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Android seen as holding possible risks for Samsung: Samsung Electronics is flying high, but analysts debate whether the Android operating system will marginalize the global smartphone leader. "Do they really want to be one of the power players or are they happy enabling someone else's ecosystem?" said analyst Tony Cripps of the research firm Ovum. Reuters
(5/3)
    
| Company News | | |
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- New Nokia chairman asks investors for patience
Newly installed Nokia Chairman Risto Siilasmaa asked investors at the company's annual meeting to stick with the Finnish phone-maker. Before Thursday's meeting, he told reporters, "I don't think any new change is required as we are going through a transformation period already." Retiring board chairman Jorma Ollila conceded to shareholders that the company had made mistakes. As a sign of Nokia's struggles, its flagship Lumia 900 smartphone is selling for $49 -- half of its original price -- on Amazon's website. Bloomberg Businessweek
(5/3), InformationWeek
(5/3), USA TODAY
(5/3) 
- Oracle-Google jury at potential impasse
The jury in the Google-Oracle patent trial showed signs of being deadlocked in its third day of deliberations, while the federal judge overseeing the case said in a separate damages hearing that Android lost money in each 2010 quarter. Oracle, which claims that Android infringed on its Java patents, has argued that certain expenses Android incurred should not affect damages awarded in the case. Google replied that Oracle has distorted its financials. Bloomberg Businessweek
(5/4), Reuters
(5/3)
- T-Mobile carves out a prepaid niche at rivals' expense
T-Mobile USA issued a blog post Thursday that highlights a bright spot amid the carrier's declining subscriber base: Its prepaid figures have continued to grow in the past year. Mike Katz, president of the company's prepaid business, said in an interview that T-Mobile has grown by taking market share from smaller rivals. Several of those rivals reported downbeat first-quarter results. CNET
(5/3)
| Mobile Apps | | |
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- App developers are ready to tackle privacy concerns
Consumer privacy concerns are being taken up by application developers worried about government intervention. Recent disclosures of user data being collected without permission and murky details about who has access to it prompt the concern. "The message is that it is great that the government is involved, but app developers don't want for the government to decide how they should run their business," said Jules Polonetsky, director and co-chairman of the Future of Privacy Forum. Mobile Marketer
(5/3), Network World/IDG News Service
(5/3)
| Technology | | |
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- Sprint, Boku reach mobile-billing agreement
Sprint Nextel subscribers will be able to pay for certain products through their wireless bills under the carrier's new direct-billing deal with Boku, an arrangement that means the top four U.S. carriers are now using the company's two-step authentication system. Boku has also reached deals with all major telecoms in Germany, France and the U.K. That's seen as helping Boku's relationships with merchants, who may feel more comfortable knowing the company has access to most of their customers. GigaOm
(5/3), TechCrunch
(5/3)
- Verizon, Cellcrypt will partner on co-branded voice encryption
Verizon Wireless and Cellcrypt have joined to sell the British mobile-security firm's voice-encryption technology to the U.S. government and will release Cellcrypt's product in the U.S. this year in a co-branded partnership. The technology, which works on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry handsets, is aimed at preventing eavesdropping on GSM, Wi-Fi and satellite calls. Techworld (U.K.)
(5/2)
| Trends & Research | | |
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- Kindle Fire loses steam as iPad market share surges
The Apple iPad's market share increased 13 percentage points in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter, hitting 68%, while the Amazon Kindle Fire's share shrank from 17% to 4%, market research firm IDC estimates. Analysts offered various reasons for the trend: the usual six-month product fatigue after a product's debut, the iPad's huge overseas reach and an especially strong holiday season for the Kindle due to its U.S.-only presence. Overall tablet sales more than doubled from a year earlier to 17.4 million units, but that figure was lower than IDC had expected. In another report, NPD Group predicted that Windows 8 will have a modest share of an exploding tablet market next year. Computerworld
(5/3), VentureBeat
(5/3), Bloomberg
(5/3), CNET/Business Tech blog
(5/3)
| Public Policy | | |
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- Broadcasters group drops suit against FCC's "white space" rules
The National Association of Broadcasters filed a petition Thursday to withdraw its federal court challenge to the government's "white space" rules that will allow deployment of a Wi-Fi system whose signals occupy empty frequencies adjacent to broadcast signals. The group said its lawsuit was no longer necessary after the Federal Communications Commission modified its rules last month to address concerns that the technology could interfere with broadcast signals. Reuters
(5/3)
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