Weekly Wireless News - Sep 7_ 2012

							                            [WEEKLY WIRELESS REPORT] Week ending September 7, 2012

This Week’s Stories                                          or Cascades and C++, Qt, HTML, Adobe Air and
                                                             porting Android Apps to the BB10 platform. "This
                                                             opens the door to a lot of developers regardless of
Inside RIM's Plan to Win Back                                how they prefer to develop."
Developers
September 4, 2012                                            Communitech, a non-profit organization based near
                                                             RIM, also makes apps, sometimes in partnership with
                                                             other local tech companies. Rob Drimmie,
Here's how Alec Saunders says he knows Research              Communitech's Apps Factory development manager,
In Motion's strategy for consumer app developers is          couldn't say when he might be working on anything
working: When someone approaches him at a                    specifically for BB10.
BlackBerry Jam session with something already in the
works.
                                                             "I'm not exclusively a BlackBerry developer, I never
                                                             have been and I never will be, though in most cases I
"I'll have people coming up afterwards saying, 'Here's       do develop for BlackBerry devices first," he said. "One
my code, see what I've done,'" said Saunders, RIM's          of the things I love about what RIM is doing lately is
vice-president of developer relations, who has been          the way they've embraced open source technologies.
traveling around North America and elsewhere and             I think the way they support tools like PhoneGap, the
speaking at the 26 so-called BlackBerry Jam                  Ripple Emulator, and so many other important web
developer events that have been held so far this year.       community projects that explicitly promote cross-
"The things that they're doing, they're creating in two      platform development is brilliant."
to four days. It might not be finished, but the start of
something."
                                                             Drimmie added that he has already built several
                                                             applications using WebWorks, and he walked away
Developers react to the BlackBerry Jams                      from the BlackBerry Jam reassured that the standards
                                                             and principles of developing WebWorks applications
RIM is hoping developers will be starting a lot of app       is going to be carried through with BlackBerry 10. "(It
"somethings" over the next year as it gears up to            means) that the time and effort I've put into learning
launch its next-generation BlackBerry 10 devices in          their tools will be paying off in a big way with
the first quarter of next year after a long delay. After a   BlackBerry 10," he said. "Not only are the applications
string of outages, the poorly-received PlayBook tablet       I've already built very easy to port to BB10, but the
and other missteps, the Waterloo, Canada-based               efforts they're putting into improving those tools will
company has seen its market share plummet                    make future development easier and give me much
compared to rivals such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)               more access to native functionality."
and Samsung, leaving many developers to
concentrate on platforms with more obvious                   Moving from the enterprise to a consumer-oriented
consumer appeal. However Saunders, who recently              market
wrapped up a BlackBerry Jam near RIM's
headquarters as well as one in Vancouver, Canada.,
says his mission since he joined the company almost          Part of RIM's challenge has been that the BlackBerry
exactly a year ago has been to reposition it as the          first found favour among corporate users and IT
best business partner a developer could have.                departments that found it easy to manage the devices
                                                             using a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. In a more
                                                             consumer-oriented world, the competition has
"I have people saying, 'Nobody treats us like RIM            increased significantly. Despite criticism about a
does,'" he said. "The consistent thing I hear is, 'I had     paucity of apps in its Apps World, Saunders said RIM
no idea how easy it was to build on BB10.'"                  sees its store as more of a greenfield opportunity for
                                                             developers.
At the most recent BlackBerry Jam, RIM provided
developers with alpha devices--including one with a          "The store isn't overcrowded," said Saunders. "The
touch screen and another with a full-fledged                 fact is that if you develop on the BlackBerry, as a
keyboard--and released tooling to start developing           developer you can actually make money.
immediately, along with more details on the firm's
product roadmap.
                                                             "At Motek, Worsford said the company averages
                                                             about 120,000 downloads daily of its freemium and
"From what we've seen so far, the new platform is            paid apps. "Yesterday for example, we had 117,564
impressive," said Wes Worsford, president of Motek           downloads of our apps," he said.
Mobile, a company that makes Tweeker and
ScreenMuncher, among other apps. He noted the
number of the development paths to consider when             RIM will continue to host developer events throughout
creating apps for BB10, including native using C/C++         the fall, Saunders said, including Jams in Amsterdam
                           [WEEKLY WIRELESS REPORT] Week ending September 7, 2012

and Asia. He admitted that the BlackBerry maker             The paper claims that Samsung confirmed it would
continues to face concerns from developers around           “immediately sue” Apple if the Californian phone-
its long-term stability, but laughed off suggestions of     maker releases an LTE device.
any impending sale or shutdown.
                                                            With the iPhone 5 possibly set to sport such
"I respond to facts. There's a lot of speculation in the    functionality when it is announced next week, we
media, and the fact is we are going through a platform      should find out sooner rather than later.
shift, but it's very deliberate," he said. "People
compare us to Nortel going bankrupt, or Apple when it       But patent expert Florian Mueller warned that
had to go begging on its knees to Microsoft for money,      Samsung would do well to rethink its strategy, saying
but RIM has $2 billion in cash and no debt."                “4G/LTE won't be Samsung's key to a free pass for
                                                            patent infringement”.
Besides re-igniting the loyalty of its installed base,
part of Saunders' mission will be to attract developers     “I would strongly discourage Samsung from trying to
who are new to RIM. Worsford said one area of               use 4G/LTE-essential patents to shut down the
opportunity might be around BlackBerry's messaging          iPhone 5,” he added in a blog post.
platform BBM, which has a reported 50 million users.
Motek is already working on a number of apps for
BB10 with a strong focus on BBM integration.                “It won't improve Samsung's position at all. In fact, it
                                                            will only make matters worse, especially with antitrust
                                                            regulators. In my opinion, the reasonable approach
"Each developer needs to make his or her own                for Samsung would be to sue for FRAND royalties
decision about developing for BB10. RIM is definitely       over its Standard Essential Patents, not injunctions.”
in a period of transition," he said, however, "They are
still a significant global player."
                                                            www.wirelessindustrynews.org
www.fiercedeveloper.com
                                                            Mergers & Acquisitions
Apple files 318 new LTE patents
to try to fend off Samsung                                  Microsoft’s Skype Division Inks
September 5, 2012                                           Payment App Deal with MACH
                                                            September 6, 2012
Apple has been stockpiling LTE patents in a bid to
fend off a possible legal battle from its fierce
                                                            Microsoft's Skype division says it has inked a deal
competitor Samsung on its forthcoming iPhone 5.
                                                            with MACH in an effort to link customers' Skype
Apple has recently filed no less than 318 new LTE
                                                            accounts and their mobile bills.
patents. That's around five percent of the world’s total.

                                                            The deal will allow Skype users to bypass credit card
According to various sources, Apple developed 44 of
                                                            companies and even PayPal when they wish to make
those patents itself while the rest were acquired from
                                                            payments using their phone.
now bankrupt Nortel Networks in Canada. The Bidco
consortium, which Apple joined with EMC, Microsoft
and others to bid for further Nortel patents, owns a        This transaction will enable mobile customers to buy
further 116 LTE patents, effectively bumping Apple’s        Skype minutes using Skype apps, and then have the
number up in excess of 400.                                 cost added to their wireless-phone bill or deducted
                                                            from their pre-paid account rather than having to pay
                                                            with a credit card or PayPal account.
By comparison, Samsung has the largest share of
LTE patents with 819 (12.7 percent of the total), while
U.S. patent firm Inter Digital is second with 780.          This is accomplished with the services of mobile
                                                            billing provider MACH, whose secure servers
                                                            integrate with network operators around the globe to
This clearly demonstrates that Apple has been taking
                                                            create billable events.
strategic steps to acquire intellectual property to
prepare for potential legal battles before it launches
its own LTE smartphones.                                    For now, exactly which mobile operators and where
                                                            they're based Skype isn't saying, but deployment will
                                                            start next month.
This echoes a few claims in the newspaper Korean
Times on Friday that Samsung – still smarting after its
defeat to Apple in a Californian court last month – was     For post-paid mobile that's relatively easy-– the line
readying a move to strike back at Apple.                    item is just added to the bill, but with a pre-paid
                          [WEEKLY WIRELESS REPORT] Week ending September 7, 2012

account the money has to be deducted in real time,         in the US), Facebook closed at its lowest point ever,
which is a little more complex in practice.                at US$17.73 per share.

The overall majority of Skype users don't pay of           Instagram's team, which recently celebrated the 5
course. Video and audio calls to other Skype users         billionth photo shared through its photo app, will now
are free and Skype's peer-to-peer nature makes them        move to Facebook's offices. It reassured its followers
low in cost.                                               on its blog today that the "Instagram app and its
                                                           features will stay the same one you know and love."
Skype's revenues come from those who pay for the
ability to call normal phones, and some embedded           Facebook Vice-President of Engineering Mike
advertising, but making it easier to pay is always         Schroepfer welcomed Instagram, and reaffirmed that
desirable for mobile users, and this is what MACH          business would be as usual.
appears to do best.
                                                           "Instagram will continue to serve its community, and
Currently, Skype accepts the usual range of credit         we will help Instagram continue to grow by using
cards and PayPal accounts, as well as bank transfers       Facebook's strong engineering team and
which can take several days to process but cost less       infrastructure. We also can't wait to work with the
for Skype to process.                                      talented Instagram team to improve the mobile
                                                           experience," he said in a statement.
Withdrawing cash from a mobile account will probably
cost less than doing so from a credit card. MACH will      www.zdnet.com
still want a share of the revenue, but more importantly,
it will make it easier and faster to pay for Skype even
if a user doesn't have a credit card or bank account.      Products & Services

If Skype is going to be better integrated into Windows     With iPad Mini on the Way,
Phone handsets, and if it challenges the role of
mobile operators and wireless carriers as providers of
                                                           Does Kindle Fire 2 Matter?
voice telephony, then billing integration was a            September 5, 2012
necessary step, and one which is now possible *IF*
we assume that the operators will allow it. And now        NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Amazon is expected to
*that's* the next big question, of course!                 release a new version of its Kindle Fire tablet on
                                                           Thursday -- but if Apple releases a similarly sized and
www.wirelessindustrynews.org                               priced iPad this fall, Amazon's tablet may be doomed.

                                                           The iPad has absolutely dominated the tablet market
Facebook Closes Instagram                                  since its 2010 release. Its huge app library and best-
Deal at US$715 Million                                     in-class features have given would-be tablet rivals
September 7, 2012                                          little room to grab even the tiniest slice of the market.


Facebook has closed its deal with Instagram, making        Of all the tablet makers, Amazon has enjoyed the
the US$1 billion deal a reality.                           most success in competing against the iPad. Its
                                                           strategy: Amazon attacked a smaller segment of the
                                                           tablet market and went for the jugular on price,
The deal was previously meant to have been closed          undercutting the iPad by $300 with its 7-inch $199
in the second quarter of the year, which would have        Kindle Fire.
netted Instagram a higher payout, due to the method
of payment Facebook elected. At the time, the deal
was for US$300 million and 23 million shares, and          Amazon will likely unveil an improved Kindle Fire 2 at
once Facebook went public, it entered the market at        an event in California. But the company's size and
US$38.23 per share, increasing the total value of the      price advantage could quickly vanish: Apple (AAPL,
deal to about US$1.18 billion.                             Fortune 500) is widely rumored to be announcing a
                                                           similarly sized "iPad Mini" for close to the same cost
                                                           in October.
According to Associated Press, the deal closed on
Friday August 31, at which point Facebook's share
price was US$18.06. This places the value of the deal      Without a key differentiator from the iPad, Amazon
at US$715.38 million. After trading resumed on             (AMZN, Fortune 500) will have to re-think its strategy
Tuesday August 4 (as August 3 was a public holiday         for battling Apple.
                           [WEEKLY WIRELESS REPORT] Week ending September 7, 2012

"So far the customer's choice is deciding between           If Apple does come at Amazon with a smaller and
high end, Apple, and low end, Amazon," said Aaron           cheaper iPad, The Kindle Fire may not be dead on
Kessler, senior research analyst at Raymond James           arrival. Yet Amazon's tools to defend its territory are
& Associates. "If Apple releases a price competitive        simply blunt compared to Apple's cache.
[iPad] Mini, that could completely change the low-end
market."                                                    "The short of it is that an Apple iPad [Mini] will take
                                                            significant share," said Victor Anthony, analyst at
The Kindle Fire's eye-popping price and smaller size        Topeka Capital Markets. "But Amazon never set out
helped Amazon carve out as much as 14% of the               to dominate like Apple did, and it doesn't have to.
market during the 2011 holiday season, according to         Getting even a small part of this big market is really a
IHS iSuppli. The iPad still held 57% of the market that     success."
quarter, but taking away that much share from Apple
was a minor coup for Amazon.                                money.cnn.com

But if the low-end/small tablet market mirrors that of
the full-size devices, Amazon could be in big trouble.      With Phone, Amazon is Playing
Other tablet makers -- like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ,           with Fire
Fortune 500), Motorola, and Research in Motion              September 7, 2012
(RIMM) -- learned the hard way that when customers
have $499 to spend on an iPad or another tablet for
                                                            NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Amazon unveiled four
the same price, they're almost always going to choose
                                                            new tablets on Thursday, but much of the Amazon
the iPad.
                                                            chatter focused on what the company didn't
                                                            announce: a new phone.
"Apple [iPad] has been the tablet of choice when
people can afford it," Kessler said. "So if pricing were
                                                            Analysts have long wondered aloud about the
equal, Apple would have the edge. Amazon has to
                                                            likelihood of an upcoming Amazon phone, and tech
add value in other ways."
                                                            blog The Verge posted a story on Wednesday saying
                                                            the device is in the works. The Verge speculated the
Laura DiDio, principal analyst at research firm ITIC,       phone might have been announced at Amazon's
thinks Amazon needs to step it up on both features          Thursday event, but it turned out to be tablets only.
and price.
                                                            If Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) does eventually
"The Kindle Fire is well regarded, but now the              unveil a smartphone, it would be another extension of
question becomes, what are you adding to it?" DiDio         the media ecosystem the company has worked hard
said. "Amazon doesn't have to match Apple feature-          to create: e-books, streaming video, MP3s and more.
for-feature, but it does need to run at the iPad hard.      But the smartphone market is risky, expensive and full
Amazon customers love a discount, so I'd love to see        of formidable rivals.
them do some promotional pricing."
                                                            Whether it's a smart move for Amazon depends on
If Apple's iPad Mini is priced at $249 as rumored,          quite a few factors.
DiDio said that's probably enough of a margin that
Amazon could keep the Fire at $199. But if Apple
                                                            Why a phone is good for Amazon: The 2007 launch of
matches the $199 price point, Amazon could be
                                                            the original Kindle e-reader was the first hardware
forced to drop the Fire's price by $50 or more.
                                                            play for Amazon, which then upped the ante by
                                                            launching the original Kindle Fire last year. Building a
"That could easily happen -- we all know Apple is           smartphone could make Amazon even more of a
ruthless," DiDio said. "And they have the deepest           hardware player.
pockets in the industry."
                                                            And the smartphone market is large enough that even
Price isn't all that the Kindle Fire has to offer; Amazon   grabbing a small slice could be lucrative for Amazon.
could battle Apple with its massive content library of      At the end of this year, Macquarie Securities
e-books, magazines, videos and streaming music.             estimates there there will be about 140 million
Amazon has ramped up those offerings recently, by           smartphone subscriptions in the U.S. alone. Phone
expanding its e-book catalog and inking streaming           adoption is also growing massively overseas.
video deals with Epix and Comcast's (CMCSA)
NBCUniversal.
                                                            Why it could be bad: Although the smartphone market
                                                            is growing, that doesn't mean everyone gets to win.
Apple boasts its own strong media platform, but it          Companies with much more hardware experience
can't go tit-for-tat with Amazon's platform.
                          [WEEKLY WIRELESS REPORT] Week ending September 7, 2012

than Amazon have struggled again current bigwigs          Intel blamed a weakening global economy for
like Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Samsung.               slumping chip sales.

Motorola has lost share since releasing flagship          As a result, Intel said it would cut spending -- the
phones like the RAZR and original Droid line, and         company had expected to spend $12.1 billion to $12.9
Research in Motion's (RIMM) is in a downward spiral       billion in 2012, but Intel said capital expenditures will
after BlackBerry lost its foothold in the corporate       come in below that level by the end of the year.
phone market. Even Nokia (NOK), whose phones
generally garner praise from critics, is in serious       Profits will take a hit too -- gross margins are now
trouble.                                                  forecast to be between 61% and 63%, at the low end
                                                          of the chipmaker's target range of between 61% and
That makes the battle even more difficult for Amazon,     65%.
which hasn't impressed with the quality of its
hardware so far.                                          Shares of Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) fell 3% in morning
                                                          trading.
Why the good and bad might not matter: After Apple
launched the iPad in 2010, scores of the company's        Intel had already warned in July that its outlook would
rivals felt forced to jump into the tablet market too.    be weaker than Wall Street analysts had expected,
Amazon may feel the same way about phones:                citing a challenging economic environment.
playing in the smartphone market is at least worth a
shot.
                                                          Yet the company had largely been able to avoid the
                                                          worst of a slumping PC market. Though worldwide
It's a risky bet, though; developing and manufacturing    shipments of PCs fell by 0.1% in the second quarter,
the new hardware can cost a company millions. If a        according to separate surveys by Gartner and IDC,
device is an abject failure, that may all go to waste.    Intel's PC chip sales actually rose by 4% last quarter.
                                                          The economy now appears to be catching up to Intel.
Amazon took that risk on tablets, and it resulted in
some success: The Kindle Fire captured 14% of the         Still, chief rival AMD (DOX) has fared much worse.
market at one point, according to data from IHS           Sales have tumbled, and the stock has matched it --
iSuppli. That bested tablet offerings from Motorola,      falling by more than 32% this year.
RIM and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500), which
pulled its ill-fated TouchPad off the market after just
49 days.                                                  Some investors are holding out hope that the
                                                          upcoming new Windows 8 operating system from
                                                          Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) will help rejuvenate
But repeating Amazon's Kindle success in the              the PC market. But shares of the two largest PC
smartphone realm will be a much tougher challenge.        companies, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) and
                                                          Dell (DELL, Fortune 500), have been hit hard this
money.cnn.com                                             year as more consumers flock to tablets, most
                                                          notablyApple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPad.
Industry Reports
                                                          money.cnn.com

Intel Slashes Outlook as PC
Demand Weakens
September 7, 2012

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Intel severely cut its
third-quarter sales forecasts Friday as demand for
personal computers has slowed beyond expectations.

The world's largest chipmaker said it now expects
revenue of between $12.9 billion and $13.5 billion in
the current quarter, down from its previous forecast of
                                                                                                         th
between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion. Intel said                                 120 Madison St. 15 Floor
corporations are ordering fewer PCs, consumers in                                  Syracuse, New York 13202
emerging markets are sitting on the sidelines, and PC                                         (315) 470-1350
manufacturers are reducing their inventories to meet                                         1-888-8KSRINC
sinking demand.