Microsoft risks ceding the smartphone market. Its apparent decision to delay the release of Windows Mobile 7 could be the final nail in the coffin of its mobile ambitions. Given that computing is going mobile, that’s a big problem for the software maker
Browsing: Duncan McLeod
In less than a fortnight, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will take to a stage in San Francisco to unveil one of the most eagerly awaited consumer electronics products in history. Can the brains behind the iPod and the iPhone deliver the goods once again?
Is it all going pear-shaped for Telkom? For many years, SA’s fixed-line operator was able to generate billions of rand in profits for its shareholders. But now it appears to be facing a perfect storm of competition, regulation and market change
Rupert Murdoch, the leader of News Corp, is on a mission to get people to pay for his company’s journalism. He ’s even threatening to pull News Corp content off Google and to do an exclusive deal with Microsoft instead. Has he lost the plot?
Telkom faces the possibility of potentially crippling fines for alleged anticompetitive abuses in the Internet market. If the company is forced to cough up, creative uses that benefit consumers should be found for that money
Cellular operators were set to receive a grilling in parliament this week. Politicians want mobile interconnection fees to come down. But it’s far from clear if the basic cost of calls will also fall. Can politicians avoid the temptation of interfering further?
Some commentators have speculated that the failure of talks between MTN and India’s Bharti Airtel points to a more protectionist approach by government. If so, it’s troubling. The country ought to be opening up to investors, not scaring them away
SA consumers got their first taste of a broadband price war last week when a small Internet service provider, Afrihost, slashed the price of bandwidth to below cost. It’s a promising start, but matters little until Telkom is forced to open its network to rivals. It was a ballsy move. Last week, Afrihost cut the cost of fixed-line bandwidth on broadband digital subscriber lines to just R29/GB. To put that in perspective, the average selling price for this type of bandwidth has, until now, been R50-R70/GB
Is Google a friend of the media, or a foe that will undermine journalism? It’s a debate that’s been raging in media circles. But no-one has been able to agree: is Google bad news for the news business? Newspapers are in trouble, especially in developed economies. That much is clear. What’s open to debate is whether it’s the worldwide economic crisis that’s to blame or whether it’s more to do with newspaper readers abandoning newsprint for online news sources
SA’s telecommunications industry is in such a poor state precisely because of secret deals done in smoke-filled rooms. So it’s…