<IT WORLD> Google takes on iPhone 4S
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - Google's new long-awaited smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus,
announced this week, is shaping to be a serious challenger to Apple's iPhone
4S. The Samsung partnered unit, which will go on sale next month, comes with
facial recognition technology, a large 4.65 inch screen, high definition
1280x720 pixel display, high speed data connectivity and Google's latest
version of Android, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich.
Google's mobile division senior vice president Andy Rubin claimed that over
half a million Android powered devices were being activated every day. The next
iteration of Android will offer a raft of updates and improvements such as
better data management and synchronization with the cloud, improved camera
functionality, a button-free operation, and near-field communication that
enables
two Android devices to share content directly.
Android penetration in smartphones during the second quarter was 43.4%, ahead
of Apple's iOS with 18.2% and Nokia's Symbian platform with 22.1%, according to
research firm Gartner.
Motorola also introduced a new handset this week, one the company claims is the
world's thinnest. The Android-powered Droid Razr has a 1.2Ghz processor, 1
gigabyte of memory and 32 gigabytes of storage, a large 4.3 inch screen and
Kevlar casing.
The company, which is to be taken over by Google for US$12 billion, has been
struggling to retain its market share from rivals Apple and Samsung. Motorola's
market share dropped to 14% market share in August from 15.1% in May, according
to research firm Comscore. It hopes the new handset will sell as well as the
iconic Razr flip phone that became an overnight status symbol.
Google has stated that it will not be actively going into the hardware business
despite the acquisition of Motorola; the purchase was primarily to bolster its
patent portfolio so that it can fend off lawsuits from rivals.
Leaked excerpts from the biography of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs include
a statement from the man himself purporting that Android is a stolen product.
"I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny
of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I'm going to destroy
Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on
this."
Apple meanwhile posted below-expectation revenue on Tuesday as iPhone sales
slowed in the run up to the launch of its latest model. Its fourth-quarter
revenue rose 39% to US$28.3 billion, against an expected $29.7 billion. Profit
jumped 54% to $6.62 billion. The shares dropped 6% in after-hours trading.
The figures do not include sales of the iPhone 4S, of which Apple claim 4
million were sold in the first three days on the market.
Over in the Microsoft camp, plans are being pushed to solidify its alliance
with Nokia and offer Windows based handsets in China. Nokia, the current market
leader in China, stated earlier this year that it would base its smartphone
portfolio on the Windows mobile operating system. The Finnish mobile
manufacturer plans to start offering Windows Phone 7 units to a number of
countries.
The Chinese smartphone market is dominated by Google's Android and Microsoft as
yet has made very little headway into the market. The software giant has also
partnered with Samsung and HTC to push out more Windows-based handsets and claw
back some of that lost market share it what is turning into a race with fewer
and fewer horses.
Security
Internet security company Symantec has warned of a possible reemergence of the
Stuxnet worm that wreaked havoc on Iran's nuclear program almost a year ago
(see Stuxnet
raises virus stakes, October 2, 2010). The new variant, dubbed Duqu, is
a remote access Trojan that appears to have been written by the same authors of
Stuxnet or those who have access to its source code.
Symantec said it has confirmed that the threat is almost identical to Stuxnet
but with a different purpose. Instead of targeting machinery and sabotaging
industrial control systems, Duqu has been designed to steal data from
manufacturers in order to create targeted attacks in the future.
The malware was discovered on a number of Microsoft Windows computer systems
across Europe. Symantec did not reveal the identities of the affected
companies. According to a Symantec blog post, "The first company we saw
targeted did not appear to be an industrial control system but following
samples clearly have a common threat among them. They are industrial control
systems, in the process of manufacturing something related to that industry."
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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