Worldwide sales of mobile phones declined 2pc in the first quarter of 2012, with the sale of 419.1m units, marking the first year-on-year decline since the second quarter of 2009.

The figures come from the report ‘Market Share: Mobile Devices, Worldwide, 1Q12’ from IT research and advisory company Gartner.

Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, puts the unexpected decline down to a slowing demand for mobile devices in the Asia/Pacific region. “The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia (which is driven by Chinese New Year), saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year,” he said.

Stronger second quarter expected

“The continued roll out of 3G-based smartphones by local and regional manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Yulong and TCL Communication should help spur demand in China. In addition, the arrival of new products in mature markets based on new versions of the Android and Windows Phone operating systems, and the launch of the Apple ‘iPhone 5’ will help drive a stronger second half in Western Europe and North America,” said Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner.

However, these low results from quarter one are leading the firm to be cautious about sales for the remainder of the year. “As we are starting to update our market forecast we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20m units, is unavoidable,” Zimmerman added.

Samsung coming out on top all round

That said, one particular manufacturer saw excellent results from this quarter. Samsung became the world’s No 1 mobile handset vendor, knocking Nokia off the top spot it had held since 1998, and also took back the No 1 smartphone position from Apple, selling 38m smartphones worldwide.

What’s more, Samsung’s Android-based smartphone sales in this period represented more than 40pc of Android sales globally, while no other vendors achieved more than a 10pc market share.

Smartphone market driving growth, but competition is increasing

In the smartphone market, Android accounted for more than half of all sales (56.1pc), but Gartner analysts say the market is now more challenging for manufacturers due to increased commoditisation and differentiation.

One manufacturer struggling in this environment is RIM, which sold 9.9m mobile handsets this quarter, marking a decline in its global share to just 2.4pc. “RIM desperately needs to deliver winning BB10 products to retain users and stay competitive,” said Gupta, adding, “This will be very challenging, because BB10 lacks strong developer support, and a new BB10 device will only be available in the fourth quarter of 2012.”

Smartphones are still a key driver in the mobile device market, reaching sales of 144.4m units in the first quarter of this year, a 44.7pc year-on-year increase. Samsung and Apple fared best, with a combined share of 49.3pc, while Nokia saw its share drop to 9.2pc.

“Smartphone sales are becoming of paramount importance at a worldwide level. For example, smartphone volumes contributed to approximately 43.9pc of overall sales for Samsung as opposed to 16pc for Nokia,” said Gupta.

Speaking at yesterday's Media Future Conference 2012, Laura Evans said that in terms of online publishing, The Washington Post had to find a way to handle its dual purpose: to be a newspaper for the city of Washington, DC; and to be a source of news for the globe from the capital city of one of the world's most powerful countries.

She said the problem was solved relatively simply by launching a regional homepage for the city of Washington that was presented to local readers based on their IP address and an international version for readers outside the city based on their IP addresses.

But solving that particular problem pales beside the bigger problem newspapers face. As readers buy fewer physical copies and get their news online, newspapers need to find ways of growing that online audience and monetise at the same time.

The key, Evans asserted, is reader engagement.

“In 2010 we began a strategy focusing on growing audience and we saw that while we were growing our audience we weren't making headway with engagement. We looked at our data and while we could bring page views and unique visitors up by doing the odd Britney Spears article, we needed to stand out and make a difference. That required a clear strategy and a mission - ours was to be the indispensable guide to Washington - and we got that insight by talking to customers."

What's behind the numbers on Google analytics, Evans said, is often what publishers in a headlong race for traffic, fail to ask.

“It's really easy to say if something is doing well. What's harder is asking did it do well enough? Did we provide the best experience possible? You need to focus on goals and what are your metrics for success and then you decide to disseminate those goals throughout your organisation."

The Washington Post's journey began by studying the numbers and comparing where it was relative to its competition.

As well as studying Google Insights, the newspaper's team studied its own data and what keywords brought readers to the site via Google searches.

This led to more focus on the times that readers came to the site. "We also realised that live discussions weren't customer friendly."

Another game changer was ensuring that when stories went up on the newspaper's site that the authors would also join in the discussion with readers.

'Done is better than perfect'

“We also learned by studying our data that readers came to us across multiple devices and didn't always come to our homepage. Each page is an entrance to your site and you need to showcase the information that you have. Readers would access articles, blogs and galleries in one sitting."

This also meant a key change in how the newspaper approached news. Traditionally, newspapers were oriented towards daily deadlines for the next day's paper but in the online world the readers were coming at all hours of the day.

“We had to essentially adjust and move when story meetings happened. All of this made a difference," she said pointing out that studying analytics and looking for insights all the time was key.

She said that mobile should always be seen as a work in progress. When the newspaper launched the second version of its iPhone app it saw 174pc growth in subscriptions. "We learned because we were already out there. If we were going to be waiting for it to be perfect we would have been losing time. 'Done is better than perfect,' is a Mark Zuckerberg line."

Evans said that everything online should be viewed as a work in progress that requires constant refocus.

It all starts with data

Data analytics has been a constant ally throughout, especially in identifying patterns of behaviour among readers coming in through a variety of devices.

“We found that with the iPad, for example, we experience spikes in the morning, it drops around midday and then picks up at the end of the day. The mobile web spikes in the morning and spreads throughout the day."

Into the future Evans said that online publishers need to put analytics at the heart of the organisation. "Embrace it, love it. It's a small barrier to entry in the digital space but to not use this resource means you are going to end up losing against the competition.

“A customer-centric approach will always give you results."

She said publishers won't be able to do their job well in the future without having analysis or analysts close by to help them understand and take action.

“Require analyst insights," she told publishers. "Don't just ask for information, push your analytics team."

This has become a new ethos for The Washington Post team when it comes to using data: "Everything has to have a recommendation. A recommendation for what you do with the information you've been given and how you use the data to leverage for success."

The research was recently published in Nanoscale. The researchers themselves hail from the Science Foundation Ireland-funded nanoscience institute CRANN, which is based at Trinity College Dublin, and from University College Cork (UCC).

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin and Intel's researcher-in-residence based at CRANN assisted the scientists.

Alternative to silicon device manufacturing

Led by Prof Mick Morris, who is based at UCC, the scientists said they have come up with a greater understanding of the assembling properties of block copolymers.

In all, three companies and six research partners across seven European countries were involved in the research.

As for block copolymers, they are present in materials such as spandex and rubber shoe soles. They consist of repeating structural units and can form highly regular column-like and linear structures.

Morris and his team set out to electrically characterise large areas of nano-electronic devices, which are created by the self-assembly of block copolymers.

They said that it is this discovery that could prove to be an alternative to silicon device manufacturing.

With the costs of silicon device manufacturing increasing dramatically, the scientists said this research could be developed to allow cost-effective production of nanoscale electronic devices.

They said the techniques and materials used in the research are consistent with modern microelectronic fabrication and could be used in industry, such as in the manufacturing of next-generation devices by Intel.

"The potential of our research is extremely exciting and reflects many years of hard work. This is the first time that anyone has demonstrated that large areas of nano-electronic devices can be developed in this fashion and highlights a pathway to commercial applications," said Morris.

Business intelligence software provider RJ Metrics analysed posts from 40,000 Google+ users selected at random. Using only information that was publicly available, these users’ timelines were downloaded in order to research Google+ user engagement.

Though this data is not a complete reflection of the Google+ populace, as private data could provide far more insight, it still gives a worthwhile glimpse into user behaviour on the social network.

Out of the 40,000 accounts selected for review, only one-third of those users selected had any public activity, so the study mainly focused on them.

Lengthy breaks between public posts

Usually, users that have gotten over their first few posts to a social network are more than 90pc likely to return for more – it’s the Pringles-tested ‘once you pop you can’t stop’ mentality. However, with Google+, 30pc of users never made a second public post and, even after about five consecutive posts, the likelihood of sending out another public post doesn’t pass the 90pc mark but falters at 85pc.

A cohort analysis based on user sign-up dates further elaborates on this showing that, even after a few months, users are less and less likely to make additional posts with each passing month – a trend that is consistent even with newer sign-ups.

It seems, also, that Google+ users aren’t as consistent as Facebook and Twitter users, leaving, on average, 12 days between posts. While plenty of these users may be creating private posts in the interim, this figure still shows a lengthy break between public posts.

Each post gets less than one +1, reply and share

RJ Metrics also analysed 70,000 public posts for +1s, replies and sharing among users and the findings are revealing. On average, a single post receives just 0.77 +1s, 0.54 replies, and 0.17 shares.

In this case, reliance on publicly available data can’t be faulted, as everyone in a user’s circle would be able to view, comment on, share and +1 a public post, and this would have been picked up by the analysis.

This low level of engagement among users fits neatly with statistics from ComScore reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this year, which focused on time spent on the major social networks.

While the average Facebook user spent 405 minutes on the site in January, Google+ users clocked up just three minutes in that month. The ailing social network was even beaten by almost-forgotten MySpace, which measured 8 minutes.

Google claims study is flawed and inaccurate

In a statement to Fast Company, a Google spokesperson claimed the RJ Metrics study was a flawed and inaccurate representation of all the sharing and activity taking place on Google+. “As we've said before, more sharing occurs privately to Circles and individuals than publicly on Google+. The beauty of Google+ is that it allows you to share privately – you don't have to publicly share your thoughts, photos or videos with the world,” the representative said.

Though Google+ claims a large user base of more than 100m users, many analysts believe these figures are skewed by the social network’s integration across almost all Google products. Thus far, Google has refused to reveal its monthly active users on Google+, and, until they do, they will just have to accept the criticism coming from the available information.

The movie, not to be confused with an indie movie about the former Apple CEO starring Ashton Kutcher, will be based on the best-selling biography by Walter Isaacsson.

It is understood Sony paid US$1m to option the rights to the biography and convert it into a screenplay.

It first emerged last November that Sony approached Oscar-winning Sorkin to write the movie.

He said at the time: "Sony has asked me to write the movie and it's something I'm strongly considering."

Entrepreneur, artist, thinker

Sorkin went on to describe Jobs as "a great entrepreneur, a great artist and a great thinker."

Sorkin was actually a close friend of Jobs and Jobs was one of the chief backers of Pixar.

In a statement, Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal said: "There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin; in his hands, we're confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining and polarising."

The competing indie film starring Kutcher and directed by Joshua Michael Stern has already begun filming as Kutcher was spotted walking about in full Steve Jobs regalia - turtleneck, jeans and sneakers - in recent weeks.

The Stern/Kutcher film will focus on Jobs' transition from hippie to technology maverick, whereas the film directed by Sorkin will most likely try and tell the entire story.

One Net also comes with a range of call management features such as creating `hunt groups', where a call gets routed to multiple people, single voicemail and an automated attendant (IVR). 

It allows every call to ring on either a desk phone or mobile phone, depending on where the customer wants to answer the call. 

The call can then be transferred to any other desk phone or mobile phone within the business without charge.

Customer relationship problems stalk Irish firms

The One Net technology, Vodafone says, aims to address a perceived customer relationship challenge experienced by 80pc of SMEs, according to IDC.

"Businesses are working differently and their customers are the catalyst - demanding better service at all times," Anne O'Leary, business and enterprise director at Vodafone Ireland, explained.

“Intense competition means businesses need to be different from competitors through service and not just price and One Net provides the edge. Small businesses can now improve their mobility and get the benefits of a hosted phone system that integrates both mobiles and desk phones," O'Leary added.

Enterprise Ireland will also be supporting the funding round.

InfiniLED said the first-round investment will result in the creation of eight new high-tech positions at the company, effectively from now.

The spin-out is also targeting the hiring of up to 16 staff in all before the end of 2013. All these positions are at a graduate level, said InfiniLED, including a "significant number" of PhD graduates.

InfiniLED itself is an Enterprise Ireland-supported spin-out from Tyndall National Institute and University College Cork. It develops a range of LED light source modules based on its patented µLED (microLED) technology, which it has licensed from Tyndall.

Commercialisation plans

InfiniLED has a number of development contracts with international customers and is aiming to bring the first µLED-based products to the market before the end of 2012.

A team of researchers led by Brian Corbett at Tyndall National Institute invented the micro-LED technology. Under the Enterprise Ireland Business Partner Programme, entrepreneur Joe O'Keeffe, who has already spun out a series of companies, evaluated the commercial potential of the µLED.

InfiniLED was launched in April 2011 and was co-founded by Dr Bill Henry, who had worked on the development of the technology and the commercial opportunities while at Tyndall.

Uses for µLED technology

O'Keeffe, now CEO at InfiniLED, spoke about µLED technology's scope to reduce power consumption in displays, leading to increased battery life for devices such as mobile phones, laptops or other consumer products.

"It enables new medical devices which are smaller, more efficient and more accurate. The technology can also be used in individually switchable arrays. Essentially, any product that requires controlled or the efficient use of light may benefit from this unique technology," he said.

Najeeb Khalid, a principal at IL Investment, touched on the investment from the Canadian investment group.

"We believe this investment will enable InfiniLED to grow and deliver on its significant commercial potential. We have been very impressed by the team assembled and the work carried out to date with the µLEDs," he said.

Pre-orders for the new Samsung Galaxy S III will be taken by Three online and in-store from 9am this Friday, 18 May.

The mobile operator has been inundated with queries about the hottest new smartphone on the block ever since its unveiling at the start of May.

“We have seen a phenomenal level of interest in Samsung’s latest offering. As soon as the new S III was announced in London earlier this month it was evident the Irish customer wanted this device,” said Three’s sales and marketing director, Elaine Carey, who is anticipating a lot of pre-orders before the device’s official release date of 30 May.

This is the first time Three has permitted pre-orders for any phone, showing the increasing demand for these much-hyped devices. With the new Galaxy S III, Samsung has promised a uniquely intuitive and personalised mobile experience powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Three’s price plans for the device will be revealed over the coming weeks.

At an IBEC briefing on the report of the recently published 'Next Generation Broadband Taskforce Report', Rabbitte highlighted comments by the taskforce on the challenge and opportunities the internet presents for SMEs.

“On the one hand that Irish shoppers spent over €3bn online in 2010, yet there is evidence that approximately 70pc of this spend goes overseas" Rabbitte said.

“Against this, it is estimated that there has been an 8pc drop in high street sales," he continued.

Rabbitte noted that as many as that 20,000 Irish SMEs are not yet online. "Clearly, lack of engagement is going to pose an ever-increasing challenge for small enterprises. But it is also an opportunity," he said.

The minister noted a recent report for the European Commission by McKinsey which states that 75pc of economic growth attributed to the internet relates to traditional non-ICT sectors.  

More SMEs need to get online

Rabbitte queried as to whether there are specific barriers that discourage greater SME utilisation of the internet. Commending recent campaigns by the broader telecommunications industry to help SMEs engage better, Rabbitte said he hoped to work more intensively with industry to "reduce roadblocks and unlock the potential for e-commerce for Irish SMEs."

In this regard, Rabbitte noted that the question of citizen and SME engagement, as well as access, would be key pillars of his forthcoming National Broadband Plan.

Rabbitte said he is particularly keen to hear feedback from small business and is contacting all the major SME organisations, inviting them to comment within the month on the Next Generation Broadband Taskforce Report and on their views in relation to access and engagement.

“The invitation to comment is an opportunity for SMEs collectively and individually to influence Ireland's Next Generation Broadband Plan and a new National Digital Strategy.

"The purpose of these initiatives will be to bring Next Generation Broadband to as many places as possible as soon as possible, and to ensure that SMEs and citizens are motivated and enabled to transact their business and social activities online," he added.

The move signals a new kind of brand warfare that has broken out on Google Maps and no doubt has sent blood pressure levels soaring at Volkswagen HQ.

It seems that until Google refreshes its Street View data the photo will remain on Google Maps for at least another year.

It does raise the question though, of how did Fiat get wind of the fact Google Street View's cars were en route?

Was it a spur-of-the-moment opportunity seized? I guess we'll never know, but I'm sure the peeps at Volkswagen are preparing a special response.

Since then Jacobs has been designing bespoke units for homes so people can make use of spaces, such as under the stairs or the eaves of an attic.

Speaking after the win today, Jacobs said he set the business up after designing the units for his own home.

"Then I received inquiries from family, friends and neighbours to do the same for them. People are not moving house as much due to the recession and they need to find ways to maximise the space they have," he said.

Eircom's Start Up drive is open to any business less than two years old, whether it's a local business, high-tech, export-led or a new spin on something traditional. The closing date for the final monthly competition is 31 May.

The monthly winner of Start Up receives a complete telecoms package including landline, broadband, mobile and teleconferencing for one year to the value of €2,300.

Though we all know Google has sewn up the market on online advertising, it wasn’t clear how far behind Facebook was until this infographic from search marketing company WordStream put it right before our eyes.

This company’s bias towards search-based advertising aside, the figures and information in the infographic below demonstrate Google’s dominance as the online advertising medium, trouncing Facebook at every level.

Weak click-through rates

Though Facebook is seeing 1trn page views per month to Google’s 180bn monthly ad impressions, the click-through rate on Facebook ads is weak even when compared to the internet average, let alone Google’s exceptional figures.

The average click-through rate for banner ads in the US is 0.1pc, but Facebook falls well short of this at 0.051pc. Google, however, blows the competition out of the water with an average click-through rate of 0.4pc, almost 10 times that of its social rival.

Advertisers are easily tempted by Facebook’s vast network of 900m users, which allows them to charge higher prices for advertising. But as advertising rates rise, click-through rates have fallen, so advertisers are not getting bang for their bucks.

Google offers advertisers variety and better targeting

Google’s ad targeting also comes out on top thanks to a number of unique options not available on Facebook – most notably, mobile advertising.

Also, the minimal real estate granted by Facebook ads pales in comparison to the variety of formats that Google offers – from highlighted text ads in prominent positions, to image and flash-based ads and pop-ups in video streams on YouTube.

“So far, Facebook’s advertising platform hasn’t kept pace with the explosive growth of its social network, and it remains to be seen if CEO Mark Zuckerberg even wants to focus on advertising as a source of revenue,” said Larry Kim, founder and CTO of WordStream. “In his 2,500+ word letter to shareholders this month, he mentioned advertising just once.”

As advertisers become increasingly frustrated with Facebook’s services, the social network’s advertising revenues saw a decline of 6.5pc in a quarter of 2011 and one prominent advertiser has already decided to jump ship.

Via WordStream

IDA Ireland tweeted the survey findings this morning.

In terms of the locations in Western Europe that are 'Best-to-Invest', Ireland tops the list, followed by the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.

In terms of top metropolitan locations to invest, Dublin tops the list, followed by Frankfurt, Edinburgh and Birmingham.

In Eastern Europe, Hungary tops the list, followed by Poland and Slovak Republic, while in Asia-Pacific Singapore is listed as the best place to invest followed by Australia and Malaysia.

The Best-to-Invest rankings are determined 50pc by LocationSelector.com-supplied analysis in the following categories: business environment, business risks, foreign direct investment and infrastructure; and 50pc by new and expanded facilities announced in 2011 and tracked by Site Selection publisher Conway Data Inc's (CDI) New Plant Database.

The Best to Invest metros rankings were determined 40pc by LocationSelector.com-supplied analysis in the areas of business environment, business risks, foreign direct investment, infrastructure and accessibility; 20pc on an unscientific survey of global site consultants; and 40pc on New Plant Database projects.

The Atlas of Ingenious Ireland has been designed to highlight sites of scientific interest around the country, and is part of the Dublin City of Science 2012 programme.

Journalist Mary Mulvihill, who is the author of the book Ingenious Ireland, created the website. She said the atlas also features 60 top places of scientific interest around the country, ranging from museums to wildlife watching and Ireland's top 10 astronomy and science sites.

Apparently, Irish algebra helped to land a man on the moon and Newgrange is arguably an astronomical observatory that is 1,000 years older than Stonehenge.

Prof Patrick Cunningham, chief scientific adviser to the Irish Government, said the atlas builds a clear picture of the nation's record of innovative discoveries.

So here's a taste of Ireland's seven wonders, according to Atlas.ingeniousireland.ie ...

Valentia Island, Co Kerry
One of the world's oldest fossil trackways is on Valentia Island. Such trackways were apparently made by a creature resembling a salamander, and are preserved in rocks by the cliff near Valentia radio station.

Image courtesy of Giantscausewayireland.com

Giant's Causeway and Antrim Coast Road
The Giant's Causeway's basalt columns formed when a lake of molten lava cooled slowly, some 60m years ago. UNESCO has also designated the Giant's Causeway a world heritage site. It's known in Irish as Clochán an Aifir or Clochán na bhFomhórach.

The Burren in Co Clare
The rocky limestone landscape of the Burren in Co Clare beholds vast ecological diversity, including caves, rare and vulnerable habitats, turloughs or seasonal lakes; and a rich plant life. In all, more than 600 plant species have been recorded there, including 23 species of orchid.

Newgrange in the Boyne Valley in Co Meath
This elaborate burial mound was around 3200 BC during the Stone Age. According to the atlas, it is arguably the world's oldest observatory, designed so that at each winter solstice the rising sun shines directly into the inner chamber.

_{William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865). Image from Wikimedia Commons}

Broome Bridge, Co Dublin
On 16 October 1843, a new type of algebra was invented by Irish scientist Sir William Rowan Hamilton, as he walked beside Dublin's Royal Canal. Born in 1805 in Dublin, Hamilton was an astronomer and mathematician who made vital contributions to classical mechanics, algebra and optics. His 'quaternions' describe things moving in 3D, and are now used to orient spacecraft and in 3D animations and computer games. A plaque now marks the spot at Broome Bridge.

_{The Great Telescope in Birr, otherwise known as Rosse}

Leviathan Telescope, Birr Castle in Co Offaly
In 1845, William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse, built the world's largest telescope at Birr Castle. It enabled Parsons to see further into space than ever before. In April 1845, Parsons discovered the Whirlpool Nebula, and showed that this fuzzy object was a spiral cluster of stars. The telescope remained the world's largest telescope until 1917. It has now been restored to working order.

Irish businessman Dermot Desmond has now invested in a planned radio telescope project, called i-LOFAR, which is also destined for Birr in Co Offaly.

The Boyne Viaduct, Drogheda in Co Louth
This bridge spans the River Boyne at Drogheda, and was the final link in the Dublin-Belfast railway line. When it opened in 1855, it was termed a wonder of the engineering world. To minimise the structure's weight, the engineering team opted for a lattice-work made from wrought-iron girders. When completed, their bridge was the longest of its kind in the world at the time, at 155 metres.

Such a screen size would result in an iPhone that would be similar in size to the existing HTC One X series, the Samsung Galaxy S II and the new Samsung Galaxy S III which comes with a massive 4.8-inch display.

The Wall Street Journal cited the news of the new larger display from suppliers in Asia who will begin manufacturing the new devices next month in time for a September launch.

Apple practically reinvented the smartphone genre with the iPhone in 2007. However, it faces stiff competition from Samsung and players like HTC whose phones feature larger screens.

Battle of the smartphone displays

Samsung recently passed out Nokia as the world's No 1 phone brand. However, Apple is the company raking in the most revenue, Juniper Research says.

Having knocked Nokia off the top spot as the world's biggest mobile phone vendor (a position the Finnish company held for 14 years), Samsung is now being established as the world's leading smartphone manufacturer ahead of Apple.

The mobile analyst firm estimates that, together, Apple and Samsung accounted for nearly 60pc of the 139m smartphones shipped worldwide in the first quarter of 2012, but Samsung topped the iPhone manufacturer with 46.9m units to Apple's 35.1m.

But the South Korean manufacturer still can't beat Apple to the revenue top spot. Even as the hype surrounding the iPhone dies down, "Apple's revenue from its mobile division continues to remain significantly higher than Samsung's, even when you take into account the latter's feature phones," says research analyst Daniel Ashdown.

Apple's iPhone revenue alone amounted to $22.7bn in Q1, compared to Samsung accruing about $17.0bn from its entire mobile division. This is no surprise, however, considering the range offered by Samsung includes more than just the flagship Galaxy SII, at a price comparable to the iPhone, but also lower-priced units, such as the Galaxy Y.

Today, The Wall Street Journal reports that GM has decided to stop paying for advertising on Facebook as paid ads on the site have little impact on consumers’ car purchases.

This follows a blog post earlier this week from Forrester analyst Nate Elliott wherein he challenged Facebook’s lack of innovation when it comes to servicing advertisers’ needs. Elliott alluded to companies that have expressed doubts on whether it’s wise to continue spending their social marketing budget on Facebook, and mentions that “one global consumer goods company told us recently that Facebook was getting worse, rather than better, at helping marketers succeed.”

Facebook’s last-minute amendment to its IPO filing conceding their weaknesses in advertising on mobile devices already caused a stir, but this latest revelation paints an even riskier picture, calling its standard display advertising model for the web into question. This air of discontent, and the threat that other advertisers might jump ship, could put potential investors on high alert ahead of Friday’s IPO.

Purchasing intent: the crucial difference between Facebook and Google

Facebook’s struggle to generate an advertising product that satisfies advertisers is particularly jarring when compared to Google’s huge success in this area. Entrepreneur and investor Chris Dixon notes on his blog that Facebook’s focus on display ads is reflective of an old internet business model, whereas Google’s decision to innovate with keyword advertising has been the measure of its online advertising dominance.

“Facebook makes about one-tenth of Google’s revenues even though they have two times the page views,” Dixon writes, adding that “some estimates put Google’s search revenues per pages views at 100 to 200 times Facebook’s.”

Dixon also notes that the key difference between Google and Facebook is that people searching for products and services online are more likely to be searching with the aim of eventually making a purchase. Facebook’s ads don’t fit in to this scenario as the people its display ads reach are in a social setting. The “purchasing intent” is not there.

Is GM’s flawed social media strategy to blame?

According to Kantar, GM’s advertising spend is in the top 3 for the US, after Procter & Gamble and AT&T. However, US$10m spent on Facebook advertising last year represents just a sliver of GM’s colossal total US advertising expenditure of US$1.8bn in 2011.

The Wall Street Journal reports that, at a meeting with GM executives where they expressed their concerns over the return on investment from Facebook’s display ads, Facebook executives criticised GM’s decision to put multiple firms in charge of its advertising on site. This is a valid argument against a company that claims to have spent US$30m on content creation for its Facebook page – three times the amount spent on advertising – a figure that Peter Kafka believes is “a sure sign that someone was doing something wrong”.

GM dropped its social media ad agency in December 2011, and then its media buying agency in January, which suggests that this recent decision may be as much to do with a mismanaged social media strategy as with Facebook’s advertising Achilles’ heel.

Reporting on AllThingsD, Kafka notes that the timing of this announcement, days before a momentous day for Facebook, implies more to this decision than meets the eye as GM must be aware that the news coverage alone could be harmful to Facebook’s IPO.

Facebook’s plans to improve advertising products

Now, the withdrawal of US$10m is not going to make a noticeable dent in Facebook’s 2011 revenue total of US$3.7bn. But, with most of this revenue coming from advertising sales, Facebook can’t remain ignorant of the pitfalls presented by advertiser drop-offs – and this has been addressed in its IPO filing.

“The substantial majority of our revenue is currently generated from third parties advertising on Facebook,” the document reads.” In 2009, 2010, and 2011, advertising accounted for 98pc, 95pc, and 85pc, respectively, of our revenue.”

The document goes on to address the issue that some advertisers may view Facebook’s ad products, such as sponsored stories and social advertising, as “experimental and unproven”. Aware of the issues, Facebook is intent on creating improved ad products for advertisers and users – lest it face further declines in advertising revenue.

“Advertisers will not continue to do business with us, or they will reduce the prices they are willing to pay to advertise with us, if we do not deliver ads and other commercial content in an effective manner, or if they do not believe that their investment in advertising with us will generate a competitive return relative to other alternatives,” the document states.

How valuable is Facebook advertising?

The real issue for advertisers seems to be that Facebook’s marketing tools are more about engagement and improved sentiment than about sales and conversions. GM itself recognises Facebook’s power as a tool for consumer engagement in a statement published by Mashable, and this is further compounded by its decision to maintain its free Facebook brand page.

While Zuckerberg’s priority of putting the end-user’s experience first may be a model that frustrates advertisers, it’s also the reason why the social network has amassed 900m registered users – an audience figure that simply cannot be ignored. If Facebook does figure out how to sufficiently connect this user base with sales for advertisers, a valuation of more than US$100bn will be justified. If it doesn’t, then they will have a lot of disgruntled investors on their hands.

The term hipster has many different connotations. To my addled mind a hipster is a being that listens to indie music and tends to affect a fashionable stance by being willfully unfashionable - stereotyped for being mustachioed, wearing skinny jeans, cardigans, porkpie hats, having an affection for smoking pipes and drinking Pabst beer and sporting vintage items like record players.

But lately the counterculture has become the target of choice for smartphone firms like Samsung, which famously put out a video trumpeting its new Note smartphone and taking the mickey out of hipster iPhone uses.

UCD researchers Prof Padraig Cunningham and Conrad Lee have published a study 'The Geographic Flow of Music' that ranks Dublin along with Oslo and Atlanta as one of the world's biggest city for hipsters.

The scientific data is based on listening data from internet radio service Last.fm that reveals in terms of all music listened to on Last.fm - including indie, hip-hop, rock and classic rock - Stockholm tops the charts as the most active city on Last.fm, followed by Hamburg, Dublin, Birmingham, Leeds, Paris and Berlin.

In terms of indie music in Europe, Paris leads the charge, followed by Oslo, Dublin, Madrid and Milan.

The researchers studied chart information from Last.fm over the last three years for 200 cities and matched song choices with geographical location.

Using a methodology the pair of researchers previously used to follow pigeon flocks, they studied the similarities between US, Canadian and European cities based on listening preferences.

They were able to produce a hierarchical clustering based on the leader-follower relationships.

It found that Montreal, for example, despite being the home to bands like Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, is not considered to be generally a leader in taste for indie music. New York has produced more indie bands than Montreal.

In Europe, cities like London, Birmingham and Brighton have a much stronger relationship in music tastes with Scandinavian cities like Oslo and Stockholm than they do with each other.

In 2011 alone, Last.fm received 11bn scrobbles - a lot of what users listen to - and more than 61bn since it began in 2003.
Each and every week a public API indicates the number of unique listeners that each of any given city's top 500 artists had received on the service.

Phoenix Supply is the regulated supplier of natural gas to around 130,000 domestic and business customers in the greater Belfast area. SSE said today that the total cash consideration is stg£19.1m, with this excluding working capital-related adjustments.

SSE said its retail supply brand Airtricity will now become Northern Ireland's second-largest energy supplier and a dual fuel provider of gas and electricity to more than 230,000 customers.

In addition, SSE said Airtricity will become an all-island dual fuel energy provider supplying electricity and gas to more than 750,000 customers.

The company said this would be equivalent to 20.1pc of the all-island total energy market, based on total market share as of April 2012. It said this means Airtricity will become the third-largest energy provider on the island.

The acquisition is still subject to approval by the Irish Competition Authority, but SSE expects to complete the purchase during the summer. It said it has also notified the Regulatory Authorities of its intention to acquire the Phoenix supply businesses.

Kevin Greenhorn, SSE's director of Business Supply, Contracting and International and CEO of Airtricity, said SSE sees the agreement with Phoenix Supply as an "exciting new chapter" for its growth in the Northern Ireland marketplace.

"This is a significant step forward for both Airtricity and Phoenix Supply as we seek to become the largest supplier of both electricity and natural gas in Northern Ireland," he said.

Greenhorn pointed to how the deal would extend SSE's commitment towards employing people and making investments in Northern Ireland.

"We are committed to maintaining the same locally-based staff and upon receipt of approval from the Competition Authority we look forward to welcoming Phoenix Supply staff into the SSE family as we grow our business here," he said.

Phoenix's supply and meter reading businesses employs about 70 people.

"We look forward to completing this acquisition as soon as possible," added Greenhorn.

Airtricity entered Northern Ireland's domestic electricity market in 2010.

With the growth of the mobile web, mobile payments are becoming more commonplace. Just last week, the NFC-enabled Samsung Galaxy S III was named the official phone of the London 2012 Games. In a partnership with Visa, the phone can be used to make purchases at 140,000 contactless terminals around the UK.

‘The Marketplace in Your Hand’ infographic highlights information from ‘Cell Me the Money: Unlocking the value in the mobile payment ecosystem’, a 2011 report from Deloitte, to give an overview of the key players in the mobile payments marketplace – both consumers and businesses.

Convenience for consumers

Increased security and efficient tracking – not to mention the simplicity of making payments with a device most of us carry with us all the time – make mobile payments convenient and appealing to consumers, particularly those under the age of 40.

Mobile payments are being used for all sorts of transactions, from downloads and online shopping, to retail, fast food, transport, parking and even vending machine purchases. The percentage using mobile devices for payments is expected to reach to 21.3pc this year, more than tripling its 2009 figure of 6.8pc.

Mobile payments to take over in stores

As retailers adapt to accept this new payment method, mobile commerce will see significant growth. Over the next five years, the majority of retail transactions in bricks-and-mortar stores are expected to take place on mobile devices.

Merchants, mobile carriers, financial institutions, handset manufacturers, payment services and application providers all need to work together on this, and many of these are already trialling mobile payment systems, while others are either ready to deploy or already have implemented their systems. Merchants appear to be the most hesitant, with 19pc saying they have no interest in mobile payments so far, but this could change rapidly as the process become as common as sending a text message.

NFC-enabled payments are expected to be the most popular mobile payment app in the near future and it is estimated that 13pc of all smartphones will have built-in NFC capabilities by 2014. Before we know it, the obligatory last-minute check for ‘phone, wallet, keys’ before you leave the house may be whittled down to a twosome.

via: Mobile Payment Trends 

Barlan will now trade under the Network Recovery name and brand.

Acquired employees from Barlan will join Network Recovery's disaster recovery centre at Baldonnell Business Park in Dublin 22, bringing the number of its employees to 26.

Since it was set up in 2004, Barlan's software development team had been supplying both SMEs, as well as larger organisations, with services such as VoIP, server virtualisation, WAN optimisation and business intelligence tools.

"We are very pleased with this acquisition, as Barlan already has a great reputation among Irish businesses and its innovative, dynamic business ethos fits well with our own," said Network Recovery's managing director Paul Lynch this morning.

He added that Network Recovery would continue to pursue its strategy of acquiring companies that align with its business strategy and core offering.

Network Recovery also recently invested in the Tarrytown, New York-based data centre operator Another 9.

Lynch said Barlan's acquired employees will specialise in the deployment of IT voice and data solutions, bespoke software and project management.

Facebook has to be the most closely watched IPO in tech industry history and could emerge as the third-highest valuation at IPO after Visa and GM. The IPO on Friday could value the company at well more than the US$100bn expected.

In its filing in February, Facebook revealed it hopes to raise US$5bn in an IPO in early May. Now that stands at between US$10bn and US$15bn.

Its SEC filing, Facebook revealed that in 2011 it achieved revenues of US$3.7bn, up from US$1.9bn a year earlier. It derived a net profit in 2011 of US$1bn, up from US$606m last year. Facebook has total assets of US$6.3bn and liabilities of US$1.4bn.

Employees of Facebook hold 30pc in the company while founder Mark Zuckerberg holds 24pc of the company's stock. Ireland’s own rocker Bono from rock band U2 is set to enjoy a Beautiful (pay) Day when Facebook goes public. The rock star is one of the lead investors in Elevation Partners, a venture capital firm that spent more than €156m for a 1.5pc stake in the social network.

Elevation has seen its stake increase more than sevenfold in just more than two years. The shares are now worth between €1.1bn and €2bn.

Other investors include Digital Sky Technologies (10pc), Accel Partners (8pc), Dustin Moskowitz (6pc), Eduardo Saverin (5pc), Sean Parker (4pc), Goldman Sachs clients (3pc), Microsoft (1.3pc), Peter Thiel (3pc), Greylock Partners (1.4pc), Meritech Capital Partners (1.6pc), Chris Hughes (1pc), Li Ka-shing (0.75pc), Interpublic Group (0.5pc) and Goldman Sachs (0.8pc).

GM pulls paid advertising from Facebook

However, all is not rosy in Facebook’s garden. Last night it emerged that major US car manufacturer GM has decided to pull its advertising from the social network because it doesn’t believe it is getting a return on its investment.

The timing of this news, I believe, is a little suspect. It comes days before the major IPO and at a time when Facebook’s management team is working hard to convince investors that its advertising model is solid enough to warrant a valuation of in excess of US$100bn.

What is also dangerous – or fascinating from where I’m sitting – is the impact such a revelation could have on the dark science of social media marketing.

It takes the mystery away and brings everything back to the question – does this medium work? Will it deliver bang per buck?

Massive conference and consultancy businesses have emerged in recent years led by social media ninjas or experts or whatever they call themselves – they can call themselves warlocks for all I care – convincing hopelessly demoralised marketing and PR people that they know nothing about their core business, that their experience up to now no longer counts and that the clock has been reset. That’s bull. Experience does count. So too does insight. It’s called change. You have to keep learning, pick up new tools and keep moving.

That’s a fact of life in the 21^st century. It’s a fact of life in business in any century. Despite its brilliance and the bar it has set for technology and how the world communicates, Facebook is a medium like any other. It too one day will be eclipsed by something new and everybody has to keep learning. Zuckerberg, too.

GM’s move does take some of the illusion away. The mystery has been exploded. Ultimately social media, be it Facebook, Twitter, Google+, like any other form of media dependant on advertising, has to deliver.

I’ve seen the IPO for Friday described in certain quarters as a “spectacle” and a “done deal”. That’s true. Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, his workers and investors will make a lot of money.

But come Monday, it will be business as usual and now a new class of investor – public shareholders – will provide a new metric for success.

And in some garage or bedroom somewhere in the world, the next Mark Zuckerberg is pacing the room, dreaming big dreams.

It is expected that this new emphasis on lead devices will also answer the question as to why no Android tablet has yet to make a serious impact on Apple’s marketshare with the iPad.

There are good reasons for this change of tack – in November the first Windows 8 tablet devices and hybrid tablet/PC models will enter the market and this could seal Android’s fate in the tablet space for the worst.

Let’s also not forget Amazon in this picture, whose Kindle Fire, albeit based on Android, is the lynchpin of a competing model for the sale of digital media content like books, movies, music and apps.

According to The Wall Street Journal, a closer relationship with manufacturers is also necessary in light of Google’s US$12.5bn acquisition of Motorola Mobile, in order to assuage concerns of smartphone and tablet makers who have cast their lot with Android.

Google is working on signature devices

Instead of working with one manufacturer at a time – for example, Google has worked closely with Samsung on the Nexus and is understood to be collaborating with ASUS for a forthcoming Google-branded tablet – Google will work more closely with five manufacturers on signature devices.

It is also reported that Google plans to sell the devices directly to consumers in the US, Europe and Asia via its website and through retailers.

There’s no doubt Android has been a roaring success for Google. But only in the smartphone market and with the Apple iPhone 5 expected in September, a 7-inch iPad expected around the same time and Windows 8 arriving soon after, Google needs to tighten its focus to remain a force.

At the heart of this change will be an ethos that he believes counters the increasing tabloid culture focused on traffic numbers he sees invading online news by providing deeper insight for Irish Times readers.

This will be enabled by the replacement of its 10 year-old content management system (CMS) with a new system called Polopoly by Atex. In addition a new system to greater integrate the print process with digital production will also be deployed.

Describing this as a radical change for the news process at the 150 year-old paper, O'Sullivan said the new CMS will introduce APIs and meta data that will allow the newspaper to develop new products and platforms. "Digital will be at the heart of what we do," he told the media conference.

Battling white noise and blog fog

O'Sullivan said that despite the tough times the media industry has found itself in, the more he has studied the digital landscape the more optimistic he has become.

“Information has become cheap, there's a lot of white noise that some call blog fog. It's a form of chaos where this deluge of information means information is plentiful and cheap. In my view trust and insight have become increasingly scarce.

“In this world of white noise, people need insight they can trust and this is the new rule of the newsroom," O'Sullivan said. "It is not about the what but the why. In this mix it is my firm view that a credible source can deliver the why."

He said that he intends the Irish Times to go against the grain of what he considers downgrading by other media organisations of their products in order to compete in the scramble for clicks.

“The Irish Times will remain in the breaking news environment but the focus will remain on insight and as others downgrade, we will provide deeper, better insight."

O'Sullivan said that how the newspaper will engage with its audience is also about to undergo considerable change.

Irish Times targets broader and younger audience

"Our plan is to reach for a broader and younger audience and counter that white noise. 2012 will be the year that we bring digital to the core of the Irish Times."

O'Sullivan said that the digital strategy will consist of a number of strands:

• continual incremental digital development of everything it does
• a new comments and moderation system that promises better engagements and conversations with readers
• an enriched relationship with readers through social media
• The Irish Times Digital Challenge - a call for start-ups to work inside the Irish Times and mutually benefit from the shift to digital

In terms of digital/print integration O'Sullivan said that every conversation that will be had on the newsroom floor at the Irish Times will have a digital element.

“I'm not saying we're abandoning print or traditional values, but we are enhancing the process to make it more readable and modern. The key element will be the introduction of the new CMS underneath the bonnet of the Irish Times."

O'Sullivan said that the newspaper's new radical approach to digital is driven by the Irish Times original ethos as set out in the Trust's articles of association - "to be accurate and comprehensive as practicable and presented fairly."

He said: "Why are we doing this? It's what the Irish Times stands for, a media organisation at the heart of Irish society that informs and enriches people's lives.

“I hope that consumers wrestling with white noise, when they need to understand something will go to the Irish Times, whether it's the latest meme, controversy, business opportunity, sporting achievement - the things that enrich us, that make us tick.

“We want our readers to reach informed, independent judgement and and contribute more effectively to the life of their community. That community is increasingly online and the Irish Times intends to serve it," O'Sullivan said.

As part of their Internet Safety for Kids & Families (ISKF) programme, Trend Micro created the ‘What’s Your Story?’ competition, which asked young entrants to explain how to stay safe online through poetry, songs, videos and artwork.

Schoolchildren across the country entered, but the girls from Coláiste na Toirbhirte, Bandon, Co Cork, were awarded the top prize today for ‘Hiding Online’, their two-minute video demonstrating the dangers of cyberbullying and how to combat them.

“Social networking plays such a big part of young people’s lives these days and this is what attracted our transition year class to working on a piece about cyber-bullying. It is simply very relevant and very real to young people everywhere and we really do need to raise more awareness about online safety and responsibility,” said Siobhan Fitzgerald, transition coordinator at the all-girl secondary school.

The judging panel, which consisted of key players in online safety in Ireland, also awarded prizes of €500 to Megan O’Reilly from Conna National School, Co Cork, for her ‘Safe Surf Code’ video; Maria Butt from Loreto College in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, for her poem, ‘Don’t share because they don’t care’; and John Carr from Mallow, Co Cork for his song, ‘Be Safe Rhyme’. The transition year class from Presentation Secondary School, Ballyphehane, Co Cork, received the school prize of €1,000 for their Fresh Prince-style rap song, ‘Don’t Talk to a Stranger’.

Promoting online safety

“This was the first year of the competition in Ireland, and the standard of entries from all over Ireland was exceptionally high ranging from fantastic songs, poems, drawings, videos, all focused on promoting online safety,” said Avril Ronan, senior operations manager for Trend Micro, which has its EMEA headquarters in Cork. “Trend Micro research shows that one-third of children aged 11 to 15 years admit to taking more risks online than in real life, so there’s never been a better time to remind children that the internet is a powerful tool and using it is an important life skill.”

You can check out all the submissions for the ‘What’s Your Story?’, including ‘Hiding Online’, on the Trend Micro sub-site. The winning video will be shown to other children as part of the ISKF programme, which has been shortlisted for the ICT Excellence Awards, to be announced on May 17.

The latest Greenpeace attack on Apple over its energy usage coincided with today's news that the computer giant is planning a major overhaul of iCloud to include a new photo-sharing service.

But what about the Greenpeace duo who set up camp at Apple's worldwide HQ in Cupertino today?

They have apparently been broadcasting audio messages from people around the world to Apple's employees and executives concerning data centres and powering them up with clean energy.

Today's giant iPod replica was retrofitted from an eight-foot tall, 10-foot wide survival device that Greenpeace previously used in protests to prevent Arctic drilling.

As well as the giant iPod replica, four activists dressed as fully functional iPhones with TV screens as torsos arrived to display messages from supporters on Twitter and Facebook to the company's employees as they entered the campus.

And last night, activists projected tweets, photos and messages from Greenpeace's Clean Our Cloud supporters onto a wall of the Apple building.

Greenpeace has been lashing out at computer giant Apple, as well as Microsoft and Amazon, in recent weeks following the publication of its report, How Clean is Your Cloud.

In the report Greenpeace evaluated 14 IT companies based on key elements needed to build a clean cloud, including the electricity supply chain of over 80 data centres.

Greenpeace said that the report found that Google and Yahoo! are showing commitments to clean energy usage, while it said Apple, Amazon and Microsoft rely on coal and nuclear energy to deliver their clouds.

_{Apple's headquarters at Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons}

"Apple's executives have thus far ignored the hundreds of thousands of people asking them to use their influence for good by building a cloud powered by renewable energy," claimed Greenpeace USA executive director Phil Radford today. "As Apple's customers, we love our iPhones and iPads, but we don't want to use an iCloud fuelled by the smog of dirty coal pollution."

Greenpeace International IT analyst Casey Harrell continued: "For a company known for its innovation, Apple is being left in the dust by companies like Facebook, Google and Yahoo!, all of whom have taken steps and adopted policies to ensure that their clouds are increasingly powered by clean energy."

In April, Apple defended itself against Greenpeace claims that it uses "dirty energy" to power up its data centres.

While Greenpeace had stated Apple would use 100 megawatts (MW) of power at its new data centre in Maiden, North Carolina, Apple hit back and said the data centre would use one-fifth of that estimate - at 20MW.

It has been four years since the introduction of smartphones in Ireland, and in that short time we’ve become so reliant on these handy little devices that one-third of Irish smartphone users say they couldn’t live without their favourite social networking app.

The statistic comes from a survey conducted by Amárach Research for Ulster Bank to highlight the launch of their free banking app on all smartphone platforms: iOS, Android, and BlackBerry.

The Ulster Bank App Survey revealed that 3 in 5 people have become smartphone users and the average person has downloaded 22 apps. The most popular apps downloaded are those for news, maps, travel and gaming, which 6 in 10 smartphone users say they have, while over half have apps for weather, music, photo and video.

Over half (53pc) of all smartphone users claim that apps have made their lives a lot easier and about one hour a day is spent using them. Though many apps are intended for use on the go, 56pc of users said they use apps most when they are at home – perhaps a reflection of the preference for Wi-Fi connectivity.

The survey also provides a profile of Irish smartphone users, who are predominately male, aged 25-34 and living in Dublin

When asked what their dream app would be, top choices included a home budgeting app, a financial advice app and an app that can generate an income for its owner.

The bat experts are gathering under the auspices of Eurobats, an international agreement that focuses on the protection of bats in Europe.

Other topics up for discussion at the conference are the latest developments in bat diseases and bat-tracking technology.

While Ireland just has nine bat species, according to Bat Conservation Ireland, apparently 52 species of bats have been identified in Europe.

And because some European bat species migrate across the Mediterranean to warmer climes, North African countries have recently been included in the Eurobats agreement.

Ireland's windfarms and bats

Paul Scott from the Irish environmental consultancy Scott Cawley said today that it is only now that Ireland is starting to monitor whether windfarms in the country are having an impact on our existing bat population.

"While windfarms have been proven to impact bats in the US and in mainland Europe, we don't have any scientific data here in Ireland to conclude whether wind turbines are impacting our nine species of bat," he said.

Scott, who is also on the board of Bat Conservation Ireland, said the organisation is finalising its guidelines for bat surveys for windfarm applications.

"It's only in the past few years that proposed windfarm developments need to carry out a bat impact assessment here in Ireland," added Scott.

Bats themselves are the only mammals that can fly. They have many ecological roles, such as controlling the levels of flies, mosquitoes and midgets in ecosystems. They also operate by dispersing fruit seed and pollinating flowers.

Bats as bio-indicators

Scott said they are also good bio-indicators of an ecosystem.

"If you find that there aren't any bats in a certain ecosystem, you know that something has happened there," he said.

The year 2012 is the International Year of the Bat and European Bat Night will take place on 25-26 August 2012.

Dorsey, who is also CEO of mobile payments firm Square, was given the award for the impact Twitter has had on media and society today.

"Since inventing Twitter in 2006 Jack Dorsey has, in an incredibly short space of time, brought to the world an entirely new way for people to communicate, share ideas, and learn new things," Philip Thomas, CEO of Cannes Lions, said.

“It has become, in the meantime, a powerful social and political force, and is now part of the everyday global media language. The power and simplicity of what he has created has made Twitter a social phenomenon, and we are delighted to honour Jack with this award."  

The Jack Dorsey story

A native of St Louis, Dorsey's early fascination for mass transit and how cities function led him to Manhattan and programming real-time messaging systems for couriers, taxis, and emergency vehicles.

Throughout this work he witnessed thousands of workers in the field constantly updating where they were and what they were doing.

Dorsey came up with the idea for a site that would combine the broad reach of dispatch software with the ease of instant messaging. Within a short space of time, he had built a simple site, Twitter, where users could instantly post short messages of 140 characters or less, known as "tweets."

On 21 March 2006, Dorsey posted the world's first tweet: "just setting up my twttr."   

Since then, Twitter has become a communication platform that instantly connects people everywhere to what's most meaningful to them.

Twitter is accessible to anyone, via the web, on smartphones and on the simplest of feature phones.

There are now some 340m tweets per day and more than 140m active monthly users.

Dorsey co-founded Square in 2009. Square enables anyone to accept credit-card payments on their mobile device and has empowered hundreds of thousands of individuals and businesses to start and grow a business.

Outstanding innovator

Dorsey was recognised as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people and was named an "outstanding innovator under the age of 35" by MIT's Technology Review.

"Brands have always used Twitter in creative ways to engage directly with customers," Dorsey said.

“This award celebrates those brands and customers alike."

Dorsey will receive his award on 20 June at the Palais des Festivals, in Cannes, France.

Worldwide shipment of soundbars (wide speaker units containing two or more speakers that can easily be mounted to a wall) doubled between 2010 and 2011, reaching nearly 2.5m units.

The report from Futuresource forecasts that growth will continue through to 2016 as more and more consumers want an improved sound system but not the high cost of a home-theatre system.

As flat-panel TVs get thinner and thinner, sound quality is often compromised in aid of slimmer and sleeker design. Soundbars are targeted at consumers who want good sound quality that will require little investment and also less effort to install with one unit and, therefore, fewer wires to contend with.

A missed opportunity for European retailers?

That said, Europe accounts for only 20pc of this global shipment figure, with the US taking the lead, accounting for more than two-thirds of the market, and expected to continue to do so through to 2016.

The difference in distribution could be down to a comparative lack of space in European homes, or the lack of retail-driven marketing in Europe. In the US, vendors and retailers alike have been enthusiastic in the promotion of soundbars to consumers and premium brands have benefited from bundling TV sets and soundbars, often at a discounted price.

It seems Futuresource is not optimistic that European retailers will catch on to this marketing opportunity in the period considered as penetration is expected to reach just 2pc of global households by 2016.

Maxima's Aidan McEvoy and Brendan Matthews will assume the roles of sales director and operations director respectively, joining John Ryan, CEO, and Ger Coakley, finance director, on the Zinopy Board.

The two divisions of Zinopy will continue to focus on their core competencies, one focused on virtualisation and cloud computing and one focused on security.

“This transaction gives us significant scale in the Irish market and positions the combined entity competitively in two of the fastest-growing IT sectors in Ireland - virtualisation/cloud computing and security," Ryan said.

The combined entity will have revenues in excess of €7m and a combined staff of more than 30 people based in the Dublin offices in Blanchardstown.

"We can see only positive outcome for our customers, who will continue to receive normal service from Maxima Ireland, with the added benefit of scale and the ability to address our customers' concerns regarding security," added McEvoy.