Business News - part 36
Mobile App Wars: The Rise of Android
BUSINESS October 26, 2011 | 5:49 PM
- Android global mobile app market share up to 44% in Q2 2011
- Apple iOS app share drops to 31%
- Android quarterly shipments up 36%, iOS down 9%
Google’s Android has overtaken Apple iOS in the global mobile applications market, according to market intelligence firm ABI Research. In the second quarter of 2011, the Android operating system became the number-one mobile apps player with 44% of the market, pushing iOS back into second spot with a 31% share.
Google’s mobile device platform has proven much more popular than ABI had predicted, with analysts back in 2009 forecasting a potential market share of 23% by 2014. The bulk of the growth seems to have come this year, with ABI research from August 2010 showing Apple was still dominating the market at 52% of app downloads going to iOS.
Read more »Sharp Decline In Premium Air Travel Bad Omen For Business Travel
BUSINESS October 26, 2011 | 5:27 PM
- IATA reports sharp drop in premium air travel, raising concerns about rebounding market
- Not all sectors are down - tickets sold in Far East up 12.5%
- Airlines looking to revamp packages to halt trend
After rising sharply this summer, premium travel has fallen back to the fourth-quarter levels of last year, with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reporting a drop for the month of August - the most recent month for available statistics.
IATA says economy-class travel also decreased but not as much as premium.
Read more »FedEx Forecasts Huge Holiday Season
BUSINESS October 26, 2011 | 12:20 PM
- FedEx holiday deliveries to jump 12% to 260 million
- 17 million packages to be shipped on busiest day – 10% more than 2010
- 20,000 seasonal workers to be hired to deal with volume increase
- Company stock rises 2.7% to $81.52
FedEx is preparing for a massive jump in United States deliveries, with projections indicating it may be its busiest festive season on record. The world’s second-biggest parcel deliverer has projected demand between Thanksgiving and Christmas to rise as much as 12% to over 260 million packages.
On its busiest day, expected to be December 12, up to 17 million deliveries should be processed – 10% more than its peak in 2010.
Read more »AT&T Wants Sprint Out Of T-Mobile Antitrust Case
BUSINESS October 25, 2011 | 3:08 PM
- AT&T asks federal judge to throw out Sprint antitrust lawsuit
- Sprint says $39 billion T-Mobile takeover bad for competition
- Merger would make AT&T by far the biggest US wireless network
AT&T will appeal to a federal court in Washington to dismiss an antitrust case brought forward by Sprint Nextel to block its acquisition of T-Mobile USA. Sprint opened a lawsuit saying the proposed merger between AT&T, the second largest wireless carrier in the US, and T-Mobile, the fourth largest, would limit competition within the industry.
Sprint also said the acquisition would damage its own business prospects which, on the back of 15 straight quarterly losses, it can ill afford.
Read more »Mobile Satellite Navigation Leader TomTom Sees Shares Driven Up by Strong Q3 Profits
BUSINESS October 25, 2011 | 3:05 PM
- Shares up 23% after 50% jump in profits
- Full-year revenue forecast up to $1.77 billion
- Restructuring plan to include job cuts
Shares in TomTom rose 23% as the satellite navigation device manufacturer posted its biggest quarterly profit since June 2009, sending full year forecasts upwards. The Dutch company’s third-quarter net income beat projections by a huge margin, jumping 50% to $40.1 million when analysts had predicted a best-case scenario of around $22 million.
Revenue expectations for 2011 are now as high as $1.77 billion.
Read more »Green Light for Nissan’s Electric Car
BUSINESS October 24, 2011 | 4:33 PM
- Nissan sets its sights on top spot in green car market at 1.5 million units
- Nissan’s plug-in hybrid to cut CO2 emissions 20% by 2016
- Electric Leaf car sales exceed 16,500 since December 2010
Nissan Motor Co. intends on being the world’s leading green-car manufacturer, implementing a plan to deliver 1.5 million zero-emissions vehicles in conjunction with French carmaker Renault SA, which has an almost 44% share in Nissan.
Nissan plans to bring out a plug-in hybrid in 2016 and cut carbon dioxide emissions 20% on 2005 emissions. The Japanese car manufacturer is planning on boosting fuel efficiency by 35% in the same period. The company is also seeking to meet demand from developing countries such as India, Russia and Brazil.
Read more »Solyndra Hired Lobbyist With Cash All But Gone
BUSINESS October 21, 2011 | 4:12 PM
- Solar company hired lobbyist one month before bankruptcy
- Glover Park hired to lobby over $535 million US loan guarantee
- Company spent $1.3 million on lobbying since 2009
Folded solar panel company Solyndra LLC hired a lobbying group just weeks before going into bankruptcy, according to documents filed on Thursday.
Public disclosure reports, a legal requirement for lobbying in the United States, indicate that the Glover Park Group LLC did around $20,000 of lobbying for the solar panel maker, signing on just one month before the company filed for bankruptcy on September 6.
Read more »Nokia Not Going Global For Windows Phone Launch
BUSINESS October 21, 2011 | 2:26 PM
- Nokia Windows Phone release set for “select countries” before end 2011
- Company mindful not to undercut Symbian market share
- “Bunch of new devices” to be unveiled at Nokia World
Nokia will release its first Windows Phone-powered handset before the end of the year but only to a handful of countries. The partnering of the world’s largest mobile phone maker and Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company, has been much anticipated, but the Finnish company decided to forego an up-scale global launch.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said in a statement that adopting Microsoft’s smartphone operating system represented a significant change of direction, which required all strategic decisions to be thoroughly planned.
Read more »US Airlines Jack Up Prices For Holiday Season
BUSINESS October 21, 2011 | 2:10 PM
- Delta first to raise airfares; all major airlines follow suit
- Increase of $4 to $10 round trip
- Average ticket price has risen from $58 to $70 in 2011
Airlines across the United States are increasing airfares as travelers look to make plans for the holiday season.
Delta Air Lines was the first to up its prices this past Tuesday, announcing a jump of $4 to $10 on return tickets to most domestic destinations. United Airlines followed suit, with all other major carriers having signed on by early Wednesday.
Read more »Oracle Buys Endeca, Beefs Up Data Management Strategy
BUSINESS October 20, 2011 | 4:39 PM
- Deal expected to be finalized by end 2011
- Buyout a response to HP acquisition of Autonomy
- Oracle Social Network unveiled
Oracle intends to buy Endeca Technologies in an effort to boost its unstructured data management services. The hardware and software systems specialist agreed to acquire Endeca, a privately held data analyzing firm that helps businesses organize unstructured information from text-based data sources such as emails, by the end of the year. No financial details were given.
Endeca’s MDEX Engine technology, along with its Latitude analytics program and InFront customer experience management application, will allow Oracle to deliver a specifically tailored and relevant service to clients in need of structuring various information sources.
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