Reuters - Telecom operators hurt selling iPhones

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Telecom operators hurt selling iPhones

Monday, Aug 17, 2009 3:41PM UTC

By Tarmo Virki, European technology correspondent

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Heavy subsidies shelled out by telecom operators around the world to lure consumers to buy an Apple iPhone have done nothing to increase profits, and have even dented them in some cases, a research report showed on Monday.

"According to the research we have conducted on the operators, not one of these have increased their market share, revenue, or their earnings as a result of introducing the iPhone," Strand Consult says in the report.

"On the contrary, some operators have sent out profit warnings because of the iPhone," the Copenhagen-based wireless consultancy said in report scheduled to be published this week.

Cupertino, California-based Apple released its first iPhone in mid-2007, and it quickly became a consumer phenomenon thanks to its unique design and ease of use.

In its June quarter Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones. This compares to 268 million phones sold globally by all handset manufacturers.

But not everyone has profited.

"We have not found one operator which has created shareholder value with iPhone," Strand said. "When looking at the numbers we can't see the iPhone effect -- a lot of competitors are actually doing better."

AT&T Inc, iPhone's exclusive carrier in the United States, said in June its costs to sell the new version of the iPhone would be similar to those for the original 3G iPhone, which pressured its profits last year.

SingTel, Southeast Asia's largest phone firm, has reported falling profits due to iPhone launches, saying the iPhone alone hurt operating profit margin by 3-4 percentage points.

TeliaSonera, the top operator in the Nordics, has launched the iPhone with large marketing campaigns in all Nordic countries, but it has not helped it to boost market share or lift revenues per subscriber (ARPU) according to Strand's report.

TeliaSonera's ARPU in Denmark has declined from 212 Danish crowns to 168 crowns over last two years, twice the pace of ARPU fall of Sonofon whose ARPU in first quarter was 205 crowns. Its market share is unchanged from two years ago.

In Sweden TeliaSonera has lost one percentage point of market share in two years, and its the lowest ARPU carrier among top firms, with ARPU falling to 179 Swedish crowns in the first quarter.

Operators have heavily subsidized iPhones, hoping to reap benefits later, but as Apple moves away from exclusive deals operators are seeing their window of opportunity close, Strand says.

"Operators are definitely looking for alternatives to the iPhone that return more value back to the operator," said Frank Meehan, chief executive of INQ Mobile, a phone making arm of Hutchison.

Strand's report says other handset makers are starting to catch Apple, whose latest model is very similar to original 2007 iPhone, and noted several small operators have started to successfully court iPhone customers of other operators. (Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Rupert Winchester)

Reuters - Struggling Sony Ericsson taps Nordberg as new head

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Struggling Sony Ericsson taps Nordberg as new head

Monday, Aug 17, 2009 10:50AM UTC

By Tarmo Virki, European technology correspondent

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Sony Ericsson on Monday entrusted the head of Ericsson's U.S. technology division with the task of leading the struggling cellphone maker back to profit and reversing a sharp decline in market share.

The 50-50 venture said it named Bert Nordberg as chief executive in place of Dick Komiyama, who retires at the end of this year.

Sony Ericsson has reported steep losses in past quarters and seen its market share slip to below 5 percent, sparking market speculation of a possible breakup.

"I would go for increased market share and restoring profitability," Nordberg told Reuters when asked where he hopes to see the company in 1-2 years' time. He said he would pursue ongoing restructuring and step up efforts to develop "smash-hit" products.

Nordberg, 53, currently Executive Vice President at Ericsson and head of the firm's Silicon Valley business, said he was extremely confident in support from both parent companies, while turning to profit "can't be too far away."

Of the top five cellphone vendors, Sony Ericsson saw the sharpest drop in sales from the first quarter.

The firm has missed trends like full keyboards, Internet browsing and navigation, and research firm Gartner said last week its market share fell to just 4.7 percent globally.

'BIG DECISIONS TO MAKE'

"Nordberg has some big decisions to make from day one," said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight.

"Sony Ericsson needs to streamline its mobile software strategy and further reduce its dependence on mid-tier feature phones while working to restore profitability in the toughest economic climate the mobile phone industry has ever seen."

Sony Ericsson is known for its phones focusing on music and imaging, but it has so far lacked a strong offering of smartphones.

Nordberg said he would look for a strategic revamp of the firm's product portfolio. "In this industry you need smash-hit products," he said.

The firm also said Sony CEO Howard Stringer would become new board chairman on Oct 15, replacing Ericsson head Carl-Henric Svanberg, who will become chairman of BP in January.

Nordberg has been with Ericsson since 1996, prior to which he worked with companies including Data General Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp.

In July Sony Ericsson posted a pretax loss of 283 million euros ($400 million), and said the rest of the year would be difficult, with the overall market to shrink at least 10 percent.

Shares in Ericsson were 1.3 percent lower at 66.30 crowns by 1033 GMT, outperforming a DJ Stoxx European technology index down 2 percent.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki and Brett Young, editing by Will Waterman, John Stonestreet)

Reuters - Go viral for laughs with UK's Idiots of Ants

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Go viral for laughs with UK's Idiots of Ants

Wednesday, Aug 12, 2009 4:53PM UTC

By Paul Casciato

LONDON (Reuters) - Don't despair if you haven't already bought tickets to the sold-out Edinburgh Festival Fringe show of one of British comedy's best up and coming troupes. Go viral.

Idiots of Ants, four young Englishmen whose serious white shirts and black ties offset their absurd sketches, will prance, preen and make you laugh until it hurts your spleen in your own living room today.

The troupe that had Monty Python's John Cleese laughing out loud on a tour of Canada this year and was chosen by leisure bible Time Out magazine as a top pick of the three-week long Fringe has also racked up millions of hits on YouTube with sketches like "Facebloke" and "New York Cop."

"We're frantically making as much viral (video sketches on the Internet) as we can to show off our style and what we do," Elliott Tiney, one of the four Idiots, told Reuters.

Tiney, alongside Benjamin Wilson, James Wrighton and Andrew Spiers have been selling out successively bigger venues at the Fringe for the past three years. They were invited on a Canadian tour alongside Cleese and other "best of British" comedians and have the television producers sniffing around.

"I guess that's a sign that things are going in the right direction," Wrighton said in an interview with Tiney and Wilson.

Their madcap sketch show "Idiots of Ants -- This is War" at the Pleasance in Edinburgh was sold out this year before it opened and is an onslaught of gags, video clips and some pretty outrageous humor about the male perspective on life.

They are not afraid of high risk comedy, making one member of the audience a major part of the show each night. At the Fringe, where people wander from bar-to-theater with drinks in hand, that kind of risk-taking can go badly wrong.

As the crowd enters, Wilson is already on stage picking out which audience member he thinks will get the most laughs and give the least amount of trouble.

"I'm kind of giving the briefest psychological assessment you'll ever give when I'm stood at the front going 'right who looks the least mental,'" he said.

After that, they're off with skits on the "Federation of Fatherhood Preparation" in which dads-to-be learn how to tell terrible jokes and be generally embarrassing, a bachelorette party -- where four women wake up with hangovers and sex changes -- to a cheerfully morbid song about cannibalism for airline crash survivors stranded on a mountain.

How did they come up with their quirky name?

Tiney said he thought that Idiot Savants would be a good name for a comedy club and quickly Wrighton and Wilson spoke up to say they didn't.

"We thought that was quite pretentious, so Jimmy said what about Idiots of Ants, which is a funny collection of words but also it has a double meaning buried in there," Wilson said.

When asked about the growing comparisons to Monty Python's Flying Circus, the 20-something Ants shuffle their feet, look embarrassed and then Elliott tells the story of how they caught sight of Cleese laughing out loud in the wings at one of their shows and then asking them for advice about a joke.

"He asked us did we have any different ideas for the punchline of one of his jokes and we just all stood there like bumbling idiots kind of saying it's fine, it's brilliant John you did really well, John."

(Editing by Steve Addison)

Reuters - IBM uses DNA to make next-gen microchips

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IBM uses DNA to make next-gen microchips

Sunday, Aug 16, 2009 5:11PM UTC

By Clare Baldwin

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp <IBM.N> is looking to the building blocks of our bodies -- DNA -- to be the structure of next-generation microchips.

As chipmakers compete to develop ever-smaller chips at cheaper prices, designers are struggling to cut costs.

Artificial DNA nanostructures, or "DNA origami" may provide a cheap framework on which to build tiny microchips, according to a paper published on Sunday in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Microchips are used in computers, cell phones and other electronic devices.

"This is the first demonstration of using biological molecules to help with processing in the semiconductor industry," IBM research manager Spike Narayan said in an interview with Reuters.

"Basically, this is telling us that biological structures like DNA actually offer some very reproducible, repetitive kinds of patterns that we can actually leverage in semiconductor processes," he said.

The research was a joint undertaking by scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center and the California Institute of Technology.

Right now, the tinier the chip, the more expensive the equipment. Narayan said that if the DNA origami process scales to production-level, manufacturers could trade hundreds of millions of dollars in complex tools for less than a million dollars of polymers, DNA solutions, and heating implements.

"The savings across many fronts could add up significantly," he said.

But the new processes are at least 10 years out. Narayan said that while the DNA origami could allow chipmakers to build frameworks that are far smaller than possible with conventional tools, the technique still needs years of experimentation and testing.

Reuters - Deadline for U.S. broadband grants, loans extended

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Deadline for U.S. broadband grants, loans extended

Friday, Aug 14, 2009 5:30AM UTC

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The deadline for online applications for the first round of the U.S. government's $7.2 billion program to provide broadband access to all Americans was extended to August 20 from August 14 because of technical problems caused by the high number of applicants.

Applicants who started the process using the online Easygrants System will be given until the close of business Thursday, August 20, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said.

The NTIA said additional servers had been added.

Paper applications are still due by Aug 14.

The Commerce Department administers the broadband program with the Agriculture Department.

The government is awarding $4 billion in loans and grants to applicants who meet certain criteria and compete for the funds. The money would have to be used to expand broadband infrastructure.

Companies, organizations, and state and local governments are eligible to apply in the first round. Big carriers like Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc are not expected to apply.

Broadband has been the central focus of workshops being held by the Federal Communications Commission, which has been charged with creating a national broadband plan, that will be presented to Congress in February.

As part of the stimulus broadband plan, the government is overseeing a $350 million mapping program to determine the extent of broadband use in U.S. homes and bring high-speed Internet service to more people.

Last week, the NTIA said telecommunications providers such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast Corp had agreed to provide some information about their broadband networks as part of the mapping program.

(Reporting by John Poirier; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

Reuters - Asian Web connections set to resume by end of Thursday

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Asian Web connections set to resume by end of Thursday

Friday, Aug 14, 2009 1:33PM UTC

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Up to 90 percent of all voice call and Internet services from parts of East Asia that were disrupted after Typhoon Morakot damaged undersea cables will resume by the end of Thursday, a senior Chunghwa Telecom official said.

Many Web users in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines experienced slow Internet connections this week as undersea landslides damaged cables connecting them to websites hosted in the United States.

Full repair work on the damaged cables will only be completed in about two months, and Chunghwa is working with other affected telecommunications companies in the region to use alternative routes to restore connectivity.

Chunghwa Telecom, a former state-owned monopoly and Taiwan's largest telecoms company, shares the undersea cables with other operators in East Asia.

"We see that most Internet and voice connections should be back to near-normal levels by the end of Thursday," said T.F. Leng, president of Chunghwa's International Business Group.

"The typhoon didn't destroy the cables all in one go, which would have led to a sudden outage of services. It slowly destroyed some of the cables, which is why it took a few days before some users were affected."

The cost of repairing the cables will be shared among various telecoms companies, and Chunghwa Telecom's share of the costs should not exceed T$3 million ($91,240), Leng said, declining to name the other companies involved.

The last time Internet users in East Asia experienced an Internet outage as a result of a natural disaster was in 2006, when an earthquake off the coast of Taiwan damaged undersea cables.

(Reporting by Kelvin Soh; Editing by Chris Lewis and Sugita Katyal)

Reuters - Leaked Radiohead song has fans on alert for new EP

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Leaked Radiohead song has fans on alert for new EP

Friday, Aug 14, 2009 9:16PM UTC

By Andre Paine

LONDON (Billboard) - There is speculation that Radiohead will issue a new digital EP as early as Monday, after the leak of a track online assumed to be a new song by the band.

Fan site At Ease reports that the track "These Are My Twisted Words" was posted on its message board, and it has since appeared on YouTube. According to At Ease, the source file includes the title "Wall of Ice" -- assumed to be the name of the EP -- and the release date August 17.

Radiohead, which does not have a long-term label deal at present, released its 2007 set "In Rainbows" via its own Web site on a pay-what-you-want basis for the MP3 and followed that with a full release in January 2008 via XL Recordings in the U.K and ATO/Red in the U.S.

In an interview with the Australian Friday, multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood said: "Traditionally we'd be looking for 10 or 11 songs and putting them together, but that doesn't feel as natural as it used to, so I don't know what we'll do. Maybe we'll find four songs that work together and we'll call that a release. I don't know. No one knows how to release music any more, including us. How to put it together, in what format, how long. We're in the dark as much as anyone, I think."

Radiohead is rehearsing for festival appearances including Leeds and Reading (August 29 and 30) in the U.K.

Last week it issued the digital track "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)," with proceeds going to the British Legion, the U.K. charity that supports the armed forces and its veterans. Harry Patch, who died aged 111 on July 25, was Britain's last surviving veteran of World War I.

(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)

Reuters - Facebook to face off with new Web rivals

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Facebook to face off with new Web rivals

Saturday, Aug 15, 2009 4:14PM UTC

By Alexei Oreskovic

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook's vision of becoming a "utility" that offers activities to keep people online for hours could set it on a collision course with the Web's giants.

In recent days, the No.1 social networking company revamped its search engine and bought a start-up that some call a rival to hot micro-blogging service Twitter. It is also testing a stripped-down version of its service to boost growth overseas and is developing an electronic payments system.

These moves mark a new phase in Facebook's evolution as the five-year-old company meshes the viral power of social networks and its huge member base to barge into new markets.

"When you become the site that people spend enough hours on everyday it's very natural to take advantage of that and to become the site that tries to provide all the services that portals provide," said Haim Mendelson, a professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

The site, co-founded by 25-year-old Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard University dorm room, could challenge Web portals like Yahoo Inc and Google in content and communications, Brigantine Advisors analyst Colin Gillis said.

Facebook, which Zuckerberg has described as a "social utility," could take on eBay Inc's PayPal online payments system and maybe Apple Inc's iTunes for digital downloads, he added.

"People only do so many things on the Web," said Jeffrey Rayport, founder of digital media consultancy firm Marketspace. "There are a lot of companies that would like to own that set of activities."

FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE? SEARCH ME

With more than 250 million members, Facebook was the world's fourth most visited website in June, according to comScore. It is on track to bring in more than $500 million in revenue this year, most of it from advertising sales.

The new initiatives represent the natural evolution of the service, said Facebook Vice President of Product Christopher Cox. He downplayed the increasing overlap between Facebook's new search engine and Twitter's search engine, or Google's dominant Web search engine.

Facebook's previous search engine was useful for finding other people on the site, but the new version lets users look up what others are saying about particular topics, from healthcare to Iran. The search results are relevant to each person, Cox said in an interview.

"When you're trying to figure out what to eat, or what shoes to buy, or who to vote for, you don't go ask thousands of strangers," said Cox. "The Web should reflect that."

Facebook's recent acquisition of FriendFeed, which lets people share and search for content in real time across social networks and blogs, gives it another key asset as it seeks to perhaps extend its search scope beyond the site's boundaries.

Google recently unveiled new search engine prototype, dubbed Caffeine, that promises faster, more relevant searches.

Asked about Facebook's search efforts, a Google spokesman said, "We have many competitors, and we take them all seriously. But what we take more seriously is innovation and making search better."

Facebook is likely not interested in going head-to-head in Internet search with Google, Stanford's Mendelson said. But the areas of overlap between the companies are increasing, and by beefing up search, Facebook could become more competitive with Google, he added.

At the same time, Facebook could go after PayPal with the online payments system it is developing. Companies like 1-800-Flowers have already set up shop within Facebook, and e-commerce could become more popular on the site.

Software developers who sell applications on Facebook are testing the payments system, Cox said, but it is not clear whether it will handle e-commerce transactions across the Web.

"We're really just trying to get our bearings on what the right product is here with a handful of people at this point," said Cox.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic. Editing by Robert MacMillan)

CNN - Guitar, studio wizard Les Paul dies at 94

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Guitar, studio wizard Les Paul dies at 94

Les Paul, whose innovations with the electric guitar and studio technology made him one of the most important figures in recorded music, has died, according to a statement from his publicists. Paul was 94.

Paul died in White Plains, New York, from complications of severe pneumonia, according to the statement.

Paul was a guitar and electronics mastermind whose creations -- such as multitrack recording, tape delay and the solid-body guitar that bears his name, the Gibson Les Paul -- helped give rise to modern popular music, including rock 'n' roll. No slouch on the guitar himself, he continued playing at clubs into his 90s despite being hampered by arthritis.

"If you only have two fingers [to work with], you have to think, how will you play that chord?" he told CNN.com in a 2002 phone interview. "So you think of how to replace that chord with several notes, and it gives the illusion of sounding like a chord." iReport.com: Do you play a Les Paul guitar?

Guitarists mourned the loss Thursday.

"Les Paul was truly a 'one of a kind.' We owe many of his inventions that made the rock 'n roll sound of today to him, and he was the founding father of modern music," B.B. King said in a statement. "This is a huge loss to the music community and the world. I am honored to have known him."

Joe Satriani said in a statement: "Les Paul set a standard for musicianship and innovation that remains unsurpassed. He was the original guitar hero and the kindest of souls. Last October I joined him onstage at the Iridium club in [New York], and he was still shredding. He was and still is an inspiration to us all."

In a statement, Slash said, "Les Paul was a shining example of how full one's life can be; he was so vibrant and full of positive energy."

Lester William Polfuss was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on June 9, 1915. Even as a child he showed an aptitude for tinkering, taking apart electric appliances to see what made them tick.

"I had to build it, make it and perfect it," Paul said in 2002. He was nicknamed the "Wizard of Waukesha."

In the 1930s and '40s, he played with the bandleader Fred Waring and several big band singers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and the Andrews Sisters, as well as with his own Les Paul Trio. In the early 1950s, he had a handful of huge hits with his then-wife, Mary Ford, such as "How High the Moon" and "Vaya Con Dios."

His guitar style, heavily influenced by jazzman Django Reinhardt, featured lightning-quick runs and double-time rhythms. In 1948, after being involved in a severe car accident, he asked the doctor to set his arm permanently in a guitar-playing position.

Paul also credited Crosby for teaching him about timing, phrasing and preparation.

Crosby "didn't say it, he did it -- one time only. Unless he blew the lyrics, he did one take."

Paul never stopped tinkering with electronics, and after Crosby gave him an early audiotape recorder, Paul went to work changing it. It eventually led to multitrack recording; on Paul and Ford's hits, he plays many of the guitar parts, and Ford harmonizes with herself. Multitrack recording is now the industry standard.

But Paul likely will be best remembered for the Gibson Les Paul, a variation on the solid-body guitar he built in the early 1940s -- "The Log" -- and offered to the guitar company.

"For 10 years, I was a laugh," he told CNN in an interview. "[But I] kept pounding at them and pounding at them saying hey, here's where it's at. Here's where tomorrow, this is it. You can drown out anybody with it. And you can make all these different sounds that you can't do with a regular guitar."

Gibson, spurred by rival Fender, finally took Paul up on his offer and introduced the model in 1952. It has since become the go-to guitar for such performers as Jimmy Page.

"The world has lost a truly innovative and exceptional human being today. I cannot imagine life without Les Paul," said Henry Juszkiewicz, chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar, in a statement. "He would walk into a room and put a smile on anyone's face. His musical charm was extraordinary and his techniques unmatched anywhere in the world."

Paul is enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Inventors Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is survived by three sons, a daughter, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Until recently he had a standing gig at New York's Iridium Jazz Club, where he would play with a who's who of famed musicians.

He admired the places guitarists and engineers took his inventions, but he said there was nothing to replace good, old-fashioned elbow grease and soul.

"I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it's the right one," he said in 2002, "and it will probably whip the guy with 20 notes."

Reuters - Desperate times bring desperate men to television

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Desperate times bring desperate men to television

Wednesday, Aug 12, 2009 7:2PM UTC

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Television audiences who thought the ladies of "Desperate Housewives" were troubled haven't seen anything yet.

When ABC premieres its new sitcom "Hank" during the season that starts in September, the show's out-of-work CEO joins a growing list of American male characters taking extreme measures to cope with recession, unemployment, housing troubles and soaring medical costs.

"Leading characters are doing things that a generation ago would never have been the activities of the protagonist of a TV show," said Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University.

"You could argue that when you have lost your job, the last thing in the world you want is to watch TV about people losing their jobs. But as it's a recession, TV executives think people want to see stuff about relevant issues, so they develop these kind of shows," Thompson said.

On "Hank," Wall Street big shot Hank Pryor (Kelsey Grammer) loses his job, sells his fancy New York apartment, moves to Virginia and must learn to make his own toast.

He follows in the footsteps of high school basketball coach Ray Drecker on HBO's new series "Hung," who finds himself divorced, broke and homeless, so he reluctantly decides to market himself as a gigolo to keep from having to live in a small tent on the grounds of his burned-down house.

And then there is chemistry teacher Walt White in critics' darling "Breaking Bad" on AMC, who suffers from terminal cancer and faces massive medical bills, so he uses his chemistry skills to cook up and sell the drug crystal meth.

LAUGHTER IN TOUGH TIMES

"I think the story is very relatable in this economic climate where people find themselves without health insurance, without a job, and wondering what they are going to do and how they are going to provide for their family," said actor Bryan Cranston, who won an Emmy for playing Walt after the show's first season last year.

But being entertainment on television, the shows are not all doom and gloom. Both "Hung" and "Breaking Bad" have elements of dark comedy that transcend their bleak premises, and "Hank" is a traditional 30-minute sitcom starring Grammer of award-winning "Frasier" fame.

Creator Tucker Cawley said "Hank" was inspired by the failure last year of consumer electronics retailing giant Circuit City, which was for decades a family-run business.

"We will be touching on riches-to-rags things. But Kelsey's character doesn't look on the new situation as something people should feel sorry about. It's the kind of old-fashioned American optimism with which he views the world which hopefully will be appealing," Cawley said.

Grammer's character loses his maids, his yacht, his sub-zero fridge and his king-size bed, along with his blissful ignorance about the basic tasks of human existence.

"These are the kinds of things you can deal with in comedy. A sitcom about a big shot like Kelsey Grammer's character who is now having to make his own toast can really be therapeutic," said pop culture watcher Thompson.

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Will Dunham)