India 3G Winners - Graphical Depiction

Qualcomm signs up Indian TD-LTE partners

Interesting to see Qualcomm's statement regarding exiting the venture post roll-out of a LTE network clearly re-emphasizing their technology establishment intention rather than interest in being a service provider. Potential suitors - Bharti Airtel most likely in my mind on account of their miss in the original auction

GSMA Business briefing
July 30, 2010

Qualcomm has sold a 26 percent stake in its Indian wireless broadband venture to local firms Global Holdings and Tulip Telecom for a reported US$58 million, as the US chipmaker aims to push the launch of TD-LTE services in the country. Global Holdings - which owns telecoms infrastructure firms GTL Ltd and GTL Infra - and communications services provider Tulip Telecom will buy 13 percent each in the unit, whilst Qualcomm’s equity investment for a 74 percent stake (the most a foreign firm can own in India) in the broadband unit will be US$164.3 million. The India-registered venture will have an enterprise value of US$1.11 billion, with US$222 million as equity and US$888 million as debt, after the deal is closed.

In June it was announced that Qualcomm won one slot of 20MHz TDD broadband wireless access spectrum in the 2.3GHz band covering the key telecom circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. The company spent over US$1 billion on the airwaves. The vendor had previously said it plans to use the spectrum for deployment of TD-LTE technology, a move that was perceived as an attempt to derail the mobile WiMAX community (the technology normally associated with the spectrum). Indeed, a statement from Qualcomm today notes that the deal will “facilitate [the] accelerated deployment of LTE in India, complementing 3G HSPA and EV-DO networks.” Qualcomm expects to get the broadband spectrum in two to three months time and aims to launch broadband services in 2011. Qualcomm said it will apply for an Internet service provider license after getting approvals for the deal and will create four companies as part of the venture for the four service areas. Significantly, it added that it “expects to attract one or more experienced 3G HSPA and/or EV-DO operators into the venture for construction of an LTE network in compliance with the Indian government’s roll-out requirements for the BWA spectrum and then to exit the venture."

Global handset shipments rise 13% in Q2

GSMA Business briefing
July 30, 2010

Global handset shipments rose 13 percent to 308 million units in the second-quarter of the year, according to new figures from Strategy Analytics. The firm cited lower-end 2G models in emerging markets, particularly South America, and high-end 3G touchscreen devices in mature regions as driving growth during the quarter. The growth rate was slower than the +17 percent YoY average over the previous two quarters, but well above the -8 percent annual rate recorded in 2Q09. “There are no credible signs yet of any major double-dip downturn in the handset industry, but that could of course quickly change if overall economic conditions were to deteriorate again across the major markets of North America, Western Europe and Asia in the coming months,” said the firm in a statement. It forecast that 325 million handsets will be shipped worldwide in the current quarter (3Q10), which would represent annual growth of 12 percent.

	Units (m)	Market Share	YoY Growth
Nokia	111.1	36.1%	7.7%
Samsung	63.8	20.7%	22.0%
LG	30.6	10.0%	2.7%
RIM	11.2	3.6%	40.0%
S. Ericsson	11	3.6%	-20.3%
Others	79.8	26.0%	20.9%
TOTAL	307.5	100%	12.6%

Source: Strategy Analytics (July 2010)

Among the top-five brands, RIM and Samsung outperformed their major rivals, which Strategy Analytics attributed to "robust demand" for their QWERTY phones and touchphones. Samsung grew its market share to 21 percent share, while RIM maintained fourth position on 3.6 percent, the same as Sony Ericsson. Market-leader Nokia shipped a slightly lower-than-expected 111.1 million handsets worldwide in Q2 2010, growing 8 percent annually, slightly below the industry average. Apple just failed to make the top five, but its global marketshare has edged up from 2 percent in 2Q09 to almost 3 percent in 2Q10.

Will Zynga become the Google of games?

When Pincus first envisioned Zynga, most investors and peers doubted that a gaming start-up could become the next big thing. But the success of games like “FarmVille“ has silenced the critics.


Social gaming is HOT, extremely HOT -

• While Facebook needed four and a half years to reach 100 million users, Zynga crossed that mark after just two and a half years
• Zynga with 211 mn players every mth and annual revenues of US$835 mn is valued at ~ US$4.5 bn
• Apple brings Zynga to the iPhone with iOS4
• Social gaming is rumoured to be one of the linchpin of Google's upcoming SN service
• Spate of M&As in the sector - EA acquiring Playfish last year, Disney buying Playdom this week and Google investing in Zynga

I clearly feel India holds tremendous potential for India. Professional proprietary prevents me from commenting further

By Miguel Helft, New York Times 

San Francisco


Orientation for new employees of Zynga, the fast-growing maker of Facebook games such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars, can be a heady affair, given the company's outsize ambitions --all of which are embodied in Mark Pincus, Zynga's 44-year- old founder.


In a pep talk this month, Pincus told his company's newcomers that he had set out to build an enduring Internet icon, one that was synonymous with fun.


“I thought, it's 2007, and this can't be all that the Internet is meant to be,“ he said. There has to be more than “a garage sale, a book store, a search engine and a portal,“ he added in a good-natured putdown of the Web giants eBay, Amazon, Google and Yahoo.


And lest there be any doubt which of those giants Zynga aims to match, Pincus said the opportunity to build an online entertainment empire was “like search before Google came along.“


So far, he seems on track.

The Zynga Game Network Inc., as the company is officially called, is the hottest start up to emerge from Silicon Valley since Twitter and, before that, Facebook. Unlike Twitter, which has meager revenue, Zynga is on a path to pocket $835 million in revenue this year, according to the Inside Network, which tracks Facebook apps.

While Facebook needed four and a half years to reach 100 million users, Zynga crossed that mark after just two and a half years.


Zynga's empire is made up of cartoonish online games that even Pincus acknowledges are goofy. And most striking, given its financial success, is the fact that the games are free to everyone.

Zynga makes money, by and large, only when a small fraction of its users pay real money for make-believe “virtual“ goods that let them move up in the games or to give their friends gifts.
For instance, in FarmVille, its most popular game, players tend to virtual farms, planting and harvesting crops, and turning little plots of land into ever more sophisticated or idyllic cyberfarms.

Good farmers--those who don't let crops wither--earn virtual currency they can use for things like more seed or farm animals and equipment.


But players can also buy those goods with credit cards, PayPal accounts or Facebook's new payment system, called Credits. A pink tractor, a “FarmVille“ favourite, costs about $3.50, and fuel to power it is 60 cents. A Breton horse can be had for $4.40, and four chickens for $5.60. The sums are small, but add up quickly when multiplied by millions of users: Zynga says it has been profitable since shortly after its founding.


The company has ballooned to nearly 1,000 employees, up from 375 a year ago, and now has some 400 job openings.

And investors, including Google and the Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, have put about $520 million into the company. Though some of the money was used to buy out early investors and employees, it's still a huge sum in Silicon Valley.


Zynga has been valued at more than $4.5 billion, putting Pincus, who has retained voting control over the company, on a path to become Silicon Valley's next billionaire. And, not surprisingly, Zynga has caught the attention of people beyond Silicon Valley.


At a recent gathering of media and technology moguls, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive officer (CEO) of DreamWorks Animation, was asked what he would do if he were to start his career over. “I said I would like to be Mark Pincus,“ he recalled in an interview. “He has nailed the next killer app, the next compelling thing that's going to happen“ in media.


There have been some bumps on Zynga's road to success. The games are programmed to send updates to players' Facebook friends when certain actions are completed, like planting or harvesting crops. Six million Facebook users, who grew tired of constant updates about their friends' games, joined a group called “I don't care about your farm, or your fish, or your park, or your mafia!!!“ Facebook started restricting the messages, and Zynga's traffic dropped sharply. For instance, “FarmVille“ had a 26% drop, to 61 million monthly users, in July from a peak of about 83 million in March, according to AppData.com.


Pincus says he expects growth to resume with new games like “FrontierVille,“ which a month after its release on 9 June had 20 million players. And Zynga investors say the drop in traffic had little effect on revenue because many players who dropped out didn't buy virtual goods.
Even so, some analysts and investors question Zynga's ability to keep producing hit games in an ever more crowded field. “There are only so many potential customers and only so many categories,“ says Rick Heitzmann, a managing director of FirstMark Capital, a venture capital firm that has invested in online game companies, though not in Zynga.

“And they are burning through categories quickly,“ he adds, noting that Zynga already had games for pets, farms, restaurants and other subjects.


For now, however, it is hard to argue with Zynga's record.


Its games have 211 million players every month, according to AppData.com.


Though that figure counts a user for each type of game he plays, it makes Zynga about four times larger than its nearest rival, Electronic Arts. Playdom is third, with 41 million users.
“I have a very high-stress life,“ says Alena Meeker, 32, a financial analyst at a major brokerage firm in San Francis- co. “I love relaxing with the games.“ Meeker, who plays several of Zynga's games, says she devotes about an hour a day to them and spends $20 to $40 on virtual goods every week. She says she uses the games to connect with friends, co-workers and family.


Nathan R. Van Sleet, who lives in Oakland and is unemployed, says he plays “YoVille,“ a game in which users create avatars and interact with others in custom-decorated homes, for up to 16 hours a day. Because he is hearing impaired and doesn't know sign language, online forums of “YoVille“ players have allowed him to connect with various people.


“If it were not for the forums, I would have missed the opportunity to meet these people,“ Van Sleet said in an email message.


Pincus points to these kinds of testimonials when he says that the games, while simple, have a higher purpose: connecting people. The company also donates some proceeds from virtual goods to earth- quake relief in Haiti and other causes.


While some traditional developers grumble about the social-game phenomenon, which they see as a step backward in sophistication, the popularity of Zynga and some of its rivals has made the multibillion dollar video game industry take notice.


In November, Electronic Arts bought the Zynga rival Playfish for as much as $400 million. But some analysts say that most other traditional gaming companies are falling behind the trend that is taking the industry by storm.


“The only one that can catch up is Electronic Arts,“ says Michael Pachter, a research analyst at Wedbush Securities.


As Zynga has emerged as the most successful maker of Facebook applications, its relation- ship with the giant social network has become more complicated. First, there was the brouhaha over the notification system and the drop in traffic.

Then Facebook said it would push all applications to use a virtual currency, Credits, on the site, and take 30% of proceeds. Tensions mounted, but the two companies eventually settled their differences. In May, they announced a five-year partnership expanding the use of Credits in Zynga games.


Ethan Beard, who heads Facebook's platform team, acknowledged the strains. But he said that the relationship between the two companies now was “very, very strong.“


Still, some analysts predict more friction ahead, as the balance of power between the two companies shifts.


“Most people think Facebook would have been a phenomenon without games,“ says Pachter, the Wedbush Securities analyst. “I am not sure that's right. 20-30% of visits to Facebook are to play games.“


Zynga, which is said to be contemplating a public offering, clearly does not want to have all its eggs in the Facebook basket.


It recently signed a sweeping agreement to bring its games to millions of users on Yahoo.
And Pincus shared the stage with Steve Jobs, the Apple Inc CEO, at the unveiling of the iPhone 4 to announce that “FarmVille“ was available on the handset.


In addition, Zynga's $520 million in financing includes a recent infusion of $300 million through two roughly equal investments from Softbank and Google, according to people briefed on the investments who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss Zynga's finances publicly. Google and Zynga are also in the early stages of exploring a collaboration, these people said. Zynga and Google declined to comment or confirm a Google in- vestment.


When Pincus first envisioned Zynga, most investors and peers doubted that a gaming start-up could become the next big thing. But the success of games like “FarmVille“ has silenced the critics.


“Zynga has the most revenue, growth and happy customers of any three-year-old venture we've ever backed,“ says John Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, the venture capital firm that has backed Amazon, Google and Netscape.


Asked how big Zynga can become, Pincus has a difficult time hiding his ambition.
“I am drinking the Kool-Aid more than anyone,“ he says

Midday To Buy Classifieds Firm SnatchKing Online

Good to see Indian media starting to realise the potential of online classifieds


July 28 2010, 13:04:34 IST | REGHU BALAKRISHNAN, VCCircle

In May, Jagran Prakashan acquired Mid-Day Infomedia, the print business of Mid-Day Multimedia for Rs 200 crore.

Midday Infomedia Ltd has said it will acquire the assets of privately-held SnatchKing Online Pvt. Ltd, an online classifieds technology company. As per the agreement, Midday will also take on board several key employees of SnatchKing. The financial details of the transaction are not disclosed.

In May, Jagran Prakashan, the publisher of the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, acquired Mid-Day Infomedia, the print business of Mid-Day Multimedia for Rs 200 crore in an all-stock transaction. The company's publications include Mid-Day, Sunday Mid-Day, Gujarati Mid-Day and The Inquilab.

Since 1998, about 17 domestic deals worth $168 million took place in the media space, according to VCCedge data. In May 2010, Amar Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd. acquired Mumbai-based India Book House Pvt. Ltd. for an undisclosed amount.  In March 2010, Jupiter Entertainment Ventures acquired 26% stake in Kannada Prabha for a price of $14.46 million (Rs 65 crore) from Express Publications (Madurai) Ltd.

Founded in 2007, SnatchKing powers classifieds across 24 cities for several of India’s leading newspapers, including Times Group, Dainik Bhaskar and Midday. SnatchKing’s “ResponseCenter” classifieds lead generation platform is a technologically advanced lead generation system, incorporating several patent pending technologies in the realm of natural language analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence, stated a release.

Kunal Kapur, Founder & CEO, SnatchKing, said, "This is an exciting milestone for our company, and we look forward to scaling our growth as part of Midday. Midday’s reach, scale and widely recognized brand provide an ideal environment to fuel our growth.”

SnatchKing also operates the popular classifieds portal “SnatchKing.com”, which is among India’s largest classifieds websites. “SnatchKing.com” receives more than 1.5 lakh classifieds in categories ranging from Automobiles, Real Estate, and Jobs to Personals and Books.

AT&T to become “premier carrier” for WP7

To be seen what the premier carrier tag brings AT&T and how AT&T decided to push WP7 but definitely not a bad start

GSMA Business briefing
July 28, 2010

US operator AT&T has become one of the first major operators to publicly back Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows Phone 7 series of smartphones, reports Computerworld. An AT&T spokeswoman said this week that the operator plans to become “the premier carrier for Windows Phone 7," but gave no further information around how it would promote the new devices on its network. The development follows comments from Altimeter Group analyst Michael Gartenberg last week who said that AT&T had committed to buy 8 million Windows Phone 7 devices. When it announced the long-awaited new platform at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in February, Microsoft said that all four of the main US operators were signed up as partners. However, neither Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel nor T-Mobile USA have commented on their plans for the platform.

The report notes that most operators’ silence to date on Windows Phone 7 could be because they are waiting to see the reaction from the developer community. The platform received a mixed reaction from critics after a preview was released earlier this month. In the case of Verizon Wireless, its relationship with Microsoft may have been soured by the failure of Microsoft’s Kin phone project for the operator, which was shelved after just three months. AT&T, however, which last year claimed to have sold more Windows Mobile devices than any other global operator, has publicly praised Windows Phone 7 on several occasions. On the devices side, Microsoft confirmed this week that Dell, Asus, LG, HTC and Samsung will be making devices for day one sales of the new platform.

UK gives go-ahead for new spectrum auctions

Sign of things to come in India too and the first two being things I have been signalling for a long time now - Refarming of existing 900 & 1800 MHz spectrum allocated for 2G for 3G/LTE, usage of 800 MHz for 3G/LTE & indefinite extension of 3G licenses


GSMA Mobile Business Briefing
July 28, 2010

The UK government has given the green light for regulators to sell-off long-awaited new spectrum - with a plan for auctions to take place at the end of next year. The move will see UK regulator Ofcom conduct a combined auction of 2.6GHz and 800MHz spectrum. The proposals will also allow operators to ‘refarm’ existing 2G spectrum in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands for new 3G services. Existing 3G licenses will be extended indefinitely, though license holders will need to pay Ofcom an annual fee when the current licenses expire in 2021. “Under our plans, our mobile industry will have access to the 21st-century infrastructure it needs to give UK consumers the latest technologies and even better coverage for broadband on their mobile phones,” said Ed Vaizey, the UK's communications minister. The bandwidth becoming available in the new frequency bands (800MHz and 2.6GHz) is expected to pave the way for UK operators to launch LTE. The 800MHZ spectrum forms part of the so-called ‘digital dividend’ spectrum being freed up by TV broadcasters.

The auctions of new spectrum in the UK have been delayed several times, most recently when the previous UK government failed to secure parliamentary approval to begin the process before the recent general election was called. According to a Financial Times report today, some analysts believe that such delays have seen the UK fall behind the rest of Europe in releasing the new bandwidth. “Ofcom has been trying to auction the 2.6GHz spectrum for three years now,” said Lee Sanders, a partner at Analysys Mason. “Six other European countries have awarded the spectrum while Ofcom has been struggling. From the industry’s point of view, this is welcome news to get things moving finally. But any potential new entrant may be concerned that this is still going through without any new changes to what was originally planned.”

WAC and JIL: Mobile app platforms merge

Interesting development though its outlined roadmap places it some distance behind feature sets supported by current handset vendor app platforms. 


The challenge I keep highlighting with this to my mind is differentiation and how competing operators will address it.


Telecoms.com
July 27, 2010 Written by James Middleton

The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) on Wednesday completed its formation as a corporate entity and cemented its partnership with the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL). The company also outlined the business models it will pursue, putting it some distance behind competing platforms.

Peters Suh, formerly CEO of the JIL, will take up the same position at the WAC, supported by Michel Combes, Vodafone chief executive Europe as chairman, and Jean-Philippe Vanot, deputy CEO of France Telecom as vice chairman.

The group, which formed in February 2010, comprises 24 operators, accounting for over three billion subscribers and is an alliance designed to build an open platform for delivering applications to all mobile phone users.

Initially, the WAC platform will allow operators to distribute applications through their respective application storefronts and charge users through their existing phone bill. Under this model, developers will set the application price and will receive a revenue share for the transaction, defined on an operator-by-operator basis. WAC is a not-for-profit organisation and will receive a small transaction fee for each application to cover its operating costs.

Only in the future will WAC offer business models that enable additional purchases from within an application; leverage network capabilities, such as location, to enhance an application; and facilitate the serving of ads.

The initial specification and components of its SDK will only be available to developers in November, but will provide backwards compatibility for devices based upon the current JIL and BONDI specifications. Still, that puts the platform well behind market leaders like Apple, which already offers in app purchasing and advertising.

Developers currently creating JIL applications can continue working with the existing JIL specification, tools and software libraries and these applications can be deployed on JIL based devices immediately. With the publication of the WAC specification, developers will have a clear path to deploy applications on a wider range of devices supporting the WAC specification in 2011, the firm said.

Perhaps the WAC drive has something to do with Vodafone’s (one of the platform’s biggest cheerleaders) decision to abandon its Vodafone 360 handset strategy. The operator has stopped selling its 360 branded handsets, so far only available from Samsung, and will instead focus on pushing 360 as a suite of services and applications.

Your Mobile Number is out there, brace for more spam

Scourge of SMS spam swamps mobile users in India

India Telecoms Update @ Jun10

TRAI

• Overall telephony base reaches 672 Mn taking overall teledensity upto 57%
• 18 Mn wireless additions during the month taking the overall wireless base to 636 Mn
• Service provider-wise share of incremental wireless additions in June (top 5): Bharti Airtel (16.7%), Reliance (15.8%), Vodafone (15.1%), Tata (12.9%), IDEA (12%)
• Service provider-wise wireless market share end June (top 5): Bharti Airtel (21.5%), Reliance (17.4%), Vodafone (17.2%),  BSNL (11.4%), Tata (11.4%)
• 
  
• Wireleine base continued to decline and was at 36.2 Mn 
• Broadband (> 256 kbps) subscriber base inched up to 9.5 Mn

Canalys Q2 2010 worldwide PC market report : iPad propels Apple into top five PC vendors as netbook sales idle

Not surprising at all

Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) – 26 July 2010

Canalys today released its quarterly worldwide PC market data, highlighting Apple’s jump into the top five PC vendors. The iPad captured approximately 6% of the portable PC segment in Q2 2010, with over 3 million units shipped during the device’s first few months on the market. Conversely, growth in the netbook market continued to slow, as vendors struggled to deliver new product innovations. 

‘Apart from the “Apple effect”, the iPad owes its success to a lack of advancement in other portable computing segments, such as netbooks,’ said Canalys Vice President and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. ‘To capture share moving forward, PC makers will have to take the netbook to the next level or go after new customer segments with their own pads.’ 

Many manufacturers have announced the launch of pads for later this year. Canalys expects the pad PC market to reach 12.5 million units in 2010, growing to 66 million by the end of 2014. Due to its first-to-market advantage, Canalys anticipates that Apple will continue lead the market through at least 2011. As more vendors enter the market, however, there will be a period of experimentation with a range of various models aimed at both consumer and enterprise customers.

‘The key to creating a great user experience on a connected mobile device is ensuring that the hardware and software work together in harmony,’ said Jones. ‘Platforms such as Android, iOS, webOS and possibly BlackBerry, as well as Chrome, MeeGo and Windows, are likely to battle it out in the pad market over the next three years.’

‘As the number of consumers with multiple devices increases, it will also be important for pads to seamlessly integrate with existing equipment,’ said Canalys Senior Analyst Natalie Spitz. ‘In addition to synchronization capabilities, vendors should be prepared to take a strategic look at content – all-important, but often overlooked.’

Though some overlap will be inevitable, Canalys forecasts that pads and netbooks will continue to coexist in the portable PC market for some time. As the pad represents an additional luxury purchase to a certain extent, customers may eventually choose between the two devices, causing the netbook market to soften as vendors develop their pad offerings. Canalys expects pads to overtake netbooks by 2012.

‘With the growth of smart phones and mobile devices with all-day battery life, consumers have become accustomed to a world of always-on connectivity,’ said Spitz. ‘It’s only natural then, that these same consumers would demand similar features across all of their portable computing devices.’ 

Apple Revenue by Segment (Billion of US$)

NSN wins US$7B contract to build US LTE network

Big win for NSN in the US and probably the world's largest LTE contract to date

GSMA Business Briefing
July 20, 2010

US hedge-fund Harbinger has moved forward with its plans to build a wholesale LTE network in the US by awarding a massive US$7 billion contract to Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to deploy the network. The new network – now known as 'LightSquared' - will launch in the second half of next year and is aiming to provide near-nationwide coverage using terrestrial spectrum owned by the satellite networks that Harbinger controls. According to a Financial Times report today, NSN has signed an eight-year contract with LightSquared to design, build and maintain the new network. The new network will consist of 40,000 base stations that will cover 92 percent of the US population by 2015. It is the second major deal for NSN in as many days after yesterday announcing its US$1.2 billion acquisition of Motorola’s networks business. Both deals will strengthen the European vendor's position in the US, where it has traditionally been weak. The Harbinger deal is also arguably NSN’s highest profile LTE contract win. CEO Rajeev Suri said the company was “proud to have been selected for the largest outsourced deployment of a wireless network in the US.”

The award of the network contract to NSN is the first major sign that Harbinger is making progress with its ambitious plan. LightSquared will be led by Sanjiv Ahuja, former head of France Telecom’s Orange mobile businesses, who told the FT that LightSquared would be a “disruptive force in the US wireless landscape.” Meanwhile, Harbinger founder Philip Falcone noted that possible wholesale customers for the network are likely to include prepaid operators such as Leap Wireless and MetroPCS, as well as T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom’s US subsidiary (the two largest US mobile operators – Verizon Wireless and AT&T – are expected to have restrictions imposed on the amount of capacity they can rent on the new network). Service is set to begin in two trial markets - Denver and Phoenix - with a commercial launch before the third quarter of 2011 providing service to a potential market of around 9 million.

First look at Windows Phone 7 yields mixed reviews

Win Phone 7 is vitally important for MSFT to remain in the mobile arena. Biggest challenge in my mind is supporting vendors given Android increasing traction and adoption and a rationalisation of platform by existing vendors.

GSMA Business Briefing

July 20, 2010

Microsoft has received a mixed response from critics for its new Windows Phone 7 platform after giving reviewers a preview of the long-awaited new mobile operating system, notes the Wall Street Journal. Microsoft has demonstrated earlier versions of the platform before, but the latest test version - which is being released in part to help developers begin to design applications for the phones - gives a look at a product that is now only a few months away (Microsoft said last week that the first Windows Phone 7-based smartphones are on track to launch in several international markets by year-end). On the plus side, Engadget noted that the software was impressively speedy and responsive, while Wired said it offered “major, major improvements” and was a “pretty big jump in the right direction.”

But reviews also highlighted some seemingly glaring holes in the platform, notably the inability to perform simple functions such as cut 'n’ paste or to run multiple applications (Apple’s iPhone now supports both though it didn’t to begin with). “There’s practically no real innovation we can see with Windows Phone 7,” noted the Boy Genius Report. Some critics were more vitriolic in their attacks: “Windows Phone 7 is a waste of time and money. It's a platform that no carrier, device maker, developer, or user should bother with,” said InfoWorld.  However, most reports at least acknowledged Microsoft’s attempts to reinvent the much-maligned Windows Mobile platform. In an eight page review, ZDNet concluded that “Windows Phone 7 is a huge departure for the smartphone group at Microsoft and takes quite a radical approach to the way people use their phones. Unlike the iPhone, Google Android, and Palm webOS, WP7 is not focused on the application experience, but is centered on helping you interact with the people you want to and complete the tasks you need to complete with apps mainly working in the background or having other technologies (like Bing Search) do better at meeting your needs without more apps.”

Nokia Siemens Networks to acquire certain wireless network infrastructure assets of Motorola for USD 1.2 billion

No comments on account of professional proprietary grounds


Press Release
July 19, 2010

• Transaction expected to significantly strengthen Nokia Siemens Networks' presence globally, particularly in the United States and Japan.
• Nokia Siemens Networks targeting to gain incumbent relationships with more than 50 operators and strengthen relationships with others
• Acquisition to enhance position of Nokia Siemens Networks in key wireless technologies; will give company large global footprint in CDMA
• Motorola retains the iDEN business, substantially all the patents related to its wireless network infrastructure business, and other selected assets
• The companies expect to complete closing activities by the end of 2010.

Espoo, Finland; Schaumburg, Illinois, USA - Nokia Siemens Networks and Motorola, Inc. today jointly announced that the companies have entered into an agreement under which Nokia Siemens Networks will acquire the majority of Motorola's wireless network infrastructure assets for USD 1.2 billion in cash. The companies expect to complete closing activities by the end of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals. 

"This is an exciting acquisition that I believe has significant benefits for customers, employees and our shareholders," said Rajeev Suri, Chief Executive Officer of Nokia Siemens Networks. "Motorola's current customers will continue to get world-class support for their installed base and a clear path for transitioning to next generation technologies while employees will join an industry leader with global scale and reach.  Nokia Siemens Networks will see the benefits of a deal that is expected to enhance profitability and cash-flow and to have significant upside potential."

"Motorola is very proud of the operational and financial performance of our Networks business and its employees, who will now become a valuable addition to Nokia Siemens Networks. We are excited to have reached this agreement to combine our Networks team with such an industry leader," said Greg Brown, Co-CEO of Motorola. "This is great news for our customers, our investors and our people and will allow us to sharpen our strategic focus on providing mission and business critical solutions for our government, public safety, and enterprise customers."

As part of the transaction, Nokia Siemens Networks expects to gain incumbent relationships with more than 50 operators and to strengthen its position with China Mobile, Clearwire, KDDI, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.

"We are pleased to be able to add new relationships with some customers, and reinforce our position with others," said Suri.  "I believe the addition of Motorola's Networks business will significantly strengthen our worldwide presence, enhance our scale in the United States, Japan and other priority regions and reinforce our leadership position in the global wireless sector."

"Verizon views today's announcement as good news for the global wireless industry," said Richard J. Lynch, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Verizon.  "This deal brings together two important Verizon suppliers; we look forward to our continuing work with Nokia Siemens Networks."

Nokia Siemens Networks expects that based on revenue, with the addition of the Motorola wireless network infrastructure business, it will become the #3 wireless infrastructure vendor in the United States, the #1 foreign wireless vendor in Japan, and strengthen its current #2 position in the global infrastructure segment.

Motorola's networks infrastructure business provides products and services for wireless networks, including GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, WiMAX and LTE.  This business is a market leader in WiMAX, with 41 contracts in 21 countries; has a strong global footprint in CDMA with 30 active networks in 22 countries; and a robust GSM installed base, with more than 80 active networks in 66 countries; and excellent traction with LTE early adopters. 

"As customers look to transition from CDMA networks to next generation technologies, the addition of the Motorola wireless network infrastructure business is targeted to ensure that we are well placed to meet those needs," said Bosco Novak, head of Customer Operations at Nokia Siemens Networks. "Together, we will utilize the combined strength of Nokia Siemens Networks' TD-LTE solutions and Motorola's WiMAX and LTE businesses, to better meet customers' evolving technology and business needs."

Approximately 7,500 employees are expected to transfer to Nokia Siemens Networks from Motorola's wireless network infrastructure business when the transaction closes, including large research and development sites in the United States, China and India.  Motorola retains the iDEN business, substantially all the patents related to its wireless network infrastructure business and other selected assets.

The companies expect to complete closing activities by the end of 2010 and therefore do not expect the transaction to have any impact on Nokia Siemens Networks' financial performance in 2010. 

Nokia Siemens Networks and Motorola also are exploring a global relationship in the public safety arena. This relationship would combine Motorola's leadership in providing solutions to public safety organizations with Nokia Siemens Networks' commercial LTE solutions.

Apple's Answer to 'Antennagate'

In my opinion this is clearly a hardware design issue and am surprised by Apple's handling of the same. Its fumbled and bumbled along and giving a bumper in my mind is not a solution !


Light Reading Mobile
July 16, 2010

Apple Inc. says that it will offer free cases -- or a refund -- for every iPhone 4 owner to deal with signal fade and drop issues, but continues to maintain that only a few customers are experiencing the problem and that its antenna problems have been "overblown."

The vendor held a surprise press conference Friday to address a widely reported antenna issue on the iPhone 4: The phone can lose signal and even drop calls when a user covers the antenna port on the left-hand side of the phone casing. 

Apple said Friday that, from next week, every iPhone 4 user can apply for a free case and people that have already bought one can get a refund. The offer will remain open until September 30. The company will also offer a full refund on the phone to users who want to return it.

Mainly, however, Apple CEO Steve Jobs reiterated what the company has already said: The antenna issue isn't widespread for its users, and other smartphones can also drop bars when held a certain way.

"It is a challenge for the whole industry," according to Jobs.

In fact, the vendor once again claimed smartphones from High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC), Samsung Corp. , and others could be made to suffer signal fade if held wrong. This is what Apple originally stated when it announced the signal software update for the iPhone 4. 

This appears to contradict Consumer Reports's findings this week that the Palm Inc. Pre and iPhone 3GS didn't suffer the same signal loss issues as the iPhone 4 in its testing of the devices.