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The Money-Making Side of Mobile App Development

Mellisa Tolentino — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:29:41 +0000

In a recent study by the International Data Corporation that involves 350 US residents regarding their view about vendors effectively offering services in mobile application development (AD) and mobile testing services (for applications and devices), AT&T stood out from the crowd, followed by Verizon and IBM in third. The IDC study showed that the brand name greatly influenced how the participants chose.

Aside from the brand name, the study was also able to come up with key findings that could greatly help in app development and app testing.

Key findings for app development:

Need for experienced mobile user interface (UI/UX) skills is high
Innovation and speed to market are critical
Reusable frameworks expected to lower development costs
Monetization of the mobile channel to grow in enterprise priority

Key findings for app testing:

Demand for testers with strong communication skills
Flexibility in packaging enterprise mobile testing services
Industrialized text execution services critical

“Success as a provider of discrete or bundled mobile application development and/or testing services will require players to highlight a combination of their technical and business competencies and experience in highly iterative mobile prototyping and validation, as well as availability of end-to-end mobile life-cycle services,” said Rona Shuchat, director, Application Development, Testing and Management Services.

“Enterprise customers are challenged by the rapid pace of and investment required in mobile technology platforms, and many plan to leverage a range of professional project or fully outsourced mobile application services.”

IBM is already busy with their mobile efforts. A couple of weeks back, Big Blue announced the IBM Endpoint Manager for Mobile Devices which is a software platform that companies can use to secure and manage employees smartphones, tablets and laptops. They also announced their intent to acquire Worklight to add up to their mobile efforts. The acquisition will include Worklight Studio, an Eclipse-based IDE (integrated development environment) and Worklight Server. The terms of the deal were not disclosed though it is expected that it will wrap up sometime this quarter.

The Worklight platform is useful for developing mobile applications for both consumers and enterprises, as well as targeted toward various industry verticals. The platform includes SDKs for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows mobile devices, and according to Worklight, it “enables rich, cross-platform apps without requiring code translation, proprietary interpreters or unpopular programming languages.”

Since companies are now seeing the dollar signs in mobile app development, more and more companies are entering the enterprise side of the mobile app development sector.

Earlier this week we saw new analytics tools for Android app development and testing from Apkudo, and last January, Pyxies Mobile received $17 million in new funding and decided it was time for a change and rebranded itself to Verivo Software. The company’s metamorphosis doesn’t end with the rebranding as they now offer a more complete mobility solution designed to meet the needs of multiple industries in order to stay ahead ot the competition.

According to their site, “With Verivo’s enterprise mobility software, you can now own your mobility initiatives, without having to rely on outside resources to develop and run your mobile apps.”

Appcelerator, the leading mobile platform company, recently hired former Gartner analyst Michael King as the company’s principal mobile strategist. King will help Appcelerator’s enterprise customers define and implement their mobile strategies as well as guide the company’s internal product strategy, making sure that Appcelerator’s Titanium platform and integrated services meet the highest standards for building intuitive, cloud-connected content-rich applications for mobile, tablet and desktop platforms. And to complete the bulk of his work, King will also provide strategic sales support, partner enablement, as well as market research/analysis and product evangelism.

And Facebook, which recently went public, is trialing bookmarks for third-party applications in their mobile news feed to increase user engagement and attract developers to their Facebook Platform mobile initiative. The Facebook Platform mobile allows app developers to integrate Facebook into their already existing apps to attract more users.

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In the same vein:

Apple Appoints New Senior VP of Retail, AT&T Slows Heavy Data Users

Mellisa Tolentino — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:20:11 +0000

As Apple goes all out for world domination, the company has named Dixons Retail CEO John Browett as the senior vice president of retail. Browett will be in charge of sales strategy for iPhones and iPads.

Browett will officially claim the top spot in April, and will be reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook.

“Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we’ve met,” Cook said in a statement Tuesday.

Another proof point of Apple’s domination, mobile app marketing company Fiksu, revealed in their latest study that during the holiday rush last December, over 6.04 million apps were downloaded daily, almost a 7% increase compared to November.

“December is a strategically critical month for app discovery,” said Micah Adler, Fiksu’s CEO. “What we witnessed during the month was a ‘land rush’ in which advertisers earnestly spent marketing dollars in order to achieve ranking before the traditional App Store freeze which then would generate substantial organic downloads through increased visibility.”

And Apple devices can now be Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) compliant, with TSheets’ apps. The apps offer time keeping technology, GPS stamping, tracking and other mobile capabilities designed to help contractors stay DCAA compliant.

“We have built mobile applications and tools that make it beautifully simple to use our software and stay compliant, from employees to supervisors, track and mange timekeeping on the go,” says Matt Rissell, TSheets’ CEO. “Our secure web-based solution means no downtime and no expensive modules, no slow, clunky software, and you receive the benefits of instant updates instead of time-consuming installs.”

Other Mobile News

Disappearing Apps

Yahoo! killed off a bunch of their mobile apps such as Yahoo Meme for the iPhone and iPad, Yahoo News for Android, and Yahoo Finance for RIM’s BlackBerry operating system in response to the rapidly changing mobile market and the fact that these apps aren’t really relevant.

Steam, the third party app provider that recently became available to iOS and Android devices, suddenly disappeared from the Android Market, well most of their apps disappeared except for Staticon for Steam. Google and Valve, creator and administrator of Steam, did not provide any explanation.

Carrier Business

AT&T is forcing their unlimited data users to upgrade to a tiered plan by slowing down their service once the user hits 2GB of data used in a month. AT&T argues that only the top 5% of data users will have their data throttled or slowed down, so this will vary every month, depending on a user’s data consumption. But if you hit 2GB, expect sluggish service. So AT&T offers the 3GB plan for the same price as the unlimited plan, the service won’t change even if you reach 2GB but if you’re not a consistent data muncher then a tiered plan might not be a great idea. If you’re unhappy with AT&T, you can always change your provider.

T-Mobile is on a mission to help small businesses thrive and get paid faster. The wireless carrier is the first to offer Square credit card readers from San Francisco-based Square, Inc. in select retail stores. The Square credit card readers will allow small businesses to accept credit card payments in the U.S. nearly anywhere, anytime, with the money from transactions sent for deposit into their bank accounts the next business day.

And Emtrace Technologies just announced the release of MECRM for access to Microsoft Dynamics CRM data from iPhone and Android smartphones and tablets. MECRM is a native application for iPhone and Android mobile devices providing fast and easy access to Microsoft Dynamics CRM and allows users to search and add information on the CRM server even if offline.

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In the same vein:

RIM Loses Footing In Europe, Kindle Fire Sales at 6M

Mellisa Tolentino — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:05:37 +0000

Research in Motion is running out of markets to sell their products. With Apple dominating in North America and Samsung gearing up to do the same in Europe, RIM’s walls are quickly closing in and they have no one else to blame but themselves. RIM’s BlackBerry devices were once the top choice for business people, but with delayed updates, the business sector is now looking elsewhere for mobile products that cater to their needs.

RIM’s secret weapon, and hopefully the answer to their declining market problem, is the BlackBerry 10, their latest software offering. Unfortunately, phones supporting BB10 will not be launching until late this year.

RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins is also counting on the security flaws of other mobile devices being used in workplaces, and they are banking on it to drive consumers their way.

“They are in a pickle. Their pickle is security,” Heins said in an interview. “When the first big security flaw even happens in one of the large enterprises, you will see this turn around. Wait for the day this happens.”

Kindle Fire

Android faces a great deal of competition and security concerns heading into the workplace, but the consumer market is ripe for some of its more popular devices, particularly the Kindle Fire. Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan estimated Amazon’s sales for the Kindle Fire tablet at about six million units in the fourth quarter, claiming that the tablet is a true iPad contender.

“Kindle Fire has staked out an important market position due to its loyal Amazon customer base and attractive (low) device pricing,” Rohan said in a note to clients. “We believe the lower hardware price will correlate with high e-book and video content attach rates.”

Previous studies showed that Amazon loses money by selling the Kindle Fire at such a low price, but Amazon is hopeful that the loss could be compensated by sales of media compatible with the tablet that can be purchased in Amazon.

Other Mobile News

Nokia will be launching a white Lumia 800 in Australia by March to add to their existing black, cyan and magenta variants. Pricing is yet to be announced.

The 5.3-inch screen Samsung Galaxy Note is hitting the US market on February 19, under AT&T for $299.99 with a two-year plan. Pre-orders will start on February 5 and is available in two variants, carbon blue and ceramic white.

Of the available 4G smartphones in the market, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx may have major appeal in terms of battery life. It lasted 8 hours and 25 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test which involves continuous surfing over 4G with the phone set to 40% brightness. The Droid Razr Maxx is available in Verizon.

And finally, Apple is faced with some bad PR because of the reportedly horrid working conditions at Foxconn, which supplies parts for their products. Apple CEO Tim Cook is reportedly outraged with the unsafe working condition at Foxconn and swore to step up their audits in Foxconn as well as other suppliers. Apple cut ties with factories found to be violating workers’ rights.

Apple isn’t the only company that uses Foxconn, Nokia, Dell and Microsoft are among popular brands that get their supplies from the Chinese factory. One technology writer, Dan Lyons, wrote an eye-opening piece with regards to the “boycott Apple” appeal,

“Ultimately the blame lies not with Apple and other electronics companies – but with us, the consumers. And ultimately we are the ones who must demand change.”

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In the same vein:

The Mobile Shakedown: Nokia, AT&T Suffer Losses

Mellisa Tolentino — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:34:05 +0000

Apple recently announced stellar results for fiscal 2012 first quarter with a record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share.

And that casts a large grey cloud over everyone else.

Mobile Losers

Verizon

To start off, Verizon pointed out that though they added 1.2 million post-paid subscribers and activated over 4.3 million iPhones in that period, their iPhone sales actually hurt them. They purchase iPhones at a high cost but sell them at a lower price because it comes with a 2-year plan that not everyone sticks to and pay for.

AT&T

Dallas-based telecommunications company AT&T reported a massive $6.7 billion loss in the fourth quarter due to employee pension benefits and the breakup fee they paid to T-Mobile because the merger fell over but their revenue rose 3.6% to $32.5 billion. AT&T still leads in iPhone activations, as they reported 7.6 million iPhones in that period. But like Verizon, they too are suffering the consequences of selling iPhones at a consumer-friendly price. The more iPhones sold means less profit margin for the carriers.

AT&T’s wireless revenue rose 10% to $16.7 billion, average revenue per user increased 1.4% to $63.76, and total customer turnover rate slightly rose to 1.39% from 1.32% a year ago. Last Sunday, the company raised the prices–and caps–on their data plans for smartphones, which could boost revenue, but could also lead to customer defections.
AT&T will shift its focus on connected devices, as in connecting all your devices, in anticipation for the negative outcome of their slowing down postpaid business.

Nokia

Finnish multinational communications corporation, Nokia, reported a fourth quarter net loss of €1.07 billion ($1.38 billion), as sales slumped 21% even with the Lumia handsets’ estimated sale of 1.3 million units globally.

Overall, handset sales dropped by 29% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Nokia sold 19.6 million smartphones and 93.9 million feature-phones, for a total of 113.5 million devices sold, down from 123.7 million total devices sold in the fourth quarter of 2010. Price for Nokia devices significantly dropped from an average price of €69 in 2010 to €53 in 2011.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop remains positive for Q1 2012.

“From this beachhead of more than 1 million Lumia devices, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful,” Elop said in a statement. “We also plan to bring the Lumia series to additional markets including China and Latin America in the first half of 2012.”

Pareto Oehman analyst Helena Nordman-Knutson shares Elop’s positive outlook, stating that Nokia has other devices, aside from the Lumia, to count on in order to increase their revenue, like the N9.

“People forget it’s not all about Lumia, there’s the N9 as well and it’s part of this transition,” she said. “With these new devices the average selling price could lift because the proportion of lower-priced smartphones will decrease.”

If you recall, Sony Ericsson also reported a pretax loss of $316.57 million for Q4 in 2011, with sales down by 16% to only $1.7 billion and shipment down by 20%, due to the demand slowdown and tough competition prevailing in the smartphone market. HTC also reported a very disappointing Q4 as net profit fell 26% to NT$11 billion ($364 million) from NT$14.8 billion a year earlier as a result of intensifying competition and a slowing global economy.

Mobile Winners

So far, aside from Apple, Google and Samsung were the only ones who reported positive Q4 results. Samsung reported consolidated sales of approximately 47 trillion Korean won, or somewhere between 46 trillion and 48 trillion Korean won ($39.6 billion to $41.3 billion), and consolidated operating profit was estimated at 5.2 trillion Won or somewhere between 5.0 – 5.4 trillion Korean won.

As for Google, though ad earnings fell short, the company still earned $2.7 billion, or $8.22 a share, during the last three months of 2011, revenue rose 25% to nearly $10.6 billion, and surpassed $10 billion in a quarter in the company’s 13-year history.

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In the same vein:

Will Verizon Get the Nokia Lumia 900? It Should [Video]

Mellisa Tolentino — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:29:24 +0000

Nokia has been creating a buzz at this year’s CES because of the mobile OS empowering their smartphones. The phone manufacturer is taking full advantage of Windows Phone Mango, and several months after teaming with Microsoft they have something worthwhile for US consumers. So let’s take a look at what the Nokia Lumia 900 is packing.

Noah Kravitz of TechnoBuffalo was able to provide a firsthand look at the Nokia Lumia 900 (full video below). The smartphone features a Gorilla Glass screen with 4.3 inch AMOLED display, and unlike the Lumia 800 which lacks a front facing camera, the Lumia is equipped with a 1MP front camera. It’s 4G/LTE ready, and comes in either blue or black polycarbonate case.

The Nokia Lumia 900 is coming to AT&T exclusively by the second quarter of this year.
Kravitz relayed that he was given a chance to ask Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO, one question and he chose to ask if Nokia would be coming to Verizon Wireless. Some people thought he was being a smartass but it was really a good question, especially now that Nokia is aiming for a US comeback.

Elop answered his question with the usual “We don’t comment on rumors and speculations,” but then continued with, “Well we want to reach all the consumers possible in the US.” SO there’s a possibility that the Nokia Lumia 900 might also come to Verizon Wireless. Here’s hoping!

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In the same vein:

AT&T Broadens Mobile Strategy, Appeals to Developers

Saroj Kar — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:00:53 +0000

CES 2012 may have been a dire point for Microsoft, but some of its upcoming products are boosting AT&T’s lineup.

One of the most anticipated presentations of the event is the Nokia Lumia 900, and their collaboration with AT&T. The Nokia Lumia 900 is the latest smartphone from the Finnish camp, and will be released in the U.S. through AT&T’s network.

In practice, the event will be dictated by Microsoft partnership with Nokia, which is becoming more pronounced over time. The new smartphone features a 4.3 inches display, a front-facing camera that’s Skype ready, and the body may be of the same plastic already used with the Nokia 800 Lumia. The operating system will not have Tango, but will remain with the Windows Phone version 7.5 Mango.

“AT&T is playing a critical role in our reentry strategy to the United states,” Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop told the audience at AT&T’s event.

Building out a mobile platform

At the AT&T press conference, the wireless provider presents an interesting initiative, introducing a development platform for smartphones and developers. They’re now able to directly receive platform access from the mobile operators to produce their own apps.

The apps will be independent of the platform because they are based on HTML5. AT&T will provide the tools for developers and a platform to build the apps on iPhones, Android phones, and Windows Phones and BlackBerry phones.

“It’s essentially a rich set of APIs and tools aimed at furthering the HTML5 appeal as an app development choice,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer at AT&T. “Why are we focusing on HTML5? We think it has the potential to address fragmentation.”

Beyond Nokia

The company also introduces Watson speech recognition technology to the cars, providing a direct competition to Panasonic and QNX. The cloud connected device car technology will respond to your voice command to control the GPS or change radio channel.

Here are some other developments at AT&T event, including the seven new smartphone and tablet devices set to launch early this year:

-         New devices include Samsung Exhilarate, Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD, Sony Xperia Ion, Pantech Burst, the Pantech Element tablet, and the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone/tablet hybrid.

-         Sony introduced the new Xperia Ion, the company’s first smartphone capable of operating in 4G LTE network – and for now, the only U.S. operator is AT&T.

-         The telecom company announced the battle plans for subscriptions PS Vita. The 250 MB download limit will be available at $14.99 per month and 2GB limit at $25 per month. In addition to the 3G network access, subscribers will also have access to some 29 000 Wifi Hotspots in the country.

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In the same vein:

How Web Outages Stole the Show in 2011

Cherr Aira — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:35:02 +0000

Technology has made several giant leaps in mobility, social networking, online video and gaming in 2011. But while the rave party is still on to celebrate previous year’s accomplishments, some companies are still on the road to recovery from the mishaps that struck them this past year. One of the glaring lowlights of 2011 include web outages that prompted setbacks for affected organizations. Some technological catastrophes were traced to own shortcoming, but many were inflicted by cyber hackers.

The 3-Day Blackberry Depression

The world was alarmed after RIM’s three-day network outage that affected millions of Blackberry users, particularly in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The business sector, which is thought to be BlackBerry’s biggest fan, was angered when suddenly they could not access their email, calendar appointments and BlackBerry Messenger or BBM. Consequently, users’ trust and confidence on this leading mobile brand declined radically.

Amidst the misfortune, the Canadian mobile carrier is firm on saying no to selling shares to foreign investors, promising a rebound for 2012. Sadly, the new year greeted Blackberries sourly, with sales still inexorably dropping each day.

Sony’s Month Long Nightmare

Gamers around the world found themselves crippled Sony’s PlayStation Network in April. The scare lasted for nearly a month, with a series of investigations to hopefully trace the untraceable hackers that placed millions of users’ information at risk. To prevent the further dismay, one of the executives addressed the PlayStation outage issues in an important event last spring. Sony engineers also constructed a new network system to avert outages and privacy breaches in the future.

AWS Slip in the Cloud

Migrating to cloud has been an enormous issue for many companies in 2011. While the benefits seemed luring, there are still several people who doubting whether the cloud could provide them with efficiency they require. Hesitation grew when Amazon Web Services went down several times in April. The temporary zone maintenance affected several big brand companies, including Netflix, Foursquare, Reddit, Quora and others.

NetFlix

Aside from teaching us how to lose 1 million customers in a month with a price hike, NetFlix experienced a series of short web interruptions in 2011 that led to even more dissatisfied customers. The last quarter may have been one of redemption, recording a whopping 2 billion hours of movies and TV series streaming. The rest of the year was not as promising for NetFlix.

Microsoft Didn’t Escape Outages Either

Microsoft’s cloud-based email services outage caused an international panic in September. Millions of Hotmail and Skydrive users’ information were exposed to some unknown entities in the web universe. But the giant was quick to respond and was able to resolve the issue within hours.

With stunning victories for the likes of Apple, Android and Facebook, there were equally spectacular failures from big companies like RIM and Sony. It’s the yin and the yang of running a tech business in this day and age, only improving with each lesson learned.

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In the same vein:

Can Qualcomm Solve AT&T’s Network Woes?

Cherr Aira — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:15:46 +0000

The very same unit that catalyzed the abortion of AT&T’s proposed T-Mobile purchase has paved the way for them to acquire a smaller, but promising telecoms business. AT&T has finally closed a good deal to end the year, getting a much needed bolster with the Qualcomm airwaves acquisition. The buy came ready with the nod of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This deal, amounting to $1.9 billion, will give AT&T what they had initially intended when they set out to construct the blueprint of the T-Mobile buy: addressing shortage of wireless airwaves. This critical demand is brought about by the burgeoning requirement of their growing internet service arm.

Good thing AT&T had Plan B. Qualcomm’s spectrum and airwaves help AT&T get ahead of the competition, which are all making headway with next-generation networks. Data-hungry consumers are offered an array of choices from rivaling service providers, and AT&T’s overcoming a few setbacks from the past year or so, including the loss of an exclusive deal with Apple to sell iPhone devices. It was a merry Christmas for AT&T nonetheless, as the FCC clears the deal for the Texas-based telecom giant.

A portion of the FCC order reads: “…would not result in competitive harm that would outweigh the public interest benefits of this transaction.”

The FCC inhibited the AT&T-T-Mobile merger, ending tragically after months of questioning and investigations. Deemed a hard sell right from the beginning, AT&T eventually dropped its $39 billion bid for T-Mobile. The insurmountable hurdles shook the faith of both parties. In fact, Deustche Telekom, T-Mobile’s mother company, is dealing with quite a bit of pressure on their dividends.

Had the T-Mobile purchase been completed, AT&T would’ve easily become the number one telecommunications provider in the U.S., surpassing Verizon, now one of its biggest threats. In the end AT&T had to shell out $4 billion to T-Mobile for the trouble, an expensive show of interest either way.

The Qualcomm buy is a bolster for AT&T’s morale following some costly legal battles. Many thought that perhaps the biggest deal call-off in the history would damage AT&T’s acquisition-spree, which was started by its former CEO. Now that AT&T has realigned its strategy, the question now is, will Qualcomm serve the optimum purpose they had hoped for from T-Mobile? Well, at least they won’t bid farewell to 2011 empty-handed.

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In the same vein:

2011 Top Mobile Stories: Tablets, Lawsuits and Siri

Mellisa Tolentino — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:49:33 +0000

As 2011 draws to an end, we can’t help but look back at the stories that made headlines across the globe. This will be a recap on the top MobileANGLE stories of this year. The thing is, there are a lot of things that rattled the mobile industry this year and it’s quite hard to pick out just a few. So, to do this piece justice, I’ve categorized these top stories. But before you roll your eyes at me, this piece won’t be that long… I hope! Here we go!

Top Mobile Product Releases

Apple

Launched iPad 2 with iOS 4.3 version, iPhone 4S and Siri

Samsung

Introduced the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy SII sold over 10 million units since its launch in April; unveiled three products at the 2011 IFA: Galaxy Note, Samsung Wave 3, and Galaxy Tab 7.7; Galaxy Player launched to battle the iPod Touch; launched Galaxy Nexus

Sony

Unveiled tablets at 2011 IFA

Amazon, B&N

Launched the alternative market for Android devices, Amazon Appstore, last March
Launched the Kindle Fire
Launched Nook Color 2, Nook Tablet

Microsoft, Nokia

Nokia - Unveiled the Meego-powered N9
Microsoft - Released Mango to manufacturers back in July

Motorola

Released Droid Bionic, Droid RAZR

Google

Android 3.0 version was accidentally leaked and hinted for a cloud based music app; In May they formally announced the Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich at the Google I/O

Research In Motion

The BlackBerry maker released their tablet, the PlayBook, back in April and was FIPS certified in July; Launched BBM Music aiming to gain more consumers; released new BlackBerrys BlackBerry Bold 9930, a GSM BlackBerry Bold 9900, an updated BlackBerry Torch for AT&T, and the new BlackBerry Torch 9850 in August; launched OS 7

Launched the TouchPad to AT&T exclusively, webOS to become open source as the TouchPad gets phasedout

Top Court Battles

Kodak – The company sued a lot of phone makers for allegedly infringing their patents regarding preview software in camera phones; Kodak won
Apple – Apple and Samsung keep battling in court with Apple managing to ban sales of some Samsung products in other countries like Germany but Samsung was able to overthrow most of them; HTC lost to Apple for infringing to of their patents but filed an appeal; Yellowgate and Batterygate scandal; lost to Motorola Mobility
Sony-LG – Entered a cross licensing agreement to end patent dispute
RIM – Faced with class action law suit due to service outage
Carrier IQ – Because of the logging controversy, they and partner carriers are facing a class action lawsuit

Top Mobile Battles

AT&T-T-Mobile – blocked by the FCC, DOJ, and other carrier for a number of reasons
Google-Motorola – pending until the European Commission is done scrutinizing it
Apple – iOS 4 was caught logging location data back in April which they addressed with the 4.3.3 iOS update; sued by South Koreans for location tracking; Siri angered pro-choice group
Google – Android-based mobile devices flooded with malware-laced apps
RIM – Their BBM service was used to create havoc in London and threatened by hackers in they cooperated in the investigation; Massive service outage angered consumers
HP – announced that webOS based devices will cease production
Carrier IQ – caught secretly logging mobile activity by Trevor Eckhart
Samsung – Galaxy Nexus has a volume bug, no Flash and no Google Wallet

Top Acquisitions & Partnerships

Microsoft – Nokia’s Stephen Elop and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer announced their partnership and how their products will be deeply integrated; Managed to have Android OEM partners sign a licensing deal with them and pay royalties for the use of their patents to prevent court cases
RIM – Acquisition of smartphone security software developer Ubitexx
Millennial Media – They acquired location-based mobile marketing solutions Condaptive
HTC- Acquired S3 Graphics and Dashwire Inc.
Google – Partnered with Mastercard-Citigroup to push through with Near Field Communication payment method; Beefed up their portfolio with talent buys such as The Dealmap
SAP – Acquired Right Hemisphere, SaaS
Samsung – Partnered with Microsoft to launch Windows Phone-based devices and Linux Foundation to build a new mobile OS dubbed as Tizen
Sony – Plans to buyout Ericsson from partnership to venture out in the mobile realm alone

There you go, those are the top stories of 2011. Join us in 2012 as we continue to report on interesting and pertinent news regarding the mobile world. Ciao!

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In the same vein:

AT&T, Google Face More Hurdles in Acquisition Deals

Mellisa Tolentino — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:30:53 +0000

Mergers and acquisitions seem to spice things up in any industry. They can either make or break the participants of the deal, so these kind of things are carefully planned and they greatly affect the industry, especially the consumers.

2011 is the year of mergers and acquisitions especially in the mobile industry, some deals going smoother than others. This year there are two ongoing acquisitions that could shatter the balance in the industry, and this is probably why both acquisitions haven’t quite pushed through yet.

AT&T – T-Mobile

Sometime in March of this year, rumors surfaced that AT&T wants to acquire T-Mobile in order to bring better service and to cope with the growing number of mobile users. This would actually be great if you believe the two companies will work together to bring you better service. But if you think the acquisition would result in redundancy, ultimately cutting down on workers, this deal results in an anti-competitive monopoly.

Since the formal announcement of AT&T’s intent, the carrier has faced a number of hindrances. The majority of the reactions towards the deal were quite negative, and in April, the Federal Communication Commission started investigating the potential acquisition. Though it looks as though the future of the deal seems bleak, AT&T still managed to acquire high profile supporters such as Microsoft, RIM, Qualcomm, Facebook, Yahoo, Oracle, along with 10 major venture capital firms backing the deal.

During the first week of November, Sprint and C Spire Wireless were allowed to sue AT&T for it’s plan to acquire T-Mobile, and before the month ended, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski slapped AT&T with the biggest obstruction to date, as he planned to refer the deal for an administrative hearing before the judge. This was the last draw as AT&T pulled their application from the FCC with the aim to concentrate on the case filed by the Department of Justice.

And now, just a few weeks before the year ends, the deal might still have a positive outcome, as a federal judge agreed to put on hold a government challenge to the biggest merger this year.

“We are actively considering whether and how to revise our current transaction to achieve the necessary regulatory approvals,” Dallas-based AT&T said in an e-mailed statement.
But this doesn’t change analysts opinion that the deal is dead. The deal still has to face the FCC and if doesn’t get its approval, AT&T would have gone through all the trouble for nothing.

“By agreeing to stay the proceedings, AT&T avoided a potential bombshell — if the Judge had decided to dismiss the case,” said Allen Grunes, a lawyer for Dish Network Corp., which opposes the transaction. “This way, AT&T buys itself 30 days to decide whether to push forward with the trial, to try to settle, or to bow out gracefully.”

Google-Motorola Mobility

Back in August, Google announced it plans to acquire Motorola Mobility. This was viewed as more of a patent buy to boost Google’s defenses against Apple, Oracle and Microsoft. The announcement wasn’t well received, as OEM partners feel they’re in grave danger of being snubbed for Motorola when it comes to first access to Google products and Android updates. Such favoritism was scrutinized and the acquisition questioned as to how this would work out for OEM partners. Samsung and HTC decided it wouldn’t hurt to partner up with other OS providers, facing coercion from Microsoft to build Windows Phone-based devices. Though critiqued, Motorola shareholders approved of the deal and all seemed well, until Lemko Corp. filed a case against Motorola for allegedly stealing their source code. The latest update regarding the deal is that the European Commission postponed the approval of the deal, requesting more time to study the acquisition.

According to some legal experts, what the European Commission did was quite common. The original date for the ruling was supposed to be on January 10, 2012 but the European Commission stated that they would just publish a new deadline date.

“The European Commission has asked for more information, which is routine, while they review our Motorola Mobility acquisition,” a Google spokeswoman said. ”We’re confident the commission will conclude that this acquisition is good for competition and we’ll be working closely and co-operatively with them as they continue their review.”

AT&T, Google Face More Hurdles in Acquisition Deals is a post from: SiliconANGLE
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