Google might be replaced by Bing in Apple’s iPhone
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Apple iPhone customers could carry out their search operations on Bing instead of Google, if the negotiation for the deal between Apple and Microsoft works after which Bing will become default search engine on the iPhone.
Currently, the users can use Yahoo instead of Google but have to perform the switch manually. It has also been reported that the talks are underway for weeks and there are chances that the deal might fall apart.
A Bing application for the iPhone has already been created by Microsoft.
Google should respect Chinese laws: China
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Chinese government has asked foreign enterprises doing business in China, including Google Inc., should respect Chinese laws and regulations. With this announcement, it has been made clear that China is unlikely to back down and let Google offer uncensored results on its Chinese Web site. This in turn has made U.S. firm’s departure from China more likely.
Last week, Google has said that it is no longer willing to censor search results on Google.cn and may leave China. According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, Chinese law strictly prohibits any form of hacker activity, and that China’s own information network is subject to hacker attacks. In 2008, attacks from outside the country rose 148% from a year earlier, according to statistics from the Internet Society of China.
$400m Asian cable to be built by SingTel, Google & partners
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An agreement has been signed between Singtel, Google and six other companies, to build the $400 million Southeast Asia Japan Cable system (SJC). The 8,300-km cable runs between Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan. Potentially the worlds largest cable, it might be operational by the second quarter of 2012.
With a design capacity of 17 Tbps, the six-fiber pair cable can be upgraded to 23 Tbps. Apart from Singtel and Google, other members of the SJC consortium include Globe Telecom, Japan’s KDDI, the SingTel-Bharti JV Network i2i, Indian carrier Reliance Globalcom, Singapore-owned Telemedia Pacific and Indonesia’s Telkom.
According to Mark Chong, SingTel executive vice president for networks, as the SJC connects Singapore to other cable systems in Asia; it will provide access to other parts of the region and serve as an important cable diversity route. SJC is designed to avoid outage prone areas.
Nexus One price lowered by Google
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: While the price of Google’s Nexus phone has been lowered by $100, eBay is planning to sell it for much more. Google has kept the cost of the completely unattached, unlocked version at $529. But T-Mobile customers eligible for a phone upgrade can have it for $279 from $379. And those who sign up for new two-year T-Mobile contracts can buy the handset for $179.
According to Google, those without data plans were paying $279 for the Nexus One, and those with data plans were being charged $379. The company after working with T-Mobile is now able to offer the higher upgrade discount to all existing fully eligible T-Mobile subscribers.
eBay on the other hand is optimistic to resell the phone for between $300 to $1,000.
Reports of shutdown of China office denied by Google
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The media reports that Google has already decided to shut down its office in China has been denied by the company. However, the company announced recently that it will stop filtering search results on its Chinese website and that it is considering withdrawing from China.
But currently, Google is still functioning in China, censoring results on Google.com.
Android launch delayed by China Unicom
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The launch of the first Android powered handsets of China Unicom, due to be released on January 20 has been indefinitely delayed. The announcement for the postponement came after Google’s decision to exit the China search market because of censorship issues and recent cyber-attacks. China Unicom has also cited debugging problems as one of the reasons.
A customized Android-enabled OS called Uphone is under the process of development by Unicom using its own OS, UniPlus. Besides, the company is also planning to launch its own application store UniStore for its upcoming Uphone-enabled platform.
WCDMA-enabled Samsung’s GT-i6500U incorporating Android 1.5 and Motorola’s XT701 devices adopting Android 2.0 are the initial Uphone smartphones. Apple’s iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G devices in China are also sold by Apple’s iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G devices in China.
Nexus One price drop upgraded by $100 by T- Mobile
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The pricing policy of T-Mobile has allegedly been changed for all the existing customers purchasing Google’s Nexus One smartphone. Currently, the unlocked version of the handset is offered for $530 or for $180 when subsidized through T-Mobile for new customers.
To get the phone even with upgrade eligibility, existing subscribers have been forced to pay $380. Any customer who paid $380 for the Nexus One would be refunded $100 by T- Mobile which will help it to quell further criticism. . The price change will be effective beginning Friday and within 14 business days, the refunds will be issued.
Only 20,000 Nexus One phones sold in its first week
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The sparkling launch of Google’s Nexus One has not been able to compliment its sale as only 20,000 handsets have been sold in its first week. The sale could not gear up even after the company created a plenty of hype during the launch like putting an ad on its homepage, and spraying its ads all over the web.
Droid which sold 250,000 units in its opening week, outsold the Nexus One by more than 12 times and the myTouch 3G, with 60,000 units outsold it by 3 times. Nexus One is staggeringly outsold by iPhone 3GS which sold 1.6 million units in its opening week.
Even a new retail model of Google with its online store will take time to draw in customers. The launch of the phone after Christmas also affected its sale as all those people thinking to buy a smartphone bought them in December itself.
