Augmented reality: A battle between Apple and Google

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Alphabet Inc’s Google on Wednesday unveiled tools to make augmented reality apps for mobile devices using the Android operating system, setting up its latest showdown with Apple Inc’s iPhone over next-generation smartphone features.

Phone-based augmented reality (AR), in which digital objects are superimposed onto the real world on screen, got a huge boost from the popularity of the Pokémon Go game. The game, launched in the United States in July last year, sent players into city streets, offices, parks and restaurants to search for colorful animated characters.

Analysts expected the game to make $3 billion for Apple over two years as gamers buy “PokéCoins” from its app store.

Google’s take on the technology will first be available on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Google’s own Pixel phone. The company said in a blog post that it hoped to make the system, called ARCore, available to at least 100 million users, but did not set a date for a broad release.

Apple in June announced a similar system called ARKit that it plans to release this fall on “hundreds of millions” of devices.

Google and Apple will jockey for the attention of customers and software developers who will build the games, walking guides and other applications that would make AR a compelling feature.

Many tech industry leaders envision a future in which eyeglasses, car windshields and other surfaces can overlay digital information on the real world. Google and Microsoft Corp have already experimented with AR glasses.

“AR is big and profound,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told investors earlier in August. “And this is one of those huge things that we’ll look back at and marvel on the start of it.”

Apple and Google have had to make compromises to bring the technology to market.

In Apple’s case, the Cupertino, California-based company decided to make its AR system work with devices capable of running iOS 11, its next-generation operating system due out this fall.

This means it will work on phones going back to the iPhone 6s, which have a single camera at the back and standard motion sensors, rather than a dual camera system found on newer models such as the iPhone 7 Plus or special depth-sensing chips in competing phones. That limits the range of images that can be displayed.

Google initially aimed to solve this problem with an AR system called Tango that uses a special depth-sensor, but only two phone makers so far support it. With ARCore, Google changed course to work on phones without depth sensors.

But the fragmentation of the Android ecosystem presents challenges. To spread its AR system beyond the Galaxy S8 and Pixel phone, Google will have to figure out how account for the wide variety of Android phone cameras or require phone makers to use specific parts.

Apple, however, is able to make its system work well because it knows exactly which hardware and software are on the iPhone and calibrates them tightly.

Michael Valdsgaard, a developer with the furniture chain IKEA, called the system “rock solid,” noting that it could estimate the size of virtual furniture placed in a room with 98 percent accuracy, despite lacking special sensors.

“This is a classic example of where Apple’s ownership of the whole widget including both hardware and software is a huge advantage over device vendors dependent on Android and the broader value chain of component vendors,” said Jan Dawson, founder and chief analyst of Jackdaw Research.

source: interaksyon.com

Social media ads to hit $50 billion by 2019 — Zenith

The amount of money spent on advertising on social media is set to catch up with newspaper ad revenues by 2020, a leading forecaster said on Monday.

The rapid expansion of social media platforms on mobile devices, as well as faster internet connectivity and more sophisticated technology, has triggered a huge shift in the way many people get their news.

Advertising agency Zenith Optimedia, owned by France’s Publicis, predicts global advertising expenditure on social media will account for 20 percent of all internet advertising in 2019, hitting $50 billion (39 billion pounds) and coming in just one percent smaller than newspaper ads. It expects social media to overtake newspapers comfortably by 2020.

“Social media and online video are driving continued growth in global ad spend, despite political threats to the economy,” Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at Zenith, said.

The media industry has been convulsed by the rapid shift in advertising trends in recent years, with firms moving their ad budgets from traditional sources such as newspapers to websites found on computers and mobile phones.

Marketers are increasingly directing their spending to social media sites where ads blend into users’ newsfeeds on platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat proving more effective than interruptive banner formats.

Zenith’s report forecasts that global advertising expenditure will grow 4.4 percent in 2017, the same rate as in 2016, which it said would be a strong performance given that big events like the Olympic Games, Britain’s EU referendum and the U.S. presidential election boosted advertising this year.

Online video advertising is also rapidly growing and set to total $35.4 billion across the world by 2019, fractionally ahead of the amount spent on radio advertising but still far less than television.

Global spending on advertising has been stable since 2010 the report showed, although growth has declined in the Middle East and North Africa. It was expected to continue to grow strongly in China and much of Asia.

source: interaksyon.com

MAIA SERIES | Cherry Mobile unveils Intel-powered mobile devices

MANILA, Philippines — Local phone brand Cherry Mobile launched their Intel-powered MAIA Series of smartphones and tablets, along with their announcement of their newest brand endorser, Janella Salvador.

“Cherry Mobile’s latest MAIA series is dedicated to the youth with their untiring passion in mind,” said Maynard Ngu, Cherry Mobile chief executive.

MAIA, which is an abbreviation for Making Amazing Innovation Available, was introduced with the “hope that the youth and young professionals would have more avenues to express their passions and dreams, just like Janella,” according to Ngu.

“Today’s youth are more empowered and capable than ever,” said Calum Chilsholm, country manager at Intel Philippines. “This is what we aim to leverage through our partnership with Cherry mobile. The new MAIA Series of mobile devices can help us provide amazing experiences with the youth, empowering them through affordable but competitive devices.”

The three main devices launched by Cherry Mobile were the MAIA Fone i4, MAIA PAD, and the MAIA SMART TAB.

The MAIA Fone i4 comes with an Intel Atom x3 processor, Android Kitkat 4.4 OS, a 4-inch capacitive screen, 4GB internal memory expandable up to 64 GB with an microSD card, and dual-SIM Capabilities. The smartphone is priced at P1,999.

The MAIA Pad is also powered by an Intel Atom x3 processor, as it comes with an Android Kitkat 4.4.4 OS, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory expandable by up to 32GB through microSD, has dual-SIM options, and has a 7” screen. The tablet is priced at P2,999.

The MAIA Smart Tab with its 8-inch screen is powered by an Intel Atom Z3735F 1.8GHz quad-core processor, as it comes with Smart Boot, enabling the tablet to function with operating systems: Kitkat 4.4 and Windows 8.1; 2BG RAM, 32 GB internal memory expandable up to 64 GB through microSD, and 3,800mAh battery. The tablet is priced at P4,999.

The MAIA Series smartphones and tablets are available at Cherry Mobile Kiosks and Concept Stores nationwide starting October.

source: interaksyon.com

No more ‘dead spots’ for cellular mobile devices — Smart

MANILA, Philippines — Smart Communications Inc. on Monday said it has started testing on its network a boosting device that eliminates the “dead spots” inside homes and offices.

In a statement, Smart said the Cel-Fi device can dramatically improve mobile reception for voice and data in enclosed spaces.

“Cel-Fi offers a lot of promise because it functions much like a personal cell site and boosts the network performance in corners where signal strength is challenged,” Orlando B. Vea, Smart co-founder and chief wireless advisor said.

“As the leader in wireless services, Smart has continually been on the lookout for new technologies that can enhance the consumers’ mobile experience and offer the best value for them,” he added.

Cel-Fi addresses indoor dead spots by tapping at least one bar of available 3G signal and amplifying it, effectively boosting both 3G and 4G HSPA+ mobile connectivity throughout a specific area.

Designed by US-based Nextivity, the user-friendly device can handle 60 simultaneous calls and support high-speed connections reaching 42 Mbps in an area of up to 1,200 sq. m., making it ideal for homes and small offices.

Compliant with the strict standards of the Federal Communications Commission, Cel-Fi is authorized for use by 120 mobile operators around the world, including AT&T and T-Mobile.

source: interaksyon.com

Facebook says app for ‘simple’ phones used by 100 million

NEW YORK CITY — US social network giant Facebook said Monday it has surpassed 100 million users a month using an application designed for “simple” mobile phones widely used in developing nations.

Launched two years ago, the “Facebook For Every Phone” app enables people to connect “no matter what kind of mobile device they use,” the company said in a statement.

“Today, millions of people in developing markets like India, Indonesia and the Philippines are relying on this technology to connect with Facebook, without having to purchase a (more expensive) smartphone,” Facebook said.


The application works on more than 3,000 different types of low-cost phones “from almost every handset manufacturer that exists today.”

The app “includes Facebook’s most popular features, such as News Feed, Messenger and Photos,” and allows first-time users to create a new account and find old friends.

As of late March, Facebook reported having 751 million customers using accessing their site on mobile devices, up a whopping 54 percent from one year earlier.

source: interaksyon.com

Samsung Galaxy S4 blitz may prompt Apple rethink

SAN FRANCISCO — Samsung’s newest, feature-packed Galaxy S4 may put pressure on Apple Inc to accelerate its pace of smartphone design and venture into cheaper devices – both departures from usual practice.

The latest Galaxy, unwrapped with much fanfare in New York on Thursday, out-does the iPhone in most technical aspects. But the challenges it encapsulates run deeper than just a simple specifications comparison.

“It would be overstatement to say Apple is far behind,” Charles Golvin, analyst with Forrester, said, but it does need to note the quickening pace of competitive devices being released.

“If anything, what Apple needs to respond to is the cadence of their own releases, probably a completely new design every two years and a sort of speed bump every year is not an adequate cadence for Apple to remain at the forefront of smartphone innovation today.”

Samsung’s apparent ability to go toe-to-toe with Apple on cutting-edge smartphones may prompt the U.S. titan to finally make its own assault on the lower-end of the market that it has famously stayed away from — not least to get into untapped markets like China and India.

Many analysts now say Apple has to respond in force to Samsung and other rivals that are grabbing attention. Much of Wall Street is now looking ahead to the next iPhone, but expectations are muted.

Once the darling of Wall Street, Apple has in six months seen its shares fall 30 percent from a high of $705. Its Maps software was panned for inaccuracies; its once-reliable financial results, that rarely failed to surpass Wall Street estimates, missed analysts’ expectations.

IN A RUT

Apple appears stuck in an iPhone product cycle, with a new phone typically launched in the second half. In past years, the iPhone has gotten a complete redesign only every two years.

Brian White, analyst with Topeka Capital Markets, who views the Samsung Galaxy S4 as a refresh and “not a game changer,” said smartphone technology is now improving so fast that timetables put Apple at a disadvantage.

More importantly, White said, Apple needs to broaden its portfolio and play in more smartphone categories as the high-end market could soon be saturated, and get into new categories such as the oft-rumored television or a smart watch.

“They have all the components of the magic potion, which is the hardware-software ecosystem,” he said. “All they need to do is take that potion and put it in a different segment of the iPhone market.”

While many on Wall Street believe the quickest way to penetrate fast-growing markets like India and China is a cheaper iPhone, the risk is that a cheap iPhone would cannibalize demand for the premium version and eat into Apple’s peerless margins.

Apple’s vice-like grip on its ecosystem – with the closely managed app store and its seamless integration with the hardware – is still seen as its biggest strength, one that Samsung is trying to emulate with a larger investment in software and connectivity. The Korean giant is also emphasizing its own mobile “Samsung Hub” rather than the Google Play store that most other Android adopters point to.

The iPhone has seen its sales increase to 125 million in fiscal 2012 from 40 million in fiscal 2010. But in 2012, Samsung became the No.1 in the global smartphone market with 30.3 percent share followed by Apple with 19 percent share.

Samsung’s rapid rise is partly helped by the fact that it bombards the market with close to 40 versions tweaked for regional and consumer tastes, from high-end to cheaper models.

Samsung’s momentum is a major issue for Apple, Ben Reitzes, analyst with Barclays, who is expecting Apple to launch a lower-end iPhone globally this summer.

Apple declined to comment on Friday. But a day before Samsung’s launch, marketing chief Phil Schiller attacked Google’s Android operating system, saying that the majority of its users were stuck on older versions. He also said Apple’s internal research showed four times as many consumers were switching to iOS from Android than vice versa.

source: interaksyon.com

BlackBerry plans security feature for Android, iPhone

TORONTO — BlackBerry will offer technology to separate and make secure both work and personal data on mobile devices powered by Google Inc’s Android platform and by Apple Inc’s iOS operating system, the company said on Thursday.

The new feature could help BlackBerry sell high-margin services to enterprise clients even if many, or all, of their workers are using smartphones made by BlackBerry’s competitors. That may be crucial for the company as it has lost a vast amount of market share to the iPhone and to Android devices, such as Samsung Electronics Co’s Galaxy line.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said he expects BlackBerry’s device management software to gain traction this year, and boost revenue next year.

“Supporting devices with the best, most secure, and easiest-to-use mobile solution should enable RIM to transform into what we believe is an attractive model,” he said in a note to clients.

The offering could help BlackBerry shore up its profitable services business. BlackBerry’s shares plunged in December after it said it would change the way it charges for services, cutting fees for customers that do not need advanced security and other enhanced features.

The new Secure Work Space feature will be available before the end of June, and will be managed through BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, the platform that allows BlackBerry’s corporate and government clients to handle devices using different operating systems on their networks.

BlackBerry said the feature fences off corporate email, calendar, contacts, tasks, memos, web browsing and document editing from personal apps and content, which could be less secure.

Balancing act

In a bid to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced a new line of smartphones powered by its BlackBerry 10 operating system earlier this year.

The touch screen version, dubbed the Z10, is on sale in more than 20 countries, while a device called the Q10, with a physical keyboard, will be available in April.

The new devices have a feature called Balance, which keeps corporate and personal data separate. It allows information technology departments to manage the corporate content on a device, while ensuring privacy for users, who can store and use personal apps and content on the same phone without corporate oversight.

With Secure Work Space, “we’re extending as many of these (Balance) features as possible to other platforms,” David Smith, BlackBerry’s head of mobile enterprise computing, said in a statement.

BlackBerry’s move comes as Samsung, whose Galaxy devices have gained great popularity, attempts to make itself a more viable option for business customers with security features such as Samsung Knox and SAFE, or Samsung for Enterprise.

BlackBerry said Secure Work Space means clients would not need to configure and manage expensive virtual private network (VPN) infrastructure in order to give workers’ devices access to data and applications that reside behind corporate firewalls.

“Secure Work Space also offers the same end-to-end encryption for data in transit as we have offered on BlackBerry for many years, so there is no need for a VPN,” Peter Devenyi, head of enterprise software, said in an interview.

Selling service

The new feature could also help stem declines in BlackBerry’s service revenue. That business has long been a cash cow for BlackBerry because of the large clients that pay to use its extensive network and security offerings.

However, the company has been under pressure to reduce its infrastructure access fees, and opted to do so during the transition to BlackBerry 10. Due to the changes, BlackBerry’s service revenue is expected to decline over the course of this year.

Giving its large array of corporate clients the ability to manage BlackBerry devices, along with Android smartphones and iPhones on their networks might encourage both corporate and government clients to continue to pay for and use BlackBerry’s device management services.

BlackBerry plans to report quarterly results on March 28.

Last week, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said sales of the Z10 had surpassed BlackBerry’s expectations in emerging markets such as India, where cheaper entry-level phones are typically popular.

On Wednesday, the company said it had received an order for 1 million BlackBerry 10 smartphones – the largest order it has ever had from a single customer – and its shares jumped.

source: interaksyon.com

Samsung refreshes iPhone-challenging Galaxy line

NEW YORK (AP) — Samsung Electronics is kicking up its competition with Apple with its new Galaxy S 4 smartphone, which has a larger, sharper screen than its predecessor, the best-selling S III.

Samsung trumpeted the much-anticipated phone's arrival Thursday at an event accompanied by a live orchestra while an audience of thousands watched the onstage theatrics. The Galaxy S 4, which crams a 5-inch (12.7-centimeter) screen into body slightly smaller than the S III's, will go sale globally in the April to June period.

In the U.S., it will be sold by all four national carriers — Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA — as well as by smaller ones US Cellular and Cricket.

Samsung didn't say what the phone will cost, but it can be expected to start at $200 with a two-year contract in the U.S.

JK Shin, the executive in charge of Samsung's mobile communications division, promised the money would be well spent for a "life companion" that will "improve the way most people live every day."

That bold promise set the tone for the kind of flashy presentation associated with the showmanship of Apple, the company that Samsung has been trying to upstage. Apple contends Samsung has been trying to do it by stealing its ideas — an allegation has triggered bitter courtroom battles around the world.

In the last two years, Samsung has emerged as Apple's main competitor in the high-end smartphone market. At the same time, it has sold enough inexpensive low-end phones to edge out Nokia Corp. as the world's largest maker of phones.

The Galaxy line has been Samsung's chief weapon in the smartphone fight, and it has succeeded in making it a recognizable brand while competitors like Taiwan's HTC Corp. and South Korean rival LG have stumbled. Samsung has sold 100 million Galaxy S phones since they first came out in 2010. That's still well below the 268 million iPhones Apple has sold in the same period, but Samsung's sales rate is catching up.

Research firm Strategy Analytics said the Galaxy S III overtook Apple's iPhone 4S as the world's best-selling smartphone for the first time in the third quarter of last year, as Apple fans were holding off for the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 took back the crown in the fourth quarter.

One way Samsung and other makers of Android phone have been one-upping Apple is by increasing the screen size. Every successive generation of the Galaxy line has been bigger than the one before. The S III sported a screen that measures 4.8 inches (12.19 centimeters) on the diagonal, already substantially larger than the iPhone 5's 4-inch (10.16-centimeter) screen. The S 4's screen is 56 percent larger than the iPhone's.

In a Wednesday interview, Apple Phil Schiller declined to discuss whether Apple is considering enlarging the screen on the next model of the iPhone, which is expected to be released later this year. He said Apple remains confident that the iPhone 5 is the most useful and elegant smartphone available, hailing it as "the most beautiful consumer electronics device ever created."

Samsung believes the S 4 will set the new standard.

Apart from the larger screen and upgraded processor, the S 4 has a battery that's 20 percent larger than that of the S III. Samsung didn't say if that translates into a longer battery life — the added capacity might be gobbled up by the bigger screen or other internal changes.

The S 4 comes with a built-in infra-red diode, so it can control an entertainment center as a universal remote. This is a feature that has showed up in Android tablets before.

The S 4 comes with several new technologies intended to help users interact with the phone. For instance, the screen now senses fingers hovering just above the screen, and some applications react. The Mail application shows the first few lines of an email when a finger hovers above it in the list, and the Gallery application shows an expanded thumbnail.

Users can control some other applications by making gestures in the air above the phone. In the browser, you can command the screen to scroll up by swiping from top to bottom a few inches from the phone.

The Camera application can now use both the front and rear cameras simultaneously, inserting a small picture of the user even as he's capturing the scene in front of him.

When several S 4s are in close proximity, they can link up to play the same music, simultaneously — perfect for headphone dance parties.

source: philstar.com

Google results miss; shares dive after premature report

SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc’s quarterly results fell well short of Wall Street’s expectations after its core advertising business slowed, stunning investors accustomed to consistently rapid growth from the Internet giant and wiping more than 9 percent off its market value.

The disappointing numbers on Thursday came hours ahead of schedule in a rare instance of premature filing. Google blamed the misfire on an unauthorized filing by its financial printers, RR Donnelley & Sons Co, and later confirmed the numbers’ accuracy.

The earnings report, which had not been expected until after the market close, revealed a weakening in Google’s core Internet advertising business and persistent losses at its recently acquired cellphone business, Motorola Mobility.

Shares of Google, the world’s No. 1 Internet search engine, finished Thursday’s regular trading session down 8 percent at $695 after a brief trading halt. Some analysts said the inadvertent results release spurred confusion and exacerbated its stock price decline.

Google executives maintained in a conference call on Thursday that the company’s various businesses continued to benefit from healthy growth and that Google was well-positioned to capitalize on consumer’s increasing use of mobile devices.

Chief Executive Larry Page, speaking on his first earnings call since an unspecified voice ailment sidelined him from public speaking in June, said that Google’s mobile business was now generating revenue at an annualized run rate of $8 billion.

Page acknowledged that mobile ad rates were below the rates that Google garners for ads that appear on its standard website. But he said the variety of Web-connected devices used by consumers is creating “a huge new universe of opportunities for advertisers.”

“We’re uniquely positioned to get through that transition and to really profit from it,” Page said, citing Google’s Android mobile software, the world’s top operating system for smartphones by market share.

Google, which has been struggling to turn around a Motorola Mobility hardware business it bought for $12.5 billion, reported a 20 percent dive in net income to $2.18 billion. Excluding certain items, it earned $9.03 a share, vastly underperforming the $10.65 analysts had expected, on average.

“We have been saying this thing was ripe for a pullback. It’s not like they’re Google not being Google, but you still have some major issues,” said BCG analyst Colin Gillis.

“Click prices declined for the fourth consecutive quarter after rising for eight consecutive quarters before then. That’s a negative. This is the mobile problem.”

“The other bit is the Motorola millstone had been ignored by the market, and – boom – now you’ve got weak revenue from Motorola. When you acquire a business and you’re about to whack all kinds of people and close offices, you know what happens to the employees? They take their eye off the ball. Sales are down,” Gillis explained.

Net revenue growth at Google’s main Internet business increased 17 percent year-over-year, the first time growth in that business has fallen below 20 percent since 2009. Google Finance Chief Patrick Pichette stressed on the conference call that the revenue growth rate was higher if the impact of foreign currency exchange rates was backed out.

“It was just too rapid a deceleration,” said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser. “Many of the same underlying trends drive Facebook advertising.”

Shares of Facebook Inc, which headed south shortly after Google’s inadvertent filing, closed down 4.6 percent. Google’s snafu recalled Facebook’s debut, which was marred by technical glitches that also spooked traders and contributed to the stock’s first-day decline.

The decline in Google’s shares come after a three-month run-up in its stock, which reached an all-time high of $774.38 earlier this month.

A bad miss?

Google reported net revenue – excluding traffic acquisition costs – of $11.3 billion for the third quarter, below Wall Street’s expectations for about $11.9 billion.

For the fourth consecutive quarter, the company reported a decline in average cost-per-click (CPC), a critical metric that denotes the price advertisers pay Google.

Average CPC declined 15 percent from a year ago and 3 percent from the second quarter of this year. Analysts say that Google, like many of its peers in the Internet industry, has been struggling to adapt to the rapid consumer uptake in mobile devices. Advertisers pay far less for ads on smartphones and tablets than for similar ads on desktop computers.

“The core business seems to have slowed down pretty significantly, which is shocking,” said B. Riley analyst Sameet Sinha. “The only conclusion I can look at is, search is happening more and more outside of Google, meaning people are searching more through apps than through Google search.”

“That could indicate a secular change, especially when it comes to ecommerce searches. The big fear has always been, what if people decide just to go straight to Amazon and do their searches? And potentially that’s what could be happening.”

But Ryan Jacob, chairman and chief investment officer of Jacob Funds, said he viewed Google’s results as only “minorly disappointing,” with most of the weakness coming from Motorola as expected.

“Unfortunately, by dropping an 8K in the middle of a trading day, people kind of shoot first, ask questions later,” said Jacob, whose fund owns Google shares.

JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said in a note that the Google results were “light” but not as bad as they appeared at “first blush.”

Filing snafu

Google, which recently overtook Microsoft Corp to become the second-largest U.S. technology company by capitalization, had been due to release its results after the market close.

The second paragraph of the press release merely read “Pending Larry quote,” suggesting that space was reserved for comment from CEO Larry Page.

“Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization,” Google said in a statement. “We have ceased trading on NASDAQ while we work to finalize the document. Once it’s finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PM PT.”

Shares of RR Donnelley, the U.S. printing services company, slid as much as 5 percent. They closed down 1 percent at $10.76.

Reed Kathrein, a plaintiff lawyer with Hagens Berman who sues companies on behalf of investors, said investors would not have a claim against either Google or RR Donnelley because the earnings disclosure was likely a mistake.

“There’s no fraudulent intent here,” Kathrein said.

However, Google could have a negligence claim against RR Donnelly to recover any additional costs it incurred in responding to the incident, Kathrein added.

“Everyone is trying to figure out if there’s any legal issue with respect to RR Donnelley,” said Michael Matousek, senior trader at U.S. Global Investors Inc, which manages about $3 billion in San Antonio.

source: interaksyon.com

Zuckerberg eyes mobile focus after Facebook IPO flop

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday he was steering the social network giant to focus more on mobile, saying it would help ease concerns after a “disappointing” stock market debut.

“The performance of the stock has obviously been disappointing,” Zuckerberg said during an on-stage interview at a TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.

Facebook has made a priority of following its more than 900 million members onto smartphones and tablet computers, tailoring services and money-making ads for mobile devices.

“It is really clear from the stats and my own personal intuition that a lot of energy in the ecosystem is going to mobile, not desktop (computers),” Zuckerberg said.

“That is the future,” he continued. “We are going to be doing killer stuff there.”

Zuckerberg was adamant that the company was being underestimated and was on track to make “more money on mobile than we make on desktop.”

Zuckerberg’s appearance at the conference was his first public interview since the massive public offering on May 18 that was hotly anticipated—but ended up being a flop.

Facebook shares have lost around half their value since the IPO at $38 a share.

The shares gained 3.30% on Wall Street on Tuesday to close at $19.43. In after-hours trading following Zuckerberg’s remarks, the stock gained 3.14% to $20.06.

Zuckerberg said that despite the early stock market disappointment, “we’re going to execute this mission about making the world more connected.”

Zuckerberg also rejected criticism that the company is ill-prepared for a shift to mobile devices, where Facebook has only begun to get ad revenues. “Now, we are a mobile company,” he said.

He said the company would pursue its “mission” while seeking to make money for shareholders.

“We are a mission driven company,” Zuckerberg said. “Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. From the beginning we’ve had this understanding we’ve had to do both.”

Zuckerberg has stated repeatedly, even in pre-IPO paperwork with US regulators, that Facebook did not build great services to make money but made money to build great services.

When pressed on the point, in the context of the California-based company losing more than $50 billion in value based on the stock price drop, Zuckerberg was quick to add that making money was a component of its broader mission.

“People who want to work on a great mission also want to make a bunch of money,” he contended.

Zuckerberg conceded that the stock price plummet has taken a toll on the morale of workers compensated with shares but that Facebook staff are accustomed to criticism and “have a pretty good compass” pointing to better days.

Stock compensation for Facebook employees is made based on cash value of shares, meaning that workers are awarded more shares at lower prices, according to the chief executive.

“I actually think it is a great time for people to join and a great time for people to stay and double-down,” Zuckerberg said of the Facebook team. “I think we are seeing that.”

Zuckerberg rejected suggestions that Facebook would make its own smartphone, adamant that the company had no intention of stepping into the fiercely competitive handset hardware arena.

“Apple, Google, everyone builds phones; we are going in the opposite direction,” Zuckerberg said. “We want to build a system deeply integrated in every device people want to use.”

Zuckerberg’s strategy to have Facebook on every smartphone instead of making a “Facebook phone” makes sense, according to technology analyst Jeff Kagan.

Zuckerberg said Facebook did not plan to go head-to-head with Google in the online search market but that the social network already handles one billion queries a day from people looking for friends, apps, brand pages and more.

“Facebook is uniquely positioned to answer a lot of questions people have,” Zuckerberg said, giving examples such as finding out restaurants friends have eaten at or who has connections at particular companies for jobs.

“At some point we will do it,” he continued. “We have a team working on search.”

Kagan said the Zuckerberg talk at the conference rekindled some of Facebook’s pre-IPO excitement but did not make up for the fact that the company’s stock has been a loser and it remained unclear how profitable it would become.

“Bottom line, Zuckerberg sounded good,” Kagan said. “However this does not solve the investment problem the company still faces every day.”

source: japantoday.com

AT&T introduces data-sharing plan

(CNN) -- Welcome to the multiple-mobile-gadget world.

AT&T on Wednesday became the latest wireless carrier to announce it will offer a range of "shared" data plans, which let customers buy a pool of data and share it among several Internet-connected mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets.

Verizon made a similar move in June when it announced its "Share Everything" plans.

Not to be outdone on the marketing front, AT&T calls its new plans "Mobile Share." Customers aren't forced to switch to the new one-big-pool-of-data plans. AT&T says in a news release that the "bucket" data plans prep the company for a multiple-device world.

"Today we think of people's smartphones and tablets sharing a bucket of data," David Christopher, chief marketing officer for AT&T Mobility, said in a written statement.

"But in the future we'll see health care monitors, connected cars, security systems and other devices in the home all connected to the mobile Internet."

The new plans will be available in late August.

The shared plans are designed for households that own several Internet-connected mobile devices and to encourage people to purchase wireless data connections for all of those devices. Currently, many tablet owners, for example, only connect to the Internet with Wi-Fi, which is free, because they don't want to purchase new mobile plans for tablets. The company is trying to encourage those people to pay more per month to get wireless data service, but without having to create a new plan entirely.

The data is shared between the devices in the sense that all gadgets connected to the plan would draw from the same overall pool of data. This may work well if only one of the devices is a "data hog," but multiple data-sucking devices could become costly.

Tablet and e-reader ownership is becoming more common, with 29% of American adults owning at least one of those mobile devices, according to a January survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

More than half of all U.S. cell phone users own a smartphone, which is distinguished because it usually connects to the Internet and requires a data plan.

For AT&T's new plan, customers pay for an overall pot of data -- 1 GB per month is $40; 20 GB is $200 -- and then pay additional fees to add extra devices. Smartphones cost between $30 and $45 per month, depending on the amount of data a person purchases. A person can add a tablet computer or gaming device for $10 per month. The per-gadget and per-GB rates get cheaper, relatively, as you add more devices and more data.

AT&T describes this graduated payment system as "the more you share, the more you save," but, of course, customers will actually pay more in total for additional services.

Let's do a quick comparison of the old and new plans.

Depending on how many devices you have, the plan may or may not be smart.

Say you have a smartphone and a tablet computer and you want 6GB of data per month, between the two gadgets. Under the new "shared data" plan, you would pay $35 for the phone, $10 for the tablet and $90 for the data. That's a monthly total of $135.

Under the old plan, 3GB of data for a tablet would cost $30 per month, with a contract. A phone with unlimited talk and text (that's offered on the "shared" plan) costs $90 per month. And then the remaining 3GB of data on the phone costs $30.

So that's a total of $150, or $15 more than the new "shared" plan.

The shared data plan can include up to 10 devices, however, and the prices per GB and per gadget drop as the plan becomes more involved and includes more devices.

For more information, see this online guide to the new pricing structure (PDF). AT&T also has a "data calculator" to help customers decide how much data they use. There are overage fees for going over the data limit, and AT&T says other fees may apply. (A company representative could not immediately be reached for comment on this matter).

The tech news site CNET says the plans are better for large groups of people.

"While these plans aren't the best deals for individuals, large families or even groups of really, really close friends may want to consider them," writes Roger Cheng. "That's because the more people who sign on, the lower the price per gigabyte and user. Of course, if someone is a heavy data user, that person may want to stick with an individual plan, or risk hogging up the total available data for everyone."

That site also has posted charts that compare the AT&T and Verizon shared-data plans.

"Individuals who don't use a lot of data and are considering the entry-level option would save a bit of money with AT&T, although those savings are negated when a second person jumps on the plan because of the higher smartphone fee," CNET writes.

"At the 10GB mark, however, Verizon gets the edge if an individual was buying into that plan. But the price is the same if a second person signs on to the plan, and is actually a better deal if more members join."

As CNNMoney reports, the cheapest shared plan is more expensive than the least expensive existing data plan. "Today, the cheapest available AT&T smartphone plan is $60 a month, giving users 300 MB of data and 450 voice minutes per month. The cheapest Mobile Share plan, with 1 GB of data, is $85 per month," that site writes.

source: CNN

Judge Rejects Secrecy Bids in Apple vs. Samsung Battle

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge rejected several requests by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to keep portions of key documents out of public view in their high-stakes patent litigation battle set for trial later this month.

Apple and Samsung, the world's largest consumer electronics corporations, are waging legal war in several countries, accusing each other of patent violations as they vie for supremacy in a fast-growing market for mobile devices.

In an order issued late on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, wrote that "it appears that the parties have overdesignated confidential documents and are seeking to seal information that is not truly sealable."

Koh gave both companies one week to refile their sealing requests. Representatives for Apple and Samsung could not immediately be reached for comment.

Filing documents under seal has become almost standard procedure in intellectual-property cases as companies try to keep their trade secrets and other sensitive business information from coming out during litigation.

Apple sued Samsung last year in the United States and a highly anticipated trial is scheduled to begin July 30. If Apple wins, it could seek to permanently bar the sale of some Samsung phones in the crucial U.S. market.

Koh has already granted pretrial injunctions against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 and its Galaxy Nexus phone. Samsung is appealing both of those orders. Samsung's phones and tablets run on the Android operating system, developed by Google.

Apple and Samsung have filed legal arguments on a range of subjects in recent weeks, including briefs on how broadly some patent claims should be defined and what evidence should be kept out of the trial.

However, portions of those documents are blacked out from public view as both companies argued they contained sensitive information.

Koh's order on Tuesday came hours after Reuters filed a motion seeking to intervene in the case for the purposes of opposing Apple and Samsung's document redactions. The judge wrote that "only documents of exceptionally sensitive information that truly deserve protection will be allowed to be redacted or kept from the public."

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.

source: nytimes.com