It’s (sort of) official – Google overtakes Microsoft in mobile
Finally, after all the vague feel-good comments, a real fact about Android phone sales to sink your teeth into. Speaking at the big mobile industry bash in Barcelona today, Eric Schmidt said handset makers were currently shipping 60,000 units a day with the Google software platform installed.
If that figure is sustainable, it adds up to nearly 22m a year. Compare that to Microsoft, which said that “more than 20m” Windows Mobile phones were shipped in 2008. Read more
Android’s Adobe AIR support hits Apple
Apple may feel Flash has no future on the iPhone or iPad, but Adobe is making announcements at the Mobile World Congress today that are likely to increase its penetration with developers.
Adobe is unveiling its AIR platform on mobile devices, starting with Android-based phones. Read more
Let’s hear it for Bluetooth headsets
Personal Tech in the FT’s Business Life section this week takes a look at Bluetooth headsets:
Halo:Reach is highlight of Microsoft unveiling
Microsoft and the Bungie independent studio gave an impressive demonstration of Halo:Reach , the next major instalment of the blockbuster Xbox franchise, at a media event in San Francisco on Thursday evening.
The first-person shooter was one of more than a dozen games shown by Microsoftat its X10 event , in a bullish demonstration of its firepower for the year ahead.
It was an optimistic end to the week for the industry. Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard issued downbeat forecasts on Monday and Wednesday and figures from the NPD research firm on Thursday showed that software sales fell 12 per cent in January. Read more
Facebook has 100m mobile users – will its own phone be next?
Facebook revealed on Wednesday that more than 100m people use the social network on their mobiles every month. That’s around a quarter of their total membership.
As seems to be the norm for Facebook at the moment, even with such big numbers, the growth rate is huge – in September it had 65m mobile users. That suggests the number is likely to double annually. Read more
Warner talks tough on Spotify
The music industry has taken another beating in the blogosphere over the last 24 hours after the head of Warner Music lashed out against online music streaming services such as Spotify and We7.
“Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry, and, as far as Warner Music is concerned, will not be licensed,” Edgar Bronfman Jr, Warner Music’s chairman, said on the major label’s analyst call yesterday.
“The sort of ‘Get all of the music you want for free and then, with a few bells and whistles, maybe we can move you to a premium price’ strategy is not the kind of approach to business we’ll be supporting in the future.” Read more
iPad price analysis suggests big 3G markup
The new iPad represents high levels of profitability for Apple, according to a breakdown of the price of its components and manufacturing cost by the iSuppli research firm.
Apple appears to have marked up the cost of 3G versions of the iPad considerably and its 32Gb model will offer it the biggest margins if iSuppli’s estimates are correct. Read more
Gesture-ready smartphones on the way
Attendees at the high-nerd-quotient International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week have been getting a sexy preview of what’s in store at the more mainstream Mobile World Congress phone show in Barcelona next week.
Texas Instruments has been showing how phones will have gesture capabilities as they take advantage of more powerful processors such as TI’s forthcoming Omap 4. Read more
Google Buzz is social Swiss army knife
Google Buzz, announced today, aims to bring together a slew of Google services and a stew of social networking ideas.
The challenge for Google is to make its Swiss-army-knife complexity appealing to a public that might prefer the separate simplicity of 140-character tweets and the close social connections enabled by Facebook. Read more
Dotcoms, tech dominate Super Bowl XLIV ads
2010 is the 25th anniversary of the .com domain and dotcom companies appear to be back in rude health, judging by their domination of Super Bowl ads this year.
Google’s Super Bowl debut on Sunday night, with Parisian Love, was a low-budget affair. It was a rerun of an ad it has been showing online for months on YouTube. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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