Internet giant says a version of Chrome software will be available for download Tuesday.
Google Inc. plans to introduce its own Web browser, the latest twist in its battle with Microsoft Corp. over key Internet technologies.

In a posting on a company site Monday, Google indicated that a version of the software, called Chrome, would be available for download on Tuesday. It said the software is designed to make it faster to browse the Web and easier to run applications without downloading software to a computer. The product will be offered on an open-source basis, meaning others can modify the software code.

The Google browser takes direct aim at Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer, which is by far the most widely used program for viewing Internet sites. The two companies already compete in Internet search engines, where Google holds a wide lead. Google has also developed Web-based alternatives to Microsoft’s popular Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs.

While many people pay little attention to which browser they use, the choice makes a big difference to software companies. They can use the precious screen real estate to promote their own Web services. Moreover, they can tailor their browsers to ensure compatibility with their other products.

Google executives have expressed concern that existing browsers might fail to support the sort of new Web-based applications they want to develop as they seek to expand the company’s influence beyond search. By building its own Web-browsing software, Google is ensuring that it will have a platform for its Internet services that needn’t conform to other companies’ standards.

News of the Google project spread after an unconventional leak by the company itself. Google Blogoscoped, a blog that follows the company, reported Monday that Google had sent it a comic book outlining the specifications of the browser.

“We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser,” wrote Sundar Pichai, a Google vice president of product management, on the company site.”What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.”

Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of Internet news and analysis site Search Engine Land, said Google’s decision shows how the browser is competing with the traditional operating system as an important platform for software development. He predicted that Google will encourage people to adopt Chrome by releasing some products and updates for Chrome users first, while continuing to support other browsers.

Google may nonetheless have trouble persuading consumers to download its browser. Many people find it easier to use the browser that comes loaded on their computer, which is typically Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on computers that run the Windows operating system.

Dean Hachamovitch, a Microsoft executive who oversees Explorer, expressed confidence that consumers would continue to use the browser. He said Explorer “puts the services [users] want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online.”

Mr. Sullivan said Google hasn’t had much success getting people to download its software, with the exception of mapping software Google Earth.”Just because Google has a browser out there, it doesn’t mean everyone is going to use it,” he said.

The browser has been viewed as a strategic weapon in high-tech circles since the mid-1990s, after Netscape Communications turned its browser into a fixture on many personal computers. Microsoft viewed that product as a threat that could set a new standard for software development, setting in motion a series of tactics that triggered the Justice Department’s high-profile antitrust investigation of Microsoft.

In recent years, the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox browser — a descendent of Netscape’s Communicator product — has gained popularity as an alternative to Internet Explorer. Firefox holds nearly 20% of the market, compared with about 72% for Explorer, according to Net Applications, a company that tracks the sector.

More recently, the browser has been seen as a lever in the battle over Internet search. Browsers include windows, or toolbars, that can be used to directly access a search engine, a program for finding information or sites on the Internet. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser comes preset with a toolbar for Microsoft’s search engine, though it can be reset to link to Google, Yahoo or other search engines.

That default setting, and how to change it, has been a contentious issue between Google and Microsoft in recent years. Google has claimed to regulators that Microsoft’s domination of the browser market could give it an undue influence over search-engine use. Microsoft, meanwhile, has reworked its browser to make it easier for people to reset to competing search engines.

Google has been working on the product for about two years, according to one person familiar with the matter. The introduction of Internet Explorer 7 in October 2006 added more urgency to the effort, as Google grew concerned that the new version would make it easier for Microsoft to route users to Microsoft’s own search service, this person said.

If people use the Google browser, the company could glean more information about what consumers are doing online, analysts say. Google could find that information useful, they say, in better targeting ads to individual users and conceiving new products. Google already knows a lot about online habits thanks to its domination of the search-engine market and Internet advertising.

Chrome could create problems for the Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit organization that builds Firefox. Google has been a key partner for Mozilla, at times providing engineering expertise and paying for a spot as the default search service embedded in Firefox. Google and Mozilla last week renewed their agreement, which was set to expire in November, extending it until 2011.

John Lilly, Mozilla’s chief executive, conceded that Chrome will increase competition in browsers, which also include Apple Inc.’s Safari software and a program called Opera from Opera Software ASA. But he added it remains unclear just how big an impact Google can have.”We have long years of testing and years of learning about how to make browsers,” Mr. Lilly said.”Chrome is new.”

Virgin Mobile, a French virtual mobile phone operator, would be hostile to any French government decision to put a fourth mobile phone license up for grabs and says the industry regulator Arcep would be better advised to encourage greater competition among existing operators, reports La Tribune, quoting Virgin Mobile chief executive Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux.
Click here to find out more!

Virgin Mobile is controlled by Virgin Group PLC and Carphone Warehouse Group PLC and is the leading French virtual mobile phone operator. Virtual operators rent network capacity from the country’s three big carriers: France Telecom SA’s Orange brand, Bouygues SA’s Bouygues Telecom, and Vivendi SA’s SFR.

Arcep is examining three possibilities: awarding all the available frequencies to one new entrant; dividing the frequencies into several packages, some of which would be reserved for new entrants; or dividing the frequencies into several packages open to all operators. A decision by the government is expected in the autumn.

Ever since Nokia preloaded the game “Snake” inside a mobile handset back in 1998, mobile carriers and game publishers have expected the mobile gaming market to explode. The inherent attraction of killing 5 or 10 minutes playing a game on a mobile phone seemed obvious. And research studies indicate that consumers enjoy games on their phones and play often.

“The rub comes when mobile carriers and mobile game publishers start charging consumers for a mobile game,” says John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Mobile Games: Consumers Don’t Pay to Play. “Compared with other mobile categories, such as messaging and music, the paid download market for mobile games lags far behind.”

Consumers enjoy mobile games—as long as they are free.

eMarketer projects that mobile games will generate $7 billion in revenues worldwide in 2012, up from $1.9 billion in 2007.

At the same time, the population of mobile gamers who pay directly for mobile games will grow from 155 million people worldwide to 500 million. But for such a popular pastime, why isn’t mobile gaming growing faster?

“Mobile carriers—especially those in the US—are blamed for offering games to consumers in closed, walled-garden environments that stifle choice by repeatedly presenting the same genres and titles,” says Mr. Gauntt.

This problem is often compounded by high network charges for downloading a mobile game over the air. In fact, it is not unusual for network access charges to exceed the cost of the game itself.

“The US will never become a gigantic mobile game market on par with India and China (with their huge populations) or Japan (with its fanatical gaming user base), but the US mobile gaming market does exist in the world’s largest interactive advertising economy,” says Mr. Gauntt. “That, combined with advanced handsets and an increase in unlimited mobile data plans, could cause marketers to look at US mobile gaming in a new light.”

Article Sourced from eMarketer

Mobile phone shipments in the U.S. managed a 5.3% increase in the second quarter, as cellphone companies beat the weak economy and posted strong results.
Click here to find out more!

Strategy Analytics, an independent consulting firm, said 41.9 million cellphones were shipped in the quarter, up from 39.8 million a year earlier. Analyst Bonny Joy noted the prominence of all-inclusive plans, as well as new handset launches that kept consumer replacements at “a healthy level.”

Some industry watchers had expected shipments to drop, as consumers faced inflation and tried to reduce spending on luxury items. But even with a market that is at 80% saturation, consumers are buying replacement phones, which have become a key sales target. With phones becoming flashier by the week, phone companies have had to fight to keep customers coming for their products, and some have fared better than others.

Motorola Inc. managed to cling to its lead in U.S. market share at 26%, when many thought it would fall from that perch. Its cellphone unit posted a wider loss of $346 million in the second quarter, and the company has said it plans to split off its handset unit from its other operations, which were profitable enough to offset cellphone losses in the quarter.

Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics, commented that “Motorola is not yet out of the woods, but these are encouraging, early signs of stabilization.”

Globally, the company has seen its market share fall to third from first since 2006. Some were surprised it even held onto to that spot, as fourth-in-line LG Electronics Co. has climbed within two percentage points and appears poised to overtake the sinking giant.

South Korea’s LG made a return to No. 2 in the U.S. market as it sold 16.8 million phones in the first half of the year and aims to hold 22% of the market by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Research In Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry phones gained a double-digit market share for the first time in the U.S. as the Canadian firm continues to increase the number of handsets it offers.

Overall, the quarter appeared better than expected for phone makers as worldwide leader Nokia Corp. reported a large jump in sales while Samsung Electronics Co. said its handset sales helped boost its profit 51%.

The Indian government’s plan to list the country’s largest phone company is an important step forward for its long-stalled privatization program. But the timing of the move could be another blow to India’s battered stock market.
Click here to find out more!

Late last week, Telecommunications Minister A. Raja said the government was in talks with the unions of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., known as BSNL, to list the shares of the government-owned phone company. The government had talked about selling BSNL shares in January this year, but opposition from company unions and leftist political parties that were then part of India’s ruling coalition derailed that effort.

The new plan would offer about 10% of BSNL’s stock for sale and would likely become India’s largest initial public offering ever, valued at as much as $10 billion. It would also be the first major step in four years for what India calls a “disinvestment” program, in which the government sells shares in state-owned companies.

At the right price, investors and analysts say, the government should able to sell the BSNL shares. But many suggest the time isn’t right for such a monster issue.

“Don’t call us, we’ll call you” could be investors’ response to a giant telecom IPO now, says one India-based international investor.

Indian stocks have been among the hardest hit by growing global concerns about subprime debt and an economic slowdown in the U.S. and elsewhere.

While few Indian companies have been directly affected by the financial crunch, their shares have taken a beating, thanks to nervous foreign investors taking money out of the local market. The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share Sensitive Index, or Sensex, has plunged more than 25% this year, with foreigners being net sellers of billions of dollars in shares. Unless there is a strong return of optimism over economic prospects here and abroad, the huge new BSNL issue could depress the broader Indian market, analysts suggest.

This year’s slump has already blunted the country’s IPO market. At the beginning of 2008, investment banks predicted another record year for Indian IPOs. But more than 19 planned issues valued at more than $2 billion have already been postponed, says Prithvi Haldea, managing director of Prime Database, a Delhi-based primary-market-data company.

To be sure, BSNL stock could be worth owning — if the price is right. The former national monopoly, which controls the government phone infrastructure outside of New Delhi and Mumbai, has more than 70 million subscribers, mostly for landlines. In the year ended March 31, 2007, the last year for which it has announced its earnings, BSNL recorded a profit of 78.06 billion rupees ($1.86 billion) on sales of 397.15 billion rupees.

Earlier sales of other state-owned companies, including stakes in National Thermal Power in 2004 and Power Grid Corp. of India last year, were done at prices that attracted investors.

Mr. Raja, the telecommunications minister, said he is considering a price of between 300 rupees and 400 rupees a share for BSNL. Analysts and investors say it is too early to judge whether that would be an attractive price because BSNL has yet to issue a prospectus or even hire advisers to do a due-diligence assessment.

Mr. Haldea says government companies “historically have displayed underpricing at their IPO,” creating good reasons for investors to seek a piece of those offerings.

The government’s decision to talk about a potential price before hiring an adviser shows how BSNL, like many state-owned companies, has to think about politics before profits. Analysts say Mr. Raja announced a possible price range because he is using the IPO price to entice the unions representing BSNL’s 300,000 employees to back the issue.

The Telecom Ministry has offered to sell each employee 500 shares at just 10 rupees each, meaning they could stand to reap a huge windfall upon listing of BSNL’s stock. Nonetheless, the unions so far have rejected the offer.

New Delhi is moving ahead with the IPO plan now, analysts say, because it is no longer dependent on Communist parties that left the Congress-led ruling-coalition government last month to protest India’s controversial nuclear-cooperation agreement with the U.S.

The analysts say politics inside state-run companies like BSNL has slowed their decision-making process and made it difficult for them to reduce staff. Political pressures and bureaucratic barriers are one of the reasons BSNL hasn’t grown as fast as private-sector telecom players such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications.

Hitesh Kuvelkar, an analyst at First Global Securities in Mumbai, says BSNL “should have been the first guys to take advantage” of the boom in India’s telecom industry.”But they are not the leaders today. Private companies have taken the lead.”

While a listing for BSNL is coming years after private telecom operators had IPOs, it will still be an important issue. If the government can pull off a successful IPO, that could open the way for a long line of other state-run companies to go public.

It isn’t just the end of New Delhi’s reliance on leftist support that has made the government eager to sell stakes in state enterprises. It desperately needs the money: The federal budget deficit has been soaring as India subsidizes gasoline prices to protect consumers — and voters — from surging oil prices.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its recommendations for the introduction of virtual mobile players into the Indian market.
Click here to find out more!

In response to a request from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the TRAI undertook a public consultation and on Wednesday announced that, subject to a number of conditions, it is in favour of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).

The current ban on MVNOs has been under discussion for some time, with companies such as MVNO pioneer Virgin Mobile pushing for the right to offer services in India.

But, should its recommendations be accepted by the government, the regulator does not plan to make it easy for foreign players to launch services.

The TRAI has stipulated that operating as an MVNO will be subject to acquiring a licence, a process that is open to Indian companies only. Furthermore, as for mobile network operators, foreign direct ownership of MVNO licensees is restricted to 74%.

Nonetheless, there will doubtless be many companies interested in providing mobile services in India, a rapidly growing market that is adding around 8 million new subscribers per month with significant room for further growth.

The government previously revealed that it has been approached by a number of players seeking to become Indian MVNOs, and various press reports over the past six months have named major global telecoms operators, including AT&T, Etisalat and Orascom, as on the hunt for deals with local players that would enable them to enter the market.

Earlier this year Virgin Mobile announced it had brokered a partnership deal with Tata Teleservices to enable to offer a Virgin-branded services in the country. However, doubtless mindful of the ban on MVNOs, Virgin highlighted the fact that it would not be operating as a virtual service provider, but rather Tata would sell Virgin-branded mobile services as part of a revenue-share agreement.

If the situation in mature markets is anything to go by, the arrival of MVNOs in India would serve to push down already extremely low call rates.

“The introduction of MVNO[s] is seen as a natural progression towards enhancing free market principles and contributing to the efficient use of existing telecommunications infrastructure,” the TRAI said in a statement.

The regulator defined an MVNO as an operator “that does not have spectrum of its own”, but in its guidelines noted that MVNOs should be free to operate either simply as a brand, i.e. with no infrastructure, or as a full MVNO, with the ability to set up its own HLR, VLR, switches, MSCs and so on.

It also specified that MVNOs could run services using the spectrum belonging to 2G, 3G or broadband wireless access licensees.

A region by region analysis by Juniper Research found that there is a significant growth opportunity not only for mobile payment systems, software, support and consultancy services vendors, but also for mobile operators to increase their ARPU as transaction frequencies accelerate.

Report author Howard Wilcox stated: “Many digital content goods and services are becoming basic ‘must haves’ - particularly in the sub 35 age group. Devices like the iPhone - even in its 3G incarnation - are undoubtedly contributing to consumer awareness and usage of mobile music services. People who are 15 to 20 today will expect to buy directly with their phones and will drive this market over the next few years.”

Highlights from the report include:

• Users are forecast to make at least two payment transactions per month for digital goods by 2013
• Nearly half of all mobile phone users will have bought digital goods at least once with their phones by 2013
• The two leading regions (Western Europe and Far East & China) will account for over 50% of the total digital goods gross transaction market value by 2013.

Howard Wilcox continued: “Even though typical transaction sizes will remain in the $3-$5 bracket a sufficient number of users will be using their mobiles to buy music, games, tickets, infotainment and the other digital goods sufficiently often to see gross transaction value grow nearly seven fold by 2013.”

The report also focuses on purchases of physical goods - ranging from gifts to household goods to electronics - via the mobile web. It provides six year regional forecasts of mobile payments for digital & physical goods, providing data on subscriber take-up, transaction sizes and volumes as well as detailed case studies from companies pioneering in this market. Juniper Research interviewed 37 senior executives across a wide range of vendors and operators.

Whitepapers and further details of the study, ‘Mobile Payment Markets: Digital & Physical Goods 2008 - 2013′ can be freely downloaded from www.juniperresearch.com.

Taiwan’s High Tech Computer Corp. expects to ship more than 2 million of its Diamond-model handsets by the end of 2008, Chief Executive Peter Chou said Monday.

Shipments of Diamond handsets will likely rise to 1 million units by mid-August after the product was launched in May, Chou said earlier at a launch ceremony for the latest Diamond model.

HTC is the world’s largest maker of handsets using Microsoft Corp.’s operating system, in terms of shipments.

Mobile handset sales will reach 1.28 billion worldwide in 2008, an increase of 11% from 2007, Gartner predicted Tuesday.

The analyst firm said global device sales reached 294.3 million in the first quarter of 2008, and it expects second quarter sales will be between 300 million and 305 million.

However, Gartner expects only a slight increase in unit sales during Q3, with most handset makers launching new devices and making a greater sales push in time for the fourth quarter.

“We expect sales in the third quarter to be more than the second quarter results, but only moderately as both Motorola and LG issued warnings for a sequential drop in sales, as well as an economic environment that remains challenging,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, in a statement.

“All the hopes for mobile phone manufacturers for the overall year-end growth results rest on the final quarter of the year when most new products will be introduced to the market and the normal seasonality will help boost sales,” she said.

Gartner said that markets in Asia-Pacific will drive the bulk of mobile phone sales, with 472.5 million expected to sell in 2008, a 17.9% increase on last year.

The firm also forecasts a small sales increase of 5.3% in the U.S., with a total of 185.7 million handsets expected to be sold this year.

But the level of saturation in the Western European and Japanese markets is seen leading to a decline in unit sales.

Sales in Western Europe are projected to reach 188 million units, a 1.5% drop from last year, while sales in Japan are estimated to reach 47.7 million units, down 9.1% from 2007.

Milanesi also noted that handset vendors are coming under greater pricing pressure from telcos operating services in mature markets.

“With a more mature market, mobile operators are seeing their service revenue come under pressure and, driven by lower flat-rate tariffs, demand for data services is starting to pick up, increasing demand for network investment,” she explained.

“Cost-control and putting pressure on supplier pricing are the business norm of operators. Hence, mobile device vendors are experiencing increased pressure on device pricing,” Milanesi added.

As such, Gartner expects more device vendors to bolster their revenue by building out ecosystems with content and service providers.

“This trend is epitomised by Nokia with Ovi, Sony Ericsson with PlayNow, and Apple with its iTunes store,” Gartner said.

Furthermore, Gartner predicts that one of the consequences of continued growth in the mobile phone sector is that more new players will enter the market.

Newcomers such as Apple and Garmin are keen to differentiate themselves, while established vendors, like Motorola, are facing the pressure of market share decline and increasingly challenging design innovation, the company said.

“The lower cost of mobile phone reference designs and modules, as well as the appeal of such a large market, will attract more conventional consumer electronics companies to join the market,” said the analyst firm.

That is part of the thinking behind data released in June 2008 by Gartner. The research company predicted that mobile gaming revenues would reach $6.3 billion worldwide in 2011, up from $4.5 billion in 2008. Gartner also said that mobile gaming revenues were promising in areas that had low PC and game console penetration, and among both low- and high-income users.

“Mobile operators should target smartphone users with more-sophisticated mobile games and lower-income users with discounted or advertising-subsidized games, or even differentiated service offerings such as ‘pay per game’ in order to increase usage,” said Jessica Ekholm, analyst at Gartner, in a statement.

Asia-Pacific is expected to remain the largest market for mobile games, with revenues predicted to reach $3.4 billion by 2011, up from $2.3 billion in 2008. The North American market is projected to grow to approximately $1.2 billion in 2011, up from $845 million in 2008.

The new worldwide projection for 2011 is 50% lower than what Gartner had announced in June 2007, and likely reflects ongoing economic concerns.

Gartner’s new projection is similar to one made by Understanding & Solutions in December 2007. The company said mobile games would generate $6 billion in revenues in 2011, up from $3.6 billion in 2007.

Juniper Research made a much more aggressive projection in November 2007, putting 2012 mobile gaming revenues at $16 billion.

Article Sourced from eMarketer