As commented by Samsung, its new platform for the U.S. TV and Blu-ray market could eventually align with its smartphone push. "Our goal is to make it easier and easier to allow folks to develop across different platforms," said Olivier Manuel, director of content for Samsung North America. Samsung is offering $500,000 in prizes to developers who build applications for its own TVs and Blu-ray players. Companies like Netflix and Pandora are already supporting Samsung Apps. Weiter hier....

New digital media subscription services cold be introduced in the near future by Sony and Amazon.com. The Financial Times reported that Sony plans to launch a premium music and video download service optimized for its many devices like the PlayStation gaming units or Sony Ericsson mobile handsets in the next year. Similar plans are reported from Amazon.com, which might expand its portfolio with introducing an own television and movie subscription platform optimised for browsers and connected devices. Weiter hier....

The virtual economy is booming due to microtransactions. Consumers spend in games played on social networks an amount which is expected to rise to more than 1 billion US-Dollar in 2012, according to latest research from Screen Digest. The emergence of social games, which were almost non-existent three years ago, has resulted in mane new gamers and also propelled the growth of the traditional portal-led casual games markets due to the overlap in cpnsumers. Weiter hier....