Alibaba takes on Google and Apple

29 July 2011 Last updated at 06:57 GMT Alibaba operates some of China's biggest e-commerce websites China's Alibaba has taken on established players such as Google and Apple in the mobile operating system market.

It has launched its own operating system, Alyun OS, in a bid to capture the fast-growing Chinese market.

The launch comes as sales of smartphones in China, the world's largest mobile handset market, are expected to grow rapidly.

Alibaba is one the world's biggest internet conglomerates.

The company said the operating system will feature services such as email, internet search and support web-based applications.

"Mobile users want a more open and convenient mobile operating system (OS), one that allows them to truly enjoy all that the internet has to offer, right in the palm of their hand," said Wang Jian, president of Alibaba Cloud Computing.

"The cloud OS, with its use of cloud-based applications, will provide that," he added.

Hardware Continue reading the main story

We are not responsible for selling the phone, we just provide the system, so there is no hard number”

End Quote Wang Jian Alibaba Cloud Computing Alibaba also launched K-Touch, the first smartphone to run the OS. The phone will be manufactured by handset maker Tianyu.

The company said it was also in talks to with phone manufacturers to develop low-end mobile phones that will run the operating system.

However, Alibaba said it has no plans to enter the phone manufacturing sector on its own.

"We shouldn't make a phone. We're not in that ecosystem," said Mr Wang.

He also added that the company is concentrating only on developing the operating system and was not focussing too much on the sales of mobile phones that will use the software.

"We are not responsible for selling the phone, we just provide the system, so there is no hard number," he said.

Alibaba said it plans to launch a tablet PC running on the software by the end of this year.

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Apple overtakes Nokia and Samsung

29 July 2011 Last updated at 11:55 GMT Handsets from Apple (left) and Samsung (right) saw the biggest growth Apple has become the world's biggest seller of smartphones, according to industry analysts.

The US firm overtook both previous leader Nokia and Samsung in the second quarter of the year, when total smartphone sales hit a record 110m.

The figures from Strategy Analytics also showed that 361m handsets were shipped, up 13% on the previous year.

Nokia remained the biggest seller of all types of handsets, but the numbers shipped and its market share fell.

It shipped 20% fewer handsets in the second quarter - 88.5 million.

The Finnish firm's market share dipped to 25% - its lowest level since 1999.

'Star'

The report describes Apple as the "star performer" during the quarter, more than doubling its handset shipments to a record 20.3 million units.

All handsets Smartphones Total market share

However, its share of the overall market was 6%, making it the world's fourth biggest mobile phone seller behind Nokia, Samsung and LG.

Samsung shipped 74 million units, rising 16% from 63.8 million in the quarter a year earlier.

The company's market share rose to just above 20%, and Samsung is now "breathing down Nokia's neck", the report said.

Strategy Analytics said Nokia was plagued by problems.

"An unexciting touchphone portfolio, inventory corrections in Asia and Western Europe, wavering demand for the Symbian platform and limited presence in the huge US market continue to weigh on Nokia's near-term performance," the report said.

Third-placed LG shipped 24.8 million handsets during the three months, with volumes down 19% from a year earlier.

China-based ZTE shipped 18 million handsets, giving it a global market share of 5%.

Seperately, Taiwan's HTC said it had shipped 12m handsets in the second quarter of the year, helping its profits double to 17.5 billion Taiwan dollars ($607m; ?372m).

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Apple holding more cash than USA

29 July 2011 Last updated at 12:55 GMT US President Barack Obama is known to be an iPad owner, along with 28 million other people Apple now has more cash to spend than the United States government.

Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7bn (?45.3bn).

Apple's most recent financial results put its reserves at $76.4bn.

The US House of Representatives is due to vote on a bill to raise the country's debt ceiling, allowing it to borrow more money to cover spending commitments.

If it fails to extend the current limit of $14.3 trillion dollars, the federal government could find itself struggling to make payments, and risks the loss of its AAA credit rating.

The United States is currently spending around $200bn more than it collects in revenue every month.

Apple, on the other hand, is making money hand over fist, according to its financial results.

In the three months ending 25 June, net income was 125% higher than a year earlier at $7.31bn.

Spending spree

With more than $75bn either sitting in the bank or in easily accessible assets, there has been enormous speculation about what the company will do with the money.

"Apple keeps its cards close to its chest," said Daniel Ashdown, an analyst at Juniper Research.

Industry watchers believe that it is building up a war chest to be used for strategic acquisitions of other businesses, and to secure technology patents.

Bookstore Barnes and Noble and the online movie site Netflix have both been tipped as possible targets, said Mr Ashdown.

The company may also have its eye on smaller firms that develop systems Apple might want to add to its devices, such as voice recognition.

Apple dipped into some of its reserves recently when it teamed-up with Microsoft to buy a batch of patents from defunct Canadian firm Nortel.

The bidding consortium shelled out $4.5bn for more than 6,000 patents.

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Apple goes download only for Lion

20 July 2011 Last updated at 14:26 GMT OS X Lion takes many of its design cues from Apple's iOS devices Apple has launched the latest version of its Mac operating system - OS X Lion - through its online app store.

It is the first time that the company has not issued new system software on disk.

Users without an internet connection, or whose link is too slow, will be given the option to download the file in an Apple store later this month.

For customers who want a physical copy, Apple is offering a memory stick version for an extra ?25.

Editor-in-chief of Mac Format Magazine Graham Barlow said that many users viewed their OS disks as a "security blanket" in case something goes wrong with their machine.

"I for one will be looking at ways I can make an actual physical disk out of the download, if that is legally supported by Apple," he said.

Mr Barlow also warned that the 4GB file may lead some users to exceed their download limit if their home broadband has a low cap.

iPad-esque

Apple is touting OS X Lion as a major redesign which takes many of its cues from the iOS operating system that runs on iPhones and iPads.

It adds additional multitouch gestures, full screen applications and an iPad-style launch screen.

Like the touchscreen devices, Lion features an auto resume feature where programmes are restored to the state they were left the last time they were used.

"For people that are using lots of creative apps all day with lots of documents open in them, that is going to make a big difference," said Adam Banks, editor-in-chief at Mac User magazine.

Mr Banks said that Lion contained a number of design themes that would help extend the appeal of Apple's laptops and desktops in the face of competition from its own handheld products.

"Some people predicted that by this point there wouldn't even be a Mac any more because Apple is getting all these millions and millions of users on its iOS devices, why do they need the relatively small number of people using Macs.

"Is Apple still about that creative, professional market? I think there are features here that make clear it is," said Mr Banks.

Mac OS X Lion costs ?20.99 from the Mac App store.

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Apple takes on HTC in patent war

12 July 2011 Last updated at 14:52 GMT Sales of HTC's smartphones have surged making it a big player in the industry Apple has accused the smartphone maker HTC of infringing its patents, in the latest phase of the legal battle between phone and tablet PC makers.

Apple has filed a complaint against the US International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking an inquiry by the panel into the matter.

The news comes just weeks after Apple and Samsung accused each other of copying designs and technology.

HTC is the world's third-biggest mobile phone maker, by stock market value.

However, HTC has denied Apple's allegations.

"HTC is dismayed that Apple has resorted to competition in the courts rather than the market place," said Grace Lei, HTC's general counsel.

Growing rivalry

The launch of products such as iPhone and iPad saw Apple become one of the market leaders in the global smartphone market, and the biggest seller of tablet PCs.

Apple's success in quickly securing a large slice of the market, with fashionable products enjoying good demand from consumers, prompted several rivals to launch their own gadgets hoping to win a share of the fast-growing market.

However, that resulted in relations between Apple and its rivals souring as the competition grew.

Last year the American technology company filed a similar complaint against HTC accusing it of infringing as many as 20 of its patents.

That prompted HTC to launch a counter attack, claiming that Apple was guilty of infringing patents held by the Taiwanese company.

HTC went to the extent of seeking a ban on sales of iPhones, iPads and iPods in the United States.

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Apple removes 'anti-Israel' app

23 June 2011 Last updated at 12:03 GMT The application, called ThirdIntifada, was said to incite violence against Israel Computer firm Apple has removed an Arabic-language application from its App Store called ThirdIntifada, after Israel said it incited violence.

"We removed this app from the App Store because it violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people," Apple said.

The app was released a few days ago.

It listed forthcoming protests and provided news reports and editorials in Arabic, as well as including links to nationalistic Palestinian material.

Intifada refers to two violent uprisings against Israel over the past three decades, and a third intifada refers to a future uprising.

An Israeli minister wrote to Apple earlier this week to complain about the application.

"From browsing through the articles, stories and photographs that appear in the app, it is clear that this is an anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist application that in fact, as its name suggests, calls for an uprising against Israel," said Israeli Minister of Public Affairs and the Diaspora Yuli Edelstein in a letter sent to Apple founder Steve Jobs.

A statement issued by Mr Edelstein's ministry on Thursday welcomed "Apple's swift action" in removing the application, developed by a Dubai-based company.

Facebook precedent

In March this year, Facebook removed a page calling for a new Palestinian uprising against Israel after more than 350,000 people signed up to it.

Mr Edelstein said the Facebook page had been created by the same group behind the new application, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports.

"The Facebook page called for an uprising against Israel through a violent struggle, and included severe incitement."

In the ministry statement announcing Apple's move, Mr Edelstein was quoted as saying the company, like Facebook, "had proven it shared values that stand in opposition to violence, incitement and terror".

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Nokia and Apple settle patent row

14 June 2011 Last updated at 10:11 GMT Nokia claimed some technology in the iPad infringed its patents Nokia and Apple have agreed a technology licensing agreement that ends the long-running legal dispute between the two firms.

"The agreement will result in settlement of all patent litigation between the companies," Nokia said.

Nokia sued Apple for patent infringements in 2009 and extended the action in December last year.

Apple had countersued, accusing Nokia of infringing its patents.

Nokia said Apple had agreed a one-off payment, the value of which was not disclosed, and ongoing royalties to use its technologies.

Apple said the deal covered both companies' patents.

Counter claims Continue reading the main story

What this story really shows once again is how one phone, the iPhone, has proved the undoing of a company whose dominance seemed unassailable just four years ago”

End Quote Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent, BBC News "We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees," said Nokia's chief executive Stephen Elop.

"This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry-leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market."

Apple said the two firms had agreed to "drop all of our current lawsuits and enter into a licence covering some of each other's patents, but not the majority of the innovations that make the iPhone unique".

"We're glad to put this behind us and get back to focusing on our respective businesses."

'Positive news'

Nokia's various claims against Apple included alleged patent infringements of touch interfaces, caller ID, display illumination, and 3G and wi-fi technology.

Apple had also claimed that Nokia had infringed many of its patents.

Both sides had always denied each other's claims.

"This is the first positive news from Nokia for a long time. They can both focus on their businesses now, and the dispute was settled to Nokia's advantage," said Mikael Rautanen at research group Inderes in Helsinki.

At the end of last month, Nokia said it expected sales and profit margins for the current quarter to be well below its previous forecasts.

The company has been struggling to reposition itself in the rapidly-growing smartphone sector, where it is trying to make up ground lost to competitors such as Apple's iPhone and phones using Google's Android operating system.

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