BlackBerry under siege in Europe

New York:  The iPhone has taken a big bite out of the BlackBerry in a market where the older phone once dominated: business customers in North America.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Samsung is poised to do the same to Research in Motion, BlackBerry's maker, as a growing number of businesses are buying, or plan to buy, phones using the Android operating system.

Although BlackBerry is a must-have accessory for the growing business class in the developing economies of the world and RIM is adding customers there at a healthy clip, the company faces a problem in its established markets. Businesses are looking for another option besides the BlackBerry.

RIM, Apple and Android phones now equally share the workplace market. In a recent global survey of information workers - people who use a computer or another smart device for at least an hour a day - Forrester Research found that 27 percent of smartphone users said they had an Android phone; 26 percent, a BlackBerry; and 24 percent, an iPhone. "Android and Apple together are eating BlackBerry's lunch," said Frank Gillett, a Forrester analyst.

While some companies are cautious about allowing employees to use Android phones in the office because of security concerns, more businesses that let employees bring their own devices have approved Android devices. Apple's iPhone continues to be popular. Samsung Electronics sold 300 million handsets in 2011, almost all of them Android phones, and became the biggest phone manufacturer in the world. It appears to be in the best position to profit from a shift in the market.

"We've seen quite a huge growth of Android in the enterprise over the last 18 months," said Nick McQuire, research director of enterprise mobility strategies at the International Data Corporation. "We see it as being neck and neck with Apple to be a top mobile enterprise platform in Europe."
RIM's answer to the increasing popularity of Android handsets and the iPhone is a new version of the BlackBerry software, called BlackBerry 10. But phones based on the new software system have been delayed several times and are now not expected until late 2012. Thorsten Heins, the company's new chief executive, said the new software would address the "consumerization of I.T.," referring to the growing trend of businesses letting their employees choose which devices they bring to work.

Mr. Heins believes that RIM's advantage in the business market remains the company's focus on security. He said that RIM regularly speaks to chief information officers, who say they do not like that Android devices and iPhones have become prominent in the work place.

"They are in a pickle. Their pickle is security," Mr. Heins said in an interview. "When the first big security flaw even happens in one of the large enterprises, you will see this turn around. Wait for the day this happens."

But waiting is not something people in businesses are doing. I.D.C. recently surveyed business managers and information technology managers at 728 businesses across seven Western European countries and found that Android was the fastest-growing mobile operating system for business customers in 2011.

Chief information officers at big enterprises said they were not yet formally supporting Android, though all of them have said they had plans to do so in the next 18 months. They are probably hesitating because they need to plan security measures to protect corporate devices, Mr. McQuire said.
Still, the general acceptance of Android in European businesses is a harbinger of RIM's continued struggles. The Tieto Corporation, a European firm that provides information technology services to large companies, said it had seen strong and increasing demand from customers for Android-based business software. Ville Virtanen, an enterprise mobility marketing director at Tieto, said that customers found Android phones to be cheaper and that the software was the least complicated for distributing work-related apps to employees.

And security concerns are being addressed. Some of Samsung's new phones, like the Galaxy S II, include extra security features for enterprise customers. The newest version of Google's Android operating system, called Ice Cream Sandwich, has built-in encryption. In October, Samsung introduced a program called Samsung Approved for Enterprise, which includes a suite of tools tailored specifically for businesses.

Apple's ascendance in the business market with the iPhone and iPad has been especially surprising to many people because the company had shown little interest in catering to the needs of corporate users when it made solely computers. Not long after the iPhone came out in 2007, however, Apple began adding features to the device, like better compatibility with Microsoft's Exchange, a messaging system that is ubiquitous in big companies.

"Once Apple added those capabilities, the floodgates opened," said Mr. Gillett of Forrester. "It was very hard for I.T. to look the C.I.O., C.T.O. and powerful employees in the eye and say, 'You can't use that device.' "

Planet Magpie, a California-based information technology consulting firm, said that employees working for the majority of its 350 clients were using the Apple phone. "A lot of people on BlackBerrys have switched over to the iPhone," said Robert Douglas, president of Planet Magpie. He said that for many businesses, ditching the BlackBerry has actually decreased costs, because companies no longer have to support the BlackBerry enterprise server, RIM's proprietary system designed to protect data on devices. RIM's server, he said, was "always a bit flaky."

RIM also faces practical alternatives to the BlackBerry enterprise server, like Good Technology, an information technology company that provides security and management tools for iOS, Android and RIM devices.

The wild card in the enterprise sweepstakes is the Microsoft Windows smartphone. Nokia, the giant phone maker, has staked its future on the new software, called Windows Phone 7. Information technology managers are comfortable with Microsoft, and the company has deep relationships with most companies.

The big question is whether Microsoft and Nokia will be ready in time to exploit RIM's weakness. Windows Phone 7 is shipping on several new handsets, like Nokia's well-received Lumia 900, and its Windows 8 software for tablets is set to land this year.

Kristen Batch, a spokeswoman for Microsoft, said the company was not ready to announce its plans for business customers.

Waiting is a risk RIM and its new chief executive are willing to take. "I don't want to launch a product that isn't ready," Mr. Heins said. "I want it to be a perfect experience."

China opens largest electric car-charging station

Beijing: China's largest electric vehicle (EV) charging and battery swapping station has been put into operation in Beijing, Xinhua reported quoting sources in the city's power supply authorities.

Located in the eastern Beijing's Chaoyang district, the Gaoantun charging station can charge up to eight vehicles simultaneously and it takes only four to six minutes to swap a battery of an EV.


The station has been installed with over 10 types of EV charging or battery swapping machines, covering all charging modes that are available in China.

Beijing is striving to build a new energy vehicle grid as part of the nation's plan to usher in more energy-saving and environmentally-friendly vehicles.

Beijing hopes to build a three-level EV charging and battery swapping network that consists of six large-scale concentrated charging stations, 250 charging and battery swapping stations and 210 small-sized delivery stations by the end of 2015.

So far, the China's capital city has completed construction of 12 charging and battery swapping stations and 274 charging posts.

The city was chosen as one of the 25 pilot cities in China for the utilisation of new-energy vehicles.

China plans to have over 500,000 electric, hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles on the road by 2015 and five million by 2020.

IANS

E-books damaging society: US novelist

London: Jonathan Franzen, who is being hailed as one of America’s greatest living novelists, has warned that our desire for the instant gratification of e-books is damaging for society.

The author of Freedom and The Corrections said consumers had been conned into thinking that they need the latest technology.

“The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it’s pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now. So no wonder the capitalists hate it. It’s a bad business model,” a newspaper quoted Franzen as saying.


“I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change.

“Will there still be readers 50 years from now who feel that way? Who have that hunger for something permanent and unalterable? I don’t have a crystal ball.

“But I do fear that it’s going to be very hard to make the world work if there’s no permanence like that. That kind of radical contingency is not compatible with a system of justice or responsible self-government,” he lamented.

Speaking at the Hay Festival in Cartagena, Colombia, Franzen argued that e-books, such as Amazon’s Kindle, can never have the magic of the printed page.

“The Great Gatsby was last updated in 1924. You don’t need it to be refreshed, do you?” he said.

“Maybe nobody will care about printed books 50 years from now, but I do. When I read a book, I’m handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing - that’s reassuring.

“Someone worked really hard to make the language just right, just the way they wanted it. They were so sure of it that they printed it in ink, on paper. A screen always feels like we could delete that, change that, move it around. So for a literature-crazed person like me, it’s just not permanent enough,” he asserted.

ANI

Sony launches LED TV for Rs 3.6 lakh

New Delhi: In order to strengthen its position in the Indian television market, Japanese consumer durable maker Sony today introduced a 65 inch LED TV, priced at Rs 3.6 lakh.


"Sony India launches its biggest screen size 65 (165cms) HX925 LED TV in the current line-up of Bravia," the company said in a statement.

The newly introduced product will come along with a skype camera and two pairs of 3D glasses.

"It is available at all Sony Centers and other major electronic outlets across India," the statement said.

Indian televsion market is estimated to be around 17.5 million units, of which LCDs contribute around 4.5 million units.

Sony is among the top players in the Indian television market along with the likes of Korean majors Samsung and LG.

Rival Samsung and LG also currently offers such high-end LED television products in India.

Samsung offers a 60 inch LED TV for Rs 4 lakh, while LG sells a 65 inch TV for Rs 3.99 lakh.

Sony's televisions, which are sold under the Bravia brand, are the biggest revenue generator for the company in India, contributing about 35 per cent to its overall sales that stood at Rs 5,500 crore in last fiscal.

Sony India had last year launched 15 new LED TV models as part of an initiative to register a revenue growth of about 30 per cent to over Rs 7,000 crore this fiscal.

Sony India had said it expected the Indian operations to contribute about 10 per cent of its overall global turnover, up from the current 5 per cent, by 2015. In the fiscal ended March 31, 2011, Sony Corporation had posted revenue of USD 86.521 billion.

PTI

Tablet boom makes Apple No 1 PC maker

Washington: Apple Inc overtook Hewlett-Packard Co as the world's largest vendor of personal computers in the fourth quarter, helped by booming demand for its iPads, research firm Canalys said on Monday.


In the fourth quarter, tablet demand helped drive the global PC market 16 percent higher than a year ago to 120 million computers, Canalys said.

Excluding tablets, the market fell 0.4 percent from a year ago, said Canalys, one of the first research firms to include tablets in PC forecasts. Other firms have said they will likely follow.



Bureau Report

Shame UPA's pandering to the Taliban

So, our dear leaders have caved in to the politics of vote banks yet again in election season. I use the term "dear leaders" advisedly, after all, we are taking a leaf out of the book of North Korea to prevail upon Salman Rushdie not to visit the Jaipur lit festival.

This gnomic fascist mindset of the Congress party does not do the minorities any credit. Do they really believe that the Taliban fringe of the Deoband speaks for all Muslims? And, why the closing of the Indian mind with ridiculous cases against Google and Facebook.

The Congress has a standard knee-jerk reaction to always play the nanny state. It is shameful that a great author who is a proud possessor of a Person of Indian Origin card and who by any reckoning has brought insight, delight to readers and glory to our country is not welcome as a supine Congress party quivers at the dictates of the loony fringe.

Isn't it curious that Rushdie has been a regular visitor for years and yet when elections in UP are a fortnight away, the Deoband decides to test its mettle.

Despite, the fact that the fatwa on Rushdie also came about because of a similar jelly like approach to ban his novel, as India was the first country in the world to do it, Rushdie still finds his creative wellsprings here. Shame on us then. Remember another great democracy the United Kingdom spent millions protecting Rushdie from the fatwa.

The politics of bans, quotas and appeasement of all kind of every lunatic fringe is in the DNA of the Congress party.

Even the diminishing returns of the politics of appeasement have brought no realisation. So libraries are burnt down, books banned and yet we still piously and smugly proclaim our democratic credentials. The Economist newspaper has repeatedly pointed out that the Indian censors zealously guarding Indian maps beat China hollow.

When are we going to understand that dissent is the essence of a mature country? Does the Congress party really want to act as a thought police and cave in every time a special interest group wants to flex its muscles?

A responsible government would have spurned the call to deny Rushdie a visa, yet Ashok Gehlot still engulfed in the Bhanwari Devi sex murder tries to pressure the organisers to ensure that Rushdie stays away.

The Muslims should punish the Congress party for insulting their intelligence with these gimmicks, complete with Rahul Gandhi's flexi beard.

For all you know, the meeting of minds between the Taliban and the Congress party might have some interesting results.

But, Shame.

Dhoni not bothered about losing captaincy

Sydney: Facing severe criticism for his unimpressive captaincy and performances in Test cricket, under-fire Mahendra Singh Dhoni has offered to quit the leadership role in the longer format of the game if the BCCI feels there is a better replacement waiting in the wings.

Dhoni said if somebody could do a better job than him in Tests, then he will be more than happy to step down as captain for the sake of the team.

"It (captaincy) doesn`t belong to anyone. It`s a position I hold, and it`s an added responsibility. I always like to do well till I am in job but it`s not something I want to stick to. If there is a better replacement, he can come in," Dhoni said today ahead of Wednesday first Twenty20 game Australia.

"At the end of the day, you want India to perform. If there is someone who can do a better job, captaincy should be given to him. It`s not something you have to cling on to," said Dhoni as speculation grew over his Test future both as a batsman and captain.

Dhoni now has lost seven straight Test matches abroad as captain and as a batsman, his stocks have really fallen low on foreign pitches.

While he made 220 at 31.43 from four Tests in England, he scored 102 from six innings of three Tests at 20.40 on the present tour.

"The responsibility was given to me three-and-a-half years ago. I am trying to fit into the shoes, get along with the team and perform well."

Dhoni had earlier dropped hints during the Test series that he might leave Test cricket altogether by 2013 to make himself available the 2015 World Cup.

"It`s two years to 2013. I don`t know whether I would still be alive! There would be IPL, Champions League, back-to-back series. It`s not a calendar you can decide in advance or if there is a lot of rest", Dhoni said.

"I would have to decide by 2013 but it`s two years away. I can`t say in 2014 that I am not playing next World Cup and give a player of 25-odd matches (a chance to prove)," he said.

Dhoni, however, made it clear that his journey as a Test cricketer was far from over but believed the decision was not entirely in his hands.

"I am still on my way (through the journey). I haven`t reached anywhere. But it`s not an individual who decides, it`s others who decide whether you are good enough or not.

"As a player, I am giving my 100 per cent. I am still doing what I was doing. Test cricket is real cricket, but I am not discarding other formats. Every format has its own challenges," he said.

The India captain made a tongue in cheek remark about the dressing room, which according to him is humming with the noise and bubble of the youngsters -- much in contrast to the staid, sober and solemn environment when the seniors were around.

"Our one-day squad looks very different. It`s lot more noisy and lift the dressing room atmosphere. People pull each other`s legs and it`s livelier. It`s very, very different," he said.

"It`s like you have come from Kishore Kumar to Sean Paul! It`s that kind of difference. It`s very noisy. It`s a very different generation of players.

"As for me, I keep adjusting. A mix of everything is good. From classical to rap music of latest version," he said.

Without mentioning any names, Dhoni also took pains to emphasise the importance of senior players in the team and said the criticism coming at their door after the Test debacle was unjust.

"Age is just a number. If people keep scoring runs, nobody would talk about it. When you don`t score runs, everything comes out? - how fast you can run, your turning speed. But we don`t get worried about it."

Looking ahead, Dhoni expects good performances from the team in the shorter formats of the game over the next few weeks.

"(Suresh) Raina and (Virat) Kohli have been around. Then there is Rohit Sharma who is very talented but not part of our Test side, we are not able to give him adequate chances," he said.

Despite the presence of promising youngsters in the team, India fared miserably in the last two Twenty20 World Cups, losing all super league games in England and the West Indies. The next one is due in Sri Lanka later this year. And Dhoni singled out the absence of a seaming-allrounder as the sole missing link in his team.

"A lot depends on where you are playing. If you are playing in the sub-continent, spinners become vital. The wicket slows down a bit and even part-timers can have a bowl.

"When it comes to England and Australia, it changes. We don`t have a perfect seam bowling all-rounder and it would have really balanced out the side. Then we could have five bowlers who can be really effective," he viewed.

Dhoni was full of praise for all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who has started to make his impression felt as a multidimensional player, but said it would be wrong to compare the Saurashtra player with Yuvraj Singh.

"Jadeja has begun to contribute (like Yuvraj). He gives us a similar kind of balance. He more often than not bowls his 10 overs and is good enough to bat at number 6 of 7. We can play three fast bowlers and two spinners," he said.

"But it`s difficult to replace Yuvraj Singh who changes his batting style according to the situation in the game," Dhoni said.

The skipper also feels that India is a better fielding side in limited overs games.

"We have improved as a fielding side, especially in ODIs. To stop batsmen from taking a quick single and the opportunity to run him out is critical in T20s and ODIs," Dhoni said.

"Fortunately, I have players who from infield go to boundary in slog overs without a hassle. I am not too worried about the right fielder at the right position."

Dhoni underlined the importance his team attaches to the two Twenty20 games in Sydney and Melbourne this week.

"We don`t get to play too many Twenty20 Internationals. We need to make the most of it. We must not yet think about the ODIs. We would look to win this game (Sydney)."

The Indians were thwarted in their bid to get ready for the game as they found out damp practice pitches at the venue, ANZ Stadium, on Monday.

"We would have liked to go out there and spend more time. The wickets were damp and we were not able to practice. The outfield will be very important. It`s not a cricket ground and the sand content is more (in the outfield)," Dhoni said.

India`s World Cup-winning captain also emphasised that it is not easy to shift from one format to another in a short space of time.

"It`s not easy to shift to a different format. The five-day format to T20 over game or vice versa is difficult. It`s a different challenge," Dhoni insisted.

"You have to adapt really well in this game. You have to be ahead of the bowler, what he`s looking to do and be the first one to play shots and score runs."

Dhoni believed it wasn`t easy to be on the top of your game always in cricket.

"It`s a sport where you will not be at the top always. There are constant phases of ups and downs, our sport has a lot of variables. Just one mistake and you could be out. You may be in best of form but it`s no guarantee. All players are the top level are good enough to perform at international level," he said.

Asked about Australia`s present Twenty20 unit, especially Brett Lee, 40-year-old spinner Brad Hogg and captain George Bailey who was part of the Chennai Super Kings squad in the IPL, Dhoni had good things to say about the trio.

"He`s (Lee) a very good bowler with plenty of experience. He`s always experimenting, always trying to come up with deliveries which can help contain (the batsmen). He bowled well in Big Bash (League) and he`s quick and also has variations when it`s needed.

"He`s among the top few. (Lasith) Malinga would be up there with his slinging action too which is very difficult to pick," Dhoni said.
"Bailey has been with Chennai Super King. I`ve interacted with him and he`s an interesting character. He plays strokes, is intelligent and understands the game well.

"(As for Hogg), the spinners are like wine. They more they age, the better they get. It would be a nice contest between youngsters and him."