Video game makers who once steered clear of emerging markets to avoid getting ripped off by copycats are returning with free online offers to make money from customers willing to pay for add-on features.

Electronic Arts, whose Command & Conquer is ranked by researcher NPD among the top five best-selling PC franchises of all time with more than 30 million copies sold since 1995, will make the game free online next year. Ubisoft Entertainment, known for Assassin's Creed and Tom Clancy, introduced seven browser-based free-to-play titles at the gamescon event in Germany last month.

Free games with extras that cost often less than $US1, a model pioneered by Zynga, are poised to push sales in countries where disposable income is low and piracy has hurt revenue. Latin America, Africa and the Middle East made up 6 per cent of the industry's almost $67 billion in revenue last year, according to researcher IDATE DigiWorld.

"With the growing availability of mobile devices and PCs, the number of potential customers is rapidly expanding, especially in emerging markets," said Frank Gibeau, head of labels at Electronic Arts, the world's second-largest game developer by revenue. "The free-to-play model makes our games accessible to these audiences."

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Gamers in emerging markets are more likely to use a handset than a recent Microsoft Xbox or Nintendo Wii games console. More than half of US households own a current- generation console, according to research firm Nielsen. Ownership in emerging markets is around 30 per cent t of the level of that in Western countries, said Peter Warman, chief executive officer of researcher Newzoo.

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Samsung Galaxy S 3

The Samsung Galaxy S III is a smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Like its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S II, the S III is a touchscreen-based, slate-format Android smartphone, with a significant addition of software features, expanded hardware, and a redesigned physique. In particular, it employs an intelligent personal assistant (S Voice), eye-tracking ability, increased storage and awireless charging option. Depending on countries, the 4.8-inch (120 mm) smartphone comes with different processors and RAM capacity, and 4G LTE support.^[7]

Following an eighteen-month development phase, Samsung unveiled the S III on 3 May 2012, in London.^[8] The device was released in 28 European and Middle Eastern countries on 29 May 2012, before being progressively released in other major markets in June 2012. Prior to release, 9 million pre-orders were placed by more than 100 carriers globally,^[9] making it the fastest-selling gadget in history.^[10] The S III was released by approximately 300 carriers in nearly 150 countries at the end of July 2012.^[11]

Due to an overwhelming demand and a manufacturing flaw with the blue version of the phone,^[12] there was an extensive shortage of the S III, especially in the United States. Nevertheless, the S III was well-received commercially and critically, with some technology commentators touting it as the "iPhone killer".^[13] The S III played a major role in boosting Samsung's record operating profit during the second quarter of 2012.^[14]

Xbox 720

Microsoft managed to get a year’s headstart on Sony when it launched the Xbox 360 in late 2005 and it seems the company has similarplans for its successor as well. Dubbed the Xbox 720, Microsoft’s next-gen gaming console is already in the works and there have been enough rumours and leaks to support the fact that developers have already begun coding games for the new hardware. Here’s a little round-up of what we know about the Xbox 720 so far.

AMD CPU, GPU under the hood 
If the new console has to last its 10-year life cycle, then it had better pack some serious firepower under the hood. The Xbox 720 is said to feature AMD’s latest 7000 series graphics card, which is based on their new GCN architecture. There is also a possibility that the console will pack two of these cards running in parallel. This will allow it to handle more complex rendering without putting too much strain on the CPU. The new cards also bring full DX11 and Tessellation features to consoles for the very first time, something that’s increasingly being used in games. As far as CPU goes, the console is rumoured to have a 16-core CPU or two AMD 8-core CPUs running in parallel. This should give the 720 enough of processing power for years to come.

Blu-ray support?
With games getting increasingly complex every day, stuffing everything into a dual-layer DVD just won’t cut it anymore. Even today, Xbox games run into multiple DVDs, which just doesn’t spell ‘next-gen’ for the 720. With no other storage format in sight, Microsoft will have to bundle a Blu-ray drive in their next console. A dual-layer Blu-ray can hold 50GB of data, which is enough for games of the future. Whether or not Microsoft will actually make this move is yet to be seen; but for now, we don’t think they have much of a choice.

ICT Electronic entertainment

Information about the inner workings of the next PlayStation have been trickling out for some time, with no way to determine how accurate those bits and pieces are. Nevertheless, the reports are interesting and could point to a trend on how console makers are planning to keep today's consoles relevant in their own game as well as in a trend that is leverages general purpose applications that merges active entertainment (gaming, social engagement) with passive entertainment (audio, video, TV). The PlayStation-centric site PSX Sense reports that Sony may be building they next console, code-named Orbis, mainly on AMD hardware.

There will be a Fusion processor codenamed Liverpool. The APU may have four cores and run at 3.2 GHz. the site also lists a "Tahiti" R10XX GPU that is capable of 1,843 Gflops at 800 MHz clock speed, 2 or 4 GB memory, a Blu-ray drive, HDMI 1.4 support, 16 GB Flash memory and at least 320 GB HDD space. The launch date is sometime in 2013.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook is expected to launch the iPhone 5 in September. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP

Apple's next iPhone, already being dubbed the iPhone 5, is expected to launch in mid-September, with a new "nano-sim" system to enable the device, the Guardian has learned.

Sources also say that the device will introduce a new 19-pin power and control connector on its base, dumping the 30-pin connector first introduced with the third-generation iPod in April 2003.

The new phone is also expected to include 4G mobile broadband capability, but only offer compatibility with networks in the US. 4G networks in Europe and the rest of the world transmit on different frequencies and so are incompatible with US systems.

Apple will be the first major manufacturer to use the nano-sim card. Some operators began ordering the chip cards in substantial numbers even while Apple, Nokia and BlackBerry-maker RIM were still wrangling over the fine details in spring this year.

The nano-sim design is 40% smaller even than the micro-sim used insmartphones such as the iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Nokia Lumia range introduced in the past 12 months, and was only agreed by the European standards body ETSI on 1 June.

Mobile phone companies anticipate a mid-September launch for the iPhone 5, and expect demand to be extremely high as present owners of iPhone 3G and 3GS look to upgrade, and those who have not yet bought a smartphone consider a shift from an older featurephone.

The Taiwanese electronics news site Digitimes has quoted industry sources saying that Pegatron, a contract manufacturer, has begun making the new iPhone at its factory in Shanghai. It also says that Pegatron is making new versions of the iPad for a third-quarter shipment date.

Another source in China, quoted by the French site App4Phone, suggests that Apple will release the next iPhone on Friday 21 September.

If correct, that would be the day on which the phone goes on sale, because manufacturers want to release new handsets to consumers at the beginning of the weekend.

Last year, Apple chief executive Tim Cook unveiled the iPhone 4S on Tuesday 4 October, and the phone went on sale on Friday 14 October.

If the 21 September release date is correct, that would imply a public unveiling by Apple on Tuesday 11 September this year.

Dumping the 30-pin connector for a new design could hobble the multi-billion-dollar business for iPhone, iPod and iPad accessories, which relied on the now likely-to-be-outmoded proprietary socket to connect the Apple equipment to the power supply or other devices.

Apple will be keen to begin selling a new iPhone as soon as possible. Last year expectations were high that, as from 2007 to 2010, it would announce the new model in June and start selling it soon afterwards.

But instead the iPhone 4S launch did not come until October, leading to a dramatic dip in iPhone sales in the July-September quarter.

Though sales of the 4S and the rest of the iPhone range was very high, Cook said at Apple's earnings announcement that month that the company knew there was great anticipation in June and July and that speculation hit extreme highs by September 2011.

Consumers held off buying Apple phones that month in anticipation of the new model.

Accessory makers will be holding their breath to find out more about the new design.

The website iMore, which was the first to report in February that the next iPhone would remodel its connector, said on Tuesday night that Apple would offer an adapter to enable 19-pin devices to link to older 30-pin connectors and accessories.

But that will still leave accessory makers in a quandary about whether to focus on the newer connector, in the expectation that more devices will use those in the future, or to stick with the old one – which fits more than half a billion iPods, iPhone and iPads.

The accessory business is highly competitive, yet offers retailers a better margin than selling Apple devices alone.

Retail margins on the items are typically around 40%, compared to about 10% on iPods or iPads. Some manufacturers will almost certainly make adapters to let older iOS 30-pin devices connect to the new 19-pin systems.

Speculation is already building, with a survey carried out by ChangeWave Research reporting unprecedented demand for the next iPhone: a poll of 4,042 American consumers found 14% "very likely" to buy one, and 17% "somewhat likely" to.

The iPhone commands a substantial share of the US market, helped by subsidies from US carriers.

UK operators, too, expect to see heavy demand for the new phone, whose release would also bring a new version of Apple's iOS which dispenses with Google for its mapping system.

O2, which originally signed up many iPhone users in the UK, could lose out as the new phone is expected to be available through every carrier, leading to a more competitive market than previously for owners looking to upgrade.

Apple said it did not comment on rumours and speculation.