Android vendors unfazed by Google-Motorola deal (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) – Smartphone vendors using Google's Android platform is unmoved by the Web giant acquisition of Motorola's movement, see it as a step to protect software from legal attack, not a competitive threat in the market.

Android sellers Sony Ericsson, HTC and Acer Reuters at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin, they did not change its product plans for Android because of the deal.

Last month, Google announced its largest order ever acquire Motorola's Mobility for $ 12.5 billion to put them in a lower margin business manufacturing and pitting it against many of the 38 other handset companies now use Google's Android software.

The move has raised concerns that some top salespeople Android can search other platforms for their smartphones.

"Google is primarily intended to protect Android.Patents are what they are after "Florian Seiche, the head of Europe, Middle East and Africa for HTC, told Reuters in an interview.

Google, HTC and many others that use the platform were many complaints from the likes of Apple and Microsoft. Apple also saw ratings success initially in his attempts to block the sale of some of its Android devices from Samsung.

The acquisition will give Motorola access to Google from a library of patent largest mobile phone industry. The company was under pressure to build a portfolio of patents After losing to Apple, Microsoft Corp and others in a recent auction of the assets of Nortel's failure.

"It 'important for us to protect the ecosystem of Android" Nikolaus Scheurer, director of product marketing at Sony Ericsson, said in an interview.

All the latest models Sony Ericsson Smartphone using Google's Android software.

"Google has confirmed that this is not what Google is a hardware manufacturer. I guess the global market share of Motorola is about 15 percent of Android. I think everyone would agree that it makes little sense to bring 85 percent of their business, "Scheurer said.

Sony Ericsson has stuck to its ability to use the platform of Microsoft Windows phone, but has not released a new model for Microsoft for several quarters.

Stefan Engel, head of Acer's operations in Germany, said the company will continue to make Android devices and the contract has influenced the plans for the software company.

(Additional reporting by Jens Hack Nadine Schimroszik and edited by Elaine Hardcastle, Gary Hill)

Lawsuit says Microsoft tracks customers without consent (Reuters)

Retail customers to the new Microsoft Store in Bellevue

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Microsoft probably detect the position of the mobile clients, even when users require the monitoring software are disabled, according to a new trial.

The proposed class action, filed in federal court in Seattle on Wednesday, saying that Microsoft deliberately camera software on the Windows 7 Phone to the needs of their customers can not be traced ignore.

A Microsoft representative was not immediately available for comment.

The case comes after concerns emerged earlier this year that the Apple iPhone location data collected and stored for up to one year, even if the software was apparently turned off location. Apple has released a patch for the problem.

However, the revelation prompted renewed scrutiny of the relationship between space and privacy. At a hearing in May, the U.S. lawmakers accused the industry of technology to take advantage of location information for marketing – an industry potentially billions of dollars – without obtaining proper consent of the millions of Americans.

The lawsuit against Microsoft cites a letter it sent to Congress, which Microsoft has said that only collects data Geolocation with the user's express consent.

"Microsoft was false representations to Congress," says the cause.

The dispute brought on behalf of a mobile user Windows 7, Microsoft claims transmitting data – including the approximate latitude and longitude of the user's device – while the camera application is activated. It seeks an injunction and punitive damages, including legal remedies.

The case in the U.S.District Court, Western District of Washington, Rebecca Cousineau, individually on their own behalf and on behalf of all others in the same position against Microsoft Corp., 11-CV-1438th

(Reporting by Dan Levine, editing by Bernard Orr)

Courts approve Nortel patent sale to Apple/RIM group (Reuters)

A sign is shown outside the Nortel Carling Campus in Ottawa

Wilmington, Delaware (Reuters) – Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Research in Motion Ltd. and three other technology companies received court approval Monday to buy wireless patents from the bankruptcy of Nortel Networks Corp. for 4, $ 5 billion.

The judges in the United States and Canada has approved the sale of 6000 patents and applications that took three times what some analysts had expected the auction of four days in June

Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors in January 2009, and the courts of both countries to supervise the sale of company assets, as the winds former telecommunications giant to its activities.

The group of six that won the auction, offering a collection of Rockstar Bidco LP, also includes EMC Corp., Ericsson and Sony Corp.

(Reporting by Tom Hals, edited by Gerald E. McCormick)

Facebook launches video chat with Skype (Reuters)

Facebook introduces Skype video chat

PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) – Facebook will add Skype video chat to its pages, aiming to spice up the appeal of the world's No. 1 Internet social networking service while fending off increased competition from Google.

The agreement, announced by Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg at the company's Palo Alto, California, headquarters on Wednesday, deepens the company's cooperation with Microsoft Corp, which is in the process of buying Skype to build up its web presence.

Zuckerberg said Facebook has hit a record 750 million users. The new service, rolling out from Wednesday, could be a huge boost for Skype, which currently has about 145 million regular users.

The partnership comes as competition heats up in the Internet market, with Facebook and Google, as well as fast-growing companies such as Groupon and Twitter, vying for billions of dollars in online advertising revenue.

By incorporating free video chat directly into its service, Facebook will give its members another reason to use the site more often and for longer periods of time, said Gartner analyst Ray Valdes.

"They need to continue to keep their users engaged and coming back everyday," he said of Facebook.

Facebook's Skype service, initially limited to one-to-one video chat, will be free. Financial details of the deal, if any, were not disclosed.

Tony Bates, Skype's chief executive, said Wednesday's deal with Facebook is only the start of a potentially lucrative partnership.

"For us, this makes a lot of business sense," said Bates at the Palo Alto event. "We get huge reach. In the future we're talking about potentially also having Skype paid products available within the web format we saw here today."

In a phone interview later on Wednesday, Neil Stevens, the general manager of Skype's consumer business, said the company was planning on introducing a for-pay service that would allow users on Facebook to place calls to landline and mobile phones.

Stevens said he could not provide a timeframe for when such a service might be available, and said details about whether the service would work with Facebook's so-called Credits currency had yet to be worked out.

HITTING BACK AT GOOGLE

Facebook, which also unveiled a group messaging function, adding to its existing one-to-one text chat, is returning fire from Google, which last week turned up the competitive heat by introducing a social networking service dubbed Google+.

While many of Google+'s social networking features are similar to those already available on Facebook, Google is generating interest with its videoconferencing function, which allows up to 10 people on the service to participate in a video call.

Zuckerberg hinted that video chat for multiple people could eventually be available on Facebook. But he said that most video chats today occur between two people.

"We think this is awesome because we're using the best technology that's out there for doing video chat with the best social infrastructure that's out there to create some really cool new scenarios," said Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg said Wednesday's announcements were the first of several to come in what he described as "launching season 2011."

Facebook's new video offering could benefit Microsoft, which owns 1.6 percent of Facebook and announced its $8.5 billion purchase of Skype in May.

The world's largest software company is investing heavily to muscle in on Google's turf with its Bing search engine, and is hoping Skype — which it is buying for about 10 times its annual sales — will help it broaden its portfolio of Web-based properties.

"Clearly you will see more usage (of Skype)," said Sid Parakh, analyst, at McAdams Wright Ragen. "It makes Skype stickier in the consumer mind. That will help Microsoft as it starts to integrate Skype into its products."

Skype, which was founded in 2003, allows people to make Internet phone calls and video calls at no charge and has also developed premium services. (For details on the service, click on [ID:nN1E7650VG])

Microsoft shares rose 0.9 percent to $26.26 on Nasdaq, while Google's rose 0.87 percent to $536.64.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic, writing by Bill Rigby, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Lisa Shumaker)

Microsoft puts Office in the cloud, confronts Google (Reuters)

A Nokia staff member shows off the new Nokia N9 phone on the sidelines of CommunicAsia 2011, an international communications and information technolog

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is making its biggest move into the mobile, Internet-accessible world of cloud computing this week, as it takes the wraps off a revamped online version of its hugely profitable Office software suite.

The world's largest software company is heaving its two-decade old set of applications — including Outlook email, Excel spreadsheets and SharePoint collaboration tools — into an online format so that customers can use them on a variety of devices from wherever they can get an Internet connection.

It wants to push back against Google Inc, which has stolen a small but worrying percentage of its corporate customers with cheaper, web-only alternatives, which remove the need for companies to spend time on installing software or managing servers.

"It's obvious that Microsoft has to do this if they're going to remain competitive with Google," said Michael Yoshikami, chief executive of money manager YCMNET Advisors. "It's something they have to do."

Microsoft shares rose 3.7 percent on Monday, the largest gain in a single trading day since September, partly buoyed by hopes that it can ultimately boost profits by extending its software dominance to the growing cloud sector.

"If they execute effectively and it's adopted, it could be a game changer," said Yoshikami. "Whether or not that will happen is a whole other story."

Microsoft has offered online versions of some Office programs — chiefly Outlook email — for its corporate customers for several years, and last year rolled out free versions for individual home users.

Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is set to present an overhauled and updated set of offerings — collectively called Office 365 — at an event in New York City on Tuesday morning, underlining the company's newfound online focus.

GROWING MARKET

The market for web-based software services is heating up, and every company, government department and local authority is getting pitches from Microsoft and Google whenever they reevaluate their office software.

It's a new challenge for Microsoft, which built itself up on expensive versions of software installed on individual computers. That business model turned the Office unit into Microsoft's most profitable, earning more than $3 billion alone last quarter.

Microsoft's plan is to make up for smaller profit margins from web-based applications — due to the cost of handling data and keeping up servers — by grabbing a larger slice of companies' overall technology spending.

Last October, when it rolled out a test version of the new service, Microsoft said it planned to charge from $2 per user per month for basic email services to $27 per user per month for advanced offerings. Google charges a flat fee of $50 per user per year for its Web-based Google Apps product, which offers email, calendars, word processing and more online.

Microsoft, like Google, will host users' data remotely, and maintain all the servers in vast data centers. Unlike Google, it will also allow companies to put their data on dedicated servers if they choose, or keep the data on their own premises.

The full launch of Office 365 will spice up the lively competition with Google for new users.

Earlier this month, Google snagged InterContinental Hotels Group as a major customer, moving 25,000 of its employees onto Google email from Outlook.

Google, which has had the most success in the small and medium-sized business range, says there are now 40 million users of online Google Apps suite. Microsoft does not publish equivalent numbers, but research firm comScore has estimated 750 million people worldwide use Office in some form.

But Internet-centric Google — whose success is based on its dominance in web search — is confident it has the upper hand in the cloud.

"Compared to what they (Microsoft) have in the market today, they have nowhere to go but up," said Dave Girouard, head of Google's worldwide enterprise business. "We feel we're years ahead of them in terms of building a viable cloud solution that just works."

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Skype says some users had problems signing in (AP)

FILE – In this May 10, 2011 file photo, exterior view of Skype's offices in Palo Alto, California, is shown. Internet phone service Skype said Friday

NEW YORK – The service Skype Internet telephony, says a small percentage of its 170 million users have been able to access your service, hopes to solve a problem with a software update.

Skype says on its website the problem stems from data corruption, which affects computers running Windows, Linux or Macintosh.

The company, based in Luxembourg, said it launched a new version of Skype for Windows on Thursday to address the issue. On Friday, released a Mac version of Linux users were asked to delete a file manually.

Skype says that people who use its services on mobile phones, televisions or other non-computer equipment are not affected.

Skype service that allows users to voice or video calls free or at low levels, has become a popular way for telephone costs down.

Microsoft Corp., world's largest maker of software, is buying Skype for $ 8.5 billion in a transaction expected by the end of the year. Microsoft believes Skype will increase sales of digital advertising and conferencing tools offer the most popular to help companies save money.

Skype also span services markets hot – Social networking, mobile phones and digital video – that Microsoft is struggling to catch up with Facebook, Apple and Google Inc.

ZTE to launch Microsoft Mango-based smartphone in Europe in Q3 (Reuters)

SHENZHEN (Reuters) – ZTE Corp, China Manufacturer No. 2 networking equipment, plans to launch smartphones based on operating system, Microsoft Corp. Mango in Europe in the third quarter of this year, executives said.

"We are already working on a smartphone based on mango and it will be launched in Europe," Jeffrey Fan, vice president of ZTE terminal equipment unit, told Reuters during a company event on Wednesday.

Microsoft has released an update to its Windows software, code-named Mango telephone Tuesday, hoping a lot of new features it will fill the gap on leaders Google Inc. and Apple Inc. smartphone

Chinese rivals ZTE and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., traditionally within the network, has been aggressively into fast growth in mobile devices by inserting smart phones and tablet PCs.

ZTE provided for more than 80 million handsets this year, an increase of one third from 60 million units a year ago, an executive told Reuters earlier this year.

Shipments of smartphones, that Google Inc's Android operating system running, would rise to 12 million units from 3 million last year, ZTE said.

In the fourth quarter of last year, ZTE became the fourth largest handset manufacturer by units throughout the world, ranking behind Nokia and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., a market research group IDC.

(Reporting by Lee and Huang Yuntao Chyen Yee, editing by Chris Lewis)

Toyota to set up social networking service (AP)

TOKYO – Toyota is setting up a social networking service with the help of a U.S. Internet company and Microsoft so drivers can interact with their cars in ways similar to Twitter and Facebook.

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. and Salesforce.com, based in San Francisco, announced their alliance Monday to launch “Toyota Friend,” a private social network for Toyota owners that works similar to tweets on Twitter.

In a demonstration at a Tokyo showroom, an owner of a plug-in Prius hybrid found out through a cellphone message from his Prius called “Pre-boy” that he should remember to recharge his car overnight.

When the owner plugged in his car to recharge it, the car replied, “The charge will be completed by 2:15 a.m. Is that OK? See you tomorrow.”

The exchanges can be kept private, or be shared with other “Toyota Friend” users, as well as made public on Facebook, Twitter and other services, the company said.

The companies did not give details of how the technology, such as the content of the talking car’s dialogues, will be managed. A launch where such details will be offered is set for Tuesday.

Toyota is investing 442 million yen ($5.5 million), Microsoft Corp. is investing 335 million yen ($4.1 million) and Salesforce.com 223 million yen ($2.8 million) in the project.

Many cars are already equipped with navigation and other network-linking capabilities, and can function as a mobile device just like an iPhone or a Blackberry.

Toyota’s service, built on open-source cloud platforms that are the specialty of Salesforce.com, as well as on Microsoft’s platform, will start in Japan in 2012, and will be offered later worldwide, according to Toyota.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda, a racing fan, said he always “talks” with his car when he is zipping around on the circuit.

With the popularity of social networking, cars and their makers should become part of that online interaction, he said.

“I hope cars can become friends with their users, and customers will see Toyota as a friend,” he said.

Salesforce.com chief executive Marc Benioff said social networks can add value to products and companies. It can also help Toyota gain massive information not only about their buyers but about how the car is working or not working, he said.

“I want a relationship with my car in the same way we have a relationship with our friends on social networks,” he said.

Toyoda, who has always been interested in telematics, or the use of Internet technology in autos, has been aggressive in forging alliances with new kinds of companies, including one with U.S. luxury electric carmaker Tesla Motors that he announced last year.

Partnerships with dot.com types have been a bright spot in Toyoda’s bumpy career as president. He has faced growing doubts about reliability and transparency because of the massive global recalls that began two years ago, shortly after he took office, and which now affect more than 14 million vehicles.

Toyota is also battling parts shortages after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan destroyed key suppliers, hampering production.

IBM passes Microsoft’s market cap after 15 years (Reuters)

SEATTLE (Reuters) – International Business Machines edged past old rival Microsoft Corp in market value for the first time since April 1996, marking the latest twist in the fluctuating fortunes of two of the world's most storied technology companies.

The move marks another unhappy milestone for Microsoft, which has failed to persuade investors that it can dominate the future of technology as it did in the past, and has seen its share price stagnate over the past decade.

An investor putting $100,000 into both stocks 10 years ago would now have about $143,000 in IBM stock and about $69,000 in Microsoft stock.

Microsoft is now the third-largest U.S. tech company by market value, after a resurgent Apple Inc roared past a year ago to take first place.

IBM ruled the computer industry for decades until it hired the tiny, unknown Microsoft to provide an operating system for its new range of personal computers in the early 1980s.

Bill Gates parlayed that breakthrough into industry dominance — proving his theory that software would be more valuable than hardware — so that by the end of 1999, Microsoft's market value was three times that of IBM's, and bigger than any other U.S. company.

Throughout Seattle-based Microsoft's rise, IBM was pilloried as an old-fashioned, immobile Goliath that could not keep up with the computing revolution. The Armonk, New York-based company known as "Big Blue" was losing billions of dollars a year in the early 1990s and was close to a break-up before a turnaround engineered by CEO Louis Gerstner.

Since the Internet technology bubble burst in 2000, the tables have been reversed. Despite more than doubling sales and profit in the last 10 years, Microsoft's stock has stalled, leading to criticism of CEO Steve Ballmer's 11 years at the helm.

Although it still dominates the operating system market, Microsoft lost out to Google Inc in the new market for Internet advertising, let Apple lead the way in smartphones and tablet computing, and is struggling to make an imprint on the popular web in the way of Facebook or Twitter.

In the meantime, IBM has refashioned itself as a specialist in business software, servers and consulting, jettisoning its PC business along the way, under the leadership of Sam Palmisano since 2002.

According to Reuters data, Apple's market value stood at $309.2 billion on Monday, IBM at $203.8 billion and Microsoft at $203.7 billion.

IBM is now ranked fourth in terms of market value in the United States, behind oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp at $397.4 billion, Apple, and industrial and finance conglomerate General Electric Co at $205.6 billion.

IBM shares ended down 1.1 percent at $168.26 while Microsoft fell 1.3 percent to $24.17.

(Additional reporting by David Gaffen and Rodrigo Campos in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Tim Dobbyn)

Apple juggernaut sends ripples through tech world (AP)

A customer, right, tries on the Apple Inc.’s iPad 2 tablet computer at a shop in Hong Kong Friday, April 29, 2011. The iPad 2 went on sale in Hong Kon

NEW YORK – Consumer technology companies reporting financial results this week are looking like rowboats bobbing in the wake of Apple Inc.’s supertanker.

Close to oblivion in 1997, Apple is now the world’s second-most valuable company, after Exxon Mobil Corp. On April 20, it reported net income of $5.99 billion for the January-to-March period, nearly double that of a year ago. It shipped a record 18.65 million iPhones during the quarter. Its iPad tablet computers are so popular, the company couldn’t make enough.

Apple’s ascendancy has produced many losers and a few winners, as underscored over the past two weeks:

• Microsoft Corp.: loser.

Apple dethroned Microsoft as the world’s most valuable technology company a year ago. In its mid-fall report, it surpassed Microsoft in quarterly revenue. In the January-March period this year, it surpassed Microsoft in net income, too.

On Thursday, Microsoft reported that revenue from the Windows operating system declined for the second straight quarter because people are buying fewer Windows computers.

Some prospective buyers are going to Macs instead — Apple reported that it sold 28 percent more units. Others are going to iPads. Goldman Sachs now believes that more than 30 percent of iPads sold may be replacing PC sales. In the 90s, the trend was the opposite, as Windows PCs were crowding out Macs.

• Nokia Corp.: loser.

Nokia said this week that it will slash 7,000 jobs through layoffs and outsourcing. It still sells more phones than anyone else, but it’s losing share to Apple, especially when it comes to smartphones.

Research firm Strategy Analytics also said revenue from Apple’s iPhone sales surpassed that of Nokia’s phones in the January-to-March period, as iPhones are much more expensive than the average Nokia phone. That makes Apple the world’s largest phone maker by revenue.

To better compete with the iPhone, Nokia is ditching its old Symbian software and adopting Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. But the transition will take time; the first Windows-powered Nokia phones aren’t expected until late 2011 or early 2012.

• Research In Motion Ltd.: loser.

The maker of the BlackBerry is in a predicament that’s similar to Nokia’s. RIM warned Thursday that net income, revenue and unit sales for the quarter ending in May will come in below its previous forecast.

The company’s high-end phones are looking old compared with the iPhone and ones running Google Inc.’s Android software. They aren’t selling as well as the company expected.

RIM promised investors that new phones with revamped software will bring sales roaring back in the latter half of the year, but investors are skeptical, sending RIM’s stock down Friday.

• HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.: winners, indirectly.

Although all three companies compete with Apple’s iPhone, they are doing well. Unlike Nokia and RIM, the three are betting on Google’s Android system, which comes the closest to mimicking the look, feel and functions of the iPhone.

Motorola Mobility is a shadow of the old Motorola, once the world’s second-largest maker of phones. But its focus on Android-powered smartphones is showing signs of success. It reported on Thursday a near-doubling of smartphone sales in the first quarter.

HTC of Taiwan has been making smartphones for a decade, and sales are really taking off with the help of Android. On Friday, it reported selling 9.7 million in the first quarter.

For South Korea’s Samsung, smartphone sales were a bright spot in the first quarter as overall phone sales declined and other electronics were weak. The company is embroiled in patent litigation with Apple.

• Verizon Wireless: winner.

The No. 1 U.S. cellphone carrier posted a jump in new contract-signing customers — the more profitable kind — after it introduced its version of the iPhone on Feb. 10, which ended AT&T Inc.’s exclusive grip on the device in the U.S.

(Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.)

• AT&T and Sprint Nextel Corp: mixed.

Verizon’s new subscribers came at the expense of AT&T and Sprint Nextel Corp. But neither carrier saw signs of current customers moving to Verizon for the sake of the iPhone. Rather, it seems customers weighing between carriers were more likely to go to Verizon because of the iPhone.

AT&T appeared to be splitting new iPhone customers evenly with Verizon Wireless.

Sprint lost lucrative contract customers in the quarter, but continued its long turnaround by signing up a record number of people on cheaper, contract-free plans.