Google rolls out rival to iPhone

NEW YORK: T-Mobile has rolled out Google's answer to the iPhone as the Web search giant makes its biggest stab yet at leaping from consumers' computers into their pockets with a device cheaper than rival Apple offers.

The widely-anticipated G1 phone, introduced on Tuesday made by HTC Corp, has a touch-sensitive screen, a computer-like keyboard, Wi-Fi connections and uses Google's new Android operating system. Available in three colors, black, white and brown, it includes familiar Google services, such as Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube.

Like the iPhone and other "smartphones" the device is meant to broaden the appeal of Web surfing on the go. "If we see more mobile Web usage we'll be happy," Google co-founder Sergey Brin told media after arriving at the launch on roller-blades.

His company, a powerhouse in Web advertising, would benefit if Android led more cell users to spend time on the Web, no matter which phone they are using. Google is well ahead of rivals Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp in Web search on computers, but it wants to use Android to ensure this dominance carries over to the phone when mobile Web surfing becomes more popular.

But while no clear mobile Web winner has emerged so far, Google faces stiff competition from longer established phone players such as Nokia, Research In Motion Ltd's BlackBerry and Microsoft, as well as Apple.

Analysts saw the device as a "good first step" rather than an iPhone killer, but some expect as many as 400,000 to be sold in the United States by year-end. A T-Mobile executive said the estimate was "not incredible."

When it becomes available to US consumers on October 22, the G1 will sell for about $179, slightly cheaper than the entry-level price of $199 for Apple Inc's iPhone, with a two-year contract. The G1 will be launched by T-Mobile's UK unit in November and other European countries such as Germany, Netherlands and the Czech Republic in the first quarter of 2009.

"The G1 doesn't threaten Apple now, but Android has raised the bar for competing mobile platforms. The bigger concern here is for Microsoft and Nokia if Google can win over the hearts and minds of operators and developers," said Geoff Blaber, an analyst with British firm CCS Insight.

Next Google phone may change

Both Google and Apple are wooing developers to create applications for their devices, but unlike Apple, which keeps a tight grip on the iPhone's hardware and operating software, Google's Android is open to be changed by outside developers.

Asked if the user interface of future Google phones would look anything like the first one, Andy Rubin, who developed Android for Google, said: "Its completely replaceable." For example, Leslie Grandy, T-Mobile USA's product development vice president sees the carrier selling a range of Google-powered phones in future, including more basic ones without a touch-screen or full keyboards.

The new phone features Android Market, where customers can find and download free applications to expand and personalize their phones. T-Mobile's Grandy said the marketplace would eventually include applications that are sold for a fee.

"Because the platform is open, we think Android is somewhat future proof," Rubin, Google director of mobile platforms, told the audience at the launch. A similar strategy helped increase the buzz around Apple's second-generation iPhone, which can support more than 3,000 applications available online.

Amazon.com's digital music store will be loaded on the G1, allowing users to search, download, buy and play more than six million songs, pitting it against iPhone's music player. Android also competes with Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, which has been solidly gaining ground.

HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou told Reuters his company, which has concentrated on Windows phones so far, is already planning more Android and Windows devices. Between the United States and the United Kingdom, Chou said he expects to have sold more than 400,000 G1 by the year end.

Android's biggest competitor is Symbian software, which represents 60 percent of the smartphone market and which Nokia plans to buy out and open to other developers. Nokia, which has about 40 percent of the mobile phone market, has also branched into mobile Web services such as mapping that compete directly with Google.

Speaking at a conference in Chicago on Tuesday, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said he was not worried by new competition. "The entry of Apple and Google, in fact today in a very concrete way, in mobile communications is the best possible illustration of the fact that there's a lot of possibility here," he said.


Source : Economics Times

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DoCoMo, France Tele in last lap for Tata Tele pie

MUMBAI: The race to induct a strategic partner in Tata Teleservices (TTSL) seems to have narrowed down to Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and European telecom giant France Telecom. The Tata Group is close to diluting its stake for around Rs 5,000 crore in the country’s sixth-largest telecom operator, industry sources told ET .

“Talks are in the final stage and a deal is expected to be announced in the next two months,” informed sources said. One industry source with knowledge of the matter said NTT DoCoMo might be the front-runner. This, however, could not be independently confirmed. Both companies have put in bids. It’s not clear when a formal announcement would be made.

It is also not clear as to the exact stake which the partner will pick up. The figure of Rs 5,000 crore assumes a stake sale in the region of 12%. However, a number of industry sources following the transaction said the bids were for a 26% holding, involving a pay-out (for the investor) of around Rs 10,000 crore. When contacted, a TTSL spokesperson said: “We are in discussions with several players for off-loading a minority stake in our company and cannot comment any further on speculative queries.”

Talks for a stake sale have been on for over six months now. Others who had been earlier eyeing a piece in the company with around 28 million subscribers included UAE’s Etisalat, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim-controlled TelCel and Russian telecom major Altimo. While France Telecom is not new to the Indian telecom landscape, it will be the maiden entry for NTT DoCoMo if it manages to clinch the deal.

In December 2006, DoCoMo had inked an agreement with Hutchison Essar (now Vodafone Essar) for its I-mode services, which include online games, videos and access to content. However, this pact was subsequently cancelled due to regulatory changes.

On the other hand, France Telecom was a 26% partner in BPL Mobile before it sold off the stake to a consortium of investors in January 2005. Subsequently, to enter the world’s fastest-growing telecom market, it finalised a joint venture with Moser Baer to offer long-distance services last year. It also acquired the IT services division of GTL last year and a stake in TTSL, if that were to happen, is expected to complete its India telecom story.

It is possible that Chennai-based tycoon C Sivasankaran, who owns 8% in TTSL, may divest a part of his stake to the new investor. However, most of the fund infusion would take place by way of issue of new shares. An unrelated transaction, which is possibly the sale of a 49% stake in TTSL’s tower business, is also in the works. That deal, which may close in a few months, is likely to fetch around Rs 10,000 crore.

TTSL will use the money for expansion in the CDMA and the soon-to-be-launched GSM services. While TTSL is set to roll out CDMA services in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North-East circles, it has also received start-up GSM spectrum in Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, and Orissa. It requires funds to launch operations as well as for branding and marketing exercises. TTSL MD Anil Sardana has already announced a capex of $2 billion for the GSM rollout.

Singapore-headquartered Temasek and Mr Sivasankaran currently hold 9.9% and around 8% respectively in TTSL. Mr Sivasankaran bought his TTSL stake for Rs 1,200 crore from Tata Sons in March 2006 while Temasek paid around Rs 1,500 crore for its equity.


Source : Economic Times

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Apple 3G iPhone brightens up grey market

MUMBAI: The launch of Apple iPhone by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar seems to have revived the dwindling sales of the gizmo in grey markets.

The reason: the price tag announced by the two GSM giants is too high and all those who had been waiting to buy it officially, are now rushing to the grey markets to get the 16GB iPhone for as low as Rs 20,000-Rs 22,000.

“Sales had dipped after it was announced in May that Airtel and Vodafone will bring iPhone to India. Many postponed buying the phone from us. However, since the prices announced are almost 50-60% more than at what we sell, we are getting back business,” said a dealer at Heera Panna, Mumbai’s best known grey market for all high-end phones.
The two companies are selling the 8GB version for Rs 31,000 and the 16 GB model for Rs 36,100. However, at Vodafone stores, the gadget is now available at Rs 29,640 for 8GB and Rs 34,580 for 16 GB version. This is because Vodafone is not keeping the Rs 1,500 margin in the sales made through its own stores.

According to another dealer, “We were selling the 16GB version for Rs 28,000 till July. But then sales dipped anticipating the operators would have similar price tags. So we reduced prices, which has improved offtake.”

Both these dealers have sold over around 40 units each since the iPhone was launched almost 10 days ago. Accendia Consulting principal analyst Alok Shende said, “Experience across product categories in India is that high prices create a grey market that eventually cannabalises legitimate sales of products.”

The same was true of laptops, computers and video games until prices were brought down to an extent that grey market sales became ineffective, he added.

Foreign travellers who come to India bring iPhones, which are locked to networks. They are then unlocked by the dealers. “It takes not more than 15 minutes now. Most people can unlock it on their own using softwares available in the market,” said one of the dealers, who began with charging Rs 3,000 for unlocking the iPhone last year and now takes only Rs 500.

Apart from this, those travelling from India to the US or other countries where iPhone is available, get the devices for their friends and relatives. “On my last trip to the US, I got six iPhones for my family. I unlocked them on my own and they are all working fine. I paid just $200 (around Rs 8,600) per handset,” said an analyst working with a research firm in Bangalore.

Source : Economic Times

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Every second Indian will go mobile by 2012

NEW DELHI: With India now adding 8-10 million mobile subscribers every month, up to half the nation’s population-or one in every two citizens-will own a mobile phone in India by the middle of 2012.

According to Business Monitor International, a renowned London-based research firm, 612 million mobile subscribers by 2012 will help India clock a mobile teledensity of roughly 51% by 2012. This scorching pace of growth is unlikely to falter unless the sector faces unforeseen policy disasters or if India’s operators fail to roll out their networks.

International Telecom Union’s (ITU) projections are in the same range.India is already the world’s second largest mobile market, behind China’s 500 plus million mobile subscriber base.

Increasing incomes, changing lifestyles and lower cost of technology are allowing more and more Indians to ride the telecom wave. The new numbers overtake earlier estimates, including from UBS, Citigroup and Credit Suisse, predicting a mobile population of 400-450 million by March 2010. Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers have been more even conservative, betting on a base of just 400 million by 2010.

However, India will reach this milestone in 2009 itself. India’s mobile revolution has been a huge social leveler, with the growing number of users tying a diverse nation in a manner rarely seen before.

Its youth are expected to contribute significantly to these surging numbers. Sir Richard Branson, founder, Virgin Group, which tied up with Tata Teleservices to launch branded services in India recently said, “An exciting market, with over 215 million Indians aged 14-25 years. Over the next three years we expect to be adding 50 million new youth subscribers.’’

While companies like Virgin are currently focused on the urban market, it is clear that the next set of growth will come from B and C category cities as well as rural India. Mobile penetration of this magnitude has the ability to revolutionalize long distance learning and health care quickly reaching some of the most far flung and difficult terrains.

Where mobile content is concerned most analysts agree that, largely on the back of India’s popular film industry, music services will grow very quickly, even if other content related revenue lags behind.

Given that a reasonable part of the population by 2010 will be children below 14 and senior citizens, it seems mobile access among the youth and working classes will be more in the range of 70-80%. In policy terms, government needs to quickly turn its focus on redirecting funds for rural mobile access, manage spectrum efficiently and invite multi-billion dollar investments at a pan-India level to fuel this already scorching telecom growth.

Source : Economic Times

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You can soon pick your best STD plan

NEW DELHI: You’ll soon get to choose the cheapest STD and ISD tariffs, irrespective of your service provider. After recommending that internet telephony be opened up, telecom regulator TRAI this week will mandate that telcos offer their subscribers the freedom to choose a carrier of their choice for making long-distance calls, whether domestic (STD) or international (ISD).

This will start a new era of competition in long-distance calls, provided the government acts promptly to amend licence conditions to enable telcos comply with the TRAI directive.

What TRAI has in mind is not quite implementation of the carrier access code (CAC) project mooted several years ago. In the face of resistance by telcos to CAC and the willingness of the Department of Telecom (DoT) to play along with them, TRAI has come up with a variation. This is how it will work. Suppose, you are a Bharti subscriber and you find out BSNL is offering the cheapest long-distance tariffs.

You then buy a pre-paid long-distance package from BSNL for a specific duration. You punch in a set of numbers specified in the package to get on to the BSNL network, and then proceed to make the long-distance call you wanted to, and talk for as long as your pre-paid package permits.

The regulator will also mandate that all telcos offer their customers the facility to purchase pre-paid long-distance packages or virtual calling cards on the internet. Globally, long-distance tariffs have fallen between 20% and 53% after customers were allowed to choose their operator. Even players like PowerGrid, RailTel and Gail, who have long-distance backbones, can offer this facility along with telcos that provide customer access.

The TRAI directive is bound to hit the bottomlines of major operators. Telecom stocks were already down on Tuesday following TRAI’s recommendations on net telephony.

Net telephony may hit telcos’ bottomlines

Because, if the DoT accepts TRAI’s proposals on net telephony, it will adversely impact the business models of all telcos. In Tuesday’s trading, Idea Cellular was down 5.05%, Reliance Communications fell 3.06% while Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices slid 2.1% and 1.8%, respectively.

ET has learnt that TRAI has decided on this move as the DoT has failed to implement the much-delayed CAC. The implementation of CAC would have allowed subscribers to choose the long-distance operator of their choice to make STD/ISD calls without having to purchase any pre-paid package.

Telcos have always opposed CAC on the grounds that each player will have to shell out about Rs 5,000 crore for network upgradation before they can offer this facility.

“Allowing consumers the freedom to choose their long-distance service provider over pre-paid packages is our answer to DoT’s failure to implement CAC. TRAI will no longer push for the implementation of CAC and the issue will be buried. Under the new system, telcos can no longer complain about network upgradation costs and stop its implementation. All telcos have intelligent networks in place to handle this service,” a top TRAI source told ET.


“This will be a directive to telcos. We will ask the DoT to make the requisite changes in the licence conditions of telcos so that they can offer this facility,” the TRAI source added.

TRAI officials also say that in addition to increasing competition among service providers, offering customers the freedom to choose their long-distance operator will also open up revenue streams for other long-distance licence holders. For instance, players such as PowerGrid, RailTel, Gail, Sify, AT&T, British Telecom and Tulip Telecom, among others, who have fibre networks in India can now directly compete to carry calls of operators. This implies, Bharti, Vodafone or Idea customer can now specifically buy a package from Gail or PowerGrid to carry his STD calls if these companies offer cheaper tariff rates.

TRAI sources also added that all long-distance carriers would have to enter into mutual agreements. “In case operators do not agree on interconnect agreements, we will step in and facilitate timelines and also stipulate penalties for delay in signing contracts and implementation,” they added.

This facility will, however, not be extended to local calls. Several NLD operators have pointed out that due to large volumes of local calls, customers prefer to work with incumbent operator. Besides, globally extending this facility for local calls have not yielded customer preferences and they have continued to use the incumbent operator.

Source : Economic Times

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Apple's iPhone raises concern over Data security

And you thought Google's got the goods on you. Sure, the Web search leader keeps tabs on the searches that emanate from your PC. But consider the data dossier that could be drawn up on users of Apple's iPhone.

Subscribers use the music-playing mobile phone not just for storing music, photos, and contact lists, but also for e-mail, Web surfing, and software downloads from Apple's iTunes.

Concern over how Apple and software developers that work with it might use some of that intel surfaced in recent days with reports that the company built in a "kill switch" that lets it disable applications it considers malicious, even after they've been downloaded onto a subscriber's phone.

"The idea that Apple can choose what functionality my applications should have frightens me," Jon Zdziarski, who discovered the existence of the kill switch, recently wrote on his blog.

"How about legislation that requires a mandatory kill switch be integrated into every human being, so that the police can kill an individual without even needing to dispatch an officer to a scene?"

But for all the unease over the kill switch, concerns over how Apple may use iPhone subscriber data may be misplaced, industry experts say. Apple isn't alone in monitoring the applications used on its phones.

Carriers keep close tabs on what's being downloaded onto users' handsets. Mobile software retailer Handango regularly removes offending games and utility applications from its site if they appear to infringe on another company's copyright.

"We have to do this all the time," says Handango CEO Bill Stone.

Overriding Privacy Laws?

Companies across the industry already collect oodles of user data. Handango, for instance, knows which phone model its customers use and which applications they buy, so it can recommend additional products.

Microsoft (MSFT) and Nokia (NOK) gather information on people who sign up for their newsletters and mobile online communities. Windows Mobile devices come with an application that lets users volunteer to participate in market research.

Phones of people who opt in send the Redmond (Wash.) giant information on how and when they are used. Microsoft uses the data to regulate the wireless bandwidth usage of phones.

Members of the Windows Mobile Total Access community provide Microsoft with name, location, phone purchase date, e-mail address, and job information. And both Nokia and Microsoft have their own "kill switch" tools—though they're more limited in scope than Apple's.

But as a rule, companies that collect user data comply with stringent privacy laws, and can typically view only aggregate user data. Apple didn't respond to multiple requests for comment but says in a disclaimer on its Web site:

"We collect information regarding customer activities" through sites, including iTunes. "This helps us to determine how best to provide useful information to customers and to understand which parts of our websites, products, and Internet services are of most interest to them."

Apple's "Holy Grail"

Though Apple is hardly alone in gathering user data, it has the potential to collect more data than rivals. According to a survey of 460 iPhone users by market researcher Rubicon Consulting, 40% of the device's owners plan to download additional software.

That means a huge percentage of iPhone users are now making purchases through the iTunes App Store. Thanks to iTunes, Apple already knows their tastes in music. Now it also knows which games they like to play, and which productivity applications they like to use.

Other handset makers rely more on piecemeal data shared by carrier partners or collected from small focus groups. The extra information could help Apple more quickly develop features and software its users want.

Apple can also track the quality of wireless networks its devices use by noting how fast downloads occur. "No one's been able to do that before," says Richard Doherty, director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group. "That's the holy grail.

By continually monitoring how consumers are using the phone, they are able to be super-responsive to glitches." Apple can also push software updates onto phones. Users of some other mobile devices have to seek out software updates themselves.

Don't be surprised if those other manufacturers start following suit.

Source : Economic Times

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