Posts for 'Telecommunication' Category

Few business customers look to Apple’s iPhone as the solution for the enterprise. Perhaps it’s the device’s popularity with teenagers. Perhaps it’s the device’s pedigree as a media player. Perhaps it’s because RIM exerts such power over the business community with its BlackBerry lineup, and the iPhone seems like it has more flash than substance.

Whatever the reason, the new Palm Pre smartphone (available now on Sprint) is seen as the strongest challenger yet to the iPhone crown. But make no mistake: it’s not the iPhone Palm executives want to dethrone.

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China, which is undergoing a colossal restructuring of its telecommunication sector will complete its restructuring process within six months, said Xi Guohua, the vice-minister of industry and information.

 While addressing a press conference, Xi said that on finishing the restructuring, the country will commence rolling out third-generation mobile telephony licenses.

The move of restructuring its telecom industry was initiated with the aim of increasing of competitiveness in the Chinese telecom industry.

Sony Ericsson, the world's fourth-largest mobile-phone maker, Wednesday said first-quarter net profit fell 48%, weighed by slowing market growth.

Net income in the period declined to €133 million ($212.7 million) from €254 million a year earlier. Pretax ...

Motorola, which in recent years has been unable to capitalize on the success of its popular Razr phone, said Thursday that it was exploring the possibility of selling or spinning off its cellular phone business as a way to make the company more profitable.

But company executives stopped short of saying what exactly they would do, although there has been speculation that Motorola would either spin off its cellphone unit, or keep it and sell its other businesses.

“I don’t want to preordain how or if it happens,” Donald F. McLellan, a senior vice president for corporate strategy, said, referring to Motorola’s announcement. “This is genuinely an exploration. Not more than that.”

The other businesses include a unit that builds wireless networks and one that makes television set-top boxes and modems.

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 Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, may have gained an edge in its technology licensing dispute with Qualcomm Inc. after a U.S. judge ruled that it doesn't infringe Qualcomm's patents.Administrative Law Judge Paul Luckern in New York rejected Qualcomm claims that Nokia infringed patents for a technology that prevents dropped calls. He also said one of the three patents is invalid. His decision is subject to review by the six-member U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington.The ITC decision may spur progress in negotiations to replace a licensing agreement, which expired eight months ago. Nokia says Qualcomm patents cover less of the technology used in the newest phones, warranting a smaller payment. Qualcomm gets about three-quarters of its profit from licensing fees.Any way possible they could push the tides in their favor, they'll try like heck to do that,'' said American Technology Research analyst Mark McKechnie, referring to Nokia. ``It's a minor setback for Qualcomm and a relief for Nokia.''Qualcomm trimmed its profit forecast for 2008 because of the dispute. Nokia refused to pay Qualcomm any royalties after that company rebuffed a $20 million payment in April. An arbitrator is working to resolve part of the dispute, while the rest is litigated in Europe, North America and Asia.

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The Voyager by LG sports a large external touch screen and opens laterally to reveal a full keypad.Attracting the most attention is LG Electronics' Voyager, which resembles the iPhone in several ways. The Voyager, exclusively offered by Verizon Wireless, has a large external touch screen that also slides open sideways for a full QWERTY keypad. This gives users a choice on how they access the phone's features, Verizon Wireless said.The keyboard option is one advantage the Voyager could have over the iPhone's touch-screen-only design, in addition to Verizon Wireless' fast 3G data network that the Voyager will use to access the mobile Internet. The iPhone doesn't use 3G technology; instead, it uses the slower AT&T Edge data network.The Shortcut Menu icons that appear on the Voyager's touch screen and another set of icons at the bottom of the screen bear another astonishing similarity to the iPhone.The Voyager also comes with multimedia capabilities, including an HTML Web browser; Verizon Wireless' V Cast mobile TV, video, and music service; and the ability to play MP3, WMA, and unprotected AAC files. For more storage room, the phone has a removable MicroSD memory slot that holds up to 8 Gbytes of memory.

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Finnish handset maker  Nokia announced its biggest acquisition yet on Monday, an $8.1 billion purchase of U.S. digital mapmaker Navteq, in what looks like a defensive play following TomTom's acquisition of Tele Atlas in July.Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ) is paying a rich $78 per Navteq (nyse: NVT - news - people ) share to bolster its navigation services, which already use Navteq data, and to prevent the digital mapmaker from falling into the hands of companies like Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) that might be looking to acquire a slice of the fast-growing navigation market.Global positioning devices company TomTom (other-otc: TMOAF - news - people ) bought Navteq's main rival Tele Atlas (other-otc: TLATF - news - people ) in July for $2.8 billion, in part to fend off competition from Nokia in the mobile navigation market. That left Navteq as the only truly independent major player, and it looks as though Nokia was willing to pay a hefty price to avoid losing it to another technology company."Nokia was dual-sourcing from Tele Atlas and from Navteq," said Martin Garner, analyst with Ovum Research. "So it would have been a jolt when Tele Atlas was bought."Nokia shares dropped 49 euro cents (70 cents), or 1.8%, to 26.17 euros ($37.26) in Helsinki, as investors balked at the asking price. Navteq plummeted 1.5%, or $1.52, to close at $76.45 in New York, a slight fall considering the stock's incredible gain of 118.6% since January.

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Telekom Malaysia shares surged 10% Monday in their return to trading following the announcement Friday that it will spin off its cellular business, worth around 27.8 billion ringgit ($8.1 billion), opening the door for future investment in the unit by foreign players.The state-owned telecom company will group its mobile operator Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd and other overseas businesses into a new company ,TM International, which will be listed on the main board of Bursa Malaysia.The remaining businesses, including fixed-line voice, data and broadband services and other telecommunication and non telecommunication related businesses will remain listed under the name of Telekom Malaysia. Other publicly traded subsidiaries — Indonesian PT Excelcomindo Pratama TBK, Sri Lanka Dialog Telekom Ltd and Malaysia-listed VADS Bhd — will maintain their listing status on their respective bourses.Trading in Telekom Malaysia shares was halted pending the announcement. After trading resumed Monday, they were up 1 ringgit (29 cents), or 10.31%, at 10.70 ringgit ($3.15) at midmorning in Kuala Lumpur.At the end of June, the company had a total of 31.8 million mobile subscribers across 10 countries and a 95% market share in the Malaysian fixed-line business and 96% of the broadband business, with 4.4 million fixed-line customers and 1.1 million broadband users.The spin-off is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2008. Government investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd will own 40% stakes in both Telekom Malaysia and TM International.Telekom Malaysia CEO Abdul Wahid Omar said the final terms of the demerger will be announced in December. He said TM International's market value could be about 27.8 billion ringgit ($8.1 billion), making it the eighth-largest listed company on the local bourse. The group's local fixed-line and broadband operations could be worth about 12.3 billion ringgit ($3.6 billion).

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Sony Ericsson, the world's fourth-largest mobile-phone maker by shipments, said Tuesday that President Miles Flint will step down from his post, and will be succeeded by Hideki "Dick" Komiyama.Mr. Flint, who took over as president of the joint venture between Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson and Sony Corp. in June 2004, is largely credited with carving out a niche for the company as a fashionable camera and music-phone maker. Subsequently, he has broadened Sony Ericsson's portfolio to target high-growth emerging markets, such as India and Latin America.Mr. Komiyama will succeed Mr. Flint on Nov. 1. Mr. Komiyama is currently chairman of Sony Electronics Inc. in the U.S. and executive vice president of electronics marketing and sales strategies at Sony Corp.He will relocate to Sony Ericsson's London headquarters. Mr. Flint will stay on as executive adviser until the end of the year. After 17 years at Sony Corp. and Sony Ericsson, Mr. Flint says he will take a short career break before deciding on what to do next."Under his leadership Sony Ericsson has doubled sales and volume, as well as more than doubling the company's profitability, whilst also gaining global market share," said Sony Chief Executive and Chairman Howard Stringer. "Today Sony Ericsson's position as a leading player in the global mobile handset industry is unquestioned."

THE world’s biggest cell phone maker Nokia said yesterday that some 46 million batteries used in its phones could overheat and it would replace them at no cost to consumers.Nokia said the Nokia-branded “BL-5C” batteries were made by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. between December 2005 and November 2006.“[The batteries] could potentially experience overheating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge,” Nokia said in a statement.Nokia said 100 overheating cases of batteries in question had been reported globally, but no serious injuries were reported.The BL-5C is Nokia’s most widely used battery and several suppliers have made more than 300 million of them for Nokia.A local Nokia representative said the company would swap any defective batteries at no charge, and said consumers should call the Nokia hotline (886-1234) or visit its Web site www.nokia.com/batteryreplacement).Nokia said its product advisory applied only to Nokia-branded BL-5C batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006.The defective batteries would not damage the phones, the company added.The BL-5C batteries are used with the following Nokia models or separately as accessories:

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