The smartphone overtook the laptop in the U.K. as the most popular device for getting Internet access, regulator Ofcom said in a report. Two-thirds of British consumers own a smartphone, using it on average for nearly two hours a day to browse the Internet, access social media and bank and shop online, it said. Ofcom found that a third of Internet users canvassed see their smartphone as the most important device for going online, compared with 30 percent who are sticking with their laptop. The rise in smartphones for Internet use “marks a clear shift” since 2014, when 22 percent turned to their phones first, and 40 percent preferred laptops, it said. “Smartphones have become the hub of our daily lives,” and are now owned by two-thirds of U.K. adults, up from 39 percent three years ago, it said. Though 90 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds own a smartphone, ownership since 2012 also has doubled to 50 percent among those ages 55-64, it said. “The surge is being driven by the increasing take-up of 4G mobile broadband, providing faster online access.”
Alibaba agreed to pay $4.6 billion to buy 19.99 percent of Suning, one of the largest consumer electronics chains in China, the two companies said in a news release. The “alliance brings forth a new commerce model that fully integrates online and offline” sales, they said Monday. Alibaba and Suning “will be able to provide holistic and more convenient shopping experiences, as well as superior customer service to users looking to purchase online and through mobile devices,” they said. The deal includes plans for Suning to open a “flagship store” for CE goods and home appliances on Alibaba’s Tmall.com platform, they said.
Sprint notified the FCC it agreed to accept the terms and conditions for a waiver of the benchmark rate applicable to Cuba specified in the April 8, 2011, TeleCuba waiver order. The Sprint filing was posted Monday in docket 10-95. In June, Sprint announced it had become the first national carrier to offer an add-on plan making it easier for subscribers to call Cuba (see 1506150070).
A New York Times editorial urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reverse an International Trade Commission ruling preventing the transmission into the country of data found to be infringing on existing patents. The appeals court case, to be heard Tuesday at 10 a.m. in courtroom 201, pits dental braces alternative manufacturer ClearCorrect against the ITC in its appeal of the commission's decision to prohibit the company from receiving electronic information from its branch in Pakistan. The ITC said the company infringed patents held by industry leader Align Technology, and ruled last year to block data used to determine molds for a patient's orthodontic device being sent electronically from Pakistan to the company's headquarters in Houston. "Because it defines the limits of the commission's authority, Congress should decide whether the changing nature of international trade requires the government to apply the same rules to data that it does to physical goods," the Monday editorial said. "History suggests that it might not be sympathetic to the commission's position." The editorial also said the commission's ruling, if not struck down, "is bound to hamper the exchange of ideas and information on the Internet."
The European Commission approved Nokia's pending acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, a Nokia news release said Friday. The transaction has been cleared by antitrust review boards in several countries, including Brazil, Canada, Colombia and Russia, and the antitrust review period in the U.S. has expired, it said. Nokia said it expects to close the deal in the first half of 2016.
World Trade Organization members cemented an agreement to expand the Information Technology Agreement, allowing implementation planning to begin, the WTO said in a news release Friday. The agreement, which was expected (see 1507200036), calls for the majority of tariffs to be eliminated on a number of products, including innovative semiconductors, within three years, the WTO said. The reductions are to begin in 2016, it said. The agreement also contains a commitment to keep the list of products covered under review to determine whether further expansion may be needed due to future technological developments, the WTO said: "By the end of October 2015, each of the participating members will submit to the other participants a draft schedule which spells out how the terms of the agreement would be met. Participants will spend the coming months preparing and verifying these schedules." The WTO hopes to finish the technical work in time for the Nairobi Ministerial Conference in December, it said. Tech groups continued backing ITA expansion, in statements Friday. The revised agreement eliminates tariffs on about $1 trillion in annual global sales of tech products, more than $100 billion worth of which are from U.S. companies, the Information Technology Industry Council said. The historic pact "is game changing for the technology sector," CEO Dean Garfield said. The group said ITA will phase out more than 200 tariffs on technology products, including GPS devices, videogame consoles and software. Forty-nine of 54 participating countries have signed the agreement and the other nations likely will soon, the Telecommunications Industry Association said. It's "a major victory for the tech sector," TIA CEO Scott Belcher said.
Vendors shipped 337 million smartphones worldwide in Q2, up 12 percent from the year-ago quarter, a preliminary report from IDC said. Robust growth in emerging markets drove Q2 shipments past Q1, which IDC called an “above average first quarter." Mobile phone shipments, including smartphones, totaled 465 million, a 0.4 percent slip from the 466 million units shipped in the year-ago quarter, IDC said Thursday. Apple and Samsung continue to lead the smartphone market, but the segment is becoming increasingly competitive on new entrants, analyst Melissa Chau said. Samsung held the lead in the worldwide smartphone market with 22 percent share, but was the only company among the top five with a shipment decline year over year, IDC said. Second-place Apple, with 14.1 percent market share, saw iPhone shipments jump 34.9 percent to 47.5 million, IDC said. The iPhone again dominated in China in Q2, IDC said, with rapid expansion of 4G networks in China driving momentum for Apple in the Asia/Pacific region. Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is growing quickly in China, citing IDC estimates of a 1.9 billion smartphone unit market in 2019 (see 1507220052).
The Center for Democracy & Technology and Electronic Frontier Foundation were two of a coalition of pro-open-Internet groups that urged the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) earlier this week to reform the U.S. proposal for implementing changes to the multinational Wassenaar Arrangement on export controls related to cybersecurity and surveillance technology. CDT, EFF and the other groups jointly said that BIS should change the Wassenaar implementation proposal to clearly address human rights issues and to narrow what they view as overly broad rules that they believe could have a chilling effect on legitimate security research. More narrowly tailored rules would apply only to “transfers to government end users or for military or law enforcement purposes,” the groups said. The Wassenaar proposal should also provide “clear 'Know Your Customer' guidance,” the groups said. Cisco, BSA/The Software Alliance and Google have urged further revisions to the proposal.
A major security breach may be beneficial to Hacking Team, said an ex-employee of the company, an Italian software provider used by governments to fight crime. Cybercriminals hacked into the company's system and posted its proprietary software on the Internet July 6, Hacking Team said in a statement last week. Monday, the former Hacking Team employee, Claudio Agosti, a self-described privacy activist, posted on Medium saying that the information exposed during the breach is more beneficial to the public than harmful to the company. Agosti, who now works at TacticalTech and co-founded the digital whistleblowing platform GlobaLeaks, said he wanted the public to focus on the most important fact gleaned from the breach: which digital weapons are being used and how they are being used. “Citizens, now aware, can pressure for proper regulation,” Agosti said. “Every state should ensure its citizens safety and not exploit technological weaknesses.” The "leak is not a weapon in the hands of criminals, because the only value of the weapon is secrecy,” Agosti said. “Hacking Team has invested high-paid expertise in finding ways to obscure their malware from antivirus software” and those investments are now “burned,” he said. Other software providers that use similar infection strategies are also “burned,” but Agosti said this is very good because many espionage attacks use the same strategy. Having this information publicly available increases awareness, Agosti said. “The only reasonable compromise is heavy regulation on when and where such powerful weapons can be used.” Hacking Team provided a “lawful surveillance system” to law enforcement for more than a decade that was critical to preventing and investigating crime and terrorism, CEO David Vincenzetti said in a statement Tuesday. “Because of the increasing encryption of data transmitted over mobile devices and the Internet, this work has never been more critical than it is today.” Due to the comprehensive and powerful surveillance capabilities of its software, the Hacking Team system was available only to government agencies, Vincenzetti said, and when circumstances changed, “we have ended relationships with clients such as Sudan, Ethiopia and Russia.” Vincenzetti said the hack was reported to Italian authorities who are investigating the breach along with authorities of other nations. Hacking Team is completely revising its system, Vincenzetti said.
Pandora is now available for streaming in select new Toyota models equipped with the Toyota Link app suite, the Internet music service said Monday in a news release. It said Pandora will be integrated into select cars from nearly two-thirds of all new Toyota vehicles shipped in Australia.