is willing to pay to strengthen its presence in the entertainment market and to get its Xbox 360 firmly ensconced in the living room of the digital home.

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Title: Selling Items Online
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
Date: November 27, 2005
Abstract: Some 17% of online American adults have used the Internet to sell things. That amounts to approximately 25 million Americans. So we learn from a study by Pew Internet & American Life Project. Online sellers are relatively intensive Internet users, have broadband connections, and have several years' online experience.
Classified ad and auction sites are the ones most used for online transactions. According to data from comScore Media Metrix, online classified ad sites as a whole had more than 26 million unique visitors in September 2005 – 80% growth from the previous September. The cluster of sites run by Craigslist –an online community for jobs, housing and personal ads, etc.– were the most popular classified sites, drawing close to 9 million unique visitors that month. One in four (24%) Internet users have participated in an online auction –either selling or buying something. In fact, 2% to 3% do so daily.

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Title: Las TIC en los hogares españoles, VIII Oleada, Segundo trimestre de 2005. (ITCs in Spanish households, 7th Wave (Second quarter 2005))
Source: Observatorio de las Telecomunicaciones y de la Sociedad de la Información de Red.es
Date: November 21, 2005
Abstract: During the second quarter of this year, Spaniards spent more on cellular services than on fixed-line calls. According to a report prepared by Red.es, total expenditure by Spanish households on cellular phone services (1,053 million euros) rose above expenditure on fixed-line telephony (1,026 million) for the first time in a quarter.
Average monthly household spending on cellular services came in at 32.6 euros, outstripping fixed-line telephony, which fell slightly, from 32.2 to 30.3 euros. Consumption of contract cellular phones as opposed to prepaid services has stabilized at a ratio of 60% to 40%.
As regards consumption of fixed-line telephony, the salient details are as follows: although metropolitan calls represent 66.4% of minutes billed, they account for only 34.2% of spending; by contrast, calls to cellular phones make up only 7.4% of call time but account for 30.9% of total billing.
The audiovisual market and spending on Internet access also registered a slight decline, due partly to the post-Christmas slump in spending and partly to the fact that the profit of this period is computed during the first quarter of 2005. Monthly household consumption went from 35.4 euros in the first quarter to 34.2 in the second. Spending on ADSL dropped 16.2% compared with the previous quarter, though it should be pointed out that connection fees for ADSL lines sold over the Christmas period are billed during the first three months of the year. Even so, during the April to June period, 241.3 million euros were spent on Internet access, an average of 20.8 euros per month per household.

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Google has started testing a new service, Click-to-Call, which allows users to speak to advertisers they find on a Google search results page, without having to pick up the phone and dial. How? Simple: just click on the phone icon in the ad and key in your phone number. Google then calls the advertiser and the potential customer, and puts the two in contact with one another. Although this is an online service, Click-to-Call is not based on voice over IP; instead, it uses traditional telephony. Google insists that the user's telephone number is not shared with the advertiser, and that the data will be deleted from its servers after a reasonably short period of time.
This is not a new idea: A9.com, Amazon.com's search engine, started its own particular version of the traditional yellow pages almost a year ago; among other things, it included a click-to-call service to put users and advertisers in contact. Meanwhile, IBM, has announced plans to integrate click-to-call technology in Lotus Notes, and Yahoo! has carried out trials in its instant messaging programs.
Google's intention is to integrate Click-to-Call in its AdSense advertising service as a means of adding value to online ads, which are its main source of revenue. By paying a little extra, advertisers will be able to communicate directly with potential customers, for whom the service will be completely free.

News in News.com, InformationWeek and The Register

A study by America Online (AOL) reveals that 52% of American consumers expect to do more of their shopping online this Christmas. Almost half the respondents (49%) cite high gas prices as a reason for using online retailers. Other reasons given include flexible opening hours, time saving and price comparisons. The online shopping budget will be smaller, however, down from an average of 295 dollars last year to a forecasted 254 dollars this Christmas.
The Monday following Thanksgiving, known as Cyber Monday, marks the start of the online sales season in the United States. Forty percent of online retailers mark the occasion by offering significant discounts and promotions. This year on Cyber Monday, Americans spent 485 million dollars, 26% more than last year. Both Yahoo! and ComStore Networks agree that the Xbox 360 and the iPod were the most popular purchases on Cyber Monday. In fact, they seem likely to become the gifts of choice this Christmas. The Xbox has sold out in the United States and people are paying online sellers up to twice or even three times the regular retail price. Sales of MP3 players –a market dominated by Apple (70%)– are expected to top 700 million dollars in the last quarter of the year.
According to a study by the Consumer Electronic Association, MP3 players, digital cameras and game consoles head Americans' Christmas wishlist. This is a striking change from 2004, when MP3 players were not even in the top ten and game consoles were in ninth position.

News in AOL, Yahoo! News and USA Today
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U.S. companies spend approximately one billion dollars (854 million euros) per year printing and mailing documents to shareholders prior to General Meetings. The SEC has decided to try to cut that expenditure. If the SEC's plan is approved, listed companies will be able to choose between online or traditional methods, allowing shareholders to receive notice of meetings, send proxy appointments, and exercise their rights via the corporate website.
On the other side of the pond, the European Union expects good corporate governance to require more extensive use of the Internet in the future. In Spain, electronic voting, online proxy appointment, and publication of shareholder information on the corporate web site are regulated by a law passed more than two years ago. Both in the EU and in Spain, however, companies are sticking to traditional procedures for these purposes rather than using the Internet. This means that not only is there no saving, but an extra cost.
Measures such as those proposed by the SEC would save companies billions of dollars and be another step toward "virtual" General Meetings. Beyond economic efficiency, they also would encourage greater participation by small and medium-sized shareholders. For companies and their governing bodies, this could be a double-edged weapon.  

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