Xerox Sponsors Clean Water Awareness Group Blue Legacy For US Tour

By Peter Lavelle

Friday 23 July 2010 10:08 GMT
Image: AlexandraCousteau.org

Blue Legacy founder and president Alexandra Cousteau

Ink cartridge manufacturer Xerox has become the document partner for clean water awareness group Blue Legacy's US tour. Named Expedition Blue Planet, the tour commenced earlier this month and chronicles water issues across the country. It will cover 14,500 miles in 138 days.

Blue Legacy will use Xerox products and printing materials throughout the tour. These include:

• The Xerox ColorQube 9200 printer. This machine produces a 10% smaller carbon footprint than comparable rival products over its lifetime.
• Xerox solid ink technology. This ink requires no plastic cartridge case, and is hence highly eco-friendly.
  

The awareness group plans to produce brochures, flyers, permits and photo release forms using these products, housed on the Expedition tour bus. This demonstrates 'the flexibility of Xerox MFPs in challenging situations,' according to a Xerox spokeswoman.

Blue Legacy founder Alexandra Cousteau – Jacques Cousteau granddaughter – meanwhile praised Xerox's environmental commitment. She said in a press release: 'Xerox's solid ink is a step in the right direction for greener, more sustainable printing.'

Cousteau established Blue Legacy in 2008 to raise awareness of water environmental issues including scarcity and pollution. The Expedition continues until November, visiting locations across the US.

Sources

Christina Williams, 'Xerox Ink Gets Green Props From Blue Legacy,' SustainableBusinessOregon.com, 21 July 2010.
Lisa Weaver, 'Xerox Joins The Expedition Blue Planet Water Conservation Campaign,' MarketWatch.com, 21 July 2010.
Judy Jefferson, 'Xerox Teams With Blue Legacy On Water Awareness Project,' PrinterComparison.com, 22 July 2010.

HP Receives Trademark For Name PalmPad: iPad Competitor On The Way?

By Peter Lavelle

Thursday 22 July 16:48 GMT
Image: Techgenie.com

On the way? - A mock-up of the potential HP PalmPad

Ink cartridge manufacturer Hewlett Packard has received trademark rights to the name PalmPad, igniting rumours the company will soon release an iPad competitor.

HP has not released specific details about the trademark. However according to the application form the PalmPad name can be applied to: 'Computers, computer hardware, computer software, computer peripherals, portable computers, handheld and mobile computers, PDAs, electronic notepads, mobile digital electronic devices.'

This easily encompasses a tablet.

Rumours about an HP tablet have been circulating for years. For example:

• Earlier this year Hewlett Packard began collaborating with Microsoft to build the HP Slate. This project however has been scrapped.
• HP recently bought smartphone developer Palm for $1.2bn. Palm's WebOS operating system in particular enables HP to release countless mobile devices – including web enabled printers.
  

Hence given the new trademark the release of an HP tablet looks increasingly likely. Look out Steve Jobs!

Sources

Ashok Bindra, 'HP Files For PalmPad Trademark With USPTO,' TMCNet.com, 22 July 2010.
Ben Woods, 'HP Slate 500 Found Buried On HP Website, PalmPad Trademark Also Acquired,' ZDNet.co.uk, 21 July 2010.
Edward Berridge, HP TradeMarks PalmPad,' TheInquirer.net, 20 July 2010.

Times Website Loses 66% Of Readers Following Paywall Introduction

By Peter Lavelle

Tuesday 20 July 10:44 GMT
Image: Guardian.co.uk

The Times website has lost 66% of its readership following the introduction of mandatory registration and a paywall. The decline, though massive, is smaller than industry predictions.

Visitors to The Times' website are redirected to the paywall.

The Times newspaper's website has lost 66% of its readers following the introduction of mandatory registration and a paywall, according to new figures by website traffic monitor Experian Hitwise. The figures are better than expected: other newspapers that introduced paywalls experienced up to 90% declines in readership.

The Times began charging visitors £1 per day or £2 weekly on July 2nd, following owner Rubert Murdoch's decision to end free access to online content last year. His decision is controversial: most online publishers including The Guardian believe online newspapers can make profits using advertising revenues – without charging people.

Experian Hitwise figures show though that The Times website performed better than expected. In the week following the paywall's introduction, readership fell to only 33% pre-paywall levels: other news sites that implemented paywalls, such as Long Island's Newsday, encountered 90% readership drops. To this extent The Times experiment can be considered successful.

Interestingly, the Experian figures reveal readership fell by only 8% in the week following the paywall's introduction. Instead, the majority of readers – 58% - stop reading when The Times introduced mandatory registration 1 month before the paywall. This two-tiered approach suggests The Times intended to weed out casual readers before charging for content.

However, the Experian Hitwise statistics do not reveal whether The Times' paying readership can make the newspaper's website profitable. This information is crucial: it determines whether The Times' experiment has succeeded and, for the newspaper industry, whether online paywalls can be feasible. Hence final judgement of the paywall ought be suspended until The Times reveals its online revenues.

Sources

Anonymous, 'Paywall Leads To Two-Thirds Drop In Times Online Readership,' TheFrontline.v3.co.uk, 18 July 2010.
David Teather, 'New Paywall Costs The Times 66% Of Its Online Readership,' Guardian.co.uk, 18 July 2010.
Greybeard, 'The Times They Are A-Changing; Paywall Sees Two Thirds Drop In Web Traffic,' Unthinkable.biz, 19 July 2010.
Matthew Ingram, 'Rubert's Paywall Is Meant To Keep People In, Not Out,' Gigaom.com, 19 July 2010.