Report: Apple may build less expensive iPhone

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple is trying to decide whether it makes sense to offer a cheaper iPhone as it tries to boost sales in less-affluent countries and reclaim some of the market share lost to cheaper phones running Google's Android software, according to a published report.
Wednesday's report in The Wall Street Journal speculated that Apple could lower the iPhone's price by equipping the device with an exterior that costs less than the aluminum housing on current models.
A cheaper iPhone could come out as early as this year, or the idea could be tabled for future consideration, as has previously happened. Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Journal said Apple began assessing the pros and cons of making a cheaper iPhone in 2009 and has periodically revisited the notion. Apple Inc. declined to comment to The Associated Press.
Apple so far has stuck with an approach that has stamped the iPhone as the gold standard, a device that warrants a higher price than other smartphones. Under this tack favored by Apple's late CEO, Steve Jobs, the company sells a premium-priced iPhone that has been updated annually with new features since its 2007 debut.
In an attempt to appeal to more budget-conscious consumers, Apple has been selling older models of the iPhone at discounts before phasing them out.
The latest iPhones start at $199 in the U.S., but those prices are subsidized by wireless carriers, which figure they can make up the costs through monthly service fees over the life of a two-year contract.
The unsubsidized prices start at $649. That is proving to be too much for many people looking to stay connected on the go, prompting them to snap up more affordable smartphones, including Android devices made by Samsung Electronics Co. and others. Google Inc. doesn't charge for the Android mobile operating system, making it easier for device makers to undercut the iPhone. Apple doesn't allow rivals to use the iPhone's iOS operating system at all.
Android devices accounted for 75 percent of smartphone shipments during the three months ending in September, up from 58 percent at the same time in 2011, according to the research firm IDC. The iPhone's share stood at 15 percent in September, up from 14 percent in the previous year.
Google says more than 500 million Android devices have been activated since the software's release four years ago. By comparison, Apple had sold about 271 million iPhones through last September.
Apple could fall further behind as it focuses more on markets outside the U.S. and Europe. That's because many households in some of the most promising markets, including China, can't afford iPhones at their current prices. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took over the helm shortly before Jobs died in October 2011, is currently visiting China.
"The Western markets are saturated and Apple has to look at emerging growth markets and develop a product that meets the demands of the region and affordability," said N. Venkat Venkatraman, chairman of the Information Systems Department at Boston University's school of management.
Under Cook's leadership, Apple already has deviated from Jobs' philosophy by selling less-expensive versions of its products. Late last year, Apple introduced a smaller model of its iPad. The iPad Mini sells for $329, or about a third less than what the latest full-size iPad starts at. Even so, Apple is still charging $80 to $130 more for the iPad Mini than similar-sized tablets, including Google's Nexus 7.
Analysts are divided on whether a cheaper iPhone would be good for Apple. Some believe Apple needs to expand the choices to preserve market share and sustain revenue growth. Others fear a less-expensive iPhone would siphon sales from the premium model and diminish the company's profit margins. That same concern raised by the recent introduction of the iPad Mini is one of the reasons that Apple's stock price has fallen 26 percent from a peak reached in late September, just as the latest iPhone went on sale.
Apple's stock fell $8.21 Wednesday to close at $517.10.
The iPhone and related products generated $80 billion in sales during Apple's last fiscal year, which ended in September. It accounted for more than half of the Cupertino, Calif., company's total revenue.

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Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile all confirm upcoming BlackBerry 10 launches

Research In Motion’s (RIMM) next-generation smartphone platform has received all-important nods from three of the four major nationwide carriers in the United States. Following official endorsements from some international carriers, executives at Verizon Wireless (VZ), AT&T (T) and T-Mobile have each confirmed to Reuters that they will carry BlackBerry 10 devices some time after the new operating system’s debut later this month.
[More from BGR: iPhone 5 now available with unlimited service, no contract on Walmart’s $45 Straight Talk plan]
The carriers didn’t sound terribly enthusiastic in all cases — ”We’re hopeful it’s going to be a good device,” was all Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam would offer Reuters — but RIM did get an exuberant thumbs-up from at least one chief executive. ”We’re extremely optimistic that it’s going to be a successful product and our business customers are extremely interested in it,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said.

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Why you should be rooting for RIM and BlackBerry 10 to succeed

It's time to start paying attention to RIM again. For innovation's sake
It's time to stop making fun of RIM. Seriously. Full stop. After years of devolving into a laughingstock of a tech company, Research in Motion is somehow finding its way back to the brink of relevance, and will soon embark on a make-or-break mission that just a couple of months ago would've sounded impossible: RIM wants you to like it again. And I think it has a shot.
To be fair, the Canada-based phone-maker hasn't exactly made it easy for you, the consumer, to cheer the company onward, especially with the smothering shadows cast by Google and Apple. In fact, RIM's downward spiral presents a compelling case study for boneheaded decision-making and public relations thoughtlessness. There were the endless delays (BlackBerry 10 was first teased in 2011); the embarrassing incident in which two company executives got too drunk and had to be restrained on a plane bound for China; the recent layoffs that some insiders called "inhumane." Depressing article after depressing article only seemed to crescendo the BlackBerry's death knell, replete with graphs and lifeless arrows all pointing the same direction. Down.
This week, RIM announced that after more than a year of product delays — egregious, considering new Android phones are released days apart — a line of new budget-friendly BlackBerrys sporting a new operating system, BB10, are ready to be formally unveiled (not shipped) at the end of January. (Note: Like many users, I made the switch from a BlackBerry Curve to an iPhone two years ago. It is one of the best decisions I've ever made. And no, I couldn't care less about the physical keyboard.)
That's something to be excited about. Over at Gizmodo, there's a surprisingly neat walkthrough of some of the new features BB10 will use. At first glance it looks like the baffling stepchild bred from a weird love triangle between Android, iOS, and a grizzled old Windows XP.
Yet the redesigned OS has some good features and flourishes worth noting: The ability to minimize apps that run simultaneously. The ability to keep your finger pressed down to slide panes side-to-side (handy for peeking around). A well-spaced, digital keyboard that skeuomorphically draws inspiration from BlackBerry's celebrated keypads. The easy-to-set alarm clock is unlike anything we've seen yet. The phone's camera looks intuitive and snappy with some smart editing features. Cosmetically speaking it's not the prettiest UI in the world, but it's not supposed to be. As a business device, BB10-equipped phones will be all about cold, mechanical efficiency. And you can bet Android and Apple are taking notes.
No, BlackBerry 10 won't change the world like the iPhone did in 2007. But it doesn't have to. The reason we should be rooting for RIM is because, quite honestly, it's beginning to look more and more like the current duopoloy of iOS and Android isn't going anywhere, not even with Microsoft's tile-based Windows Phones beginning to surge. According to ComScore, the two operating systems have a stranglehold on the smartphone market, accounting for nearly 90 percent of all devices.
The sad truth about all the legal mudslinging between Apple and Android licensees like Samsung is that patents matter right now, whether the system is broken or not. "We think that these patent wars are not helpful to consumers," Google public policy director Pablo Chavez said in August last year, lamenting the litigiousness that's plaguing the world of mobile technology. "They're not helpful to the marketplace. They're not helpful to innovation," he added.
But competition is.
We need RIM and Windows to keep the current leaders on their toes, to push innovation forward, albeit from behind. Whether it's a just a new way to swipe or organize an application is inconsequential. Variety breeds stronger victors.
I'm not saying we shouldn't criticize RIM. We should. It's our duty to keep the companies making our gadgets honest. But BlackBerry, like Microsoft and the Windows Phone, is in the unique but difficult position of providing phone-buyers with something fresh but familiar. New, but not quite groundbreaking.
We had our fun, but it's time to start rooting for companies like RIM, Windows, and others experimenting with new ideas instead of kicking them when they fail. This would give consumers a voice in the one forum that matters — the marketplace. That's why, against the odds, I'm pulling for the new batch of BlackBerrys to succeed. I hope I'm not alone.

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Ms. Mac: 'Cute, Awkwardly Dressed'

Designer: PabloDeLaRocha.com, BlueStacks
She has freckles, a normal-sized head, wears t-shirts and jeans. She is also "awkwardly dressed" and "pretty cute." She is the average female Mac user, according to an infographic complied and released by software start-up BlueStacks.
The company, which makes software that allows Android apps to run on computers, just released a new version of its Mac app. Install the program and you can access Android apps right from Apple's OS X operating system - Angry Birds, Instagram, all your favorites.
But the company didn't want to just release the software. In honor of the announcement, it created an infographic based on data from its Facebook users about what Ms. Mac looks like.
According to the graphic, which you can view below, 27 percent of female Mac users have long hair, 48 percent wear glasses and 52 percent are under 20. Forty percent use Mac OS X Lion, 14 percent OS X Mountain Lion, 20 percent OS X Leopard, and 8 percent Snow Leopard.
However, you should take these findings with a grain of salt; they are based primarily on responses from BlueStacks' 1.1 million Facebook fans. Some of it is based on data from Nielsen, but BlueStacks confirmed that the majority of the information was pulled from its own users and its social media fans.
"We have a lot of early adopter fans who were into helping," BlueStacks VP of marketing, John Gargiulo, told ABC News. "We also hired a data scientist who has been parsing through the data and talking with people who use BlueStacks. We like to do things that are a bit fun and different."
BlueStacks created a similar infographic about Android users last year. Not surprisingly, 70 percent of male Android users wear t-shits and 62 percent wear jeans. (It's like that line from that '90s movie "Can't Hardly Wait": "He is sort of tall, with hair and wears t-shirts sometimes.")
Regardless, if you're looking for a fun infographic / full body image of the alleged Ms. Mac 2012, you can click the image below.

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Makers of $99 Android-Powered Game Console Ship First 1,200 'Ouyas'

Like Nintendo's Wii U game console, the Ouya (that's "OOH-yuh") has an unusual name and even more unusual hardware. The console is roughly the size of a Rubik's cube, and is powered by Android, Google's open-source operating system that's normally found on smartphones and tablets.
Ouya's makers, who are preparing the console for its commercial launch, encourage interested gamers to pop the case open and use it in electronics projects ... or even to write their own games for it. Especially if they're among the 1,200 who are about to receive their own clear plastic Ouya developer consoles.
Not exactly a finished product
The limited-edition consoles, which have been shipped out to developers already, are not designed for playing games on. They don't even come with any.
Rather, the point of these consoles is so that interested Android developers can write games for the Ouya, which will then be released to gamers when the console launches to the public. Fans who pledged at least $1,337 to Ouya's record-breaking Kickstarter project will get one, and while they're not quite suited for playing games on -- "we know the D-pad and triggers on the controller still need work," Ouya's makers say -- the clear plastic developer consoles serve as a preview of what the finished product will look like, and a reminder of Ouya's "openness."
You keep using that word ...
In the food and drug industries, terms like "organic" and "all-natural" are regulated so that only products which meet the criteria can have them on their labels. In the tech world, however, anyone can claim that their product is "open," for whatever definition of "open" they like.
The term was popularized by the world's rapid adoption of open-source software, like Android itself, where you're legally entitled to a copy of the programming code and can normally use it in your own projects (like Ouya's makers did). But when tech companies say that something is "open," they don't necessarily mean that the code or the hardware schematics use an open-source license.
How Ouya is "open"
Ouya's makers have released their ODK, or developer kit, under the same open-source license as Android itself. This allows aspiring game developers to practice their skills even without a developer console, and to improve the kit however they want. The hardware itself is currently a "closed" design, however, despite the clear plastic case. The makers have expressed enthusiasm for the idea of hardware hackers using it in projects, and have said, "We'll even publish the hardware design if people want it," but so far they haven't done so.
What about the games?
The most relevant aspect of "openness" to normal gamers is that Ouya's makers say "any developer can publish a game." This model is unusual for the console world, where only select studios are allowed to publish their wares on (for instance) the PlayStation Network, but is more familiar to fans of the anything-goes Google Play store for Android. Several big-name Android developers -- including console game titan Square-Enix -- have already signed up to have their wares on the Ouya.
Preordered Ouya game consoles (the normal ones, not the developer edition) will ship in April. They will cost $99 once sales are opened to the general public.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Quad-core Sony Xperia Z with 1080p display rumored to debut at CES

Sony (SNE) has long been rumored to be readying a high-end Android-powered smartphone with a 5-inch display. The Xperia Z, which was previously known as the Yuga, was revealed in a variety of leaked images and was even the subject of a recent review. According to a report from Chinese website ePrice, Sony is expected to debut the handset at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The Xperia Z is said to be equipped with a full HD 1920 x 1080-pixel display, a quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a microSD slot and a 13-megapixel camera. ePrice claims the Xperia Z will be released on January 15th, just a few days after it is announced.

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Android vs. Android: LG looks to ban Samsung tablet in South Korea

Are there any technology companies Samsung (005930) isn’t fighting in court right now? LG Display (LPL), of which Android vendor LG Electronics (066570) owns a majority stake, confirmed on Friday that it has filed an injunction seeking to ban Galaxy Note 10.1 sales in South Korea. The panel maker claims the tablet infringes three of its patents relating to its display technologies and it is looking to ban sales of the device as a result. LG Display is also seeking damages of nearly $1 billion from Samsung affiliate Samsung Display if the Galaxy Note 10.1 remains on the market.
[More from BGR: The Boy Genius Report: The Wii U is Nintendo’s last console]
“Through this action, LG Display seeks to completely stop the sale, manufacture, and importation of [the] infringing Samsung product,” LG Display said in a statement to Dow Jones Newswires.
[More from BGR: Samsung could face $15 billion fine for trying to ban iPhone, other Apple devices]
The new lawsuit follows a complaint filed last week by Samsung Display alleging that various LG products infringe seven of its patents related to LCD panels.

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Windows Phone Store doubled in size this year

Windows Phone has had a difficult time battling Android and iOS in the mobile space this year thanks to a glaring lack of apps. Unfortunately for Microsoft (MSFT), its Windows Phone Store falls short compared to Apple’s (AAPL) App Store, Google’s (GOOG) Play Store and even the Amazon Appstore. Microsoft is gaining ground, however, as the company revealed earlier this week that it published more than 75,000 new apps and games to its Windows Phone Store this year alone, more than doubling the catalog’s size. To put that figure in perspective, Google and Apple boast more than 700,000 apps in their respective stores, and Research in Motion (RIMM) will look to start strong with more than 70,000 apps promised for the release of BlackBerry 10.

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This subscriber loss may haunt RIM in coming months

 share price popped by 8% soon after it released its earnings, buoyed by positive sales and earnings surprises. The fact that RIM managed to beat expectations on both fronts is a real achievement. The company has been able to manage the 50% annualized decline in device volume a lot more gracefully than most investors expected. The adjusted EPS loss of $0.22 was much smaller than the $0.36 loss Wall Street expected. However, there is a fly in the ointment the size of a hamster — for the first time ever, the base of BlackBerry subscribers has started shrinking globally. Wall Street expected RIM to add 300,000 new subscribers. Instead, the company lost about a million, with the number of total subscribers dipping from 80 million to 79 million in three months.
[More from BGR: RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 smartphone to be called the ‘Z10′]
The key surprise in RIM’s summer quarter was the company’s ability to expand its subscriber base even as its sales in the United States and the United Kingdom markets tanked. That was one of the factors that underpinned the strong share price rebound during the autumn. And the key surprise in RIM’s November quarter is the new trend of subscriber base decline. What has been crucially important for RIM over the past dark year is the rock solid loyalty of its emerging market customers in South Africa, Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brazil. Those markets have enabled RIM to beat subscriber base estimates for four quarters running, even as American and British consumers abandoned the brand.
[More from BGR: RIM beats estimates in Q3, but subscriber base shrinks]
That loyalty may now be wobbling. Nokia (NOK) launched a broad range of very cheap Asha QWERTY models in the beginning of 2012 and has been pushing these models aggressively into Africa and Asia over the past two quarters. Samsung (005930) has moved into bargain basement level with its own Android QWERTY devices dropping to the 5,000 rupee level and below in India. This pincer move may have started to take its toll on RIM.
RIM added 2 million subscribers during the August quarter and then lost 1 million in the November quarter. It’s hard to estimate precise rates, because RIM refuses to give out detailed information but this could represent a swing from 9% annualized growth to 4% annualized decline in just three months.
In a couple of months, RIM will launch a new range of Blackberry models with a spanking new OS and appealing revamp of the Blackberry Messenger software. But the first models coming out will be expensive and aimed at business users. The low-end erosion that the autumn subscriber loss indicates may bite deep during the February and May quarters. What RIM really needs badly is a range of appealing new QWERTY devices priced well below $200 in retail. It is not clear when these devices will arrive. Much hinges now on whether RIM has an aggressive low-end strategy in place or whether the company will chase the dream of reconquering its high-end prominence.
Messaging apps like 2go and WhatsApp are growing at breakneck speed in Africa and Asia — they knit together users of various platforms from iOS to Android to S40 to Blackberry. The subscriber contraction of the November quarter indicates that RIM needs to somehow revive the emerging market interest in BBM very soon. The short squeeze that started in October is still driving RIM’s share price higher. But over the coming weeks we may well see investors begin to ponder the year 2013 subscriber trajectory.

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RIM loses BlackBerry subscribers for first time

 Research In Motion's stock plunged in after-hours trading Thursday after the BlackBerry maker said it plans to change the way it charges fees.
RIM also announced that it lost subscribers for the first time in the latest quarter, as the global number of BlackBerry users dipped to 79 million.
In a rare positive sign, the Canadian company added to its cash position during the quarter as it prepared to launch new smartphones on Jan. 30. The new devices are deemed critical to the company's survival.
RIM's stock initially jumped more than 8 percent in after-hours trading on that news, but then fell $1.48, or 10.4 percent, to $12.65 after RIM said on a conference call that it won't generate as much revenue from telecommunications carriers once it releases the new BlackBerry 10 platform.
RIM is changing the way it charges service fees, putting an important source of revenue at risk. RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said only subscribers who want enhanced security will pay fees under the new system.
"Other subscribers who do not utilize such services are expected to generate less or no service revenue," Heins said. "The mix in level of service fees revenue will change going forward and will be under pressure over the next year during this transition."
RIM's stock had been on a three-month rally that has seen the stock more than double from its lowest level since 2003.
But Mike Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, said BlackBerry 10 will change RIM's services revenue model dramatically. He said that instead of getting about $6 per device each month from carriers and users RIM could get as little as zero.
"That's what turned the stock from being up 10 percent to being down 10 percent," Walkley said. "That's been part of our worry. How do they come back with a new platform and get carriers to continue to share the higher revenue —which sounds like they are not going to— and then subsidize the phone to make it affordable for consumers and enterprises."
"People are seeing that the services revenue has a lot of risk to it now with the BlackBerry 10 migration."
Three months ago, RIM had 80 million subscribers. Analysts said the loss of 1 million subscribers was expected. Once coveted symbols of an always-connected lifestyle, BlackBerry phones have lost their luster to Apple's iPhone and phones that run on Google's Android software.
RIM is banking its future on its much-delayed BlackBerry 10 platform, which is meant to offer the multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now demand.
"We believe the company has stabilized and will turn the corner in the next year," Heins said. He noted that the company's cash holdings grew by $600 million in the quarter to $2.9 billion, even after the funding of all its restructuring costs. RIM previously announced 5,000 layoffs this year.
Heins said subscribers in North America showed the largest decline, but said there is growth overseas.
Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Financial, said before the conference call that the company bought itself more time.
"It doesn't mean (BlackBerry) 10 will gain traction. A lot of people said 10 would be DOA, but I don't think that's going to be the case," he said.
Jefferies analyst Peter Misek also earlier called the results better than expected, noting that RIM added a significant amount of cash. RIM will need the money to advertise the new BlackBerrys and operating system.
Misek also called it a positive development that RIM said there would not be another delay to BlackBerry 10.
"The success or failure of this company will be on BlackBerry 10," Misek said.
RIM posted net income of $14 million, or 3 cents per share for its fiscal third quarter, which ended Dec. 1. That compares with a profit of $265 million, or 51 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
The latest figure includes a favorable tax settlement. Excluding that adjustment, RIM lost 22 cents per share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting a wider loss of 27 cents.
RIM reported revenue of $2.7 billion, down 47 percent from a year ago.

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RIM shares slump as service revenue, subscriber concerns weigh

Research In Motion shares tumbled more than 10 percent on Thursday after the company reported the first ever decline in its subscriber numbers and outlined plans to transform the way it charges for its BlackBerry services.
RIM, which hopes to revive its fortunes and reinvent itself via the launch of a brand new line of BlackBerry 10 devices next month, caught investors off-guard on its quarterly conference call, when it said it plans to alter its service revenue model - a move that will pressure the high-margin business that accounts for about a third of RIM's sales.
"RIM provided few details regarding the economics of these changes, thus adding a large cloud of uncertainty to the primary driver of its profitability, which we view as especially worrisome given risks already surrounding the firm's massive BlackBerry 10 transition," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello.
Those subscribers who need enhanced services like advanced security will pay for these services, while those who do not use such services will generate much lower to no service revenue, RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins told analysts and investors on a conference call on Thursday.
"I want to be very clear on this. Service revenues are not going away, but our business model and service offerings are going to evolve ... The mix in level of service fees revenue will change going forward and will be under pressure over the next year," cautioned Heins.
The news startled investors, who had earlier in the evening pushed RIM's stock more than 7 percent higher in post-market trading, after the company reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss and said it boosted its cash cushion ahead of next month's crucial launch of the BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
RIM's shares have for weeks been on a tear as optimism around BB10 has grown. Following RIM's surprise announcement on service revenues, however, the stock ended 9 percent lower at $12.85 in trading after the closing bell.
Analysts also expressed concern about the decline in RIM's subscriber base.
"The early reaction was probably just 'Hey, numbers looked OK, better loss, the cash flow was good' but if you know the company, you're looking at the subscriber base falling off," said Mark McKechnie at Evercore Partners in San Francisco.
CASH BALANCE
One reason the shares rose earlier was RIM managed to build up its cash cushion to $2.9 billion from $2.3 billion in the previous quarter.
Analysts have been keeping a sharp eye on the size of RIM's cash pile, as RIM will need the funds to manufacture and effectively promote BlackBerry 10 in a crowded market.
RIM is counting on the new line to claw back market share lost in recent years to the likes of Apple Inc's iPhone and a slew of devices powered by Google Inc's Android operating system.
"They've done a great job at generating cash," said Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt in Nashville. "They're certainly in a much better position than they were three or four quarters ago."
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said it is now testing its BB10 devices with more than 150 carriers - up from about 50 carriers as of the end of October. RIM expects more carriers to come on board ahead of the formal launch of BB10 on January 30.
Positive feedback from developers and carriers around RIM's new BlackBerry 10 devices has buoyed the stock in the last three months. Despite the plunge in RIM's share price on Thursday, the stock has more than doubled in value the last three months.
SMALLER-THAN-EXPECTED LOSS
On an operating basis, RIM fared a little better than Wall Street had expected. It reported a loss of $114 million or 22 cents a share, excluding one-time items. Analysts, on average, had forecast a loss of 35 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
RIM also reported a surprise net profit of $9 million, or 2 cents a share, for its fiscal third quarter ended December 1, on the back of a one-time income tax related gain. That compared with a year-ago profit of $265 million, or 51 cents.
RIM said it shipped 6.9 million smartphones in the quarter, even as its subscriber base fell to about 79 million in the quarter from about 80 million in the period ended September 1.
In recent years, RIM's user base has grown, even as the BlackBerry lost ground in North America and Europe, boosted by gains in emerging markets. While eye opening, the shrinkage was not as bad as some observers expected during the last quarter before the BB10 launch.
"We're encouraged that the subscriber base only declined slightly during a very public transition, and BlackBerry sales were about what we expected," said Morningstar's Colello, who is based in Chicago.

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Nokia to get payments in patent deal with RIM

Struggling Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has settled its patent dispute with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion in return for payments, as it tries to exploit its trove of technology patents to boost its finances.
Terms of the agreement were confidential, but Nokia said on Friday it included a one-time payment to be booked in the fourth quarter, as well as ongoing fees, all to be paid by RIM.
Nokia is one of the industry's top patent holders, having invested 45 billion euros ($60 billion) in mobile research and development over the past two decades.
It has been trying to make use of that legacy to ensure its survival, amid a fall in sales as well as cash. The Finnish firm is battling to recover lost ground in the lucrative smartphone market to the likes of Apple and Samsung.
The agreement with RIM settles all existing patent litigation between the two companies, Nokia said, adding similar disputes with HTC Corp and ViewSonic still stood.
"This agreement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market," said Paul Melin, Nokia's chief intellectual property officer.
Nokia has earned around 500 million euros a year from patent royalties in key areas of mobile telephony.
Some analysts have said it could earn hundreds of millions more if it can negotiate with more companies successfully.
Analysts estimated its June 2011 settlement with Apple was worth hundreds of millions of euros.

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HTC brushes off Microsoft’s earlier rejection, will reportedly make Windows RT tablets after all

Microsoft (MSFT) may have barred HTC (2498) from participating in the first wave of Windows RT tablets, but that apparently hasn’t stopped the company from gearing up for the next wave. Unnamed sources have told Bloomberg that HTC “is working on a 12-inch device and a 7-inch version” of a Windows RT tablet “that can also make phone calls.” The planned seven-inch tablet, which will be unveiled alongside the 12-inch tablet some time in 2013, will be the first small Windows RT tablet to hit the market and go head-to-head with other popular small tablets such as the Google (GOOG) Nexus 7 and the iPad mini.

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Cancer Immunotherapy Where Are We Going?

The compelling concept of utilizing the patient's own immune system for a stronger and more effective way to attack cancer cells is not a new one. William Coley observed in 1891 that infections produced in patients with inoperable cancer following an injection of streptococcal organisms (Gram-positive bacteria) led to tumor shrinkage especially when the patients developed fever and other signs of a full-blown infection.1 Since then, research has embraced approaches to "train" the patient's own immune system to recognize certain biomarkers or proteins that are mainly found on cancer cells and to destroy the cells.
After several setbacks the first cellular immunotherapy, Dendreon's Sipuleucel-T (Provenge(R)), was approved for the treatment of prostate cancer in 2010. Today, new promising cancer immunotherapy approaches are in clinical trials. Most recently, researchers at the 54th American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting reported early success with a developmental-stage cell-based cancer vaccine for the treatment of leukemia and have shown remission in several patients 2,3, including a 7-year old girl who relapsed twice after chemotherapy.
Cancer immunotherapy can be thought of as either active or passive immunotherapy. The most prominent passive immunotherapies, which have revolutionized cancer therapy, are monoclonal antibodies that either target tumor-specific antigens and receptors or block important pathways central to tumor growth and survival. Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies are the market leader in the targeted cancer therapy space and include blockbusters such as trastuzumab (Herceptin(R)) or rituximab (Rituxan(R)).
In general, antibodies are significant elements of the body's adaptive immune system. They play a dominant role in the recognition of foreign antigens and the stimulation of the immune response. Therapeutic antibodies target and bind to antigens, usually proteins that are mainly expressed on diseased cells such as cancer cells. After binding, cancer cells can be destroyed by different mechanisms such as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, the activation of the complement system -- an important part of the immune system -- and triggering cell death.
Although very successful, especially in oncology, therapeutic antibodies have a significant limitation: they don't generate a memory response by the immune system, and thus, repeated antibody infusions are required. Further, monoclonal antibodies are only able to recognize specific proteins present of the cell surface. Monoclonal antibodies are mostly produced in cell culture systems which are often costly. Humanization of murine monoclonal antibodies by replacing of certain parts of the antibody with human sequences has improved the tolerability of antibodies and made them less immunogenic, but even fully human sequence-derived antibodies can carry some immunological risk.
Novel approaches in the passive immunization strategy include antibody drug conjugates, a combination of targeting antibody with a very potent drug such as the recently approved brentuximab vedotin (ADCETRIS(TM)) for Hodgkin lymphoma and anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). ADCETRIS comprises an anti-CD30 monoclonal antibodyanti-CD30 monoclonal antibody and a cytotoxic (cell-killing) agent that is released upon internalization into CD30-expressing tumor cells. Currently, the development of next generations of ADCs is underway.
Alternatively, specific and durable cancer immunotherapies designed to actively "train" or stimulate the patient's intrinsic immune response have been more problematic; however, recent success stories, such as the cell-based immunotherapy Provenge, have revitalized this field. Dendreon's approach modifies the patients' own dendritic cells to present a protein specific to prostate cancer cells.
Dendritic cells are the most potent, "professional" antigen-presenting cells. They process the antigen material and present it on their surface to other cells of the immune system. Once activated, the dendritic cells migrate to the lymphoid tissues where they interact with T-cells and B-cells -- white blood cells and important components of the immune system -- to initiate and shape the adaptive immune response. To develop Provenge, each patient's own dendritic cells are harvested and then loaded ex vivo with the tumor-associated antigen. Now "presenting" the antigen, the dendritic cells are administered back into the patient to induce a potent, cell-mediated anticancer immune response resulting in tumor shrinkage and clinical benefit.
In another experimental approach for the treatment of leukemia, patients' own modified T-cells were infused back into the patients. Prior to this, the T-cells were transduced with a lentivirus to express the CD19-specific chimeric antigen receptor. CD19 is an antigen which is found on B-cell neoplasms, cancerous B-cells, and the lentivirus was the vehicle to transfer the genetic material for CD19 into the cells. A case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine stated that a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was in ongoing remission 10 months after treatment.3
These promising results have spurred continued research for new and safe ways to achieve effective tumor vaccination, and drug developers have explored many cancer immunotherapy strategies. To generate an effective antitumor immunity, therapeutic intervention should drive several functions; specifically, it should promote the antigen presentation functions of dendritic cells, promote the production of protective T-cell responses, stimulate B-cells and overcome immunosuppression characteristics that are common to tumor cells.4
Cell-based therapeutic vaccines are most frequently produced outside the patient's body and involve isolation of the specific cells, such as dendritic cells, and the introduction of preselected antigens, often with the use of specific vehicle, into the cells. The antigens can be encoded in viral vectors (frequently DNA) or administered as peptides or proteins in a suitable adjuvant and carrier through a long and cumbersome process.
During my doctoral thesis, I conducted immunization experiments using RNA as a negative control, assuming that the RNA would be degraded during the experiment thus making it impossible to use as a vaccine. The physiological role of messenger (m) RNA is to transfer genetic information from the nucleus to the cytoplasm where this information is translated into the corresponding protein. mRNA is known to be very unstable and has a relatively short half-life. But astonishingly, we were able to measure a solid T-cell immune response. We repeated the experiment and confirmed that the RNA we had produced had the potential to be used as a vaccine. Importantly, we didn't need to isolate the patients' cells: mRNA-based vaccines can be injected directly into the skin (intradermal). The mRNA-based vaccines are then taken up by antigen-presenting cells, such as dendritic cells, and are then able to induce an immune response. Importantly, mRNA-vaccines can also be synthesized quickly for any antigen sequence identified.5
The first mRNA-based vaccines (RNActive(R)) are now in the clinic for the treatment of prostate cancer and lung cancer and have demonstrated that they do what they are supposed to do - induce a balanced humoral, as well as T cell-mediated, immune response that is entirely HLA independent. The HLA (human leukocyte antigen) system is used to differentiate the body's own cells (self) and non-self cells. Additionally, RNA-vaccines do not need a vehicle such as a virus for delivery to the cells, nor do they contain virus-derived elements that are often found in DNA-vaccines. These attributes make RNActive a very safe therapeutic.
The risk of integration of the RNA into the host-genome is minimized (RNA would have been transcribed first to DNA, and then it has to be transported to the nucleus), as is the residual risk of DNA-based vaccines for inactivating or activating genes or affecting cellular regulatory elements, which can induce oncogenesis. Thus, the favorable safety profile of mRNA-based therapies broadens their potential use not only for the treatment of diseases but for use as prophylactic vaccinations. A recent proof-of-concept study using mRNA-based vaccines (RNActive) in animal models for influenza was published in Nature Biotechnology.6
Therapeutic cancer immunotherapies and vaccines have come a long way, and novel, promising approaches give hope for safe and effective treatment options. This may one day lead to the treatment of all cancers as chronic diseases.

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Nokia Siemens to close German services unit: sources

FRANKFURT/HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia Siemens Networks' (NSN) German services unit faces closure and 1,000 jobs are at risk as Nokia and Siemens shake up the joint venture, two sources said.

One of the people familiar with the situation said the closure would be effective by the end of 2013 and will be announced on Wednesday during a meeting at which workers will be told a crucial contract with Deutsche Telekom will not be extended.

The Mobile telecoms equipment joint venture is cutting costs and plans to shed a quarter of its staff and sell product lines to focus on mobile broadband. The program is expected to yield about 1 billion euros ($1.31 billion) in cost savings by the end of next year.

The telecoms equipment market is going through tough times with stiff competition from Chinese peers Huawei and ZTE as the major telecoms operators postpone investments, faced with shrinking markets due to the weak economy.

France's Alcatel-Lucent has also said it will cut costs and jobs to survive stiff competition and weak demand.

NSN Services Gmbh, which generates under 100 million euros in annual sales and employs about 1,000 people, provides network operations and management services and also includes Vodafone among its customers.

Deutsche Telekom sold the unit to NSN five years ago, when the two companies also agreed on a 300 million euro services contract that now will not be renewed, according to the sources.

NSN, which declined to comment, has said such services, often provided on older overhead cable networks, are not considered core operations, and it exited a similar business in Brazil earlier this year.

Verdi union representative Mike Doeding said that a meeting to update workers about next year's plans was scheduled for Wednesday, adding he had no idea about what message to expect from management.

"If they are to close the unit it would be an outrage," Doeding said.

Deutsche Telekom referred requests for comment to NSN.

On Monday, NSN said it was selling its optical fiber unit to Marlin Equity Partners, resulting in the transfer of up to 1,900 employees, mainly in Germany and Portugal.

NSN had 60,600 employees at the end of the third quarter.

($1 = 0.7650 euros)

(Reporting by Harro ten Wolde and Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt, Tarmo Virki and Terhi Kinnunen in

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U.S. fails to win early limit on Net controls at global gathering

UBAI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. and Canadian proposal  to protect the Internet from new international regulation has failed to win prompt backing from other countries, setting up potentially tough negotiations to rewrite a telecom treaty.

The idea, also supported by Europe, would limit the International Telecommunication Union's rules to only telecom operators and not Internet-based companies such as Google Inc and Facebook Inc.

That could reduce the prospective impact of efforts by other countries including Russia and some in the Middle East and Africa to obtain more powers to govern the Internet through the ITU, an arm of the United Nations. Those efforts, slated for discussion next week, could make Net anonymity - or the ability to remain anonymous online - more difficult to maintain and could bolster censorship, critics say.

"We want to make sure (the rewritten ITU treaty) stays focused squarely on the telecom sector," said U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer. "We thought we should deal with that up-front."

Kramer had been hoping that a committee comprising representatives from six regional bodies would give quick approval to the American request on Tuesday. But that failed to happen.

An ITU spokesman said late on Tuesday that the talks were continuing and that the issue would only return to the main policy-making body on Friday.

About 150 nations are gathered in Dubai to renegotiate the ITU rules, which were last updated in 1988, before the Internet and mobile phones transformed communications.

The 12-day ITU conference, which began on Monday, largely pits revenue-seeking developing countries and authoritarian regimes that want more control over Internet content against U.S. policymakers and private Net companies that prefer the status quo.

The Internet has no central regulatory body, but various groups provide some oversight, such as ICANN, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that coordinates domain names and numeric Internet protocol addresses.

U.S. companies have led innovation on the Internet, and this stateside dominance is a worry for countries unaligned with the world's most powerful country.

The United States has also led in the development and use of destructive software in military operations that take advantage of anonymous Internet routing and security flaws.

Some of the proposals now being contested by the American and Canadian delegations are aimed at increasing security and reducing the effectiveness of such attacks, though the West and several rights groups argue that is a pretext for greater repression.

ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré told Reuters last week that any major changes to the 1988 treaty would be adopted only with "consensus" approaching unanimity, but leaked documents show that managers at the 147-year-old body view a bad split as a strong possibility.

If that happens, debates over ratification could erupt in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.

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Samsung promotes son and heir closer to top job

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co pushed the anointed heir of the company Chairman closer to the top job on Wednesday as the it cemented a global lead in smartphones with a stock price that is close to record highs. The promotion of the snappily-dressed and bespectacled Jay Y. Lee, aged 44, to the job of vice chairman comes after Samsung marked the 25th anniversary of his father Lee Kun-hee's chairmanship last week. "It is a stamp of approval from the chairman that the vice chairman has shown capability to manage Samsung. It's a major step forward (for Jay Lee to become) the future successor at Samsung," a Samsung executive familiar with the matter said. Jay Lee is already chief operating officer and president and was thrust into the spotlight in June when then Samsung Electronics chief executive Choi Gee-sung, known to be his mentor, was promoted to lead the entire Samsung group's strategy, a defacto No.2 role within the group to chairman Lee. Observers said at the time that Choi's move was aimed at preparing a succession plan for Jay Lee. "As Vice Chairman, Lee will build on his existing responsibilities and take a broader role in managing Samsung Electronics' businesses," Samsung said in a statement. "Lee will continue to play a critical role in transforming Samsung's business model - the set (product) business into one based on a platform and the component business into a total solution provider." FROM SMALL TRADING COMPANY TO TECH GIANT Samsung Group was founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chull, Jay Lee's grandfather, as a small trading company and Samsung Electronics which is the jewel in the crown of its vast industrial empire now sells more televisions, memory chips, flat screens and mobile telephones than any other company. Samsung Electronics alone is worth $195 billion based on Tuesday's closing share price. Jay Lee will have big shoes to fill as it was under his father's watch that Samsung Electronics was transformed into from a low cost producer into a global player that has overtaken Apple Inc in terms of smartphone sales. The annual Samsung reshuffle of top management, of which Jay Lee's promotion is a part, comes as South Korean chaebols, or big business groups, are under pressure to reform amid growing anger over their dominance in an economy where wealth gaps are widening. The issue of family succession is viewed as a key marker of transpareny and presidential candidates from the ruling and opposition parties have pledged 'economic democratization' in a bid to rein chaebols' growing economic prowess. "I think JY Lee's promotion means that he has somewhat proved himself worthy of following in his father's footsteps," said a fund manager at foreign fund based in Seoul who owns 2 million shares in Samsung Electronics. "However, because of the political climate that is bent on economic democratization which frowns on the cross-shareholding structure, it would be better if the company were to be sensitive to minority and outside voices," said the fund manager who could not be named due to his company's media policy. While Jay Lee steers clear of the limelight when his father appears in public, he has become the first point of contact at Samsung for many key customers and competitors. Jay Lee has met Apple's chief executive Tim Cook as well as political leaders from China, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Critics say he lacks his father's charisma, business insight and entrepreneurship and that he faces tough challenges, not least a patent battle with Apple that is being fought out in courts across the globe. Lee has a degree in East Asian history from Seoul National University, an MBA from Keio University in Japan and also attended the doctoral program at Harvard Business School. He has two children and went through one of Korea's highest profile divorce cases. ($1 = 1083.4500 Korean won)

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How to Email Tweets Directly From Twitter's Website

A More button now appears beside the Reply, Retweet, and Favorite options at the bottom of each tweet.

Click here to view this gallery.

[More from Mashable: Writer Sued for his Twitter Followers Settles Case]

Twitter has started rolling out the ability to email tweets from its website.

Announced mid-November, the feature allows you to send a tweet directly to someone else, complete with your own personal comments, regardless of whether or not that person is a Twitter user.

[More from Mashable: Social Media Use Leads to Real-World Actions]

Available in Twitter’s mobile app for some time now, on the web it exists as part of a “More” button beside the Reply, Retweet, and Favorite buttons.

When clicked, the “Email Tweet” option appears below the More menu in a drop-down style that suggests Twitter may add additional options to the menu in the future.

SEE ALSO: Twitter Triples Down on Downloadable Tweets Promise

We gave the feature a spin and, while easy to use, it might not be very effective. Currently, Twitter is using a no-reply email to send the tweets. While that's great for hiding your email address from people you might not want to share it with, tweets we sent to friends often ended up in spam folders rather than inboxes.

It's worth nothing that the feature supports expanded tweets, and links on those tweets are live within an email. So, for instance, if you wanted to share a tweet from our @mashable account with a link to a story, the recipient would see the headline, photo, and other data associated with that post, as well as have the option to click through to the story. All without ever having to visit Twitter.

Check out what the emailing process looks like in the gallery above and let us know if the email tweets feature is live on your Twitter account in the comments.

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, sodafish

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NASA Will Launch New Mars Rover in 2020

On the heels of Curiosity rover's success, NASA announced today that it's planning a multi-year program that will solidify the United States as a leader in Mars exploration.

The program includes a new robotic science rover that is set to launch in 2020. It will be another significant step toward sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s, according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

[More from Mashable: NASA Reveals Curiosity Rover Martian Soil Findings]

Mars Science Laboratory will use the same framework as Curiosity for the next rover's development and design. The agency says this will help keep costs and risks low. The mission fits within the five-year budget plan in the president's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request and is contingent on future appropriations.

Just a few months into the two-year mission, Curiosity has already made significant discoveries -- like finding an ancient streambed where water once flowed. More recently, it determined that astronauts could survive Mars radiation levels.

[More from Mashable: 11 Hot News Stories You May Have Missed]

SEE ALSO: NASA Reveals Curiosity Rover Martian Soil Findings

NASA now has a total of seven Mars missions in the works. Shortly after the Curiosity rover landing in August, the agency announced plans for a 2016 program called InSight, a Discovery-class mission that will look into the deep interior of the Red Planet by drilling underneath Martian topsoil.
BONUS: Curiosity Rover's Latest Soil Samples in Photos

Scoop Marks in Rocknest Sand

The Curiosity rover took soil samples from an area called "Rocknest." The team chose this area because it lies in a flat part of the Gale Crater. This specific sample came from a drift of windblown dust. This particular photo shows the third (left) and fourth (right) scoops, each 1.6-inches wide.

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