LITTLE ROCK — Motorola, Verizon to unveil Droid X
CHICAGO - Motorola and Verizon Wireless on Wednesday announced the Droid X, a new smart phone running Google’s Android operating system, just a day before Apple Inc. started sales of the iPhone 4.
The Droid X will go on sale July 15 at Verizon stores and online for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a twoyear contract. The phone requires a smart-phone data plan, which costs $29.99 for unlimited access.
Verizon is using the Droid name to denote a series of Android devices. Motorola was the first manufacturer with Droid, released late last year, and Taiwanese company HTC has two devices under the Droid moniker at the carrier.
The Droid X has a 4.3-inch screen and an 8-megapixel camera with a shutter. It is the first device in Verizon’s lineup with a camera shutter and the ability to capture highdefinition video at 720p. As part of the phone’s emphasis on video, Verizon introduced an embedded Blockbuster application that allows users to download feature-length films and rent movies. Droid X is Motorola’s 11th Android-based smart phone and provides “an unparalleled smart-phone experience,” said co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha in New York.
The Droid X has a virtual keyboard that is multitouch, meaning a user can type a capital letter by holding down the Shift key and typing the letter, as on a PC keyboard.
Bing to add TV, music into searches
BELLEVUE, Wash. - Microsoft’s Bing search site is getting an entertainment section with click-to-play music, television shows, movies and casual games.
It’s the latest move in Microsoft Corp.’s campaign to convince Web surfers that for some online tasks, at least, Bing is best.
Microsoft has been struggling to challenge Web search and advertising leader Google Inc. for years. Rather than competing with Google head-on, Microsoft has tried to position Bing as a better alternative for accomplishing certain kinds of online tasks: shopping, planning trips, looking for local businesses and searching for health information.
Bing is still the No. 3 search engine, behind Google and Yahoo, but its share of U.S. Web searches is creeping up. Microsoft says use of Bing’s shopping and other priority areas grew faster than use of the site overall.
Now, Microsoft has struck deals with television networks, video Web sites such as Hulu, recording labels, game makers and other content companies. When people search for a show, a song or a casual game on Bing, they’ll often be able to watch, listen or play right from the search results, without having to go to another site.
Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice president in Microsoft’s online business, said the idea was to merge the search box with a universal remote control.
MobiTV to aim apps at Android phones
MobiTV Inc., maker of a top-grossing application on Apple Inc.’s iPhone, said it will offer its mobile television service on devices running Google Inc.’s Android system this year.
“Our pipeline is extraordinarily Android-heavy,” MobiTV Chief Executive Officer Charlie Nooney said Friday.
MobiTV’s program is the second-highest revenue-generating iPhone application in Apple’s store, gaining in popularity since the World Cup began. MobiTV is now targeting Android phones, which jumped to 9.6 percent of the global smart-phone market in the first quarter, from 1.6 percent a year earlier, according to research firm Gartner Inc. The iPhone’s share rose to 15.4 percent from 10.5 percent.
The Android operating system is used on phones sold by manufacturers including Motorola Inc., HTC Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co.
Subscribers to MobiTV’s iPhone service, offered exclusively by AT&T Inc. in the United States, pay $10 a month for live news and sports coverage, as well as access to more than 200 shows on demand. The company shares revenue from each download with Apple. MobiTV has more than 10 million subscribers total, including those who use other devices offered by different carriers, Nooney said.
MobiTV faces competition from Flo TV, a unit of Qualcomm Inc., the world largest phone-chip maker.
Apple leads Europe smart-phone rise
Apple Inc.’s iPhone led a 38 percent increase in smartphone ownership in western Europe in the year through April.
Apple more than doubled its iPhone installed base to 10 million users, accounting for almost a fifth of all smart phones in use, Reston, Va.-based market research firm Com-Score Inc. said last week. Handsets using Google Inc.’s Android operating system jumped 25-fold to 1.8 million users in the European Union’s five biggest countries.
The new iPhone 4 may accelerate competition among vendors of smart phones, the fastest-growing segment of the mobile-phone industry. Symbian, the smart-phone software used by Nokia and the best-selling platform worldwide, grew 18 percent to 33 million users in the region. Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry gained 87 percent to 4.6 million users.
Business, Pages 20 on 06/28/2010