Matthew Roszak

CommuniGate Systems, a specialist in scalable unified communications (UC), announced its partnership with Deutsche Telekom International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS), a provider of international carrier solutions, to deliver a white-label UC-as-a-service platform to carriers. The partnership aims to provide competitive and distinctive communication products to small to medium-size business customers that deliver value and return on investment to both the carrier and the SMB.

Deutsche Telekom ICSS’ MyCommsuite offering is based on CommuniGate Systems’ UC Centrex and delivers a complete UC solution for the carrier environment. UC Centrex enables Deutsche Telekom to offer a range of integrated communication services as white-label offerings to carriers. Powered by UC Centrex, MyCommsuite provides a suite of SMB applications to the carriers on a turnkey hosted SAAS platform designed to minimize carrier investment, reduce deployment and operational complexity, and deliver rapid return on investment with customer-centric applications that sell to all sizes of SMBs from five people and up.

“CommuniGate Systems’ software enables Deutsche Telekom ICSS to offer an extremely competitive unified communication software as a service to our wholesale customers globally,” said Ulrich Hammerschmidt of Deutsche Telekom ICSS. “The reliability and the constant release of new features convinced us that CommuniGate Systems is the ideal partner for us.”

Example services include push mail, calendar and contact synchronization for smartphones, full IP PBX functionality, hosted in the cloud, call management, customizable IVRs, high-definition voice, conference calls, eDisc cloud storage, network-based secure file storage and sharing, compatibility with mobile and desktop clients, unified messaging (including e-mail, instant messaging, social networks and SMS) and other services.

“Deutsche Telekom ICSS are undisputed leaders in the industry, and we are delighted to be working with them,” said Scott Stonham, vice president of marketing for CommuniGate Systems. “With MyCommsuite, Deutsche Telekom’s customers can rapidly deliver innovative productivity solutions to their small-to-medium-sized business customers, under their own brand and control; from BlackBerry-style mobile push to fixed-mobile-convergence, IP PBX and mobile VoIP (mVoIP) solutions.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/CommuniGate-Systems-and-Deutsche-Telekom-ICSS-Partner-on-UC-340272/?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RSS%2Ftech+%28eWEEK+Technology+News%29

Check out Matthew on LinkedIn! http://www.linkedin.com/in/MatthewRoszak

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Skype, the online telephone company, filed to go public on the Nasdaq stock exchange with a goal of raising up to $100 million.

Skype, now based in the tax haven of Luxembourg, was founded in 2003 by a pair of Swedish technology entrepreneurs. eBay(EBAY) bought a majority stake in the startup in October 2005 and sold it four years later to a consortium of private-equity firms, including Silver Lake Partners, for about $2 billion.

Skype has registered the predictable high growth rates of such a well-known Internet company, though the pace has slowed amid the recession and as the company has matured. Skype took in $406 million in revenue in the first six months of this year, up 25% from the first half of 2009. The company’s annual year-over-year growth rates on the top line clocked in at 44% between 2007 and 2008, but slowed to about 14% between 2008 and 2009.

In the filing, Skype said it had adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the first half of 2009 of about $116 million, up 54% from the $75.2 million it took in a year ago.

Skype’s popularity has continued to rise, especially in the realm of international long-distance communications. Of the estimated 406 billion minutes spent on international calls in 2009, Skype-to-Skype calls comprised 13%, according to a telecom industry consulting outfit called TeleGeograpy.

Three bulge-bracket firms — Goldman Sachs(GS), JPMorgan(JPM) and Morgan Stanley(MS) — will serve as lead underwriters on the float.

A slew of other investment-banking stalwarts will also take their piece of the high-profile tech IPO in secondary roles, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch(BAC), Barclays(BCS), Citigroup(C), Credit Suisse(CS) and Deutsche Bank(DB), among others.

Skype’s American depositary shares will be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

– Written by Scott Eden in New York

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10830815/1/skype-files-for-ipo-seeks-100-million.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

Check out Matthew on LinkedIn! http://www.linkedin.com/in/MatthewRoszak

Research In Motion’s BlackBerry 6 operating system software will be available soon. The software is arguably the best update RIM has made to its smartphone OS in a long time. It includes a better home screen, more efficient menus and a healthy selection of features that do a fine job of matching just about any other solution on the market.

That said, the new software with its eventual release with new BlackBerry models has been ignored by the majority of consumers as Apple’s iPhone continues to capture headlines and the allure of customers.

But that doesn’t mean that BlackBerry 6 should be ignored by Apple, or that it isn’t capable of achieving success in the mobile marketplace. Based on the success RIM’s BlackBerry has enjoyed to this point, and how well the software seems positioned in the marketplace, Apple might want to start worrying about BlackBerry 6 and the immense potential it brings to the market. Here’s why:

1. RIM is finally ready to play

For a while, RIM didn’t seem all that prepared to take on Apple and Google in the mobile market. The company’s BlackBerry devices looked obsolete, and its software worked poorly when compared to iOS. But with BlackBerry 6, all that has changed. The software includes several new features, including social and multimedia integration, that make it a far more viable alternative to anything Apple offers. And given the size of its installed base, that could be a major issue for Apple as it attempts to steal BlackBerry owners away from RIM.

2. It’s what the enterprise has waited for

The enterprise has been the main benefactor of RIM’s BlackBerry for years. Companies that have wanted more functionality and productivity have opted for BlackBerry devices over anything else. But in recent years, those companies realized that BlackBerry OS is becoming obsolete. And they have started looking elsewhere for their mobile needs. With BlackBerry 6, RIM can finally bring those customers back. The software includes the same level of functionality for enterprise users, but adds some streamlined menus and other features to make it more usable. That alone should make enterprise users happy.

3. Familiar—to a point

The best aspect of BlackBerry OS throughout the years is that it has remained familiar. Similar to Windows, which has kept its basic functionality throughout the years, RIM’s BlackBerry OS resembles the same look and feel that customers have been working with all these years. BlackBerry 6 will follow that pattern with the same gridlike arrangement and a familiar menu design. But it will also move forward with fresh ideas, thanks to some new graphics built into the software that most users won’t be familiar with at first. There won’t be drastic differences, but they will be noticeable. And for the most part, they will only help users get more out of the software.

4. Ease of use is now where it should be

A major issue with BlackBerry OS prior to the announcement of the new version of the software was the general lack of usability when compared with the competition. On iOS, for example, users need only tap around the screen to open the applications and services they want. In BlackBerry OS, it requires moving around the screen with the help of a trackpad, clicking on items and sifting through menus to find the right functions. Luckily, RIM has streamlined that to make the operating system more usable than ever. That should make BlackBerry 6 a far more capable competitor to anything Apple offers for the foreseeable future.

5. Developers will finally have something to like

Currently, Apple’s App Store has more than 240,000 applications available to users looking for everything from social networking to productivity. The BlackBerry App World, on the other hand, has just a fraction of that. And so far, most of those apps are abysmal. With BlackBerry 6, RIM might have finally delivered an operating system that developers, and thus users, will like. Not only is it better designed, but it makes it much easier for developers to create applications for it. Plus, if it’s as successful as RIM hopes, it won’t be long before developers start flocking to the software to capitalize on its growth.

6. Browsing is finally worthwhile

Browsing on BlackBerry 5 is arguably the worst experience of any smartphone on the market. Scrolling around a page is a nightmare, and simply trying to find content is practically impossible. According to RIM, it has addressed that problem with a new, far more functional browser. Of course, it wasn’t all RIM’s doing. The company acquired Torch Mobile last year for the sole purpose of using its WebKit service on the new version of BlackBerry OS. Upon doing so, it has drastically improved its competitive ability to take on Apple’s Safari browser and Google’s mobile Chrome browser.

7. Say good-bye to long menus

RIM has added a key feature that could substantially improve its chances of competing with Apple’s iOS: context-based menus. Currently, BlackBerry owners will open a menu in BlackBerry 5 and find several options that they will need to sift through just to find what they’re looking for. In BlackBerry 6, the company has added a feature that examines where the user is in the software, and delivers only the items available in a menu that they might be looking for. Menus will still be very present on BlackBerry 6, but at least they will be easier to use.

8. Going social

Like every other company in the mobile market, RIM has realized the value of providing social-networking features to its users. In BlackBerry 6, users will be able to view their Facebook newsfeed, see what’s happening on Twitter and more. Users can also update their Facebook status and tweet messages to their Twitter followers. Exactly how well that functionality will work is anyone’s guess, but it’s certainly a good idea on RIM’s part to include it.

9. The best of both worlds?

With RIM so heavily invested in both physical keyboards and now, thanks to the Storm2, touch screens, it’s not a stretch to say that the software might work with both technologies. If so, both consumers and enterprise customers should be excited. Those who wish to have the “next-generation” experience will find it with an all-touch-screen BlackBerry, while those who want something a bit more familiar will likely have it with a BlackBerry sporting a physical keyboard. BlackBerry 6 allows RIM to offer more options than ever. That’s something that Apple, at least to this point, has been unable to do.

10. Search will play central role

Search won’t top the list of reasons why customers will buy a BlackBerry 6 device, but rest assured it will certainly put Apple on notice. For once, BlackBerry owners will be able to search for anything on their devices from within the new software. Users can also search the Web. Granted, Apple has been offering in-phone search for quite a while, but that doesn’t matter. It’s yet another example of RIM finding an Apple advantage and eliminating it. The more it does that with BlackBerry 6, the more Apple will need to worry.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/RIM-BlackBerry-6-OS-10-Reasons-Why-Apple-Needs-to-Worry-About-It-498299/?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+RSS/tech+(eWEEK+Technology+News)

Check out Matthew’s Facebook profile at http://www.Facebook.com/MatthewRoszak

Turns out the rumor mill did rather good work of parsing together Hewlett-Packard’s tablet plans. Still, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP’s personal system group, and Jon Rubinstein, the former CEO of Palm, now reporting to Bradley, offered confirmation of the company’s intentions at the 2010 Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference July 22.

“I think you’ll see us with a family of slate products, clearly a Microsoft product in the enterprise, and a WebOS product broadly deployed,” Bradley said on stage at the conference, seated beside Rubinstein.

Explaining that the market will be big enough to sustain multiple products, Bradley added, “Slates are going to be an enormous category. This is just in its infancy.”

In a July 20 report, ABI Research nearly tripled its tablet shipment forecast for 2010 to 11 million units. The research firm expects fourth-quarter sales to boom, following a number of competing devices making their way to retail shelves in September. It likewise views the segment as still young and likely not to break into the “mass market” until 2013.

Bradley notably left out mention of a tablet running Google’s Android OS, which HP was reported to have temporarily shelved, as it focuses on getting its first WebOS product to market. The PC-maker acquired the well-regarded OS during its $1.2 billion purchase of Palm, earlier this year.

Since the purchase, HP has been open about its plans to release WebOS on a variety of devices, beyond simply the smartphones it currently runs on, and Rubinstein has commented that with HP’s backing, WebOS — which he’s generally credited for creating — will be able to reach its full potential.

The open-source OS is said to be particularly easy to develop for, and a growing app store and easy-to-update operating system are likely to benefit HP.

“I think it’s important to have control over the entire user experience and really deliver great consumer products,” Rubinstein said, according to reporting from Fortune. “If you really want to deliver a great experience, in this case, the HP experience, you want your own OS.”

HP introduced the Slate, a tablet reported to run Microsoft’s Windows 7 Home Premium, at the start of the year, but few details are known about the pending WebOS device. A likely guess regarding its name, however, is the PalmPad — as HP filed a July 14 request, trademarking the term, which clearly plays to the Apple iPad.

(Nevermind that many noses were scrunched, when the name of Apple’s tablet was first revealed — a precedent has clearly been set. Lenovo also has plans for a tablet — the Lenovo LePad.)

One detail Rubinstein did reveal about the WebOS-running HP tablet, however — again, with a nod to the iPad — is that the tablet will definitely include Flash.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/HP-Confirms-WebOS-Windows-7-Tablets-in-Development-548866/?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RSS%2Ftech+%28eWEEK+Technology+News%29

Check out Matthew’s profile at http://friendfeed.com/matthewroszak

Apple’s Steve Jobs, in a hastily called news conference, announced July 16 that the iPhone 4 really doesn’t have any problems. The issues with the external antenna are a product of the imagination of the media. The complaints of dropped calls are minimal and no worse than any other phone.

Then he conceded that Apple makes mistakes (although he didn’t mention any) and said he’d give iPhone 4 users a free rubber bumper if they’d just go away and shut up.

The production, of course, was exactly what you’d expect from Jobs. He arrogantly absolved himself and Apple of all guilt; he said that other smartphone makers were worse; and he pointed to a fairly small return rate and a small set of complaints to Apple’s help desk as proof. He also showed us pretty photos of an anechoic chamber that he said proved that Apple tests its phones as a way to refute Consumer Reports.

It was quite a performance. There probably hasn’t been that much spin in one room since the last Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Never mind that Apple was being skewered by a usually fawning press corps. Never mind that an anechoic chamber is used to keep sound interference to a minimum, but doesn’t do anything for radio waves. And never mind that, as eWEEK’s P.J. Connolly points out, Apple never did any field testing without encasing the phone in a rubber disguise.

The fact is, the press conference didn’t do anything for anyone except Jobs and his PR staff. The stock has already taken a hit, and Jobs pointedly said that he wasn’t going to apologize to investors. Confidence has taken a hit, and Jobs attempted to deflect that criticism. The only thing left that Jobs could criticize was other smartphones. He claimed to show that a BlackBerry Bold 9700 would lose its signal when held a certain way. Then he tried the same thing with an Android device and a Windows Mobile device.

I tried the same Jobs Death Grip with a BlackBerry Bold 9700, and I was not able to duplicate the results, despite being in a weak signal area. I tried every Android device in the lab, and I couldn’t duplicate the results there, either. I also tried a couple of Windows Mobile devices, but, well, they couldn’t detect a signal with or without the Jobs Death Grip. 

{mospagebreak title=While Apple Dithers New Android Phones Hit Market  }

Was Jobs making this up? Does he perhaps hold press conferences in one of those multigazillion dollar anechoic chambers? Or did he find out that you can attenuate a radio signal if you stand in just the right place on the stage? Who knows?

The fact is that Apple is the only smartphone company that has designed a device that requires the user to make electrical contact with the antenna for it to be used. The company has now found out that this poses usability problems, as has been previously revealed here by eWEEK. Instead of taking responsibility for overruling its engineers in its never-ending quest for coolness, it blames the users, the carrier, other phone companies, and of course, the press.

And of course, he cast aspersions on Consumer Reports, the magazine that had the nerve to actually run scientifically sound tests that could be repeated, and found the device wanting. And while I have some sympathy for Consumer Reports, I also remember what has happened in the past when companies have challenged their testing ability. History is littered with the carcasses of the cars that flip over, the appliances that burst into flames and the smartphones that don’t work when you put your finger, well, here.

So in response to all of this, Apple has been forced to do exactly what Consumer Reports said they must do. That is to fix the problem, and to do it for free. To quiet the masses, Jobs announced that anyone who has bought a case for their iPhone 4 can get reimbursed. He also said that the company would offer free cases to anyone buying an iPhone 4 until Sept. 30. But, of course, if you bought the case from anyone besides Apple, all bets are off. You’re stuck with the cost.

So now Apple is probably feeling just swell. His Imperial Highness has once again vanquished the naysayers; the investors have been kept at bay; the accessory makers are once again dumped on; and all is well with the world. Kind of.

While the Cupertino Crowd was scheming and figuring how many bumpers it would have to write off, the Android world was releasing a series of devices that are facing the iPhone 4 with faster operation, bigger screens, actual wireless networks that function and customer-focused policies.

Right now, only Apple’s most passionate fans think this is an excellent product. Sure, it really is pretty good, once you get past those little problems. But so are the Droid X and the Evo. And they don’t have antenna problems. And they don’t have arrogance as a marketing technique.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Jobs-iPhone-4-Antenna-Solution-Rubber-Bumper-Not-Contrition-182850/?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RSS%2Ftech+%28eWEEK+Technology+News%29

Check out Matt’s profile on Friendfeed! http://friendfeed.com/matthewroszak

Microsoft is offering cash and other resources to developers, in hopes of enticing them to build apps for its upcoming Windows Phone 7, according to online reports. The veracity of those reports was then implied in an email conversation with eWEEK.

“We are investing heavily in the developer community by offering as many resources as we can to help them be successful on our platform,” a Microsoft spokesperson wrote to eWEEK on July 14. “Where it makes sense we do co-fund strategic projects on a limited basis.”

Windows Phone 7 aggregates Web content and applications into subject-specific “Hubs” such as “Office” or “Games.” When released sometime near the end of 2010, the operating system will be paired with a new Windows Phone Marketplace, where developers will be able to submit five free applications (rising to $19.99 after that) along with an unlimited number of paid applications.

In a July 14 article, Bloomberg quoted Todd Brix, a senior director at Microsoft, as suggesting that the company would devote whatever resources necessary to draw developers into the fold: “We are investing a lot to attract developers big and small to Windows Phone 7 to let them understand what the opportunity is and provide as many resources as we can to help them be successful on our platform.”

In addition to resource-allocation, Microsoft has taken pains to sketch out the parameters of its upcoming mobile applications store for developers. During its TechEd conference in June, Microsoft issued a document on its Windows Phone for Developers Website clearly delineating its content policies. Inevitably, the company will ban applications that are libelous, slanderous, threatening or discriminatory; as well as those that promote hate speech, the use of illegal drugs and excessive alcohol consumption, and violence.

The question of what constitutes an acceptable app has bedeviled Apple’s popular App Store on occasion over the past few months, with the company retracting apps only to institute them after a groundswell of protest from users; in addition, some developers have questioned why their apps with borderline-explicit content were pulled from the store, while apps created by major corporations, with similar content, were allowed to remain in place.

Microsoft seems to be taking a lesson from Apple’s issues.

“Philosophically our approach with Marketplace is in line with what’s existed for Windows Phone traditionally, and for Windows Mobile 6.5,” Casey McGee, a spokesperson for Microsoft, told eWEEK in a July 13 interview at WPC. “What we’ve sought to do with Windows Phone is be very transparent—here are what the fees are going to look like, etcetera, and here are the guidelines.”

For any controversial apps, McGee said, Microsoft will attempt to make their decision-making process as see-through as possible: “There’s a lot of subjectivity in the guidelines, and there will be judgment calls, but there will be an attempt to be consistent.”

Microsoft’s share of the smartphone operating-system market has been gradually corroding over the past several quarters, increasing the pressure on Windows Phone 7 to be a hit—something that depends on its various software and hardware components working as perfectly as possible from the outset.

“All the stuff has to work pretty well, it has to be quick, it has to be stable,” McGee added. “We need to launch with a Marketplace that shows we have a variety of applications that can be used on a daily basis.”

A notable portion of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, running from July 11-15 in Washington, D.C., has focused on Windows Phone 7.

“The phone is going through a massive inflection point,” Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business, told an audience gathered in the Verizon Center here July 13. “There’s this immense competition but in many respects, things are just beginning.”

Microsoft’s strategy behind Windows Phone 7, he added, centers on three tenets: smart design, integrated experiences, and an optimized ecosystem. “The problem is that smartphones are just app launchers; they’re a grid of icons,” Lees said. “We figured there’s got to be a better way than going app by app by app, so two years ago we fundamentally reset our strategy.”

On July 13, Day Three of the conference, Microsoft released Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta.

“The term ‘beta’ is understood to mean that things are close to finished,” Brandon Watson, Microsoft’s director of developer experience for Windows Phone 7, wrote in a July 12 posting on The Windows Phone Developer Blog. “It’s time to get serious about building the actual apps and games for Windows Phone 7 that consumers will be looking for starting this holiday season.”

And in Microsoft’s view, if that takes a little co-funding, so be it.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-CoFunding-Windows-Phone-7-Developers-513801/?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RSS%2Ftech+%28eWEEK+Technology+News%29

Check out Matthew’s Ecademy Profile! http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=512511

NetApp integration with Dynamic Data Center Toolkit, which provides sample code and guidance for building cloud services powered by Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and the Microsoft System Center Suite, can offer cost-conscious businesses enhanced data protection, the company said

Data storage and data management specialist NetApp announced enhanced integration with Microsoft to deliver data protection solutions to cloud service providers by leveraging the Microsoft Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Hosters. Additionally, NetApp announced the availability of professional service offerings and additional resources and guidance for service providers to build a variety of enterprise-class cloud services.

The Dynamic Data Center Toolkit provides sample code and guidance for building cloud services powered by Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and the Microsoft System Center Suite. John Zanni, general manager of worldwide hosting for the communications sector at Microsoft, said small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) are demanding enterprise-class disaster recovery solutions, and hosting service providers are in a tremendous position to fill that demand as more SMBs move toward hosted IT services.

“We’re pleased to be working with NetApp as part of the Dynamic Data Center Alliance to enable hosting service providers to offer these disaster recovery solutions, and to take another step to move beyond commoditized hosting services to become full-service IT providers to their customers,” he said.

nGenX Corporation, a regional infrastructure-as-a-service provider and joint NetApp and Microsoft customer, leveraged the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit to deliver its Guardian GeoCloud service to its customers. The company’s executive vice president, Robert Bye, said using NetApp storage efficiency technologies such as thin provisioning and deduplication in Microsoft Hyper-V environments helps them maximize infrastructure utilization and lower costs for the end user. “As a result, we use 50 percent-60 percent less storage than we would otherwise need to support cloud services for our customers,” he said. “We are really exploding some myths about the affordability of enterprise-class disaster recovery for our customers.”

NetApp also unveiled consulting offerings and design guidance documentation for Microsoft environments, along with new capabilities to help service providers improve their SLAs. NetApp noted these professional services are specifically designed for Microsoft environments. The new offerings assist service providers across all phases of a shared infrastructure deployment, including assessment, planning, architectural design, and best-practices-based implementation.

NetApp also published new design guidance documentation to give service providers best practices around deploying as-a-service offerings for their customers. The guidance is designed to help service providers design and deploy the following cost-effective enterprise-class services: Exchange as a service, SharePoint as a service, Infrastructure as a service, Storage as a service and Desktop as a service.

Finally, to provide further assistance to service providers deploying NetApp data protection as a service (DPAAS), NetApp has partnered with InControl software to help service providers monitor and meet their customers’ SLAs. InControl software can be deployed in a NetApp DPaaS environment to provide real-time SLA and key performance indicator monitoring. This data informs administrators of upcoming SLA issues as they happen, the company noted.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/NetApp-Offers-Integration-With-Microsoft-Toolkit-272181/?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RSS%2Ftech+%28eWEEK+Technology+News%29

Another day, another e-reader price cut. On the heels of Amazon.com announcing a retooled-and-cheaper version of its large-screen Kindle DX, Sony slashed the prices of its own e-readers in order to better compete in what has become an ever-hotter market.

The Sony Reader Pocket Edition now retails for $149, the new Daily Edition for $299, and the Touch Edition for $169. That represents a series of price-drops ranging from $20 to $50; previously, the Pocket Edition had retailed for $169, the Daily Edition for $349, and the Touch Edition for $199.

The e-reader arena started heating up on June 21, when Barnes & Noble announced a price reduction for its Nook e-reader from $259 to $199, along with a WiFi-only version of its device for $149. That same afternoon, Amazon announced that the price of its original Kindle would be reset from $259 to $199.

On top of the price cuts, Barnes & Noble and Amazon seem equally determined to not be outdone in the features department, with each company announcing successive software updates. The Nook’s latest software update included Android-based games, while the Kindle added social-networking functionality.

Despite the manufacturers’ shared determination to trump their rivals in theprices and features departments, each faces a growing threat in Apple’s iPad, which includes a full-color e-reader application. During Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, CEO Steve Jobs indicated that some 5 million e-books had been downloaded through the company’s iBookstore.

The iPad’s success may have also compelled Amazon to introduce a larger, cheaper version of the Kindle DX, which boasts the same-size screen, at 9.7 inches diagonal, as Apple’s device. Despite the price-drops for the original Kindle, the Kindle DX had remained relatively untouched until the beginning of July, possibly because the online retailer viewed the market for larger-screen e-readers as relatively uncompetitive.

In addition to a new slate-gray color for the outer shell, the Kindle DX’s latest version retails for $379, down from $489 for the previous iteration. Amazon also claimed improvements to the e-ink screen, particularly the “50 percent better contrast for the clearest text and sharpest images.”

Despite the steady price decreases, a bottom possibly exists to how far e-reader retailers are willing to let their units’ prices fall.

“With these cuts, eBook readers from Barnes & Noble as well as Amazon now are priced at about the breakeven level with their Bill of Materials (BOM) and manufacturing costs,” William Kidd, director and principal analyst of financial services for iSuppli, wrote in a June 24 statement following the start of the manufacturers’ price war. “With zero profits on their hardware, both these companies now hope to make their money in this market through the sale of books.”

The prominent placement of Sony’s Reader Store for e-books, with its layout vaguely reminiscent of Apple’s iTunes store, suggests a similar model may be in effect for the electronics maker. “This is the same ‘razor/razor blade’ business model successfully employed in the video game business,” continued Kidd in his statement, “where the hardware is sold at a loss and profits are made on sales of content.”

But more price competition could also help narrow the market, possibly wiping out smaller e-reader manufacturers unable to scale and leaving the bigger players—Sony, Amazon and Barnes & Noble—to face down Apple’s entrance into their market.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Sony-Follows-Amazon-Slashes-EReader-Prices-783135/?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+RSS/tech+(eWEEK+Technology+News)

SAN FRANCISCO – Microsoft Corp has pulled the plug on a new generation of smartphones less than three months after unveiling the devices that were part of its efforts to catch-up with Apple Inc and Google Inc. in the fast-growing mobile market.

Microsoft said on Wednesday it had canceled plans to sell its “Kin” phones in Europe this Fall. The company added the internal team working on the Kin phones would be combined with the group working on Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows Phone 7 software.

“We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current Kin phones,” Microsoft said in an emailed statement.

The move underscores the challenges facing Microsoft, whose software is used on the vast majority of the world’s PCs, as it strives to adapt to consumers’ growing taste for handheld Internet-connected gadgets like smartphones.  

In April, Microsoft said it was shelving an internal project to develop a tablet PC similar to Apple’s iPad.

Last month, Microsoft reorganized its mobile phone and video game division, announcing that longtime Microsoft executive Robbie Bach would retire and that the senior vice presidents in charge of phones and games would report directly to Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.

Ballmer is “looking at the (mobile) business, seeing what’s making money, what makes sense to do going forward,” said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft.

The Kin phones represented software giant Microsoft’s first foray into designing its own phones. The two Kin models featured built-in Internet social networking functionality as well as Microsoft’s Zune digital music player and were aimed at savvy young phone users.

Microsoft began selling the Kin phones with Verizon Wireless in May. Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless operator, is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group.

But Rosoff said the phones lacked certain key smartphone functions, such as the ability to install software applications, yet had wireless data service plans that were priced comparably to more full-featured devices like Apple’s iPhone.

The Kin was also based on a special Microsoft software called Windows Phone OS, even as Microsoft prepared to release the new Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. Smartphones running Windows Phone 7 are expected to be available this holiday season.  ”Windows Phone 7 is the real mobile strategy,” said Rosoff.

“The fact that it (the Kin) was ever released in the first place was a mistake. When they went with Phone 7, they should have quietly killed this project.” Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Brenda Raney said that the Kin remains an important part of the company’s “portfolio.”

The smartphone market is exploding. According to research group Gartner, global sales rose nearly 50 percent in the first quarter.

Microsoft had a 6.8 percent share of the global market for smartphone operating systems in the first quarter of 2010, according to Gartner. Google’s Android had 9.6 percent, Apple’s iPhone had 15.4 percent, while Blackberry-maker Research in Motion had a 15.4 percent share and Nokia’s Symbian software had a 44.3 percent share.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Robert Breza said that the battle to win the smartphone market is still in its early stages.  ”With their vast amount of resources, I would never want to count out Microsoft,” he said. “They can acquire their way into it. They can approach it in a different strategy.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Microsoft-Pulls-Plug-on-Kin-Smartphones-375609/?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RSS%2Ftech+%28eWEEK+Technology+News%29

A Presidential Memorandum signed by President Obama would nearly double the amount of wireless broadband spectrum, through an auction, for governmental and commercial use, the White House said.

President Obama signed an initiative to nearly double the amount of available commercial and federal broadband spectrum for mobile devices, the White House reported. In a planned speech to the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, post-partisan think tank, White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers is expected to provide further details on the plan, which would release 500MHz of federal and commercial spectrum over a 10-year period.

The Presidential Memorandum is part of the broader approach to free up spectrum that also includes legislation to facilitate the transition. Administration has no official estimate of the auction revenues from this plan. The actual amount will depend on effective implementation and additional design details, but based on past auctions, some analysts believe the revenue potential could reach in the tens of billions of dollars.

Some estimates indicate that the next five years there will be an increase in wireless data of between 20 and 45 times 2009 levels, reflecting the increasing use of smartphones, netbooks, and other wireless devices. The four-point plan from the Obama administration tackles issues such as providing the tools to allocate spectrum, enabling spectrum to be put to the best use and using auction profits for deficit reduction programs and infrastructure investment.

Reuters reported excerpts from Summers’ speech where he said the initiative would “nearly double the amount of commercial spectrum available to unleash the innovative potential of wireless broadband” while adding job growth and encouraging private sector investment. The official told Reuters most of the spectrum to be auctioned off would be designated for mobile usage and profits from the auction would go toward building a “nationwide mobile broadband network for public safety.”

The announcement comes as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is struggling to convince major broadband providers such as AT&T and Verizon to agree to a re-regulating of the broadband industry. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s chief of staff, Edward Lazarus, scheduled closed-door meetings with industry leaders last week. The telecommunications industry has expressed concern that regulation could strangle growth and innovation and hamper the U.S. economy.

According to a recent study, GDP can increase $7 to $10 for every dollar invested in mobile wireless broadband networks. The White House reported wireless providers directly employ more than 268,000 people, a number that has grown about 6 percent year-over-year for the last four years, and a government release concerning the memorandum said the mobile wireless broadband generates “huge productivity gains” to the U.S. economy: Some estimate that those benefits are valued at $28 billion per year and rising, with combined mobile wireless voice and broadband productivity gains set to reach $427 billion annually by 2016.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/Obama-Initiative-Would-Double-Broadband-Spectrum-404699/