PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Five for Friday is a weekly feature to give a brief roundup of our top five stories from the week that you might have missed. Think we left anything out? Let us know your favourite stories of the week by pinging us a tweet @pcr_online.
European PC gaming market is growing, but UK carries the rear
PC gaming may be growing across Europe, but according to the latest figures from research firm Context, the UK is lagging behind.
While the market growth across the entirety of Europe has seen a strong growth in revenue of 22.7 per cent year-on-year, the UK is sitting at the very bottom of the growth pile at just 0.5 per cent.
To put this into context (pun intended), Russia has seen the largest amount of growth of 175 per cent year-on-year, with other major European nations such as Germany (24.2 per cent), Spain (24.5 per cent) and Sweden (14.2 per cent) all eclipsing the UK in terms of growth.
Warrington-based distributor VIP has announced additions to its ongoing partnership with leading gaming brand MSI, adding motherboards and graphics cards to its existing portfolio.
VIP has been partnered with MSI Notebooks for several years, and views the addition of Motherboards and VGA as a natural progression of that relationship. MSI’s aim is to become "the most trusted name in gaming and eSports" and with dedication to innovation as well as amateur and professional gaming, MSI is a highly sought after brand in the industry.
November set to be first ever £10bn mobile month
Ahead of Black Friday on November 25th, a new report has predicted that the month will be the first ever to see £10 billion in mobile sales.
According to global ecommerce consultancy Salmon, a record amount of money is set to be spent through mobile purchases in November. That’s based on data showing that the majority of online orders were made through mobile on Black Friday last year (51 per cent), along with stats from IMRG.
The research also predicts that this holiday season will also see a huge growth in voice purchases through smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa.
Symantec CEO warns of worrying trend to allow governments access to source code
Symantec CEO Greg Clark has had an encouraging change of heart over sharing the security company’s source code with international governments. In an interview with Reuters Clark said that sharing source code poses ‘unacceptable risks’. Tech companies have been under increased pressure to allow Russian, US and Chinese governments access to their source code.
Symantec was one such company who allowed the reviews, however Clark has taken the decision to overturn that policy given that ‘security threats are too great’.
“These are secrets, or things necessary to defend (software),” Clark said of source code. “It’s best kept that way.” “We’re in a great place that says, ‘You know what, we don’t see a lot of product over there [Russia]’,” Clark said. “We don’t have to say yes. We just have taken a policy decision to say, ‘Any foreign government that wants to read our source code, the answer is no’.”
London cyber crime court opened as experts warn of increased threat
In order to tackle the growing threat of cyber crime, the City of London has updated its court system with an 18 courtroom building in Fleet Street which is largely dedicated to tackling cyber crime and financial fraud.
It comes as the head of the intelligence monitoring service GCHQ has said that keeping the UK safe from cyber-attacks is now as important as fighting terrorism. Jeremy Fleming said increased funding for GCHQ was being spent on making it a ‘cyber-organisation’ as much as an intelligence and counter-terrorism one. He said: "We see that in the way terrorists are constantly changing their weapons, or states are using their full range of tools to steal secrets, gain influence and attack our economy".
The new court centre will replace all of the City’s current court services except from the Old Bailey. Justice minister Dominic Raab said it will be a ‘terrific advert for post-Brexit Britain’.
