Category: Technology News

Rumors suggest that Alibaba is making its own game console

Alibaba, one of China’s largest online retailers and mobile commerce giants, may be on the verge of breaking into the game industry. According to analysis from Niko Partners, a market research firm, the company is reportedly developing its own game console, which will compete with the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Alibaba has not yet announced plans for such an endeavor, but the company has been expanding into various new sectors in recent years, including mobile commerce.

Console would compete with those coming to China from other countries

Niko Partners suggests that Alibaba could release a gaming console as early as next year, but there are not any details concerning such a project that are readily available. If this rumor proves to be true, Alibaba could become a major disruptor in the game industry, offering new competition that has not existed in that market for several years. China’s game market is expected to grow rapidly in the near future, as the Chinese government has lifted its ban on foreign consoles being sold in the country.

Microsoft and Sony could face major competition if Alibaba develops its own console

Lifting this ban means that Microsoft and Sony can bring their consoles to China. These consoles are expected to perform relatively well in these Chinese market, as they will face modest competition with domestic console developers. If Alibaba does enter into the game industry, however, Microsoft and Sony may have a significant fight on their hands. Moreover, Alibaba is a global company, which means that its console would not be restricted to the Chinese market for long, if it manages to find any success to begin with.

Alibaba could bring mobile commerce services to consoles in the future

A game console from Alibaba could make use of the various services and platforms that the company has designed. It is becoming more common for mobile devices to be integrated into game consoles, allowing people to play games on their smartphones or make use of other digital services. Alibaba could include some mobile commerce features into its potential game console.

Germany will also be stepping ahead of the United Kingdom when it comes to corporate adoption of wearables.

Ipswitch has recently released the results of a survey that found that Germany and France will be leaps and bounds ahead of the United Kingdom next year with regards to their intentions of using wearable technology within corporations.

The survey examined the number of wearables that will be integrated into the workplace over the next year.

The Ipswitch research looked into the use of wearable technology that will be connected with the corporate IT infrastructure in a number of different countries and organizations. It found a number of different types of insight, such as the indication that there has been little thought given to mobile security and network performance as a result of this integration. Only 13 percent of the participating organizations in the study stated that they had formed a policy in order to cover the impact and management of wearables as they enter the workplace.

German and French businesses are adopting wearable technology at a rate that is faster than the United Kingdom.

What the research determined was that 33 percent of companies in Germany stated that they plan to bring wearables that are company owned into their workplaces within the next year. In France, that figure for 2015 was 34 percent. In the United Kingdom, about 25 percent of participating businesses claimed that they had similar intentions for the tech.

Beyond the investigation into the corporate adoption of wearables, this research also examined the attitudes that companies have with regards to employee owned gadgets entering the workplaces. Among the respondents, 36 percent said that they believed that they would be experiencing an “influx” of the number of employees who would be wearing smartwatches and other similar mobile devices in 2015.

In terms of employee owned wearable technology use, it was German businesses that expected to see the highest increase in the devices. Among the respondents from that country, 41 percent were expecting this nature of influx next year. In France, it was 36 percent and it was 33 percent in the United Kingdom.