Sunday, March 28, 2010

Confirmed: Microsoft Natal will premiere at E3

The Wait is Over

Software giant Microsoft will indeed show off their new gadget, the highly anticipated 'Natal' motion sensing controller that goes with the Xbox 360 at E3 on June 13, 2010. The gadget would be previewed and the full specs and its price would obviously be given away during the event.
Moreover, the titles that would support the Natal would also be revealed. As we reported earlier, the Natal occupies 13 feet, or 4 meters of space. According to Microsoft, Natal will not only bring a revolution to gaming, but will also effectively replace TV remotes. And if what Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten says is true, we won't be able to tell the difference between the TV, game console, and the Internet.
Watch a video demo of the Natal below:
The Natal will reportedly cost about $80, However, Microsoft and many of the developers would like to see the company get that price down to $50, if possible. In any case it will not cost more than $100, which is the 'impulse buy' amount. The pre-orders and demand will be huge. But you don't need to worry about availability, since Microsoft is shipping as many as 5 million units, which is about one Natal for every seven of the nearly 34 million Xbox 360s that have been sold to date.
Some of the units will be sold in an Xbox 360 console bundle, while the others will be simply sold as an add-on unit. Now those are huge numbers, we can safely say that Microsoft is banking that Natal will get a lot of attention and be successful. The other biggie is that as many as 14 titles will be available or support the use of Natal at launch. Software support will be a major factor for the Natal to be successful, and 12 major game publishers have confirmed that they will support it. As to which titles will be released remains shrouded in secrecy, only Fable III has been confirmed that it will offer Natal support.

Monday, March 1, 2010

India's first urban mobile WiMAX service arrives

BSNL on Saturday launched India's first mobile 4G broadband Internet access network, the Mobile WiMAX in Kerala. The state has become the first in the country to have the facility and BSNL is now the first operator to launch the service in India.
The technology has been provided by AVIAT, formerly Harris Stratex. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technology can provide very high speeds (up to 37 mbps). 900 BTS (Base Transmitting Stations) have been deployed in the state and the entire project is expected to cost about Rs 100 crore. 450 BTS are being set up to cover major cities, district headquarters and important towns. 25 BTS will cover Ernakulam, Tripunithura, Kalamassery, Aluva and Angamally muncipalities. According to E M Abraham, Principal General Manager of BSNL, "The new technology will provide access to broadband at a cost performance ratio that is far better than any other technology."
According to a recent study, India will be the largest WiMAX market in Asia Pacific by 2013. There would be as many as 14 million WiMAX users by the year 2013 and the annual growth rate would be nearly 130%. "Eventually, we expect WiMAX growth to be much faster in smaller cities and rural towns. The investment on WiMAX will then go up substantially. WiMAX will not be an alternative to 3G but will be used for overall broadband diffusion in India," said Rahul Gupta, Strategy Analytics manager for emerging market communication service. "WiMAX, unlike 3G, will find the bulk of its consumer applications in providing fixed and nomadic broadband access in India. Purely mobile usage of WiMAX is expected to be a fairly small component of the total usage. But technological competition will come in the near term from 3G which is being marketed in many emerging markets as an alternative for fixed broadband access," said Mr Gupta.
"Consumer subscriptions in the developing Asian countries are forecast to grow at a compound rate of 132% through 2013, with the subscriber base reaching almost 27 million in that year. Most emerging markets WiMAX providers will launch their initial services in major urban areas, to take advantage of concentrations of existing Internet users with purchasing power. However, over the longer term the most rapid growth is expected to be in second-tier cities and in rural areas, where there is substantially less competition from incumbent broadband suppliers. China and India will be critical markets while the speed of HSPA deployment will be the most significant competitive factor in most markets." he added.