Hardware and software commercialism in Japan moved to a notch higher but still insufficient to drive Nintendo Wii U into extended shelf life. This significant sales drop over Japanese holiday Otoshimada and Nintendo Wii U will suffer this until the next few weeks.

Gifting tradition in Japan is different from that of the west in a sense that adults giving money to kids actually last until mid January. Nintendo Wii U and other gaming hardware plus software are primary beneficiary of this tradition. Basing on Media Create chart comparison from previous week up to current, the sales actually rose to 128 percent for software and 111 percent for hardware, DualShockers reported. Then again this translates a significant drop compared to last year so Nintendo Wii U suffered the impact.

The same report shows that Nintendo Wii U cuts a smaller this year due to lower figures in side by side comparison to same week of 2015. Albeit current rise, it is safe to presume that 2016 is lower by 77 percent on hardware sales and 73 percent on hardware compared to 2015. Nintendo Wii U dipped at mind-boggling figure, based on M-Create analysis.

On a layman language, Nintendo Wii U sold 80,000 units is Japan during 2015 holiday season. Comparably, this console sold just a little over 5,000 units since a week before Christmas.

It may be heartbreaking for Nintendo Wii U that banks on local sales in Japan even during late September when PlayStation 4 have overtaken them. Remember that Japan is supposed to be the strongest market for Nintendo Wii U since conception.

Here is another reason to blame for Nintendo Wii U demise; Japanese family have been looking for more family-friendly games. Yes, these are available on other platforms like PlayStation 4 that offers wider game library as opposed to Nintendo Wii U.

Lastly, blame it on Nintendo Wii U themselves after deciding that support is going to discontinue starting 2017. Support dies at the advent of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Wii U died with it.

A first wave of automakers and industry suppliers – led by Toyota Motor Corporation – is adopting Ford SmartDeviceLink software – a huge step toward giving consumers more choice in how they connect and control their smartphone apps on the road.

SmartDeviceLink is the open-source software on which the Ford SYNC® AppLink™ platform is built. It provides consumers an easy way to access their favorite smartphone apps using voice commands. Automotive suppliers QNX Software Systems and UIEvolution also are adopting the technology, with plans to integrate it into their products.

By adopting this Ford technology, automakers and suppliers are helping accelerate an industry standard that will increase the number of apps available for in-vehicle use. With common industry software, developers can focus on creating the best experience on one platform – SmartDeviceLink – which will be available to customers of many brands.

PSA Peugeot Citroën is investigating adding SmartDeviceLink to its vehicles. Automakers Honda, Mazda and Subaru also are considering adding the software.

“Ford is making the software available as open-source, because customers throughout the industry benefit if everybody speaks one language.”

SmartDeviceLink software, including AppLink, is part of Ford Smart Mobility – the plan to take Ford to the next level in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience, and data and analytics.

How an industry standard benefits consumers
SmartDeviceLink-equipped vehicles enable drivers to manage popular smartphone apps using display screens, buttons and/or voice recognition commands. Popular music apps such as Spotify and iHeartRadio, information apps including AccuWeather and MLB, retail apps such as Domino’s, and a growing list of apps from around the world are already available for Ford AppLink users.

Those apps become more readily available in vehicles equipped with SmartDeviceLink because developers have access to higher volumes of vehicles and new capabilities. For automakers and suppliers, SmartDeviceLink adoption broadens the choice for customers in how they connect and control their smartphones while on the move. Adoption also supports increased quality and security of the software as multiple parties can collaborate on improvements.

As part of Ford SYNC, AppLink is available on more than 5 million Ford vehicles globally. The technology is expected to reach 28 million more vehicles by 2020.

Industry-wide adoption of SmartDeviceLink will help the technology spread to new markets, such as China, Taiwan, New Zealand and Thailand.

Later this year, Ford will introduce the next version of AppLink based on SmartDeviceLink software, allowing customers to access their favorite compatible navigation app – much as they do on a smartphone – on in-vehicle touch screens. The upgrade brings smartphone navigation to the car, an important feature for customers worldwide.

Growing the connected car community
By making SmartDeviceLink software available to the open-source community, Ford is providing the industry a way to maintain differentiated, brand-specific entertainment and connectivity systems that deliver on customer expectations for smartphone app integration – regardless of smartphone.

Livio, a wholly owned Ford subsidiary, continues to manage the open-source project by working with SmartDeviceLink adopters to build the appropriate interfaces into each unique vehicle environment.

“Developing a safer and more secure in-car smartphone connectivity service – which better matches individual vehicle features – is exactly the value and advantage an automaker can offer customers,” said Shigeki Terashi, executive vice president, Toyota Motor Corporation. “We expect that many companies share our view and will participate in the industry SmartDeviceLink collaboration.”