The real reason behind Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility (USA)
Google’s mobile operating software – Android – has resulted in it controlling a dominant position in the mobile phone market, beating rivals Apple and Nokia to the number one spot. The acquisition of Motorola Mobility further earned Google access to over 17,000 patents, enabling the internet giant to protect its Android software from patent infringements.
A report by CNET offers an insight into the possible opportunities offered by such a merger to users. As per the report, this deal may enable Google to be the first to offer smartphone devices that completely replace a user’s personal computer (PC).
In terms of smartphones, Apple and Samsung offer extremely competitive services. However, if Google was to make the jump towards a functioning PC on a mobile phone, Apple could find itself in a lot of trouble.
The report highlights the massive appeal such a gadget would offer business customers. Most companies are moving business apps to either the cloud or private browser-based apps. Webtop-enabled Android devices — if they are well-orchestrated — could take a big bite out of the corporate sales of Windows.
While the PC supported smartphone sounds very impressive, Google still has a long distance to cover before it achieves this feat.
Afghan Wireless partners with world leaders for mobile recharge (Afghanistan)
Afghan Wireless (AWCC), Afghanistan’s leading telecom operator and one of Afghanistan’s largest private employers, has announced an expanded services footprint by adding More Magic and very soon, ezetop, two world leaders in mobile recharge, to their already popular TOHFA recharge service. As per the company, with these three leading international top-up providers, Afghan Wireless customers and their friends and families throughout the world can recharge their own, or anyone’s, AWCC mobile phone at any time and from anywhere.
AWCC’s TOHFA, launched in 2009, was one of Afghanistan’s first online mobile phone recharge services. To recharge an AWCC mobile number through TOHFA a customer simply visits the Afghan Wireless website (http://www.afghan-wireless.com/tohfa) enters their/family or friend’s AWCC number, selects a denomination & pays with a credit card through Google-Checkout. The AWCC subscriber receives the airtime within an hour.
MoreMagic Solutions, a leading mobile financial solutions provider, will soon expand AWCC’s international mobile phone recharge capabilities throughout the world. More Magic will provide AWCC top-up services through the internet at http://www.etopuponline.com, or by visiting any of the hundreds of thousands of participating retail locations worldwide. The AWCC More Magic solution is planned for activation before December 1, 2011.
ezetop and AWCC have reached an agreement to facilitate AWCC customers with additional mobile recharge access across Asia, the Middle East, Pacific, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, North America and Europe. As per this agreement, ezetop will integrate their mobile top-up services with AWCC’s platform to serve AWCC customers across the globe. ezetop enables people living or working abroad to instantly top-up mobile phones of family and friends back home. Services are available from over 350,000 retail stores across the world as well as from their online website, http://www.ezetop.com.
Ehsan Bayat, AWCC’s Chairman, said that AWCC welcomes MoreMagic Solutions and ezetop as new value added service providers along with their existing TOHFA service. He added that AWCC strives to serve all of their customers as well as their geographically distributed family and friends who want to provide the AWCC customer with recharge credit. By providing their customers services from 3 international mobile top-up providers we can offer assurance that AWCC consumers will always be able to make or receive that next important call.
Mobile phones to aid infrastructure development (India)
Villagers in India suffering daily due to lack of good infrastructure can now initiate action by clicking a picture of the concerned area on their mobile phone, and forwarding the same to the Union ministry of programme implementation, reports ET.
Srikant Jena, minister for programme implementation, has said that they are working on a proposal so that a complaint can be filed through mobile phones. Anyone can take a picture of a substandard road constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, or a poor quality house built under the Indira Awas Yojana, and send it to them. The ministry will inquire and act.
He added that lower-level corruption in the implementation of central schemes is worrisome, as a large amount of the funds allocated for infrastructure development, does not reach the targeted segment. Jena claimed that it is important to monitor the transfer and utilization of funds at the lowest level to ensure that the funds are being used in the correct manner.
The move comes following gross misuse of funds in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in Uttar Pradesh. The scam acted as a wakeup call for the ministry, which is now seeking to implement a system enabling regular monitoring of funds and quality inspection, at the low levels.
Argentina imposes restrictions on mobile imports
The government of Argentina is clamping down on mobile phone imports in order to increase demand for locally produced handsets, in a move which predominantly affects BlackBerry and Apple smartphones.
Most manufacturers have some sort of local handset factory to cater to South American markets, but Apple and RIM are entirely imported.
As per reports, the clamp down comprises of delays in getting imports cleared by customs, and would range between 2-6 months.
It is also reported that about 60% of all phones sold in Argentina in 2010 were imports, with the bulk being either low-cost models from Brazil and Asia, or very high-end smartphones such as BlackBerry and iPhone handsets. The middle-market for feature phones is generally assembled from imported components by local factories operated by Huawei, Samsung, LG and Motorola.
The customs restrictions also apply to other consumer electronics, not just mobile phones.
France Telecom faces increased competition
France’s biggest phone company, France Telecom SA has announced that it faced a drop in profit margins this year as it prepares for a new mobile-phone rival in its home market in 2012.
The company has reported profits which were slightly better than analyst expectations. The company stated that it sees a 1% point slide in 2011 margins for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
According to telecommunications sales specialist, the risk profile in both fixed and mobile is increasing in the French market.
Chief Executive Officer, Stephane Richard. is looking to guard market share and margins at home, where Iliad SA will start offering mobile services next year. France accounted for more than 51% of revenue for the former state-owned monopoly last year.
According to the Chief Financial Officer, Gervais Pellissier, the preparations for the fourth entrant will put some pressure on mobile prices in France in 2011.
According to the company, in 2010, EBITDA declined to US$21.5 billion from 21.21 billion a year earlier.
BBC iPlayer plans to launch Android smartphone (UK)
UK based broadcaster, BBC has confirmed plans to enable TV shows on mobile phones. The broadcaster has already built a hugely popular web based service iPlayer that lets people watch shows for up to a week after they were broadcast and there have been constant reports of a smartphone app to enable the same on the move.
According to Daniel Danker, the BBC’s General Manager of Future Media & Technology, the BBC News app has been a success since its launch last year and he confirmed that the BBC iPlayer will be the next off the production line.
Last year, BBC stated that growth in mobile use of its iPlayer outpaced PC growth by more than 2-to-1 and BBC iPlayer growth on tablets outpaced PCs by more than 20-to-1. They are now just applying the finishing touches to the apps, and all things being well the company plans to have Android and iPad apps in stores by the end of this week.
The new apps will enable people to watch live TV and listen to radio and also access the full catalogue of iPlayer post-broadcast content.
Although developing the app for the iPad was said to be straightforward for it to work on Android devices, they will need to be running Android OS version 2.2 at a minimum along with Adobe Flash 10.1 Player.
Significantly, it will only be available to stream over Wi-Fi networks, which will probably be a relief to the mobile networks who faced the sort of deluge in mobile data usage that had previously upset the UK’s landline internet providers.
Google Voice accept Porting of US mobile Numbers
Google has launched a service which lets US mobile phone users to port their mobile phone number over to the Google Voice platform.
The service was actually enabled by mistake last week and swiftly removed, but has now been confirmed on Google’s official blog website.
Porting a mobile phone number to Google Voice will cost US$20 and will be completed within 24 hours.
After porting a number to Google Voice the subscriber’s mobile service plan will be cancelled, and the user then has to enable the Google Voice service on their computers and other devices. Number Porting is currently available for existing users and will become available to new users within the next few weeks.
