China-based handset retail chain Dixintong reported that smartphone sales in the country during the May holidays jumped 200% on year, according to China media reports. Smartphones now account for 50% of its revenues in Beijing compared with 30% in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company cited a price drop of 5-10% and the rise of new applications as driving factors. Read more
By Kate Walsh of Yankee Group: Since our inaugural event in Chicago last September, we have seen a rapid acceleration of announcements for 4G deployments globally. At last count, there are more than 120 operators worldwide who have committed to either LTE or mobile WiMAX. In addition to the mobile broadband technology adoption of 4G, there is a vast ecosystem of participants also entering this market to serve the broader network, software and application needs of operators deploying these networks. Indeed, that is exactly the theme of this years 4G World: Empowering Mobile Networks, Applications and Services.The 4G World 2010 conference program runs four days, and is the largest program in the world focused on 4G. 4G World 2010 is expected to draw more than 10,000 attendees, up from about 8,000 in 2009. This year we have greatly expanded our program partner participation. 4G World 2010 includes broad industry support from across the entire ecosystem of operators, vendors, analysts/researchers, associations and media channels. In all, we expect to have more than 250 sponsors and exhibitors participating, as well as more than 150 members of the press.4G World Conference Program UpdateThis year we are pleased to announce our early line-up of business leaders who together are paving the path towards 4G. These include executives from Sprint, ATT, Clearwire, KDDI, T-Mobile, MetroPCS, Ericsson, FCC, nPhase, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia Siemens, Alvarion and Huawei.Continue Readinghttp://4gtrends.com/?p=3564
I caught the Pat Metheny Orchestrion Tour tonight in Denver and it was a great show. Mr. Metheny is about a genius as a human can get when it comes to music and jazz. Since the show does include a gadget ot two a plug on MGN seems appropriate. From my viewpoint the show was cutting edge and the last few improvised numbers demonstrate that the man is not satisfied with the same old stuff. Check out the tour dates for your area: http://www.patmetheny.com/tours.cfm enjoy the show.
Apple put its iPad 3G on sale in the U.S. late Friday afternoon at prices starting at $629, compared with the $499 bottom price for the version without the cellular connectivity that launched a month ago. Apple stores reached in San Francisco, New York, Boston and Houston said they didn't have any iPad 3G models left by Sunday. A spokeswoman for Best Buy Co. Inc. said it had "very limited inventory" for sale on … the Wallstreet Journal
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El Segundo, Calif., April 26, 2010To support media coverage of Apple Inc.s speculated acquisition of microprocessor Intellectual Property (IP) provider ARM Holdings, iSuppli Corp. is providing the following the fast facts and analysis: Published reports speculate Apple could be considering a purchase of ARM Holdings, a leading supplier of semiconductor IP. The news reports surfaced on Wednesday, April 21, lifting ARM shares up about 7 percent. Responding to acquisition speculation, Apple does not need to buy the company, they can just license technologies for less, said Warren East, ARM chief executive officer, in an interview with British newspaper The Guardian. The timing of this speculation is interesting because Google recently announced its IP-driven acquisition of Agnilux, a start-up founded by P.A. Semi professionals who left when that fabless chip designer was acquired by Apple in 2008. ARMs IP plays an important role in mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. ARM designs microprocessor circuits that are widely used because the company is a leader in power efficiency, delivering the most calculations for the fewest electrons. In 2009, ARM signed 87 new semiconductor IP licenses, bringing its total to 662. Interestingly, ARM estimates that every semiconductor company would need to spend between $50 million and $150 million annually to reproduce what ARM does. ARM-based chips can be found in the majority of mobile phones presently sold. Just because ARMs IP plays an important role in mobile devices, that doesnt necessarily mean ARM is of strategic value to Apple, said William Kidd, director and principal analyst, financial services for iSuppli. iSuppli thinks ARM would represent a costly acquisition with little in the way of true strategic benefits. The acquisition would not give Apples products a competitive edge/differentiating value. iSuppli also doesnt buy into prevailing speculation that there could be significant value in denying other competitors access to ARMs IP, since the majority of the impact would be felt by companies like Broadcom, Samsung and Texas Instruments, which are not exactly Apples biggest rivals. In any case, there would be no visible end-market impact seen for two years at a minimum. If Apple were to acquire ARM, iSuppli believes chip makers would worry about Apples inward-looking corporate style. Many major semiconductor companies already have long and broad use of current ARM technology, and we suspect that their business engagement with ARM allows for future access as well. If you take this theory out further, it would be problematic for chipmakers to stop using ARM, not just because of their reliance on an ARM-designed microprocessors per se, but because redesigning the software/firmware of some baseband designs would be very time consuming and disruptive. We speculate that other ARM bidders could come outbut only if Apple truly emerges as a bidder, Kidd added. www.isuppli.com About iSuppli Corporation iSuppli Corporation is the global leader in technology value chain research and advisory services. Services afforded by iSuppli range from electronic component research to device-specific application market forecasts, from teardown analysis to consumer electronics and from display device and systems research to automotive telematics, navigation and safety systems research. More information is available at www.isuppli.com and by following us at twitter.com/iSuppli
BBC: Adobe is to stop making software tools that allow Apple's iPhone and iPad to use its popular Flash technology. The decision reverses an earlier pledge in which it said it would help get Flash working on the gadgets. Flash is very widely used on the web and many sites use it to power animations, media players and other multimedia elements. Despite this, Apple's products do not support Flash and it has made public statements criticising the technology. Closed toolsIn mid-April, Adobe released software called Creative Suite 5 that contained translation tools that automatically turn Flash code into programs that run on the iPhone. the BBC
The Samsung Mobile March to a Million project is underway, and we hope you can help us reach our goal to collect and recycle one million mobile phones in 2010. Thats not our only goal! While recycling or properly disposing of mobile phones can have a significant environmental and social impact, we believe it is equally important to educate consumers about the value of this endeavor. To that end, the Samsung Mobile March to a Million program is executing a nationwide in-school education and recycling program that will teach teens about the importance and ease of mobile phone recycling, as well as encourage students, teachers and the community to recycle used mobile phones.Each school participating in the program has the opportunity to enter a sweepstakes to win either a VIP concert from the alternative rock band, Hey Monday, or one of fifty $1,000 "Green Grants" to put towards making their school more environmentally friendly*.Joining the "March" is easy. Anyone can simply collect used mobile phones from wherever they are taking up space and Samsung Mobile will reuse the materials and recycle the rest responsibly. The following links include information on the science behind mobile phone recycling, building a sense of civic awareness and encouraging participation in the program.We appreciate your support of the March to a Million program and encourage you to get involved!Find out more here.
The Big News of 2010: 4G…or is it G4?A Nexius Executive Commentary – By Ned Taleb, Nexius CEO The first quarter of 2010 has just come to an end and a colleague at Nexius recently asked me what seems to be the hot topic with our operator customers and the technology press and analysts this year. My simple answer: 4G. From Apple previewing the 4th generation of its revolutionary iPhone today to operators racing to launch their 4th generation networks, 4G is the marketing term of the moment. At CTIA Wireless in March, I saw 4G news everywhere. Every major US wireless operator spoke about their 4G plans at the show: Verizon said they expect to roll out LTE in nearly 30 markets to cover 1/3 of all Americans by the end of 2010. The biggest LTE rollout and the first to market in the US. Not to be outdone, however, AT&T announced that their 4G vendor trials are underway and that they plan to begin commercial rollout early in 2011. While, T-Mobile didnt dive deep into 4G but they did announce plans to make a faster HSPA+ network available in markets that serve 180 million people by the end of the year. Since HSPA+ is backwards compatible with T-Mobiles current 3G technology its customers can continue to use their existing handsets to enjoy considerably faster network speeds. Sprint made perhaps the biggest 4G news at the show showcasing Americas first 4G smartphone, the HTC EVO 4G, which they will launch on the Clearwire WiMAX network. Sprint CEO, Dan Hesse, said in his address "LTE will be the larger of the two standards, but we couldn't wait. We have enough spectrum that we could add other techs later.""LTE will be the larger of the two standards, but we couldn't wait. We have enough spectrum that we could add other techs later." Even MetroPCS, a smaller operator, announced that it will launch its 4G LTE service in the second half of 2010. They are also working with Samsung to launch the first LTE handset, the SCH-r900, on their network later this year. But it isnt just operators and Apple talking 4G. Even Avatar director, James Cameron, recently jumped on the 4G bandwagon by pointing out that faster 4G networks would be the key to delivering 3-D applications on the phone. (To be precise, he actually said faster G4 networks would be the keybut he makes movies, not cell phones. His audience is Generation-X, Generation-Y, and beyond. He cares not for the enabling technology platforms but what they can do to bring media such as Avatar into the palm of the next generation of audience. So G4 it is, in as far as it really matters to our clients and customers. J )Clearly 2010 is all about speed: 1.) Getting to market quickly. 2.) Launching faster networks and faster devices. 3.) Delivering content to consumers at the speeds they demand. It really does not matter which 4G wireless operators deploy, be it WiMAX in the interim or LTE in the longer term, the objective is the same: to enable the realization of the future of wireless services and applications. Everyone from wireless operators to Apple to James Cameron want to deliver these services by uniting the best technology platforms with the fastest networks and the next generation of smart devices. We feel fortunate that Nexius has had the opportunity to work with so many of these leading companies to develop their 4G network rollout strategies as well as create, deploy, and integrate the services and applications that these networks enable. Its great to be at the center of such fast-paced innovation. Only time will tell who wins this battle for 4G dominance. Lets check back at CTIA 2011 to find out.
DigiTimes: Apple has previewed its iPhone OS 4 software and released a beta version of the software to iPhone Developer Program members. The new release includes an updated Software Development Kit (SDK) with over 1,500 new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and over 100 new features that will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users in summer 2010, the company claimed.iPhone OS 4's new multitasking offers users a new way to move between apps, and provides developers seven new multitasking services to add multitasking features to their apps. These services include background audio, so apps like Pandora can play music in the background, and VoIP, so VoIP apps can receive a VoIP call even when the iPhone is asleep or the user is running other apps.iPhone OS 4 delivers mail experience on a mobile phone with its new Unified Inbox, allowing users to see messages from all their email accounts displayed together in a single inbox. Users can switch between inboxes to see messages from any single account. In addition, users can now thread their messages by conversation, making it easier to stay on top of email discussions. DigiTimes
