China Mobile says no iPhone deal with Apple yet

Agence France-Presse, December 05, 2013

China Mobile, the world's biggest wireless operator, said Thursday it is still negotiating with US technology giant Apple over offering iPhones on its huge network and that a deal has yet to be reached.

The Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed sources as saying that the two companies have inked an agreement to add iPhones to the colossal telecom firm's roster of compatible devices later this month.

But China Mobile which has more than 700 million subscribers denied the report.

"Talks between China Mobile and Apple on cooperation are still going on and we currently do not have anything to announce," the carrier's spokeswoman Rainie Lei told AFP.

No further information was provided.

China Mobile has a unique 3G standard of its own that is not compatible with any existing iPhone models, although the Californian giant's handsets can be used on other networks in China.

Negotiations between Apple and China Mobile have been going on for years, with one key hurdle reportedly being the US firm's demand for sales volume guarantees.

A deal would be a boon for Apple, which has seen its global market share slip and has made the Chinese market a priority.

China Mobile also is keen to sell iPhones to strengthen its edge over smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom.

The Chinese government on Wednesday granted the three operators, all state-owned, licences to offer services on the faster and better quality 4G network, expected to usher in a new era of competition between mobile phone makers.

China Mobile's shares rose 0.5 percent to close at HK$84.7 ($11) in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Apple inks China Mobile deal, gets over 700 million new potential iPhone customers: Report

Reuters, December 05, 2013

China Mobile Ltd, the country's largest mobile operator, has signed a long-awaited deal with Apple Inc to offer iPhones on its network, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter.

The news comes a day after China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 4G licenses to China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom in another widely expected move.

(Also see: China Mobile may announce iPhone deal as early as next week)

The rollout of iPhones by the world's largest mobile carrier by users, with more than 700 million subscribers, is expected to start around the time of a December 18 China Mobile conference in the southern city of Guangzhou, according to two people familiar with the carrier's plans, the newspaper reported.

Officials with Apple and China Mobile declined to comment.

China Mobile is one of the world's last major carriers that does not offer the iPhone. The company has trailed behind its smaller rivals in attracting users to its home-grown 3G standard due to its poorer network service.

At 0200 GMT, China Mobile shares in Hong Kong were up 1 percent, while smaller rivals China Unicom was up 1.3 percent and China Telecom inched up 0.4 percent.

Nokia-Microsoft deal cleared by European Commission

Agence France-Presse, December 05, 2013

The European Commission approved on Wednesday Microsoft's nearly 5.5-billion-euro takeover of the mobile phone business of Finland's Nokia which once dominated the global industry.

The acquisition does "not raise any competition concerns, in particular because there are only modest overlaps between" the two companies, the Commission said in a statement.

(Also see: Microsoft to acquire Nokia's Devices & Services business in 5.44 billion euros deal)

The links that do exist between existing Microsoft activities and Nokia's smartphone devices "are unlikely to lead to competitors being shut out from the market," it said.

In smartphones and tablets, the two companies face "several strong rivals, such as Samsung andApple (who) will continue to compete with the merged entity," it said.

Software giant Microsoft would also have little incentive to restrict use of its Windows operating system for other device makers or of its mobile apps, it said.

Once the world leader in mobile phones, Nokia lost its top place to South Korea's Samsung in 2012, especially as its rivals took the lead in the key smartphone market.

Apple testing 12.9-inch iPads, may launch a 4K display model next year: Report

Anupam Saxena, December 04, 2013

In a follow-up to previous rumours, a new report claims that Apple is testing different prototypes of 12.9-inch iPad models, made for the company by its Chinese assembler partner Foxconn.
 
According to a report by Chinese publication PadNews (via Apple Insider), Apple is currently testing five different 12.9-inch iPad prototypes made by Foxconn. The report also mentions that Apple could launch a new iPad that features a 2K resolution screen, in the first half of 2014, and a 4K resolution screen, a few months after that.  
 
The report cites sources as saying that Apple could launch the first model of the larger iPad in April and the 4K ultra-HD variant as part of the regular iPad launch in October 2014.
 
The report did not specify the resolution of the purported larger iPad models. 
 
It's not the first time that rumours related to large screen iPads have surfaced. 
 
Previously, the Wall Street Journal had reported that Apple was testing a new tablet measuring slightly less than 13-inches diagonally, citing officials at Apple's suppliers. Another report by Digitimes also hinted at Apple and Samsung working on devices with 12-inch or larger displays for their respective tablets.
 
Korean website ETNews.com had also reported that Apple was working on a new larger iPad with a 12.9-inch diagonal screen which would be called iPad Maxi. It had said that this iPad variant would launch in the first half of 2014 and would take on Ultrabooks. It would also target the educational market with digital textbooks. The website cited industry sources to report that Apple was in talks with display and component manufacturers in Korea for supplies for this tablet.  

Twitter to soon be accessible on mobiles without Internet in emerging markets

Reuters, December 06, 2013

Twitter Inc is tying up with a Singapore-based startup to make its 140-character messaging service available to users in emerging markets who have entry-level mobile phones which cannot access the Internet.

U2opia Mobile, which has a similar tie-up with Facebook Inc, will launch its Twitter service in the first quarter of next year, Chief Executive and Co-founder Sumesh Menon told Reuters.

Users will need to dial a simple code to get a feed of the popular trending topics on Twitter, he said.

More than 11 million people use U2opia's Fonetwish service, which helps access Facebook andGoogle Talk on mobile without a data connection.

Twitter, which boasts of about 230 million users, held a successful initial public offering last month that valued the company at around $25 billion.

U2opia uses a telecom protocol named USSD, or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, which does not allow viewing of pictures, videos or other graphics.

"USSD as a vehicle for Twitter is almost hand in glove because Twitter has by design a character limit, it's a very text-driven social network," Menon said.

Eight out of 10 people in emerging markets are still not accessing data on their phone, he said.

U2opia, which is present in 30 countries in seven international languages, will localize the Twitter feed according to the location of the user.

"So somebody in Paraguay would definitely get content that would be very very localized to that market vis a vis somebody sitting in Mumbai or Bangalore," he said.

The company, whose biggest markets are Africa and South America, partners with telecom carriers such as Telenor, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel Ltd. U2opia usually gets 30 to 40 percent of what users pay its telecom partners to access Fonetwish.

"For a lot of end users in the emerging markets, it's going to be their first Twitter experience," Menon said.

iOS 7 running on 74 percent of iOS devices in less than three months: Apple

Anupam Saxena, December 06, 2013

Less than three months after it released to the public, iOS 7, Apple's latest mobile operating system has already captured the lion's share, being present on 74 percent of all iOS devices.
 
Apple has shared statistics related to the distribution share of different versions of iOS on its developer website for the iTunes App Store. These numbers are based on App Store usage, so devices not using it to download apps would not be included. 
 
The data was measured by the iTunes App Store during a seven day period ending December 1, 2013, as per Apple.
 
This doesn't come as a surprise as the Cupertino giant had announced that the iOS 7 was already running on 200 million devices, less than a week after its public release.
 
Interestingly, iOS 6 was present on 22 percent iOS devices, while the earlier versions recorded their presence on 4 percent devices, as per Apple.
 
This means that 96 percent of iOS devices are running the last two iterations of the OS. Compare this to the latest Android statistics and you'll notice that the latest version, Android 4.4 KitKat, is only present on 1.1 percent of all Android devices after a month of its release. The combined share of Android Jelly Bean, the other recent version of the OS is also just 54.5 percent with Android 4.1.x on 37.4 percent devices, Android 4.2.x on 12.9 percent and Android 4.3 on 4.2 percent devices. 
 
It also doesn't help that old versions of Android such as Android 2.3.x are still running on more than 20 percent devices making things difficult for users as well as developers. This means that a significant number of Android users don't get access to the latest version of some apps.
 
However, it's worth pointing out that unlike Android, Apple's OS updates are much more streamlined and target only a limited number of devices made by it. It also doesn't need to go through OEMs and carriers before being seeded out to the public, reducing the time taken to reach end users by leaps and bounds. 

Why China Mobile iPhone tie-up is a big deal for Apple

Agence France-Presse, December 06, 2013

It could be a huge breakthrough for Apple to win a place in the line-up of China's largest telecom provider and a big shakeup for the smartphone market.

A report in the Wall Street Journal said Apple had reached agreement with China Mobile to bring the iPhone to customers in a market dominated by low-cost Android smartphones.

The Journal quoted unnamed sources as saying that the two companies have inked an agreement to add iPhones to the colossal telecom firm's roster of compatible devices later this month. China Mobile denied the report.

"Talks between China Mobile and Apple on cooperation are still going on and we currently do not have anything to announce," the carrier's spokeswoman Rainie Lei told AFP.

Yet such a deal would be a major coup for the US tech giant, which could gain a beachhead in the world's most populous nation,

China Mobile had more than 750 million subscribers as of October, according to Cantor Fitzgerald Research, which estimated that 35 million to 45 million iPhones were on the network despite the lack of a deal between the companies.

The market tracking firm estimated that Apple could sell as many as 24 million iPhones on the China Mobile network next year if it were added to the network's formal line-up.

Ben Thompson of tech new website Stratechery referred to Apple getting in synch with China Mobile "a very big deal."

"Feel free to ignore anyone making snarky comments about China's average monthly wage being the same as the price of an iPhone 5C," Thompson wrote in a blog post.

He listed two pertinent facts about China for Apple as there being "tremendous income disparity" and "a ton of people" in a country with a population estimated at topping 1.3 billion.

"China consumers appear to us to have a deep admiration for Apple's products," Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White said in a note to investors giving shares a "buy" rating.

"Apple now has the opportunity to tap into the largest carrier in the world," he added, noting that China Mobile was just granted a license to upgrade to a new-generation network better suited for iPhones.

Apple chief Tim Cook has made China a priority for the company, and may travel there to take part in an announcement at a China Mobile conference later this month.

Industry tracker IDC forecast that smartphone sales in China will reach 360 million this year and, with the issuance of 4G network licenses and iPhones launched on China Mobile, top 450 million in 2014.

China Mobile has a unique 3G standard of its own that is not compatible with any existing iPhone models, although the Californian giant's handsets can be used on other networks in China.

The Chinese government on Wednesday granted three operators, all state-owned, licenses to offer services on the faster and better quality 4G network, expected to usher in a new era of competition between mobile phone makers.

Apple will still have to compete with low-priced smartphones powered by Google's free Android software, but the massive China market includes an abundance of people who have money to spend on iPhones, according to some analysts.

"It is difficult to displace Android's dominant position in the Chinese market within a short period of time, but IDC predicts that its share in China's mobile phone operating system market will reach the peak in 2013, and that the mobile phone vendors and telecom operators will adopt new operating systems with a more open attitude," IDC China mobile phone market analyst James Yan said in a recent quarterly analysis.

IDC anticipated rapid growth of iPhone sales in China next year, but noted that budding mobile operating systems such Samsung's Tizen and Firefox should "enable healthy competition."