THE WRAP: Apple fires at Google, hits HTC

Robert Clark | March 05, 2010

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This week Apple took aim at HTC, Microsoft fired at Google and Google took another shot at China.

In a move widely seen as a warning to rivals such as Google and Microsoft, Apple accused Taiwan OEM HTC of stealing its touchscreen, graphical interface and other technologies – the latest in a series of mobile patent suits.

Microsoft attacked Google’s “control” over the online search and advertising markets, while Google lobbied the US government

to take its censorship case against China to the WTO, arguing it is an unfair barrier to trade.

Apple admitted child labor was used in Chinese plants where the iPhone was made.

China Mobile said it was in talks to buy a stake in the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, reportedly for as much as 40 billion yuan ($5.9b).

Indonesian operators warned of a coming shakeout in the over-supplied market.

SmarTone doubled its net profit but warned of likely further price competition in the ever-competitive Hong Kong market.

Hutchison Telecom International lowered its 2008 profit by $97 million after the SEC queried its accounting of a $500 million Indonesian tower deal.

Thanks to the proliferation of SIM cards, the number of Indian mobile phone users is as much as 40% below the official number of 545 million, analysts estimated.

Spanish police rounded up a gang behind one of the world’s largest ever botnets, with 13 million compromised PCs.

ComScore said the number of mobile Twitter users increased fourfold last year, although Facebook remains the most popular app. The boom in mobile data traffic far outstrips the growth in revenue, a US report said.

The EU put a cap on mobile data roaming. Armed with new powers from the EU, Ofcom began an inquiry into net neutrality in the UK.

Ofta’s mobile TV spectrum auction so far has no takers.

Telstra’s chairman and CEO said they were “concerned” about a draft bill that would allow the new NBN Co. to compete in the retail sector. Communications minister Stephen Conroy said they had misinterpreted the bill.

AT&T chief Randall Stephenson said he expected users of Apple’s new iPad to go online mostly using Wi-Fi rather than AT&T's cellular network. Early shipments of the device, due to hit US stores this month, will be well down because of a supply chain bottleneck.

The PlayStation network went off the air because of a bug in the clock that thought 2010 was a leap year.

Nokia and launched a Skype app for its Symbian phones.

Australian intelligence agency ASIO used Facebook to recruit staff. The Israeli army canceled a West Bank raid after details were leaked via Facebook.

And Newsweek revisited a 1995 article on why the internet would never work.

Source:

telecomasia.net

Robert Clark

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