Google rolls in tablet market with Nexus 7

Google opened fire on iPad and Kindle Fire with a Nexus tablet designed to showcase the latest Android software and be a window into its online shop for films, music and more.

The Nexus 7 tablet computer will be priced at less than half the cost of the market-leading iPad and broadens Google's arsenal in its battle against Apple, Amazon.com, and Microsoft to be at the heart of Internet Age lifestyles.

The seven-inch tablet powered by the latest generation of Android software is being made for Google by Taiwan-based Asus and weighs about as much as a paperback book, according to Android team head Hugo Barra.

"We wanted to design a best-of Google experience optimized around the content available at Google Play," Barra said during a presentation opening the Internet titan's annual developers conference in San Francisco.

Nexus tablets were available for order in Australia, Canada, Britain, and the United States at the Google Play store at a price of $199 and would begin shipping in mid-July, Barra said. That is the same price as Amazon's Kindle Fire.

The tablets come with a $25 coupon for Google Play content -- Google's answer to Amazon and Apple's iTunes stores for books, music, magazines and other content.

"It has always been a goal of the Nexus program to provide you with the best-of Google experience the way Google envisions it," Barra said.

Google also introduced an Android-powered Nexus Q device for wirelessly streaming films or music from Google Play to televisions or speakers.

Along with the new hardware, Google said it is beefing up its Google Play store to offer more entertainment.

"Google Play is your digital entertainment destination, with more than 600,000 apps and games plus music, movies and books," a Google blog post said.

"It's entirely cloud-based, which means all of your content is always available across all of your devices."

In addition to movie rentals, Google will be offering films for sale. The California-based Internet powerhouse boasted partnerships with major studios such as Disney, Paramount and Sony.

"You can watch as much as you like. You can also purchase episodes of your favorite TV shows," the California tech giant said.

Google Play will also be adding digital magazines from Hearst, Conde Nast and other publishers.

The company described Nexus 7 as "a powerful new tablet" which "makes everything, including games, extremely fast."

It weighs 340 grams (12 ounces) and has a front-facing camera.

Android platform developer Chris Yerga said Nexus 7 is also "a serious gaming device."

Google at the same time said it was releasing a new version of its Android software for mobile devices, called "Jelly Bean," which "builds on top of Ice Cream Sandwich," the current iteration of Android.

"It makes everything smoother, faster and more fluid," the Google blog said.

"The keyboard is smarter and more accurate, and can predict your next word. And voice typing is faster, working even when you don't have a data connection."

While Android has leapt to the top of the mobile phone market, Apple remains dominant in tablets, holding around 62 percent of the market to 36 percent for Android, according to research firm IDC.

The news from Google comes just a week after Microsoft took on Apple with a plan to release its own branded tablet called Surface later this year.

"Learning a lesson from Amazon, Google can see that the only way to beat the premium-worthy iPad is to go for the millions of customers who are ready for smaller and cheaper tablets," said Forrester analyst James McQuivey.

After hooking fans with a low-price Android tablet, Google could then direct their loyalty to higher-end devices powered by the operating system and build the ranks of customers at Google Play, the analyst reasoned.

"That range of services will be the secret to stitching together this rag-tag fleet of Android gadgets into a platform that can compete with Apple for minutes of users' attention rather than premium device dollars," McQuivey said.

The number of Android devices being used has quadrupled since this time last year to 400 million, with a million new smartphones or tablets powered by the Google-backed software being activated daily, according to Google.

"We are not slowing down," Barra said of Android's growth.

Jelly Bean software improvements included a keyboard that "learns" as it is used and eventually starts predicting words before they are typed. The program has beefed up abilities to convert speech to text or into search queries.

A Google Now feature lets people combine search history, calendar and other information to allow devices to predict needs such as a fast route to work in the morning or a nearby coffee shop.

Google will begin rolling out the Jelly Bean in an update to newer model Android devices in July. Read More

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Comcast to pay $800,000 to resolve FCC probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that Comcast Corp would pay $800,000 to resolve an investigation of its broadband-related merger conditions.

The FCC said it began the probe after it was tipped that Comcast was not properly marketing its standalone broadband services, violating a condition of its merger with NBC Universal that requires the cable operator to offer reasonably priced Internet services to consumers who do not subscribe to its cable offerings.

"Today's action demonstrates that compliance with Commission orders is not optional," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

The consent decree adopted on Wednesday requires Comcast to pay $800,000 to the U.S. Treasury to resolve the dispute. It also, for the first time in FCC history, extends the merger condition for an additional year.

"The unprecedented merger condition extension, significant voluntary contribution, and robust compliance plan send a clear message to the American public and the communications industry that the FCC will vigorously enforce its merger conditions, to the ultimate benefit of consumers," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Michele Ellison said.

Sena Fitzmaurice, Comcast's vice president of government communications, said the company was pleased that it could address these issues constructively with the FCC and in a consensual manner.

Comcast, the No. 1 provider of video and residential Internet service in the United States, acquired a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co last year.

Approval of the merger after a year-long review by the FCC and Justice Department came with a list of conditions to protect the public interest and prevent anti-competitive practices.

Among those conditions was a requirement to actively market for three years a standalone broadband service with speeds of at least 6 mbps for no more than $49.95 per month - equivalent to terms offered to consumers who bundled their cable and broadband services with Comcast.

"Comcast has incorporated the extensive commitments and conditions from the NBCUniversal transaction into the DNA of our business practices, including the commitment to offer standalone broadband Internet," said Fitzmaurice.

The company introduced a "Performance Starter" option for standalone broadband service to comply with the merger condition. The FCC probe questioned if that service could have been rolled out differently or better, Fitzmaurice said.

Wednesday's consent decree means Comcast must keep that standalone service in place through February 21, 2015.

It also mandates a dedicated Internet page for standalone broadband services, a major advertising promotion in 2013 for the broadband services and training for customer service representatives to ensure they are familiar with the Performance Starter option.  Read More

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Google Internet glasses on the way

Google glasses that overlay the Internet on daily lives should hit the market within two years -- technology the tech giant hopes will someday make fumbling with smartphones obsolete.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin offered the estimated timeline after a project update that included sky divers dropping in with a new version of "Glass" wearable computers.

"I'm so glad that worked," Brin quipped after sky divers wearing the glasses streamed live video during their jump from an airplane to the roof of the San Francisco convention center. "I wasn't really expecting it to."

The sky divers handed off a package to cyclists, who performed stunts as they rode to the edge of the Moscone Center where they handed it off to a man who rappelled down the outside of the building to the third floor.

Another cyclist whisked the cargo the final length of its trip to a stage where Brin and other Google executives were kicking off the California-based company's annual developers conference.

Brin opened the package to show an "Explorer" edition of the glasses that developers could buy for $1,500 to become the first people outside the company to shape the revolutionary eyewear before it gets to market.

Explorer edition glasses should ship early next year, and a version should be ready for the consumer market within a year after that, Brin said.

"Google Glass Explorer edition will be rough around the edges; you have to be into being on the bleeding edge," Brin said of the effort to build a community of developers passionate about taking part in the project.

"This is really new technology and we really want all of you to help shape it."

The eyewear features built-in camera, microphone and speaker technology and can synch to the Internet using wireless connections.

As with the sky divers, cyclists, and wall-walkers who took part in the keynote stunt, video through the eyes of wearers can be streamed live on Google's social network.

Mini-screens in the glasses can display text messages, email or other digitized information from the Internet or mobile gadgets.

"It was kind of a nutty idea that somehow became real," Brin said while discussing Glass after the keynote presentation.

"The notion that you could jump out of an air ship with it and still communicate your experience makes holding a smartphone or laptop seem pretty damn awkward," he continued. "It's about you being less of a slave to your device; it has been really liberating."

Brin said that he wears a prototype pair of Google glasses much of the time as he and other members of the team he heads at the company's X Lab refine the technology.

Google has been speaking with eyeglass frame companies about ideas for a consumer version of the glasses, which he expected would cost "significantly" less than the Explorer prototypes.

"I expect that in three or four years watching people hold a mobile phone in their hands and look down at it will start to be unusual and that this will be normal," Google product manager Steve Lee said, pointing to his Glass eyewear.

The Glass team focused on frequent mobile Internet tasks such as messaging and sharing pictures and not on capabilities such as adding facial or object recognition, according to Brin.

"We definitely experimented with things like facial recognition; it is what a lot of people think about when you talk about a wearable computer," Brin said.

"But it is not the most compelling," he continued. "We have not been quite as excited about it as science fiction movies might be."

The Glass team also figured that the devices wouldn't be primary tools for surfing the Internet or reading digital books.

"But, if you want to see a text message or catch a quick picture, these things are really easy and hands-free," Brin said.

Glass team head Babak Parviz said that along with communicating, the eyewear was crafted to find information so fast that you thought you already knew it.

"It allows you to walk downtown Paris and have other people experience this with you live," Parviz said.

"But even though we have this social camera showing the world through your eyes, the quick access to information is also a critical thing."  Read More

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Apple launches iTunes Store in 12 new Asia markets

Apple launched its iTunes Store in 12 Asian markets on Wednesday, giving consumers access to millions of songs and movies, but regional giants China, India and Indonesia were not on the list.

The move by California-based Apple, which has sold more than 16 billion songs worldwide on the online store, enables it to make more money from digital content in markets where its devices have become hugely popular.

Asian musicians would also benefit from having a secure new platform to sell their work to local fans in a region rife with intellectual piracy.

"What took them so long?" said Chen Wei Li, a 28-year-old Singaporean who owns an iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro laptop.

"I personally am looking to download some music off the iTunes store," he added.

The iTunes Store is now open to consumers with credit cards issued in Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

It was already available in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Customers will now be able to choose from more than 28 million songs, including hits by Asian stars.

They will also be able to rent or buy movies from studios such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Universal, Disney and Warner Brothers.

"We know that people will pay for content if they are able to access good services," said Jasper Donat, the Hong Kong-based president of Music Matters, an annual gathering of executives from the music industry in the Asia-Pacific region.

"Having promoted the Asian music industry around the world for nearly eight years, we are genuinely excited about today's iTunes announcement and look forward to welcoming more digital entertainment platforms and services to the region soon."

But China, India and Indonesia -- the three most populous Asian countries -- were notable omissions from Wednesday's launch.

"We're always working to bring the iTunes Store to more customers around the world, as conditions permit," Apple said in a written reply to AFP when asked why China and India, which have a combined population of 2.5 billion, were not yet included.

Neha Dharia, a Mumbai-based analyst with business research firm Ovum, said several criteria including support for intellectual property rights are considered by Apple before opening up the iTunes Store to any market.

"These include the adoption of Apple devices, consumer preferences for digital distribution of content, ability to forge partnerships for procuring local content and, of course, levels of piracy and the measures to combat it," Dharia told AFP.

Apple's Asian expansion, which followed the December launch of the iTunes Store in Brazil and 15 other Latin American markets, now makes commercial sense despite concerns over piracy, another analyst said.

"Up to a certain point, piracy in the whole region was something they were looking at with a critical eye," said Melissa Chau, a Singapore-based regional research manager with US market intelligence firm IDC.

"But what has changed in the last couple of years was how popular iPads and iPhones have become in this region.

"It makes sense for them to capture revenues from these users who have iPads and iPhones."

Apple is estimated to have shipped 35 million iPhones and iPads in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan in 2011, Chau said.

"This is the natural evolution of an integrated ecosystem for their own products and services," said Chau.

Apple's latest earnings report showed it made a profit of $11.6 billion on revenues of $39.2 billion in the March quarter, thanks largely to booming demand for iPhones and iPads in Asia including China.  Read More

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US court bars Samsung tablet after Apple complaint

A US federal court has barred the sale of Samsung's new Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer, siding with Apple in a bitter dispute between the two tech giants over alleged patent infringement.

The US district court in northern California Tuesday ruled that there was "evidence that Samsung altered its design to make its product look more like Apple's" and that Apple had "presented a strong case" for the injunction.

Samsung said it was "disappointed" with the decision, which the South Korean firm said would "ultimately reduce the availability of superior technological features to consumers in the United States."

Samsung said the preliminary injunction pending further litigation was "based on a single design patent that addressed just one aspect of the product's overall design."

"Should Apple continue to make legal claims based on such a generic design patent, design innovation and progress in the industry could be restricted," it said, adding that it would "take necessary legal steps" without elaborating.

The court said it was "unpersuaded by Samsung's arguments."

As a condition of the preliminary injunction, Apple was ordered to post a $2.6 million bond to secure payment of any damages should it be found later that the Samsung product did not infringe on the patent.

Apple could not immediately be reached for comment, but in its initial complaint filed in April 2011 it had accused Samsung of having chosen to "slavishly copy" Apple technology in the design of its Galaxy line of mobile phones and tablets, which run on Google's Android operating system.  Read More

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Planned Google tablet to rival Amazon: Asustek exec

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Google Inc will soon unveil a tablet co-branded with Taiwan's Asustek Computer Inc and priced to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire device, an Asustek executive said on Wednesday.

Amazon's Kindle Fire, which runs a version of Google's Android operating system, sells for $199. Through it users can access Amazon content including books, music and video.

"It's targeting Amazon. The Kindle is based on Google's platform but with its own service, so Google has to launch its own service, too," said the executive of the device.

Google has its own store for apps called Google Play, but does not have anything like Amazon's service.

Bloomberg earlier reported that Google would launch a tablet at its developer conference this week, taking direct aim at Apple Inc's iPad, citing two people familiar with the matter. One of the sources said the 7-inch tablet would showcase new features of Android.

The Asustek executive, who did not want to be named as the planned device has not yet been made public, declined to give details on its price, specifications or launch timetable. Rumors that the search engine giant planned to launch a tablet at its annual developer conference have circulated on tech blogs for weeks.

Google declined to comment.

Apple's iPad had a 68 percent share of the market in January-March, according to data from IDC. Amazon had a little over 4 percent, lagging Samsung Electronics and Lenovo. Microsoft last week introduced its own line of tablet computers, marking a major strategic shift for the software giant as it struggles to compete with Apple and re-invent its aging Windows franchise.

Google has previously worked with hardware manufacturers HTC and Samsung to produce co-branded Android mobile phones under the Nexus brand. This would be its first such tablet device.

Asustek shares gained 2.6 percent in Taipei, outperforming a 0.6 percent gain on the benchmark stock index.  Read More

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Lenovo shares hit over 4-month low on concern over PC outlook

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Shares of Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's No.2 PC maker, fell by more than 6 percent to a more than four-month intraday low on market concern over the outlook for the PC market amid the global economic slowdown.

Lenovo's shares fell as much as 6.3 percent to HK$6.26 in afternoon trade, extending earlier losses and hitting the lowest intraday level since February 9.

"The huge increase in volume suggests that a major holder is now exiting the stock," said a trader who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

An analyst said Lenovo's stock had outperformed peers such as market leader Hewlett-Packard Co and No.3 PC vendor Dell Inc this year, but worries over Europe's economy and a further slowdown in China might dampen PC demand and could affect the Chinese company.

Lenovo shares are still up 22 percent so far this year, outperforming the main Hang Seng Index's 2.9 percent gain, Dell's 16.7 percent fall and HP's 20.1 percent loss.  Read More

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Apple vendors in Iran scoff at US sanctions

Vendors of Apple products in Iran on Saturday scoffed at US media reports that the consumer technology giant was banning US sales to customers of Iranian background, pointing out that iPads and iPhones are widely available in Tehran.

One salesman who gave only his first name, Hossein, told AFP that he had sold 40 iPhones the day before, and explained that prices for Apple items in Iran were only around $50-$60 more than in the United States.

Traders were easily getting around US sanctions on the export of popular electronic items to Iran, he said.

"All Apple products are smuggled into Iran. Before, it was mainly from Dubai and European countries, but now we can get all we need from Iraq," he said. "We have all of Apple's products."

Iranian media noted reports from the United States that a young American woman of Iranian descent, who was speaking Farsi with her uncle, was barred from buying an iPad from an Apple store in the US state of Georgia. She reportedly wanted to send the iPad to Iran as a gift to cousin.

That falls foul of a US ban on sending tech products, such as computers and satellite telephones, to Iran without authorisation from the US Treasury Department.

But salesmen in Tehran said the restriction is pointless, given the unimpeded offer of Apple and other US brand electronics. Several shops are even dressed up to look like official Apple Stores.

In the United States, the National Iranian American Council issued a statement calling on Apple "to take immediate steps" to make sure the US sanctions do not discriminate against Iranian-Americans and Iranians in the United States.

When asked about the issue last Thursday, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said there was "no US policy or law that prohibits Apple or any other company from selling products in the United States to anybody who’s intending to use the product in the United States, including somebody of Iranian descent or an Iranian citizen."  Read More

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Samsung eyes 10 mn mark for Galaxy S3 by end of July

South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone maker, said Monday it expects to have sold 10 million of its newest Galaxy S3 model by the end of July, two months after its launch.

J.K. Shin, head of the mobile communications division, said robust sales of the model would help Samsung's mobile business post a second-quarter profit bigger than the first three months.

"We're getting more positive reviews for Galaxy S3 than the previous Galaxy S1 and S2 since the release in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia beginning May 29," Shin said at an event to mark the phone's domestic release on Monday.

He estimated that global sales of the new phone -- currently available in 147 countries -- would surpass 10 million next month, including about a million to be sold at home.

"We're doing fairly well in emerging-economy markets... I think our second-quarter earnings will be better than the first quarter's, despite the difficult economic situation in Europe," Shin said.

The company, the world's biggest technology firm by revenue, posted a record net profit for all its divisions of 5.05 trillion won ($4.44 billion) in the first quarter, thanks largely to strong smartphone sales.

The third version of the Galaxy S series offers face-recognition technology and improved voice-activated controls as well as a more powerful processor that lets users watch video and write emails simultaneously.

It also has a 4.8-inch (12.2-centimetre) screen that is 22 percent larger than the S2, while it can detect eye movements and override the automatic shutdown if the user is looking at the screen.

Samsung shipped 44.5 million smartphones in the first quarter, exceeding the 35.1 million of US arch-rival Apple, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics in April.

Samsung, embroiled in patent lawsuits in 10 nations with Apple, is pinning its hopes on the S3 to further erode its rivals' market share before the expected new version of Apple's iPhone 5 this year.

In a rare victory for the Korean firm, a Dutch court last week ruled in favour of Samsung and ordered the US giant to pay unspecified damages for patent infringement.  Read More

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Sony working on all-in-one smartphones

When Vivek's, a popular electronic goods chain down south, took stock of its IT and telecom business last September, it consciously chose to keep Sony Ericsson phones out. At the time, the store felt retail support for the brand was insufficient, it was losing consumer mindspace, and when compared to competitors like Samsung, its launch schedule was downright sluggish.

Around a couple of weeks ago, Vivek's revisited its decision and decided to bring Sony back. What made the retailer change its mind? "Recently when we did our own research we found that stores similar to ours were selling 200-300 pieces of Sony," says B S Vishal, AVP, IT and telecom,Vivek's. Today, Vivek's stocks not just Sony Mobile but has five people from the company stationed at the store, giving live demonstrations.

It's been quite a rollercoaster ride for Sony Mobile. For the first decade of the 2000s it was known as Sony Ericsson, a name that it discarded earlier this year as it integrated Sony Mobile with the rest of Sony India. The Ericsson suffix worked for the brand initially, since it had a solid equity in the mobile phone space. However, as smartphones started to gain in popularity, Sony Ericsson began to falter.

In spite of the company getting out of feature phone space in 2009 to focus exclusively on smartphones and being among the first on the Android platform, it was never quite able to duplicate the success of some of its competitors. Even a high profile brand ambassador like Kareena Kapoor who was associated with the brand from March 2010 to April 2011 couldn't raise its profile. By 2011, Sony Ericsson was taking a long hard look at its portfolio - signing on a brand ambassador wasn't a priority and it chose to not renew the contract with Kapoor.

Sony's decreased mind space in India was coinciding with its woes globally. The Japanese giant once famous for technological breakthroughs like the Walkman and the Trinitron TV hasn't had a blockbuster in years. The inability to keep up with digitisation and the demands of Internetsavvy consumers - something its nimbler Asian rivals likeSamsung have done more effectively - is reflected in the sea of red ink on its bottom line.

In India,the first and faintest glimmers of a turnaround - at least in the mobile space- have begun to appear. Over the last six months, in which it had five launches, Sony Mobile claims things are changing for the better. According to industry folk in the know, in the January to April 2012 period, it led certain segments within the Android based smartphone universe with a share of 50 per cent albeit in a narrow price bracket of Rs 15,000-20,000.

P Balaji, MD, Sony Mobile, is pleased with the results but knows there is still a long way to go. "When we started the journey a year back, there were a number of areas to be fixed - distribution,customer pull, operator engagement, end-to-end customer management, a strongleadership and most important the product," he says.

Sony hired new heads for sales, operator alliances and product, content and services. Retailers like Vivek's were won back by providing trained staff for product demonstrations, setting up kiosks and even giving the stores live mobile phones. "It was important that distributors saw us as a dependable company," says Balaji. Sony mobile tied up with operators like Airtel, Aircel, Tata Docomo and Reliance to offer exclusive data plans for corporate customers. Offers comprised money-backpacks, free mobile TV and access to Sony's cloud service called 'Box', with 50GB of free file sharing and storage.

Sony also went back to the drawing board in terms of product. Struggling to slough off the tag of being 'just another Android phone', it now aims to make it an ultimate convergence device offering the best of Sony: a Bravia display engine, Walkman technology, PSP gaming and Cybershot imaging. Termed the 'four-screen strategy,' it appears in line with the thinking at Apple, which intends to focus on the iPhone rather than the iPod; and with Samsung which has stopped marketing its standalone portable music players in India.

Where Sony has a bit of an advantage is in its vast library. While Nokia had to forge alliances for its Ovi music store from ground up - and has not able to make a success of it globally - Sony can bank on content from its music and entertainment divisions. Preloaded in the new phones are songs like Kolaveri Di and Chikni Chameli that are available to users even before they make it to physical CDs. Its content arm, Sony Entertainment Network (SEN), plans to offer movies, music and TV shows. Sony India is also working with a number of local service providers to create value-added services that are exclusive to Sony users.

At the moment though, SEN is not available to the Indian market. Sony does foresee a time when content becomes not just a differentiator but part of its revenue stream and plans on offering a basic and premium service; free for the first month and paid for afterwards. All Sony's saying about this for the moment is new content is likely to be more expensive than older releases.

The phones have been given a marketing push via a number of below the line activities that span onground promos and social media as well as the global 'Made of Imagination' campaign. Prasun Kumar, marketing head, Sony Mobile, cites activities like a traffic signal road block at 50 locations across India on the day of launch; a radio road block in top five metros during prime time; and the largest phone installation in India at Select City Walk, Delhi.

While the initial response from the market has been positive, the jury is out on whether Sony's ambitious four screen strategy has legs. Says Naveen Mishra, lead telecom analyst, CMR India: "If you have at least Rs 20,000 as your average sales value per device, then the margins are good." Sony phones are largely in that price range.

However Mishra also points out that Sony's success would depend a lot on how the competition behaves and how well Sony can combine its device and content offerings. Nabankur Gupta, founder CEO, Nobby Brand Architects, echoes Mishra's words. "Focusing on smartphones is a good strategy because then you are no longer in the numbers game; and if you manage to create a right aura around the brand, every time a customer wants to upgrade, Sony will be the obvious choice," he says.

He is less convinced by Sony's content and four-screen strategy being key differentiators: "Even the said technologies are losing out in the durables space," says Gupta. Sony's traditional strengths of quality and durability if extended to these devices could perhaps be a better play, he reckons. "To be successful in India, you need to do three things: establish a perception of innovation, (even if you are not necessarily innovative); balance the perception with a good portfolio of product, price and distribution ; and finally enter smaller markets because that is where the money is."

Urban and SEC A towns are a major part of Sony's strategy and they will continue to have products in the Rs 8,000-10,000 price range, to appeal to new customers. With a distribution spread across 300 cities and towns, a large part of the Indian population could experience Sony Mobile.

As part of integration with the parent company, Sony mobiles will also be sold through Sony World's and Sony Centre's besides the various multibrand outlets and traditional shops. However, the highly competitive nature of the Indian mobile market will require Sony to constantly tweak its pricing.

As Gupta points out: "If Samsung can bring similar technology at Rs 5,000 lower, the market will shift." Competitor Samsung's agency is, quite naturally, not too impressed with Sony's comeback strategy. Vivek Dutta, VP - planning, Cheil Worldwide says: "Bringing together technologies is not a new thing. What Sony is doing is not buzzy enough compared to say the41-megapixel phone launched by Nokia." Even as the bar on technology constantly gets raised, Sony is hoping its all-in-one phones become as ubiquitous in consumer's pockets as the company's all-in-one home entertainment devices did in their homes through the 1990s.  Read More


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Google: Smartphones, mobiles to overtake PCs in Asia

SINGAPORE: Asia-Pacific is leading a surge in the use of mobile devices as they play a more central role in people's lives and are on track to replace conventional computers, a top Google executive said on Wednesday. 

Aliza Knox, managing director of commerce for Google Asia Pacific, said smartphones and tablets were now becoming the primary means to access the Internet in the region, adding that the US firm was making preparations to respond to that. 

"Asia has an insatiable appetite for mobile," she told a forum at the CommunicAsia telecom fair in Singapore. 

Four regional economies -- Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea -- already have higher smartphone use rates than the United States, Knox said. 

She added that 74 percent of searches in Singapore are now done on mobile gadgets while inIndonesia 78 percent of Internet users go online with a tablet or smartphone. 

In Japan, a person has an average 45 apps on his or her mobile phone, with South Koreans coming next at 42 -- compared with 23 in the United States, according to Knox. 

By 2015, one in two people in the world using the internet will be in Asia, and in the region a person's first experience online will likely be on a mobile. 

"Asia is ahead, Asia is taking this up faster than other places," she said. 

Knox also cited global research showing "most people" keep at least one mobile device within three feet and check them an average 40 times a day. 

One in four take it to the bathroom and two in three sleep them beside the bed. 

"We're engaging with media so much more because these devices are with us at all times, they are the centre of our lives," she said. 

Mobile devices are also increasingly being used to watch videos and play games, with many electronics giants such as Sony and Nintendo having to respond as they see sales of their consoles slow. 

Knox urged companies to be ready for the surge in mobile usage in Asia, noting that Google hired 600 people in the region this year and invested $700 million to establish new data centres. 

"We see unprecedented mobile growth, phenomenal demand for products and media, strong network support and a myriad of services becoming available -- a new role for the mobile device at the centre of people's lives," she said.  Read More

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Is Microsoft Surface Apple iPad killer?

SAN FRANCISCO: When Microsoft took the wraps off its Surface tablets on Monday in Los Angeles, it was the brightly hued keyboard that stole the show. 

The "Touch Cover" - a protective cover-cum-keyboard - could be a key differentiator for Microsoft as it tries to dent Apple's iPadfranchise, analysts said. It also represents the latest turn in an intensifying philosophical debate about how humans can best interact with their machines. 

In the early days of the Apple iPad, argument raged about whether the device could succeed without a traditional keyboard--a question the gadget's subsequent popularity seemingly settled. But the iPad's "virtual" keyboard, which senses the heat of a finger on the glass screen, is considered by most users to be unsuitable for extensive typing. 

Before the iPad, the debate centered on whether the free-form stylus was the best tool for telling a computer what to do. Apple's Newton, the original personal digital device, used a stylus, as did previous Microsoft entries in the tablet arena. But stylus solutions have since fallen out of favor. 

Recently, the conversation has shifted to contact-less interfaces, including voice-commands, a concept that Apple's own Siri brought to the fore, and gesture-recognition, as demonstrated in gaming by Microsoft's own Kinect. 

Researchers are now even experimenting with computers that respond directly to electrical signals from the brain. Eventually one might only need to think of what the computer should do to make it happen. 

In the meantime, though, Microsoft is betting that an improved version of the tried-and-true will be enough to make a difference. 

Ultrathin design
The Touch Cover technology was developed at Microsoft by a researcher named Stevie Bathiche, according to Panos Panay, leader of the team that created the Microsoft Surface. 

Executives showed off two keyboard models on Monday. The Touch Cover features an ultrathin design of 3 millimeters, without mechanical keys. A second, called the Type Cover, is 2 millimeters thicker and includes mechanical keys. 

Both operate using the same multi-touch digitizer, which Microsoft said is 10 times faster than any keyboard in use today. The Touch Cover uses pressure-sensitivity to detect when a user is trying to input keystrokes, as opposed to simply resting fingertips on the home row. 

"It knows the grams of force coming off my fingertips," Panay said as he demonstrated the product. 

The keyboard clings magnetically to the Surface and can remain attached as a cover. It can be folded back while still connected, and its internal accelerometer turns it off while in the closed or folded-back position. 

Rick Sherlund, an analyst with Nomura Securities, said the keyboard could be a critical feature for people who use the tablet not just for reading or viewing or browsing the Web, but for creating spreadsheets or documents or other types of written content. 

"Is Microsoft going to beat Apple with a sexier tablet? I don't think so," Sherlund said. But he added: "You're going to want a keyboard with anything related to Windows." Read More




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Facebook to buy facial-recognition startup: sources

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc is paying $55 million to $60 million to buy Face.com, according to people familiar with the matter, acquiring the company that provides the facial-recognition technology used by the world's largest social network to help users identify and tag photos.

The deal bolsters one of Facebook's most popular features -- the sharing and handling of photos -- but the use of the startup's technology has spurred concerns about user privacy.

The No. 1 social network will pay cash and stock for Face.com, potentially paying as much as $60 million, two sources with knowledge of the deal said. Media reports in past weeks have pegged the transaction at $80 million to $100 million.

Neither Facebook nor Face.com disclosed terms of the deal, which is expected to close in coming weeks.

Facebook, which will acquire the technology and the employees of the 11-person Israeli company, said in a statement that the deal allows the company to bring a "long-time technology vendor in house."

Face.com, which has raised nearly $5 million from investors including Russian Web search site Yandex, launched its first product in 2009. The company makes standalone applications that consumers can use to help them identify photos of themselves and of their friends on Facebook, as well as providing the technology that Facebook has integrated into its service.

Facebook uses the technology to scan a user's newly uploaded photos, compares faces in the snapshots with previous pictures, then tries to match faces and suggest name tags. When a match is found, Facebook alerts the person uploading the photos and invites them to "tag," or identify, the person in the photo.

Responding to inquiries from U.S. and European privacy advocates, Facebook last year made it easier for users to opt out of its controversial facial-recognition technology for photographs posted on the website, an effort to address concerns that it had violated consumers' privacy.

The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions by Facebook in recent months, including the $1 billion acquisition of mobile photo-sharing service Instagram. U.S. antitrust regulators are undertaking an extended review of the Instagram deal, which Facebook expects to close by the end of the year.

Shares of Facebook, which continue to trade below the price at which they were offered during the initial public offering in May, closed Monday's regular session up 4.7 percent at $31.41. Read More

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