Nokia opens new front in Apple battle December 16, 2010 NOKIA stepped up its patent war with Apple yesterday, filing 13 new complaints with authorities in Germany and Holland. Nokia claims the iPhone maker infringed its patents in its blockbuster mobile handset. The escalating battle between the two started more than a year ago when Nokia filed its first case in the US. Nokia’s new [...]
eBay snaps up Critical Path December 15, 2010 Web commerce company eBay said yesterday it acquired Critical Path Software, a mobile software application developer, as the company further embraces selling via mobile. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. US firm Critical Path Software has worked with eBay for over two years, most importantly developing its app for Apple’s iPhone, which eBay says [...]
Wall Street drops three days in a row December 15, 2010 US stocks suffered a third straight late-day sell-off yesterday suggesting it may be difficult to chalk further gains as the year comes to a close. After hitting two-year highs this week, a sustained rise in Treasury yields has sparked worry that rising borrowing costs could stifle the recovery. Banks, heavily dependent on loan demand, faded [...]
Imagination Technologies to snap up 3D company Caustic December 14, 2010 IMAGINATION Technologies, the British firm behind video chips in Apple’s iPhone, will acquire 3D graphics group Caustic for £17m. Imagination chief executive Hossein Yassaie said: “We have a proven track record of disrupting markets by bringing new and high-end technologies to consumer and embedded products. “The acquisition will enable us to accelerate our plans to [...]
App sales to hit $35bn December 14, 2010 APP sales are set to rocket to $35bn (£22.2bn) a year by 2014, according to new research by IDC. A staggering 10.9bn apps for devices including smartphones and tablets such as Apple’s iPad will be downloaded this year alone, with the number rising to 76.9bn annually in 2014 – a growth rate of around 60 [...]
Journey into the mighty history of Samarkand December 12, 2010 AROUND Tashkent airport, giant hoardings proclaimed in English: “Uzbekistan Airways Wish You Good Luck”. It might have been more unsettling to read that message driving into Heathrow before our departure. In fact, we’d had an incident-free flight on Uzbekistan Airways to Uzbekistan’s capital. Tashkent sounds endlessly exotic but isn’t really. Much was destroyed by a [...]
BORIS FUND BREAKFAST CLUB MEETS AT SAVOY December 7, 2010 LONDON mayor Boris Johnson played host to a star-studded launch for the corporate sponsors of the charitable Mayor’s Fund for London yesterday morning, with grandees of the City treated to an 8am poached egg and salmon breakfast in return for their paid-up membership of the London Business Club – an organisation for fund donors. The [...]
Carphone in exclusive deal with Google December 6, 2010 CARPHONE Warehouse yesterday confirmed it will exclusively stock the new Google-phone, as revealed in City A.M. in October (see right). Industry sources say Google is experimenting with its distribution model after releasing the previous Nexus model through a deal with carrier Vodafone in the UK. Google’s initial distribution model, which sold the handset exclusively through [...]
CFD NEWS December 6, 2010 BARCLAYS LAUNCHES IPHONE APP Barclays Stockbrokers launched a free iPhone application for its contracts for difference (CFD) clients yesterday. In addition to the standard features common across most iPhone trading applications, Barclays Stockbrokers are offering account holders the ability to view their trading history, multiple watch lists and real time updates on their account’s profit [...]
4m to buy tablet this Christmas December 6, 2010 Over 4m Brits plan to buy a tablet computer like Apple’s smash hit iPad over Christmas, spending a total of £1.4bn, according to a survey. The research from price comparison site USwitch found a further 21 per cent of people plan to buy one within the next year – even though 94 per cent already [...]