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Wednesday 31 August 2011

Facebook To Launch Music Service This Month [ 31-08-2011 20:13 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: CNBC Translation by: Paul Smith

CNBC are reporting that social networking leader Facebook is planning to launch its own music service come 22nd September. That date ties in with the F8 developer conference Facebook is holding. I'm afraid that that is about all that is known about this for the moment. What form will this new music service take? A free offerring a le old school Spotify perhaps? A subscription service? We'll just have to hold tight for three weeks to find out.

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HTC Runnymead Rumoured To Have 4.7 Inch Display [ 31-08-2011 17:50 ]

Author: Irina Turina Source: Pocketnow.com Translation by: Paul Smith

It's almost a tradition that new HTC handsets leak onto the web and today we have a new one for you, the HTC Runnymead. The headline grabbing feature with this handset is that it is rumoured to be huge, a result of its alleged 4.7 inch Super LCD screen. That's quite the behemoth if true.

Pocketnow.com are listing some other specifications for this new beast. The processor powering the thing will supposedly be a 1.5 Ghz affair with 768 MB of RAM to back it up. The camera weighs in at a hefty 8 MP for picture and video recording whilst a 1.3 MP camera is placed on the front of the handset for video calling. Android is the order of the day of course and rumour has it that Runnymead will be running Android 2.3.4. No doubt HTC's Sense UI will be featured too. Now with such a huge screen the obvious concern is that the handset is going to be a monster. Well apparently, despite the epic proportions of the display, it will measure less than 10mm thick.

HTC have another handset in the works according to the web rumour mill called the HTC Eternity. The specs list for the Eternity demonstrate an eerie resemblance to those of Runnymead. The difference? Eternity is said to be running Windows Phone 7. Of course it could be that these are actually the same handset and someone just got the OS of one mixed up or it could be that it's the same handset, but release will see an Android version and a Windows Phone version.

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U.S. Government Wants AT&T/T-Mobile Merger Blocked [ 31-08-2011 17:04 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: Bloomberg Translation by: Paul Smith

You remember the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger in the United States? No? Well there hasn't been much said about it of late so that's understandable, but events today threw the deal back into the spotlight and for the sort of reasons AT&T and T-Mobile don't like. The American government has stepped into the middle of the deal and filed court papers seeking to block the merger. The reason behind the move is pretty straightforward and probably what you are expecting ... competition.

The American Justice Department has concerns that if the deal were to go ahead it would "substantially lessen competition". Indeed they went as far as to say that "AT&T's elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low-priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market". This isn't sounding too good for proponents of the deal and especially for AT&T. You see there is a clause in the deal that states if the merger doesn't go ahead AT&T has to pony up a cool $3 billion to T-Mobile.

It's important to point out though that whilst the American government is seeking to block the deal that doesn't necessarily mean they will succeed. The merger could still go ahead, but obviously this isn't conducive to the process. AT&T's senior executive vice-president and general counsel (good luck fitting that on a business card) Wayne Watts, issued a statement on the government's actions:

We are surprised and disappointed by today's action, particularly since we have met repeatedly with the Department of Justice and there was no indication from the DOJ that this action was being contemplated. We plan to ask for an expedited hearing so the enormous benefits of this merger can be fully reviewed. The DOJ has the burden of proving alleged anti-competitive affects and we intend to vigorously contest this matter in court. At the end of the day, we believe facts will guide any final decision and the facts are clear. This merger will:

· Help solve our nation's spectrum exhaust situation and improve wireless service for millions.
· Allow AT&T to expand 4G LTE mobile broadband to another 55 million Americans, or 97% of the population;
· Result in billions of additional investment and tens of thousands of jobs, at a time when our nation needs them most.

We remain confident that this merger is in the best interest of consumers and our country, and the facts will prevail in court.

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Android Still Leading American Smartphone Market [ 31-08-2011 16:52 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: ComScore Translation by: Paul Smith

Some new figures from ComScore paint a very familiar picture. 82.2 million Americans now own a smartphone, a 10% increase from last quarter. No prizes for guessing that once again Android is king of the heap, accounting for 41.8% of the market. Second place is taken by Apple again, but it's no where near unseating Android as it is holding onto a 27% share of the market. RIM brings up the rear in third place and has managed to hold onto a 21.7% share. That last figure is important though because it's 4 percentage points down from the last quarter. Microsoft have managed to carve out a 5.7% slice of the pie for themselves, which is actually down a percentage point from last quarter.

In terms of the hardware side of the market Samsung is, like Android, still leading the pack, grabbing 25.5% of the market. LG isn't too far behind their South Korean rival in second place with 20.9%. Motorola takes spot number three with 14.1%, a drop of 1.5% from last quarter for Google's latest acquisition. Apple's share was a rather more modest 9.5% although still better than RIM, which could only muster up 7.6%.

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