Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Social network MySpace and Microsoft have moved to build a closer
relationship in the mobile platform and rich media areas after years of
favouring each other's direct competitors. Google paid US$900 million
for a search and ad contract with MySpace in 2006 which runs until
2010, while Microsoft paid US$240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook
in 2007.
Until today's announcement, MySpace has been
available on most major smartphone platforms including iPhone,
Blackberry and Linux, including Android, but not Windows Mobile.
Similarly, the announcement that the new MySpace Windows Mobile
application, available in Q3, will use Silverlight at first glance
seems at odds with MySpace's use of Silverlight's much more popular
competitor Adobe Flash on the MySpace video site.
However, it does seem that both announcements, including the
release of an open source Silverlight development kit, are Windows
Mobile centric, and not intended to reflect on other market segments.
“We are pleased to bring MySpace users the benefits and flexibility
of Microsoft’s platforms,” said Aber Whitcomb, chief technology officer
of MySpace.
“Our relationship enables app developers to use Silverlight to create
engaging MySpace apps and allows Windows Mobile users to have a more
personal MySpace experience on their phone.”
In other words, MySpace was missing out on the Windows Mobile platform
by not being on it. And if it is going to be on Windows Mobile it may
as well enable developers to have the necessary tools to develop the
richest set of applications they can, hence an open source Silverlight
SDK.
As far as Microsoft is concerned, its minority stake in
Facebook is irrelevant as far as this deal is concerned because it's
simply not a case of either-or. Both social networks have tens of
millions of mtually exclsuive users and ignoring either group would be bad business.
“Talking
to family, sending pictures and connecting with long-lost friends is
important to our customers, and we are giving them the option to do
that on the go by teaming up with MySpace,” said Stephanie Ferguson,
general manager Business Experiences Team, in the Mobile Communications
Business at Microsoft Corp.
“MySpace is a pioneer in the social networking space, and the MySpace
application will be a tremendous asset to the collection of
applications you can access on your Windows phone.”
The MySpace
application will be available on Windows Mobile 6.1 phones later this
summer and then in the fall of 2009 through the Windows Marketplace for
Mobile, directly through phones, and the Web.
Handset maker LG will preload the MySpace application on its next
generation of Windows phones. The new Windows phones are expected to be
available in the second half of 2009.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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