Even as Apple revels in the unprecedented success of the iPhone 4S launched this October, speculation is rife about the launch of iPad 3 and the iPhone 5.

iLounge reports that a well-trusted source suggests both the gadgets could gain in size when released in 2012. The iPhone 5 is on track to be introduced in summer of 2012, and is still in the engineering phase, not early production.

Apple iPad 3 to be thicker:- Though not much is known about the iPad 3, details posted online by iLounge indicate the next generation model will be 0.7 mm thicker than its predecessor. According to iLounge, the next iPhone, still in the early stages of development, will not use the tapered “teardrop” design as was rumored.

It is rumored that the iPad 3 will be upgraded to a retina display of 2048 x 1536 resolutions, double that of the iPad 2. The new smartphone may have a larger 4-inch display which will make the entire device 8mm longer. The next iPhone may feature aluminum casing and support LTE, the report said.

To accommodate the higher resolution display, the iPad 3 will need a twin light bar system inside the tablet to keep its colors bright. This will make the tablet thicker than the sleek iPad 2, but still thinner than the original device.

“(The iPhone 5) is on track to be introduced in summer of 2012, and is still in the engineering phase, not early production,” said iLounge

Adding fuel to the fire, an analyst confirmed to CNET that production has started on high-resolution displays for the next-generation iPad.

“It’s happening QXGA, 2048×1536. Panel production has started [for the next-generation iPad]. There’s three suppliers,” Richard Shim, an analyst at DisplaySearch, told CNET.

The iLounge report indicates that the iPad 3 may be unveiled in January and may hit store shelves by March. iLounge reports that a well-trusted source suggests both the gadgets could gain in size when released in 2012.

Shim also told CNET that Apple is interested in making a mini-iPad based on a 7.85-inch screen, which could probably come in the second half of 2012.

iPhone 5 to sport larger screen:- The iPhone 5 is also set to get a makeover. According to iLounge, the next iPhone, still in the early stages of development, will not use the tapered “teardrop” design as was rumored.

However, they confirm the new smartphone may have a larger 4-inch display which will make the entire device 8mm longer. The next iPhone may feature aluminum casing and support LTE, the report said.

iLounge said, “[The iPhone 5] is on track to be introduced in summer of 2012, and is still in the engineering phase, not early production.

“We suspect that poor battery life doomed the prior prototype version, and that this one is being built with LTE-ready battery drain in mind.”

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A technology website AllThingsD has reported that Facebook is closely working with HTC to make the phone, which in all likelihood is going to be a savvy smartphone.

Not the first time:- This is not the first time that Facebook is rumored to be working on its own phone. About a year back, CNET had reported that Facebook was in talks with major hardware manufacturers to come out with a smartphone. But as smartphones began hitting the market sporting Facebook-specific buttons, the rumors subsided.

If the latest rumor is to be believed, Facebook is reconsidering the option to build its own phone. Facebook is an important component of new Windows Phones as well, as they come with Facebook and Twitter integrated into the operating system, letting you sync your contacts with those on your social networking sites.

It remains to be seen how a Facebook phone is going to fare in the marketplace, when there already are strong players like iPhone and Android.

Smartphone specifications:- Reportedly, the smartphone will be powered by a customized version of Google’s Android operating system, and will be optimized to let you access Facebook the way you do on PCs.

The phone has an interesting codename ‘Buffy,’ after the name of a popular TV show about vampires. AllThingsD declined to unveil any details about the sources from where it got the news. The new Facebook phone will not simply sport a few Facebook buttons, but will offer a unique Facebook experience, with social networking built into the heart of the device.

It also reported that Facebook had earlier been in talks with Samsung to manufacture the device, before finally zeroing in on HTC.

The choice certainly makes sense. The latest smartphones from the HTC stable, Salsa and Chacha, have dedicated Facebook buttons and are apparently more Facebook-friendly than other phones.

Motorola and INQ Mobile are the other mobile makers that have also included Facebook buttons on their phones. About a year back, CNET had reported that Facebook was in talks with major hardware manufacturers to come out with a smartphone. But as smartphones began hitting the market sporting Facebook-specific buttons, the rumors subsided.

A unique Facebook experience:- According to AllThingsD, the new Facebook phone will not simply sport a few Facebook buttons, but will offer a unique Facebook experience, with social networking built into the heart of the device.

Facebook is an important component of new Windows Phones as well, as they come with Facebook and Twitter integrated into the operating system, letting you sync your contacts with those on your social networking sites. AllThingsD has reported that Facebook is closely working with HTC to make the phone, which in all likelihood is going to be a savvy smartphone.

It remains to be seen how a Facebook phone is going to fare in the marketplace, when there already are strong players like iPhone and Android. Both of these existing platforms have good support for Facebook.

Facebook and HTC declined to say anything on the rumor.

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According to a report by Juniper Networks, Android is the leader when it comes to malware in smartphones.

The report reveals that Android malware has risen 400 percent since July this year, with October and November registering the fastest rise in malware since Google introduced the Android platform. Most Android malware now have the ability to access personal data or important services.

In October, the number of malware samples found in Android more than doubled compared to September. Several security firms have expressed their concerns about the incidence of growing malware across the Android platform. Juniper’s Malicious Mobile Threats Report which was released in May revealed a 400 percent rise in Android malware from 2009 to summer 2010.

Google blamed for malware rise:- What is the reason behind this ominous increase in malware on Google’s mobile platform? According to Juniper, it is Google’s fault.

It is quite easy for developers to make and put applications on the Android Market, as they only need to open a developer account and pay $25. Several security firms, including McAfee and Symantec, have expressed their concerns about the incidence of growing malware across the Android platform.

Google apparently has no review process through which it screens these apps for malware or checks them. It has been reveals that Android malware has risen 400 percent since July this year, with October and November registering the fastest rise in malware since Google introduced the Android platform.

Though malware infected apps which are reported by users are promptly removed from the app store, it is only after many users have already downloaded the apps. Unsuspecting users have no way of knowing which of them are malware disguised as a useful apps.

In March this year, Google took down over 20 apps from the Android marketplace after it was learned that they were carrying a Trojan called DroidDream. It is quite easy for developers to make and put applications on the Android Market, as they only need to open a developer account and pay $25. Android malware now have the ability to access personal data or important services.

Several security firms, including McAfee and Symantec, have expressed their concerns about the incidence of growing malware across the Android platform. Everybody aware that Android is a leader when it comes to smartphones, but did you know that it also tops in mobile malware?

Android malware getting smarter:- Juniper notes that Android malware are not only increasing in number, but are also getting more advanced. Most Android malware now have the ability to access personal data or important services. Android malware can be of different types, depending on what they can do. Over half of the malware samples were found to be spyware, fishing out personal user information.

The other half consisted mostly of SMS Trojans which sends text messages to premium-rate numbers, thus costing the users.

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“We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook,” Adobe’s vice president of interactive development, Danny Winokur, wrote in a company blog post.

“We will of course continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations. We will also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their own implementations,” he added.

Winokur wrote that in the future, Adobe’s work with Flash on mobile devices will focus “on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores.” Announcing the shift towards HTML5, a competing technology that is now universally supported on all major mobile devices, Winokur said that HTML5 is “the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.”

Steve Jobs wins:- Flash has been a bone of contention between Apple Inc. and Adobe since Apple’s former Chief Executive Steve Jobs stood steadfast against featuring it on iPhone and iPad, and said it doesn’t belong to the future of mobile computing. He even posted a letter on Apple’s website in April 2010 criticizing the technology.

“Flash was created during the PC era for PCs and mice,” Jobs wrote. “Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards all areas where Flash falls short.”

Microsoft Corp. also recently signaled a move away from Flash on mobile devices, saying in September that Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 will not be supporting Web plug-ins on tablets.

The future:- Announcing the shift towards HTML5, a competing technology that is now universally supported on all major mobile devices, Winokur said that HTML5 is “the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.” However, the company said it is already working on Flash Player 12, and that it can still “innovate with Flash where it can have most impact for the industry, including advanced gaming and premium video.”

On the other hand, Adobe also said that the discontinuation will extend to consumer electronics devices such as televisions, and endorsed that developers prefer to build native apps for them.

“Adobe will continue to support existing licensees who are planning on supporting Flash Player for web browsing on digital home devices and are using the Flash Player Porting Kit to do so,” the company confirmed to GigaOm.

“However we believe the right approach to deliver content on televisions is through applications, not a web browsing experience, and we will continue to encourage the device and content publishing community down that path,” Adobe said.

End for Open Screen Project:- Adobe had launched ‘Open Screen Project’ in 2008, after Apple came out with the iPhone without Flash support, aiming to make a consistent app runtime across multiple devices, so that any Flash application once developed could be distributed across web browsers, mobile devices and TVs. Various notable device manufacturers, telecommunications carriers and content developers allied with Adobe under the program, but companies like Microsoft and Sun Microsystems stayed away.

So far, they have only been able to bring the exposure to Google TV devices, which have also struggled to gain traction in the market.

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Microsoft has a patent agreement which allows it to receive patent royalties from manufacturers that produce smartphones or tablets running Android operating system. Microsoft has said that it has “taken licenses to patents for Windows” and its patents are available to other manufacturers on “reasonable terms.” Microsoft had alleged that Barnes & Noble was violating five of its patents, and tried stop the imports of Nook readers. The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington received a formal complaint from Microsoft with details about the patent infringement.

The Redmond-based giant claims that Google’s Android platform uses key technologies which are based on Microsoft’s patented inventions.

It has struck a licensing deal with two of the biggest manufacturers of Android devices: Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp.

Microsoft allegedly attempting to monopolize market:- Barnes & Noble believes that Microsoft could be monopolizing the market with these agreements. The company has sent a report to Gene Kimmelman, Justice Department’s chief counsel, for competition policy with details about Microsoft’s patent claims, calling them “trivial and outmoded.”

Barnes & Noble has alleged that Microsoft is aggressively trying to hinder competition by increasing the costs to such manufacturers.

Giving examples of Microsoft’s patent agreements, Barnes & Noble says that Microsoft has made the patent agreements to make sure that other manufacturers using other operating system don’t make a dent in the sales of Windows smartphones and tablets.

Right from the very beginning, Microsoft has been accused of arm-twisting PC manufacturers to push Windows operating systems on their machines.

Earlier, Microsoft had alleged that Barnes & Noble was violating five of its patents, and tried stop the imports of Nook readers. The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington received a formal complaint from Microsoft with details about the patent infringement.

Nook readers are e-book readers produced by Barnes & Noble and run on the Android platform. Google’s Android platform uses key technologies which are based on Microsoft’s patented inventions. It has struck a licensing deal with two of the biggest manufacturers of Android devices: Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp.

Microsoft ready to sign deal:- In response to Barnes & Noble’s report, Microsoft has said that it has “taken licenses to patents for Windows” and its patents are available to other manufacturers on “reasonable terms.” According to Microsoft, all modern operating systems include some patented technologies which cannot be used without authorization. Barnes & Noble has alleged that Microsoft is aggressively trying to hinder competition by increasing the costs to such manufacturers.

It added that it would be pleased to sign a licensing deal with Barnes & Noble to resolve the differences.

Microsoft’s monopolistic practices have often drawn a lot of criticism from experts and tech enthusiasts. Right from the very beginning, Microsoft has been accused of arm-twisting PC manufacturers to push Windows operating systems on their machines.

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The San Ramon, California-based Chevron said it earned $7.8 billion, or $3.92a share, last quarter, compared to a profit of $3.8 billion, or $1.87a share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected a smaller profit of $3.48 per share.

Revenue during the July-September quarter leaped 30 percent to $64.4 billion from $49.7 billion in the previous year, but trailed the analyst projections of $70.4 billion. Chevron’s average sale price of a barrel of crude oil hit $97 in the quarter, well above $69 a year earlier in the same period. Chevron’s global net oil-equivalent production slumped to 2.6 million barrels per day in the last three months, down from 2.74 million barrels in the same quarter last year. According to the company, production was hampered by two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, maintenance related work at oil installations, and less output at some joint ventures overseas.

Moreover, the company’s average sale price of natural gas liquids was $4.14 per thousand cubic feet in the third quarter compared to $4.06 last year.

Despite a 5 percent drop in production, the company’s upstream operations, including the exploration and production units, generated $6.2 billion in profit, a 74 percent increase from third quarter in 2010.

Energy production slipped:- Chevron’s global net oil-equivalent production slumped to 2.6 million barrels per day in the last three months, down from 2.74 million barrels in the same quarter last year. According to the company, production was hampered by two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, maintenance related work at oil installations, and less output at some joint ventures overseas.

“Production increases from project ramp-ups in Canada, the U.S. and Brazil and new volumes stemming from the acquisition of Atlas Energy Inc. were more than offset by maintenance-related downtime (and) normal field declines,” the company said.

Upstream and downstream operations:- Despite a 5 percent drop in production, the company’s upstream operations, including the exploration and production units generated $6.2 billion in profit, a 74 percent increase from third quarter in 2010.

Moreover, Chevron’s downstream operations reported a profit of $1.986 billion, including $500 million from the sale of its British refinery to Valero Energy. Production was hampered by two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, maintenance related work at oil installations, and less output at some joint ventures overseas.

Chairman and CEO John Watson stated, “We had another successful quarter, with both strong earnings and cash flow. Current quarter earnings for our upstream operations benefited from higher crude oil prices on world markets.

“At the same time, gains on asset sales and improved margins for refined petroleum products contributed to increased earnings for our downstream businesses.”

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The shutdown is initiated so that the internet search giant can focus on its new Google Plus network and make way for more meaningful projects. The social networking tool led to a furor over privacy violations, as the program automatically exposed users’ private and potentially sensitive email contacts. Though the company tweaked the default setting and set-up process to allow users to manually approve their followers, the damage was already done. Horowitz said, “We aspire to build great products that really change people’s lives, products they use two or three times a day. To succeed you need real focus and thought and thought about what you work on and, just as important, what you don’t work on.

Google vice president for products, Bradley Horowitz, wrote in a blog post Friday, “In a few weeks we’ll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+.

“While people obviously won’t be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout.”

“We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+. Our users expect great things from us; today’s announcements let us focus even more on giving them something truly awesome,” said Bradley Horowitz, Google vice president for products.

Google Buzz controversy:- Google Buzz, which is integrated into the company’s web-based email program Gmail, allows users to share messages, web links, photos and videos with friends and colleagues. However, the social networking tool led to a furor over privacy violations, as the program automatically exposed users’ private and potentially sensitive email contacts. Though the company tweaked the default setting and set-up process to allow users to manually approve their followers, the damage was already done.

Horowitz stated, “We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+. Our users expect great things from us; today’s announcements let us focus even more on giving them something truly awesome.”

Services being chopped:- Further, the Code Search will be shuttered along with the Code Search API on Jan. 15, 2012. Jaiku, a product acquired in 2007 that let users send updates to friends, will be axed on Jan. 15, 2012. The University Research Program for Google Search which provides direct access to Google search results will close on Jan. 15, 2012. Also, its curtains down for Google Labs site Friday, while Boutiques.com and Like.com websites will be replaced by Google Product Search.

Horowitz said, “We aspire to build great products that really change people’s lives, products they use two or three times a day. To succeed you need real focus and thought and thought about what you work on and, just as important, what you don’t work on. It’s why we recently decided to shut down some products, and turn others into features of existing products.”

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The low cost and high revenue model of the business outsourcing is a liberalized method to benefit industries from the advancement led by today’s Information Technology. Pros and cons of outsourcing in business are precisely discussed below:-

The Pros of Outsourcing

Higher Economy of Scale:- It cannot be denied that the profit earning is the soul of any business. Management strives for the best production-cost strategy to maximize the return on investment. Outsourcing and offshoring of business operations helps in restricting production-cost to a great extent. The businessman selects the appropriate land (country) and lower cost labor to control capital and other organizational expenditure for business set up.

Better delegation of authority:- Business outsourcing helps company to set up production unit after proper appraisal of the place and its work culture. Selecting the right workforce improves the quality of work and open up avenues for new innovations and speedy workflow. Suppose, if a production or marketing and selling or customer care unit of the company delivers timely, the company finally can fully focus on core competencies like product improvisation and output.

The Cons of Outsourcing

Company’s loss of control over its operations:- Far-off operations often affect the quality of work. The production loses the spontaneity and effective decision making capacity of the company. The business might loss control over the work flow and this could bring sluggishness and shortcoming in the company’s performance. Working on the common goal, or striving towards customer satisfaction becomes tough in this situation.

Communication problems within the line of work:- Indirect communication with a separate and outsourced unit of the company may disturb a line of work owing misinterpretation of information. Again, setting up business in a different nation might crop lingual accent and other communication barriers. This might lead to discontentment in labor unions of the outsourced unit. The situation may upset the business goodwill, goal orientation and profitability of the company.

Finally, it is to be remembered that advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing are two sides of the same coin. Whether to outsource one’s business or not completely depends on the nature, scale and market niche of the business.

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Anthera is a small fish in this pond, having raised about $37 million in its initial public offering and burned through just about $93 million of investor cash in its five-year history. Anthera certainly fell off a number of radar screens when its stock dipped from its initial price of $7 to a low of $2.82 earlier this year. But the company has since bounced back to $6.12 at yesterday’s close, and it is clearly eager to show some early stage clinical trial of its lead drug at the American Heart Association meeting on Wednesday.

The idea at Anthera is to help prevent relapses in seriously ill heart patients by tamping down excess inflammation. The idea that inflammation causes plaque buildups in blood vessels to rupture, leading to heart attacks and strokes, hasn’t been solidly established in the scientific community, but evidence has been mounting for years to support the idea. Anthera, founded in 2004, is now in the midst of working to prove that a once-daily anti-inflammatory pill can significantly reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death when taken in combination with the whole kitchen sink of other drugs like cholesterol-lowering agents, blood pressure meds, and anti-clotting agents. If Anthera can gather that kind of proof, it may have a drug that could be taken by as many as 1.5 million patients in the U.S. who get rushed to the hospital each year with a heart condition and are hoping to avoid a relapse that could be debilitating or fatal. The drug could be worth “multi-billions,” Anthera says.

“This is a true paradigm shift in the treatment of cardiovascular disease,” CEO Paul Truex says.

Anthera has at least a couple years of work ahead before it will know if it can live up to that billing. But the company has clearly staked out an interesting strategy in pursuit of the next big market for cardiovascular disease, in a way that a little cash-burning biotech company might actually be able to handle. The company, founded in 2004, got its early backing from Vantage Point Venture Partners, Sofinnova Ventures, Caxton Advantage Life Sciences Fund, HBM BioCapital, and others.

The lead drug Anthera’s investors are betting on here is varespladib methyl (A002), which was originally designed by Eli Lilly and Japan-based Shionogi to inhibit multiple forms of an inflammatory enzyme called sPLA2. There is no FDA approved drug that works to block this target, although competitors like GlaxoSmithKline, Via Pharmaceuticals, and Eisai Pharmaceuticals are all pursuing some variation on the theme. By shutting down the enzyme, Anthera hopes it will prevent plaque from forming in blood vessels, and make it more stable there, Truex says.

Anthera, which got a license to the compound from Lilly and Shionogi, went on to run mid-stage clinical trials. It tested its drug in more than 1,000 patients, which gave it enough evidence to entice IPO investors. The extra cash was immediately put to work in the next couple months as Anthera started enrolling patients in the pivotal trial called Vista-16, which it hopes will be good enough to convince the FDA to clear the drug for sale.

The study will randomly assign as many as 6,500 patients with a heart attack (acute coronary syndrome) to get either the Anthera drug or a placebo. These are very sick patients, taking lots of heart medications already, and about one out of every 12 (8.5 percent) is expected to have another serious coronary event, Truex says. About 85 percent of the coronary events are thought to occur in the first 16 weeks, when inflammation is running rampant, so Anthera has designed its study around this short-term (and therefore, stock market-friendly) time frame.

Anthera designed the study, so the moment there are 385 major coronary events in the study (heart attacks, strokes, deaths), then its statisticians will rip off the study blind and see whether the patients on the Anthera drug suffered those outcomes at a lower rate. To declare victory, Anthera needs to see an 18 percent improvement in relative risk compared with the placebo. That might sound great, but in absolute terms, it’s pretty modest. If Anthera’s drug is that good, then about 6.9 percent or 7 percent of patients on it (about one out of 18 instead of one out of 12) will still suffer a major coronary event.

One of Anthera’s main tasks is to generate enthusiasm among doctors and patients for its trial. Because it needs to enroll an estimated 5,000 to 6,500 patients to get the required number of coronary events, it will take until about the end of 2011 to complete enrollment, Truex says. Results should be ready by the first half of 2012, and if all goes well, the company will be able to seek approval from the FDA by the end of 2012.

Since this would be coming online in the era of health reform, Anthera had better have a compelling reason for how prescribing the new drug can save the system money. Chief financial officer Chris Lowe was certainly ready for that question, although I’m sure that serious health economic studies will have to be done to make the argument really compelling. Just off the top, he noted that initial heart attacks cost the health care system between $20,000 and $40,000, but second ones tend to cost about three times as much because they are more damaging. If the Anthera drug can reach its primary goal, he says, “then you have a drug that will provide serious benefit to the health care system.”

There’s an interesting financial strategy at work here, too. Anthera is going it alone, with a team of just 25 employees, managing this pivotal trial and hoping to ship off to the FDA. Rather than hand over the majority control of the drug to a Big Pharma partner in exchange for cash, the board chose to raise more money through the IPO and retain 100 percent of the drug’s rights in North America and Europe. It was feasible to do this for a relatively small pivotal study for cardiology, which usually requires 10,000 or more patients followed over a fairly long period of time — a proposition that requires too much time and money for most biotechs. So if Anthera can hold on all the way through Phase III, and deliver the reduced risk of heart attack and stroke it foresees, then it could have a pretty valuable property to sell to one of those Big Pharma companies looking to fill holes in their pipelines left by the billion-dollar heart drugs of yesteryear. Anthera says it believes it has patent protection on its new drug out to 2019. That would certainly provide Big Pharma companies many more opportunities to wine and dine doctors like the ones in Chicago this week, regaling them with stories about how this drug helps patients and reduces costs.

“We think this aligns the interest of payers, patients, and shareholders, ultimately,” Lowe says.

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Microsoft had already bumped its year-end target from 3 million to 5 million units, but I was skeptical. Sony’s PlayStation Move controller was cheaper and it didn’t seem to make much of a rumble. Industry sales still stumbled the month that Move came out. It’s going to be a November to remember, though. Between Microsoft’s Kinect andActivision Blizzard’s record-setting release last week of Call of Duty: Black Ops it seems as if the video game metrics will post a positive month that has been a rare sight since early last year. Kinect’s push is encouraging. The $150 controller does include a game, but no one pays that much for a single bundled diversion. The million Kinect owners which may be 5 million by the end of next month, according to Microsoft will collectively be buying millions of new Kinect-ready titles.

I’ve been bearish on the video game industry for some time, but I wouldn’t stand in the way of diehard gamers in the near term. Even GameStop the video game retailer that will have a hard time remaining relevant in the digital future is positioned to have a great holiday quarter. You don’t have to take that from a cynic like me. We’ll hear from GameStop itself on Thursday. My long-term concerns remain. Microsoft also claims that 25 million Xbox Live members are spending an average of 40 hours a month on their multiplayer network. This is obviously exciting for Microsoft, but it also means that purchased games such as Black Ops have longer playable lives. In other words, it’s still going to be a tough market for anything short of the blockbuster tent-pole releases.

Did Microsoft issue a self-serving press release yesterday? Does professing Kinect’s early success become a self-fulfilling prophecy as gamers straddling the fence now hop on since the platform is clearly viable for both consumers and developers. The answer’s irrelevant. Kinect buyers are now a moving target in every sense of the word. t’s never easy to hit a moving target, but there appear to be a million gamers moving around as the result of the early success of Microsoft’s Kinect. The world’s largest software company announced that a million Kinect systems the $150 camera-based motion controller that hit the market two weeks ago have been sold in its first 10 days of availability.

This naturally bodes well for Mr. Softy as we turn our attention to the telltale holiday shopping season. Microsoft had already bumped its year-end target from 3 million to 5 million units, but I was skeptical. Sony’s PlayStation Move controller was cheaper and it didn’t seem to make much of a rumble. Industry sales still stumbled the month that Move came out. It’s going to be a November to remember, though. Between Microsoft’s Kinect andActivision Blizzard’s record-setting release last week of Call of Duty: Black Ops it seems as if the video game metrics will post a positive month that has been a rare sight since early last year.

Kinect’s push is encouraging. The $150 controller does include a game, but no one pays that much for a single bundled diversion. The million Kinect owners which may be 5 million by the end of next month, according to Microsoft will collectively be buying millions of new Kinect-ready titles. I’ve been bearish on the video game industry for some time, but I wouldn’t stand in the way of diehard gamers in the near term. Even GameStop the video game retailer that will have a hard time remaining relevant in the digital future is positioned to have a great holiday quarter. You don’t have to take that from a cynic like me. We’ll hear from GameStop itself on Thursday.

My long-term concerns remain. Microsoft also claims that 25 million Xbox Live members are spending an average of 40 hours a month on their multiplayer network. This is obviously exciting for Microsoft, but it also means that purchased games such as Black Ops — have longer playable lives. In other words, it’s still going to be a tough market for anything short of the blockbuster tent-pole releases.

Did Microsoft issue a self-serving press release yesterday? Does professing Kinect’s early success become a self-fulfilling prophecy as gamers straddling the fence now hop on since the platform is clearly viable for both consumers and developers? The answer’s irrelevant. Kinect buyers are now a moving target in every sense of the word.

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