IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 30 March
30-03-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Eircom to appoint new director of strategy | Apple shares soar on iPad fever
The Irish Times reports on the launch of financial education website www.makingcents.ie, as noted by ENN on Monday.
The paper also says that Eircom is to appoint Joel Wachtler as its new director of strategy and business development. Wachtler was most recently vice-president of marketing and strategy at iPass, a California-based company that provides technology services for employees who work remotely. He has worked for telcos in London and Belgium. An announcement on his appointment is expected to be made on Tuesday. Separately, Eircom announced plans on Monday for faster broadband speeds for residential and business customers, as reported by ENN.
The Irish Independent notes that Ryanair has suspended the on-board system that allows passengers to make mobile phone calls after the company that provided the service, OnAir, cancelled the contract. Read more on this story on ENN.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple shares hit an all-time high on Monday as investors anticipated the launch of the iPad tablet at the end of the week. Apple shares reached USD233.87 in morning trading on the Nasdaq. By mid-afternoon shares had eased to USD232.13, up half a percent on the day. The stock has risen about 15 percent since the company introduced the iPad at a media event in late January. The device goes on sale in the US on Saturday.
The paper also reports that Ericsson has signed agreements valued at USD1.8 billion to provide network equipment for China Mobile and China Unicom. Under the USD1 billion agreement with China Mobile, which will be implemented this year, the Swedish telecoms equipment maker will provide radio access equipment that will boost the network's capacity and evolve it into an IP network. In the China Unicom deal, valued at USD800 million, Ericsson will provide a faster 3G network with HSPA Evolution technology, and provide IP and broadband equipment. The contract will be implemented during the year.
In more news from China, the Financial Times reports that Google has confirmed the Chinese government is blocking its mobile internet services on the mainland. On Monday Google changed the status of its mobile services from "no issues" to "partially blocked" on an internal website designed to track the availability of its services in China. The internet giant last week shifted its mainland search engine to Hong Kong to avoid having to comply with censorship restrictions on the mainland. Google said the availability of its mobile services had started to "fluctuate". It was unclear whether the disruptions would continue.
The paper also notes that sales of smartphones in the US will overtake sales of older-generation "feature phones" by the end of next year, according to the Nielsen research company. Smartphone sales -- for devices such as the iPhone and the BlackBerry -- in the US will climb steadily over the next 18 months and account for just under 50 percent of total sales by autumn 2011, predicts a new report by Roger Entner, a telecom analyst at Nielsen. "We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to friends, the internet and the world at large," he said.
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Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 