Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Fugoo's founders are John Hui and Chris Chung (the founders of eMachines, a low-price PC vendor acquired by Gateway in 2004 and then by Acer in 2007), and Wayne Inouye (former CEO of eMachines and Gateway).
"Many vendors are trying to come up with a multi-purpose magic bullet to satisfy all the information needs in the home," said Hui.
"But this sort of solution is bound to be expensive and complex. We're taking a fundamentally different approach, building devices with computing power and Internet connections to perform specific functions in order to keep costs low and the user interface simple."
He added "One of the reasons we think the time is right for Web-enabled devices is that there's been an explosion in the availability of Web widgets, which essentially automate the process of retrieving a particular category of information."
The first Fugoo devices are expected to go on sale by the end of 2009.
Company officials speculate the Fugoo devices may deliver some of the capabilities that have been imagined for years but have yet to materialise, such as the fridge that's smart enough to automatically re-order staples, or an automatic garden sprinkler that stays off if rain is forecast.
(I'm not sure if I'd trust the latter - there have been too many days this summer where rain was forecast but failed to eventuate in my neighbourhood!)
Fugoo was featured on the Microsoft booth at CES.
"The combination of Fugoo's platform and Microsoft Windows opens up almost limitless possibilities for transforming ordinary household items, allowing them to perform all sorts of new functions and services," said Steve Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of Microsoft's original equipment manufacturer division.
David Bass
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