Born to be Wireless

Google co-founder Sergey Brin told CNET that he expects the company's new Chrome browser to end up on the Android platform in a later version of the yet-to-be-released mobile phone operating system. Brin said Android and Chrome were developed separately but that a "subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack."

Source: www.moconews.com

Labels: android, chrome, google

Nokia said today that Samsung Electronics has accepted Nokia's offer to buy out its stake in software firm Symbian, and Nokia now has acceptances from all Symbian shareholders to sell their shares.

"They (Samsung) have accepted it," Nokia spokesman said referring to the buyout offer.

Nokia said in June it would buy out other shareholders of UK-based smartphone software maker Symbian for $410 million and make its software royalty-free to other phone makers in response to new rivals such as Google Inc.

Nokia will contribute Symbian's assets to the not-for-profit organization, Symbian Foundation, in which it would unite with leading handset makers, network operators and communications chipmakers to create an open-source platform.

Source: Reuters

Labels: nokia, samsung, symbian

Google has launched its own application store or marketplace; see Android Market: a user-driven content distribution system (Android Developers Blog).

And with the Android Market solution, Google is addressing the problem of application discovery and download; and their approach is user-centric, similar to YouTube; exactly as how I would have approached it… YouApp!

Developers will be able to make their content available on an open service hosted by Google that features a feedback and rating system similar to YouTube.

:

Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it. We also intend to provide developers with a useful dashboard and analytics to help drive their business and ultimately improve their offerings.

Very cool…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the US telecom government agency, has homologate HTC Dream, first Android mobile phone.
HTC Dream is probably going to be the first mobile using Google's Android. And according to The New York Times, it will be sold in the US by T-Mobile starting October.

Labels: android, htc

It seems that Motorola is working on an Android phone... check this job post on LinkedIn

Labels: android, motorola

According to Steve Jobs, App Store shoppers have downloaded 60+ million programs for the iPhone in the last month. While most were free, Apple has sold an average of $1 million a day in applications for a total of about $30 million in sales.

To put that into perspective, if Apple can sell apps at this pace, they stand to make at least $360 million a year. That's no small change...

But what does this mean for marketers? How can we tap into this desire to load our phones with gizmos and gadgets? It starts with utility...while I love my "light saber" application, its just for shits and giggles. The applications that really get me excited are the ones that add value to my day to day. They get me from point A to point B faster or find me a hotel in San Francisco the second I land or allow me to post to this blog with no effort at all. The point is, lets create apps that are useful and relevant...AND, entertaining. They shouldn't and don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Full Story: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121842341491928977.html

I know this is not the focus of this blog, but since Yahoo is a great player in the mobile market and it has the single most-visited page on the Web (with 304 million unique visitors worldwide in May, according to comScore), it deserves a note:



Anyone who access www.yahoo.com will see a box on the right side of the side calling the stockholders to vote against Carl Icahn. When you click on the box, you'll be redirect to a page that attacks Icahn credibility as an investor. At the top of this page, you'll see the quote:



my two cents: It feels like Yahoo is fighting the battle of its life and Jerry Yang is using all he can use in order to win the proxy battle on Aug 1st! And since I passionate about Yahoo for almost 10 years (the age of my Y!Mail account), I really wouldn't like to see it bought by Microsoft :-)

update: according to comScore monthly search report, Google lost 0.3% (total of 61.5%) market share on search, Y! gain 0.3% (total of 20.9%), Microsoft gain 0.7% (total of 9.2%), Ask lost 0.2% (total of 4.3%) and AOL lost 0.4% (total of 4.1%). This data is related to U.S. market

Labels: carl icahn, Yahoo

In order to reduce 300 million euros in operational costs, Sony Ericsson will cut 2000 jobs all around the world within the next twelve months. This was a result of a drop of 97% in the earnings in the second quarter result.
It starting to look more and more like Motorola...

Full history here

Labels: sony ericsson

iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Service on July 11 obtained an iPhone 3G and commenced a dissection in order to identify component suppliers, as well as to determine preliminary part and system costs.

Beyond the $174.33 BOM and manufacturing cost of the iPhone 3G, Apple is spending an estimated $50 on IP royalties per unit shipped. With the 8Gbyte version retail-priced at $199, and the estimated $300 subsidy paid by AT&T to Apple for each unit, Apple is selling the product at a price of $499, and spending $224.33 to produce each one. This gives Apple a BOM, manufacturing and royalty margin of 55 percent for each 8Gbyte iPhone 3G unit sold.

Source: cellular-news

Labels: iphone 3g

• The BIC® phone is ready to go! It comes with 60 free minutes, the battery charged, and the SIM card already in place.
• With the BIC® phone, you pay as you go, with a prepaid “mobicarte” refill card.
• The BIC® phone is easy to use since it focuses on cell phone basics: sending and receiving calls and SMS.
• The BIC® phone pack will be easy to find. It will be sold over the counter, in major supermarkets and local convenience stores (tobacco shops, newsstands, train stations, airports…), and will be available on 7 August 2008, at a suggested retail price of €49 including tax. The BIC® phone will be sold in Metropolitan France only.

Press release here

Labels: bic, france, orange

Mobile music discovery specialist Shazam has released a native version of its mobile application for the iPhone. The application is available now on the Apple App Store. Shazam fully integrates with and complements the iPhone, allowing users to discover, buy and share tunes simply by holding their iPhone up to a music system for just a few seconds.

Key user features include the ability to tag (identify) music anywhere; to build your own soundtrack; go straight to iTunes to preview and buy tagged music; see related videos of the track on YouTube; personalise the tag by taking a photo and adding it to ‘My Tags’; and send track details to friends via email.