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Hottest Products of 2007: Second Life offers virtual fulfillment

Gary Sattler — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:18:00 EST

Filed under: Products and Services, Internet, Next Big Thing, Technology

This post is part of our Hottest Products of 2007 feature. Check out our other Hottest Products of 2007 posts and let us know which product you think is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

If you find life a little boring, stifling and basically bland, then you may be a prime candidate to check out one of this year's hottest properties. Second Life is for people who wish to expand the boundaries of their life experience. Second Life opens up opportunities (albeit virtual ones) that most people would never encounter in their own personal daily grind. Much of the "news" that surfaces in mainstream media regarding Second Life is just dicey, sensationalist spin. What we want to know about are the things that make Linden Lab's Second Life worthy for consideration as a product of the year.

A good place to start investigating is Second Life Insider, a blog dedicated to tracking that constantly changing virtual environment. For instance, did you know that Second Life has an economy of its own, which actually maintains an exchange rate against real American dollars? It's true, and according to Second Life Insider, on November 1, Second Life membership invested U.S. $1,372,000 into Linden dollars (the site's virtual currency) at an exchange rate of L$268.7 to one U.S. dollar. In fact, there was quite a moan put out by the IRS at the beginning of this year when they again realized that people do generate significant income in virtual spaces.

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Hottest Products of 2007: Second Life offers virtual fulfillment originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Research in Motion serves up the BlackBerry pie

Gary Sattler — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:50:00 EST

Filed under: Good news, Products and Services, Competitive Strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), AT and T (T), Research in Motion (RIMM)

Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) is putting a berry smeared smile on the faces of third party manufacturers by finally presenting an application suite that will allow select devices currently supported by Windows Mobile 6 to present a "virtual" BlackBerry experience. Mike Lazaridis, President and CEO at Research In Motion stated, "Extending BlackBerry applications to a broader range of devices is an important element of RIM's strategy to provide an open platform that supports industry standards and addresses the various needs of our customers." Personally, I think RIM is rightly in the business of creating industry standards in addition to supporting existing ones.

Once the BlackBerry application has been downloaded into the devices that currently run Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Mobil 6, an icon will appear [subscription required]. Once selected, the familiar BlackBerry Smartphone interface will appear without disturbing the existing Windows Mobil applications.

The press release announcing this expansion of BlackBerry availability makes clear that RIM's association with AT&T is a major part of their marketing strength. Michael Woodward, Executive Director, Mobile Professional Solutions, for AT&T (NYSE: T) applauds this move by RIM calling it, "another positive catalyst that will further expand the appeal of the BlackBerry platform with customers. "

Research in Motion serves up the BlackBerry pie originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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eBay to sellers: You don't 'own' virtual property

Sarah Gilbert — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:06:00 EST

Filed under: Bad News, Law, eBay (EBAY)

By some estimates, the economy of World of Warcraft is worth $200 million, while Second Life's economy has been recently valued at $64 million. Everquest generates so much in the way of economic value that its GDP has been rated at around $2600 per capita. Lots of that value comes from real-life buying and selling of virtual-life assets, like skills and items for characters, or the characters themselves. Many gaming aficionados make a modest living doing just that -- the IRS has even opined on the subject, so it must be worth something.

Wherever that economy takes place, it won't be on eBay anymore. Starting this week, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) has been delisting auctions for virtual property, in a move that many say is a ploy to avoid legal battles with the games' owners. They're using the IP excuse: the auction site already has a policy in place that sellers can't trade in a product unless he is "the owner of the underlying intellectual property, or authorized to distribute it by the intellectual property owner." While game players may be in possession of a certain skill, or have spent their good money and countless hours to develop a character, they don't "own" that in the legal sense -- all the IP rests with the company which created the game.

So auctions like this and this will soon be ended. Many game players don't seem too concerned, though; as Eliah Hecht says on WOW Insider, "all this will probably do is stop individual users from selling their accounts. Gold farmers, powerlevelers, and other secondary industries have their own sites, and presumably will not be hindered much by this." I'd love to have seen eBay's cost-benefit analysis on this one!

eBay to sellers: You don't 'own' virtual property originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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