New location services business for Nokia
Nokia has created a new business unit by merging its NAVTEQ mapping business with its social location services operations in an attempt to bolster sales. The new “Location and Commerce” business will be headed by Michael Halbherr, a Nokia employee since 2006 who most recently headed up the company’s Services business, which was based in Berlin. Halbherr will become an executive vice president and a member of the Nokia Leadership team and will report directly to CEO Stephen Elop.
Mobile News

Gemalto Powers Polish NFC Pilot
Digital security specialist Gemalto has revealed that PTK Centertel, an Orange group affiliate, is deploying the largest NFC program in Poland, with a commercial offer targeting several thousand users. The new initiative reinforces Gemalto’s active role in Orange Group’s NFC expansion strategy, with deployments in the UK, France and now, Poland. The program, the first commercial NFC pilot in the country, offers PTK Centertel’s customers the convenience of using their mobile phone to securely pay for goods and services with a wave of their handset. Consumers will benefit from Poland’s established contactless infrastructure of approximately 35,000 acceptance points, in fast food restaurants, cinemas, supermarkets and retailers.
Mobile Marketing Magazine

SMEs get hit harder in a market crisis, say biz profs
SMEs, especially riskier R&D-led ones, get even harder than one would expect by market crises, according to a new analysis by biz professors. "We found that during big market crashes, investors adjust their holdings towards bigger corporate stocks that they perceive as being safer, even after controlling for economic exposures," says David Berger, finance prof. Berger and his colleague H J Turtle examined market data covering 20 years and eight large emerging crises. They found that SMEs in one country tended to suffer a market hit following a crisis overseas, even if their own national economy remained unhurt overall.
The Register

Cybersecurity by the numbers: How bad is it?
Ninety percent of businesses have been hit by a cybersecurity breach in the past year. Breaches cost 41 percent of businesses $500,000 or more. And the top two endpoints under attack are laptops and mobile devices. Those are some of the high-level highlights from a survey via Juniper and the Ponemon Institute. The companies surveyed 583 IT and security professionals and highlight a few key issues.
ZDNet.com

Firefox 5 Officially Released
Mozilla recently made a statement saying it was going to have a “rapid release development cycle” for its Firefox browser – and it wasn’t lying. Firefox 4 was only officially released on 22 March last – and has managed 200 million downloads in that time - but for those already tired of the improved speeds and App Tabs, the next version can now be downloaded. The new version, Firefox 5, promises over 1,000 improvements and “even more awesomeness” – which is always handy in a browser. However, few if any of these improvements are visible when you first boot up Firefox 5. The clean, minimalist look of Firefox 4 is still present and it's under the hood where all the changes have taken place. One of the major updates is support for more modern web technologies making it easier for developers to build add-ons, web applications and websites.
Trusted Reviews

Foursquare celebrates 10 million users with blizzard of stats
Social location service Foursquare has announced that it has signed up its 10 millionth user, and has celebrated the milestone by publishing an infographic packed with stats on the company's growth. The company was only founded in March 2009, so it's notched up those 10 million users in a little over two years. Foursquare reports that it has notched up 358 million check-ins outside the US, highlighting its international nature.
Mobile Entertainment

BBC looks to exciting services 'beyond iPlayer'
The BBC has big plans beyond the iPlayer for our increasingly connected home, with the broadcast giant insisting it has only just scratched the surface of on demand and hybrid television. Speaking to Informa, iPlayer product manager Gideon Summerfield talked briefly about the next generation of the popular on demand service and forthcoming improvements. "Later this year we have a new version of iPlayer arriving that will bring in some exciting features, but I can't really talk about that right now," said Summerfield.
TechRadar

Samsung denied access to iPhone 5, iPad 3
A judge has ruled against giving Samsung early access to the unreleased Apple iPhone 5 and iPad 3. The Korean company had 'demanded' to see the top secret products after Apple was granted access to five upcoming Samsung phones and tablets. While Judge Lucy Koh put the kibosh on a sneak peek at the much-anticipated iPhone 5, she did warn that Samsung can still reference these unannounced products as part of its defence.
Techradar

Four million Amazon tablets will sell in 2011
Amazon's Android-based tablet may be coming in August, with projected sales of four million units this year. Taiwanese component manufacturers told DigiTimes that the tablet launch would 'meet the peak sales period prior to Thanksgiving in the US and the year-end holidays in the US and Europe, the sources pointed out.' The processors will be provided by Texas Instruments, while Wintek will manufacture the touch panels, ILI Technology to supply LCD driver ICs and Quanta Computer responsible for assembly. The manufacturers are also predicting 700,000-800,000 of the tablets will ship every month.
Know Your Mobile

Only one in five consumers interested in NFC payments
We recently revealed one in five smartphones will have Near Field Communication (NFC) contactless technology by 2014. Well, now we've heard only one in five consumers are actually interested in the swipe-to-pay technology. A new study by Retrevo reveals that 53 per cent of consumers are not interested in a phone with a mobile wallet, while 26 per cent of consumers have no idea what NFC or a mobile wallet is.
Know Your Mobile

Indiacalls for further 3G spectrum auctions
India’s treasury is urging the telecomsdepartment to auction-off further 3G spectrum within the current fiscal year ina bid to stave off a potential cash crisis at the government. According to areport in the Economic Times, India’s Finance Ministry has highlighted the factthat as much as 20MHz of 3G spectrum is still available for a follow-upauction; last year’s auction of 3G and broadband wireless spectrum fetched thegovernment over US$20 billion in fees - much higher than expected. In a letterto the Department of Telecoms (DoT), Finance Secretary Sushma Nath urged thatthe DoT "explore and identify, expeditiously, surplus spectrum, which canbe put to auction in 2011-12." The Ministry has budgeted INR30,000 crore(US$6.6 billion) from the telecom sector. It expects to garner about half thisamount from various levies on mobile operators, such as revenue share andspectrum fees. This suggests that it needs to rake in an additional INR15,000crore via new spectrum auctions.
Mobile Business Briefing

Australia'sTelstra begins move to LTE
Telstra has become the first Australianoperator to launch LTE services, although the initial deployment appears to belimited. LTE base stations have been activated in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne andBrisbane, with LTE data being sent over the network “for the first time outsideof field trials.” The launch is one of the world’s first deployments of LTE inthe 1800MHz spectrum band, made possible as eighty percent of Telstra’s mobilecustomers have migrated to the company’s Next G network (based on HSPAtechnology using the 850MHz band), enabling the reuse of the 1800MHz spectrumpreviously used to deliver 2G mobile services. “With more than a million mobileand wireless broadband customers joining Telstra in the past 12 months, anddata usage on the Next G network doubling every year, the increased networkcapacity LTE will provide is vital,” said Mike Wright (pictured), executivedirector, Telstra Networks & Access Technologies.
Mobile Business Briefing

Google set to unveil Android NFCpayment details
Google is set to dish the dirt on its plans toturn your Android smartphone into a digital wallet at a special event in NewYork on Thursday. The company is expected to discuss how Android phonesboasting the 2.3 Gingerbread operating will be able to pay for goods andservices by swiping their phone on a reader device. The NFC tech embedded inAndroid phones like the Google Nexus S will allow users to check-out, redeemcoupons and earn loyalty points by flashing their phones at the checkout,according to reports.
TechRadar

Microsoftrivalling Apple and Google for app growth
Microsoft is claiming that its Windows PhoneMarketplace is growing at the same rate as Apple and Google's mobile appstores. The Ballmer Brigade used the launch of the new Windows Phone Mangoupdate to announce that it now has 18,000 applications in its store - which isimpressive considering there were none last October. Microsoft also claims thatit's looking to beat the BlackBerry offering within the year, and is rivallingits peers for application development.
TechRadar

MarkZuckerberg: children should be allowed to use Facebook
The under-13s should be allowed to useFacebook, the social network’s founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg hassaid. Speaking at a summit on innovation in schools and teaching in Newark, NewJersey, Mr Zuckerberg said that the current age limit would be challenged “atsome point”. Claire Perry, Conservative MP for Devizes, who has campaigned foronline safety, said that ““I would be very uncomfortable about extending thisand I think it’s very, very irresponsible of Facebook to be suggesting it.”
Telegraph.co.uk

Morethan half of Brits will use mobile money by 2015
A study of 1,000 adults by the FutureFoundation think-tank, commissioned by Monitise, found the majority of Britonswill be using their mobile phone to manage their bank accounts, pay bills andmake purchases within the next three years. The proportion will exceed half thepopulation as banks and retailers increasingly use apps and the mobile web toextend their services. The report cites NFC, person to person payments,location-based offers, shopping, transport, ticketing and entertainment amongthe key developments.
Mobile Entertainment

UK Print Media 'Failing' on Mobile, Says Research
A study by mobilebusiness and marketing company 2ergo says that UK print media is"failing" to adopt successful mobile business strategies. The study,called Mobilising Media, surveyed 719 titles in all, taking in the newspaper,mens' lifestyle, womens' lifestyle, B2B, and teenage sectors. Of the 719 titlessurveyed, just 11 per cent have a business model that enables mobile contentdistribution. This would include a mobile-optimsed website, an app, or adigital version of the title.
Mobile Marketing Magazine

BritishCIOs express concerns over cloud computing deployment
There's one group of people who seem not buying the drive towards cloud - the country's CIOs. While it might besurprising that the UK's top techies would be among the most reluctant to godown this route, according to two new surveys, CIOs in the UK are united in theirbelief that cloud services have been over-hyped and that some serious concernsare being ignored in the rush to move to cloud computing. The two surveys,coincidentally released one the same day by SunGard and Colt, on the same daycover the same area – although their conclusions are somewhat different.
Cloud PRO

TweetDeckPurchased By Twitter
Tweetdeck, an East London-based company, hasbeen purchased by Twitter in a deal comprising of cash and stock worth $40million, according to sources who spoke to CNN Money. TweetDeck, founded byIain Dodsworth (36), allows Twitter account holders to organises feeds fromTwitter and other social networks into columns, making them easier to read.
Trusted Reviews

T-MobileUSA launches 42Mbps HSPA+ network upgrade
T-Mobile USA said it has doubled the headlinespeeds of its HSPA+ network to 42Mbps in 55 US markets, taking the fight torival LTE network operators. It will this week release a mobile broadbanddongle capable of making use of the increased speeds, the ZTE manufacturedT-Mobile Rocket 3.0.
Telecoms.com