Nokia Highlights Location as a Revenue Driver for Smart Phones Tweet

Mobile applications have seen astronomical growth in availability and popularity since Apple made its iPhone the hub of mobile applications. Although there had been applications available on other handsets and operating systems before the iPhone, it took Apple to show industry players and end-users alike the true power and potential of applications on mobile handsets.

The next stage in the development of mobile applications was outlined in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where Nokia discussed how location will be a revenue driver for many of its other services.

Utilizing Ovi Maps
Nokia followed Google into the world of free Turn-by-Turn (TbT) navigation with its announcement that users of its smart phones will be able to download the complete application for free. Nokia is similar to Google in that it owns its maps, but Nokia is able to provide its users with a worldwide solution—a hybrid system that does not require network connectivity.

Since the “Free-for-All” announcement, Nokia has recorded more than 3 million downloads of Ovi Maps. The countries with the largest number of downloads are China, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany. The company also reported that repeat usage is at about 80 percent.

For Nokia, giving away TbT navigation for free is a way to utilize a high fixed-cost asset and to capitalize on the scale of the company to generate revenue. It also allows the company to provide a platform for other services that can be monetized, to create a closer relationship to its users and to keep them engaged with their devices and services multiple times a day.

The overall goal, however, is to maximize the content available on a device in order to defend the Average Selling Price (ASP) of the solution—hardware plus services—using the global reach of the company while avoiding the cannibalization of hardware margins.

A New Platform
Location has become an important part of the platform for not just Nokia but also for Google and Research In Motion (RIM). Whereas location in the past was a data point to provide routing info, it is now a platform to launch a multitude of services and applications.

While the deployment of location information might not be as clear-cut or obvious as it had been in the past, location information has become one of the foundations of mobile strategy for a wide variety of companies in the mobile space. No device maker wanting to attract application developers and users will be able to avoid providing a rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)—location included—that can build integrated applications and allow users to interact with their devices in new, localized and customized ways.

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China IPTV Subscriber Growth Shows No Sign of Stopping Tweet

More than 90 percent expansion to occur in 2010 alone.

Subscribers in China to Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) will continue to rise rapidly during the next few years, the result of an official government push to accelerate convergence among the country’s various telecommunications, broadcast and Internet operators.

Subscribers to IPTV delivered via the Internet and broadband networks will jump to 8.5 million in 2010, rising by a hefty 96 percent from 4.4 million in 2009, according to iSuppli Corp. And while growth rates during the next three years will not equal the 2010 peak, IPTV development will continue to acquire impressive momentum, reaching expansion rates as high as 51 percent, iSuppli estimates. By 2014, IPTV subscribers in China will exceed 31 million.

The rise in IPTV subscribers will come about primarily from the deployment efforts of Chinese broadcast operators, the group that holds the much-valued IPTV licenses.

Despite a policy by the State Council of China in January 2010 encouraging the country’s telecom carriers, broadcast operators and Internet firms to enter one another’s fields and provide services, the three-way convergence policy is skewed, in fact, against telecom carriers. Unlike the broadcast operators, which are allowed a wider leeway in the range of services they offer, telecom carriers face strong regulation, can participate only in radio and television transmission and are proscribed from taking part in the content integration and broadcast sectors.

A Game of Numbers, but Lopsided Concentration for Now
IPTV services currently extend to more than 20 provinces and cities in China, but IPTV subscribers are concentrated in only a few areas. Out of the country’s 22 provinces, no more than eight count greater than 100,000 IPTV subscribers. Furthermore, fully 56 percent of total IPTV subscribers are to be found in just three locations: China’s largest city of Shanghai, as well as the two densely populated provinces of Jiangsu in the east and Guangdong in the south.

In spite of the uneven distribution of IPTV subscribers, the players in the China IPTV market are raising their 2010 targets and hope to spread their services to more provinces in 2010, iSuppli believes.
Several drivers will push IPTV growth from now to 2014, including Beijing’s continuing advancement of its triple-play convergence policy, the ongoing competition between telecom carriers and broadcast operators to carve out their own territories and the strategy among the players to bundle wireline and wireless broadband with IPTV services.

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ST-Ericsson Strategic Planning Chief Keynotes at iSuppli European Briefing Tweet

Edgar Auslander to speak on day two of the event.

iSuppli Corp. is pleased to announce that Edgar Auslander, senior vice president for strategic planning at ST-Ericsson, will be the keynote speaker at the wireless session of iSuppli’s 2010 European Briefing Series in Berlin in April.

A wireless industry expert with more than 20 years of experience in the wireless communications and semiconductor businesses, Auslander will deliver the keynote presentation on day two of the European briefing, which is entirely focused on connectivity and mobile communications issues.

Auslander was one of the founders of Texas Instruments Inc.’s Wireless Business Unit, playing a key role in transforming it to a global leader in less than eight years. He also served as Texas Instruments’ general manager, worldwide strategy and corporate development.

Auslander also served as director of the Ultra Mobility Group at Intel, responsible for the integration and support of wireless platforms for mobile internet devices and strategic alliances. Between 2006 and 2007, he was a vice president at a venture capital firm based in California.

Wireless Session at European Briefing
Day two of the iSuppli European Briefing, held on April 21, will be entitled Ubiquitous Connectivity and the Renewed Economy. Along with Auslander, top iSuppli experts will deliver their views on the wireless industry, including:

* Jagdish Rebello, senior director and principal analyst, communications/LEDs/India
* Francis Sideco, principal analyst, wireless communications
* Randy Lawson, manager and principal analyst, display and consumer electronics
* Steve Mather, principal analyst, wireless communications
* Vinita Jakhanwal, principal analyst, small/medium displays

Free Research Reports for European Briefing Attendees
As an added bonus, attendees who register for the entire two-and-a-half-day event will receive a complimentary report or report abstract of their choice from iSuppli’s extensive library of market research. Attendees can select from the following first quarter 2010 reports:

* Emerging Display Technologies – Touch Screen Interfaces in Portable & Desktop Computing
* Electronic Equipment and Semiconductor Forecast
* Wireless Communications – Smart Phone Software, Operating Systems, and Middleware
* Display Electronics – Wireless HD Solutions
* Emerging Display Technologies – 3-D Television Strategies and Markets
* Compute Platforms – Netbooks & Consumer Ultra-Low-Voltage Notebooks
* Automotive Research – Smart Mobile Devices: LBS, Apps, and Maps
* Emerging Display Technologies – Touch Screen Interfaces in Wireless Handheld Devices
* MEMS and Sensors – Motion Sensors in Mobile Handsets
* Teardown Analysis – Google Nexus One Mobile Handset
* Emerging Display Technologies – LED Backlight Supply Chain Analysis

iSuppli’s European Briefing Series will be held from April 20 to 22 at the Hotel Concorde in Berlin. Registration for the European Briefing Series costs 995 euros for the entire event, or 595 euros for either the first day and a half or for the second day and a half.

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Consumer Electronics Enters the Third Dimension Tweet

If one were to believe what was shown at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2010, 3-D is not only the next big thing but it soon will be pervasive in consumer televisions in a matter of years.

But let’s not cross into the third dimension just yet.

While the idea of viewing 3-D movies and live sports events from the comfort of the couch is attractive, it remains to be seen if consumer viewing habits will be radically altered by the arrival of 3-D content. The most significant change will be the requirement to wear 3-D glasses. It’s unclear if consumers would be willing to wear such glasses for hours at a time.

Furthermore, consumers and television broadcasters still are wrestling with the additional costs of adopting 3-D.

Because of that, consumers shouldn’t expect an immediate barn-burner of activity in the 3-D market. However, the current impetus for 3-D will lay the groundwork for solid unit growth in 3-D-ready products during the next few years.

System Requirements
In order to view 3-D content in the home, Liquid Crystal Display-Televisions (LCD-TVs) must support at least a 120Hz refresh rate. That’s largely a non-factor because the LCD-TV market already is moving toward integrating 120Hz and 240Hz rates.

The additional platform modifications and added costs to support 3-D content playback are expected to be minimal. This also goes for Set-Top Boxes (STBs) and Blu-ray players.

Blu-ray in particular is well on its way to adding 3-D with a specification finalized in December of 2009. This was a welcome development as it also will allow for backward compatibility to existing Blu-ray players. However, no universal standards are in place for 3-D content for fixed media or for broadcasts. This could hamper the early developmental stages of the 3-D rollout and consumer adoption.

Consumers Lukewarm
While the 3-D movie blockbuster “Avatar” has garnered a lot of media attention over the past few months, iSuppli believes the majority of consumers will be lukewarm to the idea of 3-D in the home, mostly because of the premium price tag expected for these new devices. Add to this a lack of 3-D formatted content and having to wear the pesky glasses, the consumer electronics industry has some work ahead of it in terms of getting consumers to buy into the technology.

The View in 3-D
While the number of 3-D-capable displays and playback devices is growing, it will not necessarily make it the predominant mode of operation and use within the home. Because consumer electronics manufacturers see this as an opportunity to boost the Average Selling Prices (ASPs) of their products and to spur product differentiation, we are likely to see even larger rollout of 3-D capable devices and displays.

And with broadcasters supporting the move to 3-D—despite concerns over the Return on Investment (ROI)—and the strong trend of LCD-TVs moving to 120/240Hz, the groundwork has been laid for the arrival of 3-D-ready consumer electronics devices during the next few years.

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Nintendo Beats Samsung as Top MEMS Buyer for Consumer Products and Cell Phones Tweet

MEMS for consumer electronics and mobile handsets grow despite recession.

Culminating a neck-and-neck race, Nintendo in 2009 surpassed Samsung to become the world’s top purchaser of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) used in consumer electronics products and mobile handsets, according to iSuppli Corp.

Despite deep cuts in consumer spending on electronic products, the market for MEMS used in consumer electronics and mobile handsets in 2009 grew a respectable 7.6 percent to $1.19 billion, up from $1.10 billion in 2008. Given the revenue increase in 2009, the Compound Annual Growth Rate for MEMS for the 2008-2013 forecast period now stands at 18.4 percent. As a result, revenue in this particular segment of the MEMS market will top $2.5 billion in 2013—more than double the $1.1 billion mark of 2008.

Although Nintendo had been the No.-2 buyer of MEMS in consumer electronics during 2007 and 2008, the company in 2009 increased its purchase of gyroscopes—a MEMS sensor for measuring or maintaining orientation—for use in the Wii Motion Plus plug-in. This caused the company’s spending on MEMS to rise to $108 million in 2009, up 11.9 percent from $97 million in 2008.

Dropping to second place after a two-year run at the top was Samsung. From 2005 to 2007, Digital Light Processing (DLP) chips for rear-projection televisions accounted for most of the company’s MEMS consumption. However, with Samsung exiting the DLP market, its overall consumption of MEMS in 2009 declined to $105 million, down 1.1 percent from $106 million in 2008. Nonetheless, Samsung remains a high-volume purchaser of BAW filters for duplexers and quintplexers, and the company was also the top buyer of MEMS microphones last year.

Rounding out the Top-5 after Nintendo and Samsung were Nokia in third place, LG Electronics in fourth and Apple in fifth.

Accelerometers accounted for most of Nokia’s MEMS purchases, while BAW filters were the top product bought by LG. In the case of Apple, the company used accelerometers and BAW filters for the iPhone, accelerometers for the MacBook laptop and accelerometers as well as MEMS microphones for the newest-generation iPod Nano MP3 player. With Apple’s consumption of MEMS continuing to expand, the company could increase its use of accelerometers—and possibly MEMS microphones—in its new iPad tablet.

Mobile Handsets Power MEMS Market
MEMS found their biggest application in 2009 in mobile handsets. Accelerometers were the largest MEMS product category for cell phones last year, followed by BAW filters and microphones.

In accelerometers alone, 354 million were shipped for use in cell phones in 2009, with a strong upward spike in the second half of the year, MEMS companies reported to iSuppli. Almost every fourth phone featured an accelerometer in 2009, up from one out of every 10 handsets in 2008.

The Chinese market represented a particularly significant area for MEMS accelerometers. According to iSuppli’s China Research service, MEMS companies in 2009 reported shipping 85 million to 90 million accelerometers—25 percent of total accelerometer shipments worldwide—to Chinese handset makers such as Huawei, Lenovo and TianYu. Furthermore, 36 million accelerometers went to the so-called gray handsets that comprise an unsanctioned but thriving segment of the Chinese cell-phone market.

Gaming was the second largest application for MEMS devices last year. While accelerometers largely dominated this space in 2008 and accounted for 85 percent of MEMS revenue in game controllers, gyroscopes took over in 2009, becoming the top product and making up 55 percent of all MEMS revenue for gaming in 2009. As the market for MEMS accelerometers in gaming starts to saturate, gyroscopes will remain the best opportunity up to 2013, iSuppli forecasts.

In other applications, MEMS revenue saw no growth in laptops and hard disk drives during 2009 compared to the year before. Although the shipment of accelerometers for freefall protection rose robustly, rapid price erosion stole any potential for revenue growth.

Digital still cameras also did not contribute to greater MEMS revenues in 2009. Gyroscopes used for the optical image stabilization feature in cameras continued to increase, but the higher penetration was offset by a drop in overall shipments for digital still cameras.

The bad news is continuing for MEMS DLP chips as rear-projection televisions using the Texas Instruments devices are set to exit the market by 2011. Mitsubishi is the only significant buyer of DLP chips for rear-projection television remaining in 2010.

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What’s Missing in the iPad? Tweet

First version of tablet omits features that could have made it a must-have product.

The initial version of the iPad lacks some key features that could have established it as a must-have product for consumers and businesses, making it likely that Apple Inc. will enhance the device in future revisions, according to iSuppli Corp.

For instance, the iPad does not support Adobe Flash Player games, video conferencing, and video still/picture capabilities in social networking applications such as Facebook. With these features, Apple could have positioned the iPad the new standard for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). Without them, many potential buyers may view the iPad as a non-essential purchase.

However, iSuppli believes that the iPad platform is sound enough such that Apple could add these features in future generations or iterations of the product. In fact, if Apple added just some of these features, the iPad’s role could expand beyond its place in the tablet and MID markets, threatening other product segments as well.

A Non-Pocket-Sided iPod
Internet wags already have pegged the iPad as a larger version of Apple’s iPod touch.

iSuppli agrees with this assessment.

The iPad’s feature set is all too similar to that of its smaller cousin. While the consumer experience will be grander because of the iPad’s larger form factor, the product is not groundbreaking enough for the device to be put into its own category. It remains a PMP—an enhanced PMP, perhaps—but a PMP nonetheless.

Like the iPod touch, the iPad at its core is a media/content-consumption platform, rather than a media/content-creation device. Lacking even a camera, the iPad’s only content-creation capability is its email feature.

Don’t Count it Out
These omissions are likely to slow initial adoption of the iPad and limit its appeal. Nevertheless, the impact of the iPad—even before the first one has shipped—already can be felt in certain verticals such as the eBook segment. The eBook aspect of the device alone is impacting Amazon, prompting the company to reassess the current pricing for its Kindle eBook along with the company’s content relationships with book publishers.

If Apple follows the same strategy it employed with the iPhone—incorporating high-demand hardware and software enhancements in subsequent generations of the device—iSuppli believes the iPad could become the de facto standard for MIDs. But as it currently stands, Apple will have to take a few steps to get there.

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Grab Your Bike and Go with Google Maps Tweet

Users can now choose biking when deciding how to get to their destination.

If you’re one of the 57 million Americans who ride a bike, mapping your daily commute, exploring new trails, and planning recreational rides just became a little bit easier. Google is announcing that we have added biking directions in the U.S. to Google Maps. This has been the most requested addition to Google Maps, and we’re delighted to be unveiling this new feature at the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC.

This new feature includes: step-by-step bicycling directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new “Bicycling” layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads.

The directions feature provides step-by-step, bike-specific routing suggestions – similar to the directions provided by our driving, walking, or public transit modes. Simply enter a start point and destination and select “Bicycling" from the drop-down menu. You will receive a route that is optimized for cycling, taking advantage of bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly streets and avoiding hilly terrain whenever possible. Just like Google pioneered with driving directions, you can click-and-drag your route to customize it as you’d like. You can also access the other features in Google Maps, such as Street View, so you can tell exactly where you might need to turn on your route or preview how wide a bike lane is, and Local Search, so you know where you can take a water break or where the bike shops are along your route. Biking directions provides time estimates for routes based on an algorithm that takes into account the length of the route, the number of hills, fatigue over time, and other variables.

The new bicycling layer for Google Maps, accessible via the “More…” drop down menu at the top of the map, will display an overlay of the various bike-friendly roads and trails around town. The layer is color-coded to show three different types of paths:

* Dark green indicates a dedicated bike-only trail;
* Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
* Dotted green indicates roads without bike lanes but are more appropriate for biking, based on factors such as terrain, traffic, and intersections.

Thousands of miles of trails in the US have also been added directly onto the map. This helps cyclists better plan their routes, and can also expose the availability and convenience of bike trails to a new audience. Maybe you’re planning a trip to Seattle and notice that the Burke-Gilman trail goes right past your hotel and decide to do an afternoon bike tour of the city, or maybe you notice a trail that will make your daily bike-to-work commute safer and more scenic.

Google has partnered with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that creates networks of trails from former rail lines, to provide information on bike trails in more than 150 cities.

“The demand for trail maps and information has never been higher, especially as more people recognize biking as a viable, inexpensive and healthy alternative to driving,” says Rails-to-Trails President Keith Laughlin. “Sharing our trail data is an exceptional way to introduce the world to what 150,000 RTC members and supporters already know—biking is the ideal way to get where you’re going. The addition of biking directions to Google Maps makes life easier for bikers, whether they are commuting to work or biking for fun, and it can introduce our network of trails to a whole new audience of cyclists-to-be.”

Visit http://maps.google.com/biking to try out this new feature. Biking directions for Google Maps is currently in Beta. We are constantly adding new trail information and encourage bikers to send feedback and route information for inclusion via our reporting tool that you can find at the bottom of the map. Biking directions is currently available on desktop versions of Google Maps for the United States, but a mobile version is planned.

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Konica Minolta chooses Google Apps Tweet

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. recently moved its 7,000 employees to Google Apps. In this video, executives and end users from Konica Minolta discuss why they chose to go Google and how the decision to switch has benefited their organization.

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Automatic Translation in Google Chrome (BETA) Tweet

Instantly translate webpages into your language with Google Chrome.

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Introducing the Blogger Template Designer Tweet

The Blogger Template Designer allows you to create effectively infinite number of designs templates instead of being restricted to a limited number of rigid designs by making it easy to customize your blogs design, layout, background and much more.

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Google Apps Marketplace Overview Tweet

In this video, we show you how to add an app from the Google Apps Marketplace to your domain.

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Introducing the Street View Trike Tweet

Google's Street View trike lets us take pictures of places that are not accessible by car.

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Proposal to continue Long Term Variable Remuneration Program Tweet

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Provides an investment opportunity for all of Ericsson's employees
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Part of Ericsson's remuneration strategy to retain key competence
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Drives earnings and provides competitive remuneration for senior management

Ericsson's (NASDAQ: ERIC) Long Term Variable Remuneration Program, which first started in 2004, is an integral part of the company's remuneration strategy. The Board of Directors has decided to propose that the Annual General Meeting on April 13, 2010, resolves on a continued Long Term Variable Remuneration Program 2010 (LTV 2010) which, compared to the previous programs, contains minor changes for the CEO's participation and the performance target period for the executive plan. The program comprises in total 23.5 million B-shares.

The Program is divided into three plans: (1) a Stock Purchase Plan embracing all employees, where employees receive one Ericsson share for each share invested in under the plan, (2) a plan for up to ten percent of employees, selected as key contributors to receive a second matching share, and (3) a plan embracing the CEO and other senior managers, up to 0.5 percent of employees who at a maximum can earn a further four, six or in the case of the CEO, nine (previous plans: eight) matching shares in addition to the ordinary matching share under the Stock Purchase Plan, provided that certain financial goals are met.

Matching under the program requires employees to invest up to 7.5 percent of gross fixed salary in Ericsson shares. It is proposed that the CEO will be able to invest up to 10 percent of the gross fixed salary and the short term variable remuneration (previous plans: up to 9 percent of the gross fixed salary). The participants must also retain the shares and remain in employment at the time of matching, three years after investment.

The adjusted CEO participation and performance matching opportunity is a consequence of the Board's decision to change the composition of the different remuneration elements in the CEO's total remuneration package to shift the emphasis from fixed to variable and from short-term to long-term, as well as helping to build a significant long term holding in Ericsson shares.

For transparency and simplicity reasons, it is also proposed that the three year performance target period for the executive plan is adjusted to financial years instead of, as for previous plans, measuring years from the third quarter to the second quarter.

Financing of the LTV 2010

The proposal gives the shareholders the opportunity to vote for each of the respective plans, including financing. The Board of Directors has considered different financing methods for transfer of the shares to employees under the LTV 2010, such as transfer of treasury stock and an equity swap agree­ment with a third party.

The Board of Directors considers the transfer of treasury stock as the most cost efficient and flexible method to transfer shares under the LTV 2010 and has therefore decided to propose that the Annual General Meeting resolve as follows.

Transfer of treasury stock: No more than 19.4 million B-shares shall be transferred to employees covered by the terms of the three plans under the LTV 2010. The company shall also have the right, before the Annual General Meeting in 2011, to transfer no more than 4.1 million B-shares in the Company on an exchange to cover certain expenses, mainly social security payments.

Dilution and costs

The Company has approximately 3.3 billion shares in issue. As per December 31, 2009, the Company held 79 million shares in treasury. The 23.5 million shares required to implement the LTV 2010 correspond to approximately 0.74 percent of the total number of outstanding shares.

The total effect on the income statement of the LTV 2010, is estimated to range between SEK 919 million and SEK 1 611 million unevenly distributed over the years 2010-2014. The costs can be com­pared with Ericsson's total remuneration costs 2010, including social security fees, amounting to SEK 55 billion.

The complete proposal of the Board of Directors will be available on Ericsson's website, www.ericsson.com, as from the publication of the Notice of the Annual General Meeting.

The Ericsson Annual Report for 2009 is available as of March 8, 2010, on http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/investors/financial_reports/2009/annual-report.shtml

Notes to editors:

Our multimedia content is available at the broadcast room: www.ericsson.com/broadcast_room

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Ericsson's Annual General Meeting Tweet

Ericsson's (NASDAQ:ERIC) Annual General Meeting of shareholders will be held at Kistamässan, Stockholm, Sweden at 3pm CET on Tuesday, April 13, 2010. Below is an extract from the notice. The complete notice of the Annual General Meeting is available as an enclosed pdf document or on www. ericsson.com.

The nomination committee proposes that Michael Treschow is re-elected Chairman of the Board of Directors, and that Roxanne S. Austin, Sir Peter L. Bonfield, Börje Ekholm, Ulf J. Johansson, Sverker Martin-Löf, Nancy McKinstry, Anders Nyrén, Carl-Henric Svanberg, and Marcus Wallenberg are re-elected members of the Board of Directors and that Hans Vestberg and Michelangelo (Mike) Volpi be elected new members of the Board of Directors. The nomination committee proposes that the number of Board members to be elected by the Meeting be twelve and that no Deputy Directors be elected.

The nomination committee proposes a procedure on appointment of the nomination committee, in substance as follows:

The Company shall have a nomination committee of no less than five members. One member shall be the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Based on the shareholding statistics the Company receives from Euroclear Sweden AB as per the last bank day of the month in which the Annual General Meeting of shareholders is held the nomination committee shall, without unnecessary delay identify the four largest shareholders by voting power of the Company.

As soon as reasonable feasible, the Nomination Committee shall, in a suitable manner, contact the identified four largest shareholders and request them within reasonable time considering the circumstances, however not exceeding 30 days, to provide in writing to the nomination committee the name of the person the shareholder wish to appoint member of the nomination committee.

The Chairman of the nomination committee shall be the member that represent the largest shareholder(s) by voting power, provided the nomination committee does not unanimously resolve to appoint another member, appointed by a shareholder, Chairman of the nomination committee.

The nomination committee proposes no remuneration be paid to the nomination committee members, however, the Company shall bear the expenses related to the work of the nomination committee.

The nomination committee proposes the Directors should be offered, on unchanged terms, the possibility to receive part of the fees in respect of their Board assignment (however, not in respect of committee work) in the form of synthetic shares. A synthetic share signifies a right to receive future payment of an amount corresponding to the market price of a share of series B in the Company on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm at the time of payment.

The Board of Directors proposes a dividend of SEK 2.00 per share and Friday, April 16, 2010, as record date for dividend.

The Board of Directors proposes the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders resolves on the following guidelines for remuneration and other employment terms for the senior management for the period up to the 2011 Annual General Meeting. Compared to the guidelines resolved by the 2009 Annual General Meeting, these guidelines have been restructured and rephrased to better demonstrate the basic principles for remuneration within the Ericsson Group.

Details of how we deliver on our principles and policy, including information on previously decided long term variable remuneration that has not yet become due for payment, can be found in the Remuneration Report and in Note C29, "Information regarding Members of the Board of Directors, Management and Employees" in the annual report 2009.

For senior management consisting of the Executive Leadership Team, including the President and CEO, in the following referred to as the "Group Management", total remuneration consists of fixed salary, short- and long term variable remuneration, pension and other benefits.

Furthermore, the following guidelines apply for Group Management:

Variable remuneration is through cash and stock-based programs awarded against specific business targets derived from the long term business plan approved by the Board of Directors. Targets may include financial targets at either corporate or unit level, operational targets, employee motivation targets and customer satisfaction targets.

With the current composition of Group Management, the Company's cost during 2010 for the variable remuneration of Group Management can, at a constant share price, amount to between 0 and 140 percent of the aggregate fixed salary cost, all excluding social security costs.

All benefits, including pension benefits, follow the competitive practice in the home country taking total compensation into account. The retirement age is normally 60 to 65 years of age.

By way of exception, additional arrangements can be made when deemed required. Such additional arrangement shall be limited in time and shall not exceed a period of 36 months and two times the remuneration that the individual concerned would have received had no additional arrangement been made.

The mutual notice period may be no more than six months. Upon termination of employment by the Company, severance pay amounting to a maximum of 18 months fixed salary is paid. Notice of termination given by the employee due to significant structural changes or other events that in a determining manner affect the content of work or the condition for the position is equated with notice of termination served by the Company.

After the Board of Director's yearly evaluation of ongoing remuneration programs, it proposes to make only minor changes to the structure of Ericsson's Long Term Variable Remuneration Program. The program is an integral part of the Company's remuneration strategy and a continued operation would be in line with that of previous years. However, it is proposed that the CEO participation is amended and that the performance target period for the Executive Performance Stock Plan is adjusted to financial years as described in the proposal below. It is anticipated that the LTV 2010 will require up to 23.5 million shares, corresponding to a dilution of up to 0.74 percent of outstanding shares, at a cost between SEK 919 million and SEK 1,611 million unevenly distributed over the years 2010 - 2014.

See the complete notice of Annual General Meeting of shareholders in the enclosed pdf document.

http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/investors/shareholders/agm/doc_2010/notice_to_the_agm_2010.pdf

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Two new members nominated to Board of Directors Tweet

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Mike Volpi, Partner at Index Ventures and a former Joost and Cisco executive, nominated to the Board of Directors.
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Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson, nominated to the Board of Directors.
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The Chairman and other members of the Board of Directors are proposed to be re-elected.

Ericsson's (NASDAQ:ERIC) Annual General Meeting of Shareholders will take place on April 13, 15.00 CET, in Stockholm. The nomination committee proposes Michael Treschow be re-elected Chairman of the Board of Directors, Roxanne S. Austin, Sir Peter L. Bonfield, Börje Ekholm, Ulf J. Johansson, Sverker Martin-Löf, Nancy McKinstry, Anders Nyrén, Carl-Henric Svanberg, and Marcus Wallenberg be re-elected and Hans Vestberg and Michelangelo (Mike) Volpi be elected new members of the Board of Directors.

Mike Volpi is a partner at Index Ventures in London where he focuses on investments in the internet, telecom/networking and media sectors. His career in the technology sector began at HP where he worked in the optoelectronics division. He then moved on to Cisco Systems in 1994, where he was Senior Vice President and led Cisco's business for the service provider market, and was also responsible for all of Cisco's routing and access products. He also served as Cisco's Chief Strategy Officer. Volpi left Cisco in 2007 to serve as CEO at Joost, a venture backed start up delivering premium video services over the internet.

Mike Volpi was born in 1966. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Masters in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Hans Vestberg was appointed President and CEO of Ericsson on January 1, 2010. He was born 1965 and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Uppsala, Sweden, in 1991. Shortly after joining Ericsson in 1991, Hans Vestberg was appointed to various international managerial positions in China, Sweden, Chile, Brazil and the US. Prior to taking on the position as CEO and President, he held the position as Chief Financial Officer.

The complete proposals of the nomination committee, including the committee's explanation of its proposal regarding the Board of Directors taking into account Ericsson's operations, phase of development and other relevant circumstances as well as the qualifications, experience and background of the nominated directors, are available on our website, www.ericsson.com, as of March 8, 2010.

The Board of Directors proposes a dividend of SEK 2.00 per share be paid for the year 2009 and April 16, 2010 as record day for dividend.

The Board of Directors proposes the meeting resolves on guidelines for remuneration to senior management for the period up to the 2011 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders.

Compared to the guidelines resolved by the 2009 Annual General Meeting of shareholders, these guidelines have been restructured and rephrased to better demonstrate the basic principles for remuneration within the Ericsson Group.

The Board of Directors proposes the implementation of a Long Term Variable Remuneration Program 2010 and transfer of own shares in accordance with the program. For more details, see separate press release.

The Board of Directors proposes transfer of own stock in relation to the resolutions on the Long Term Incentive Plan 2006 and the Long Term Variable Remuneration Programs 2007, 2008 and 2009.

The complete proposals for resolution at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders are available at our web site www.ericsson.com as of March 8, 2010. Upon request, the proposals will be sent to the shareholder. The Notice to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders is found below.

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Annual report now published Tweet

Ericsson's (NASDAQ:ERIC) annual report 2009 is now available on www.ericsson.com

Notes to editors:

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services. The company's portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.

Ericsson is advancing its vision of being the "prime driver in an all-communicating world" through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 80,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 206.5 billion (USD 27.1 billion) in 2009. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on OMX NASDAQ, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York



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New service for enterprises launched Tweet

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Enterprises get voice, mobility, collaboration and conferencing applications for smartphones, PCs and IP-based desktop phones

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The service by Deutsche Telekom, DeutschlandLAN, runs on Ericsson Business Communication Suite

Deutsche Telekom yesterday announced their new converged service for enterprise customers in Germany, called DeutschlandLAN, based on the Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) Business Communication Suite (BCS).

Ericsson's solution consists of IP telephony, mobility, collaboration and multimedia conferencing applications for smart phones, PCs and IP-based desktop phones.

The user is always part of the company network and has convenient access to all the communication tools while on a business trip, using a smart phone or notebook in the same way as when in the office. BCS allows instant team communication in virtual meeting rooms for video conferencing, document sharing or presentations creating dynamic collaboration within the company or interaction with people outside the company boundaries.

Deutsche Telekom plans the commercial launch for April 2010.

"Users want to be able to work wherever they are and not be limited to a desk at their office. Ericsson Business Communication Suite can do that for them and Deutsche Telekom is one of the first operators worldwide to make use of it by introducing DeutschlandLAN", said Jan Wäreby, Head of Business Unit Multimedia at Ericsson.

The Ericsson Business Communication Suite is fully 3GPP IMS compliant. It can serve 250,000 subscribers and can be extended if required. Based on open standards, and bundled with other operator network capabilities, BCS provides operators with a good baseline for a "one stop shop" offering towards the Enterprise segment.

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Pre-paid subscribers in charge Tweet

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Visible balance encourages pre-paid mobile users to go beyond voice

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Helps 24 million Mobinil subscribers in Egypt and potentially 3.3 billion users worldwide
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Converged charging and billing reduces costs for operators

Today, 72 percent of the world's 4.6 billion mobile subscribers use pre-paid services. A big barrier to these mobile users spending more is that they can't see their current balance. Being able to keep track of how much they have left to spend, on the other hand, makes users more willing to splurge on mobile internet and messaging.

In Egypt, where most people use pre-paid services, subscribers are taking control of their spending thanks to a charging system from Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC). The country's leading mobile operator, Mobinil, is modernizing its charging system serving over 24 million subscribers across the nation.

Mobinil will be able to provide more benefits to its customers as it ensures full control and flexibility over the different offers provided to them. It also improves the company's marketing capabilities, via customer segmentation, and the fast time to market the different promotional campaigns introduced to the market. The new system instantly calculates any type of transaction and offers both the consumer and operator access to the current balance.

Mobinil CEO Hassan Kabbani stated, "Mobinil's successful completion of this important and historical milestone is a confirmation of our continuous and long term investments into our network and IT infrastructures on which our valued customers rely for their communications. Our commitment is to leverage on innovative and responsive partners, such as Ericsson, that can help us offer customized and tailor-made services to suit our customers' diverse needs. Ericsson's leading capabilities in revenue management systems perfectly fits our needs for developing our offering and services."

Jan Wäreby, Senior Vice President and head of Business Unit Multimedia at Ericsson says; "Revenue management is becoming increasingly important for operators. By converging charging and billing, operators can reduce operational costs and offer much better service. Ericsson has performed over 50 similar transformation projects, replacing legacy systems by one single platform in live networks. These are complex projects since they require the seamless transfer of existing subscribers and services to a completely new system."

About 250 service providers around the world are using Ericsson and LHS's charging and billing solutions with more than one billion consumers.

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Consumer Mobility Expert Fritz Jordan Joins ABI Research Tweet

ABI Research has announced the appointment of Fritz Jordan as Principal Analyst, Consumer Mobility. As a member of the firm’s Mobile Services group, Fritz focuses his research on mobile data applications, software and services, consumer trends and behaviors, and strategic analysis of the mobile services value chain.

Vice President and CRO Stuart Carlaw says, “We are pleased to welcome Fritz to our growing mobile services practice. He brings significant experience as a mobile and wireless analyst, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist in various technology industries, and as a senior strategy and product manager in the semiconductor industry, that will further allow us to provide thought leadership to our clients in fast-paced and deeply convoluted markets.”

Fritz has 10 years experience in the mobile and wireless industry. He recently held the positions of Senior Product Manager, Mobile Consumer Platforms, and Strategy Manager, Mobile Consumer Markets at Freescale Semiconductor (2005-2008) and has provided independent strategy and business development services to a variety of private and public mobile and wireless companies, as well as to market research firms such as ABI Research and In-Stat MDR.

He holds an MBA degree, with honors, from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a BSME degree from U.C.L.A.

He is based in Oakland, California.

For more information about Fritz's research field, please visit The Mobile Consumer Research Service.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advise thousands of decision makers through 28 research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.
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Enterprise Mobile Data Revenues to Reach $43 Billion by 2014 Tweet

While global revenues from mobile messaging services including SMS and mobile e-mail from mobile business customers are forecast to reach $48 billion by 2014, data access services revenues for handsets and computing devices will not be far behind, reaching $43 billion by 2014. In fact, in most regional markets (with two notable exceptions) data access spending will exceed mobile messaging spending. In one such market, mobile data access revenues will exceed mobile messaging revenues by as much as 55%.

According to ABI Research practice director Dan Shey, “Data access revenues exceeding messaging revenues demonstrates the importance of data access to the business customer over the long term for business applications, mobile Internet and even mobile e-mail services. The forecast estimates also demonstrate the expansion of mobile devices among mobile business customers. More and more business customers are becoming 1+ data device carriers.”

Shey adds, “While operators are concerned about becoming simply access pipes, they are the only access provider for mobile data services. The challenge now for operators is enhancing the value of their pipes. Could operators create access service plans priced for higher levels of speed and services quality?”

North America and Asia-Pacific are the two “exceptional” regions where mobile data access revenues will not exceed mobile messaging revenues. North American mobile e-mail adoption and growth tips the balance of revenues toward mobile messaging. Based on expansion into emerging markets, lower data access adoption and offer spending in the Asia-Pacific market will limit data access revenue growth.

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Smartphone Market “Reborn” in 4Q 2009 Tweet

Fourth quarter mobile handset sales almost always outpace the performance seen in the rest of a year. But according to the latest market data from ABI Research, the final quarter of 2009 was remarkable for the strength of smartphone shipment growth compared to the rather lackluster preceding nine months.

“4Q 2009 saw 25% more smartphones shipped than 3Q,” says analyst Michael Morgan. "Granted, the fourth quarter is usually better than the third, but 3Q saw only a 3.6% growth over the second quarter. The robust strength of this market’s recovery is very encouraging indeed.”

Individual vendors had plenty to be pleased about. Apple had its best smartphone quarter on record. Nokia did extremely well, shipping 21 million smartphones compared to its usual 15-16 million. BlackBerry had a strong showing as well.

The good performance was driven in part by falling smartphone prices and the introduction of entry-level smartphones generating greater appeal for new buyers. Nokia effectively used its best weapon, economies of scale. The iPhone maintained its “cool factor” leverage, and, says Morgan, there were some under-reported over-achievers such as the BlackBerry Curve, which has actually out-sold the iPhone in some markets. Both companies benefited from expansion beyond their traditional North American market, increasingly gaining traction in Western Europe and East Asia: Asia-Pacific iPhone sales increased about 500% year-over-year in 2009.

While all regions performed well, North America – helped by mobile operators’ subsidies – led the pack in smartphone market growth at 30%, with Western Europe and APAC following considerably behind. Africa, the Middle East and Latin America all showed growth in the mid-high 20 percents, although of course they were starting from very low baselines.

“The United States is now the leading market for smartphone ‘mindshare’,” notes Morgan. “Vendors view success there as a springboard to success in the rest of the world."

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Global Location-Based Platform and Infrastructure Revenues to Reach $1.8 Billion by 2015 Tweet

Global LBS platforms revenue will grow from $560 million in 2010 to $1.8 billion in 2015, at which point they will reach saturation. While in the past Mobile Location Center (MLC) licensing revenues were largely driven by the E911 emergency calling market in the United States, in the future both the launch of carrier-grade LBS services and governmental safety and security requirements will boost MLC revenues in other regions such as Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

ABI Research practice director Dominique Bonte comments: “While the recent off-deck revolution has boosted the popularity of consumer LBS applications on smartphone application stores such as Apple’s iTunes, there is still a large opportunity for carriers to invest in network-based positioning platforms for the provisioning of mission-critical person-tracking as well as enterprise LBS services.” These include asset tracking and workforce management.

At the same time governments across the globe are taking the lead in investing in network-based positioning for lawful intercept, emergency calling and national security purposes, due to its superior indoor coverage and overall reliability compared with GPS, as it does not rely on handset functionality.

Bonte continues: “While high precision A-GPS location technologies are expected to dominate the social consumer LBS space, medium-accuracy methods such as enhanced Cell-ID and high accuracy positioning such as U-TDOA will provide carriers with unique assets allowing them to challenge off-deck LBS providers.”

The MLC vendor ecosystem consists of traditional wireless infrastructure providers such as Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks, and specialized players such as Telecommunication Systems (TCS), TruePosition, and Creativity Software. TCS has been particularly successful in the US with a large number of deployments with smaller carriers which has earned it a second place in terms of deployments market share, after market leader Ericsson.

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Neil Strother at the Helm of New ABI Research “Mobile Marketing Strategies” Research Service Tweet

"Mobile Marketing is growing exponentially and advertisers can no longer afford to ignore this medium as a way to reach customers - especially in the most desirable 18-40 age range."

With these words, new ABI Research practice director Neil Strother introduces the newest Research Service – “Mobile Marketing Strategies” – just launched by ABI Research.

“The Mobile Marketing Strategies Research Service is for marketers who recognize the need to leverage the emerging mobile channel as part of their brands' ongoing marketing and advertising efforts,” says Strother. “It will provide powerful tools for marketers who understand that consumers are reaching out to brands through mobile phones in powerful new ways, and want to tap into the estimated $4 billion annual turnover that this market will generate by 2014.”

Verticals that provide especially fertile opportunities for mobile marketing include automotive, consumer packaged goods, financial services, restaurants, retail and travel/hospitality, as well as the media and advertising firms that serve them.

The new Research Service will provide trend tracking, case studies, sampling of consumer attitudes, and competitive analysis, through Research Reports, (“Mobile Marketing - How to Take Advantage of the Platform Now” will appear this month), Market Data, ABI Insights, and surveys, all backed by direct consultation with Strother and his team.

Strother’s particular expertise and skill-sets provide exceptional thought leadership in this increasingly important area. He is a leading expert on how businesses can leverage the emerging mobile channel to drive sales and strengthen customer relationships. His track record includes key positions at several of the world’s best-known analyst firms. He served as managing editor of ZDNet AnchorDesk, and has been widely quoted in the world’s top business media.

ABI Research Vice President and Chief Research Officer Stuart Carlaw says, “We are very fortunate to be joined by someone of Neil’s stature and experience in the position of Practice Director, Mobile Marketing Strategies. He is already staking out new territory for ABI Research with this new Research Service, and will offer invaluable guidance to all organizations looking to access the mobile marketing value chain.”

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The Wireless Infrastructure Good News: 2009 Not As Bad As Feared Tweet

There is no doubt that 2009 was a bad financial year, and there were fears at its beginning that the wireless infrastructure market would see a severe downturn. Estimates for contraction ranged as high as 10-12%.

However in a just-released study, ABI Research finds that the final picture is a good deal brighter than that. “There was a contraction in the wireless infrastructure market to be sure,” says practice director Aditya Kaul. “But our analysis shows overall CAPEX down only about 5% compared to 2008. Even net base station spending was down only 5%.”

The report, which presents a high-level overview of the global wireless infrastructure market, shows that operators resumed spending in the second half of 2009. North America’s market saw continued spending by the likes of Verizon with its LTE network and Clearwire with its WiMAX deployments.

According to Kaul, “The biggest positive impact was from China with 243,000 new wireless base stations added in 2009, which really kept the momentum going. In what turned out to be a case of good timing, 3G spectrum became available at the beginning of the year, which led to deployments continuing through the year.”

In India, 3G spectrum issues slowed down the market to some extent in 2009. Africa saw continued momentum in base station spending, with Huawei providing vendor financing to operators in the region.

With the mobile capacity crunch starting to affect operators, 2009 was also a year in which backhaul and core network upgrades became high-priority areas.

There was some vendor consolidation, with Nortel announcing bankruptcy while Cisco acquired Starent on the core network side. 2009 was also a year that saw managed services gaining increasing importance for wireless OEMs, becoming a market estimated at $7 billion.

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Global Fixed Broadband Service Revenue to Exceed $210 Billion in 2014 Tweet

Despite the economic downturn, the global broadband market remained healthy in 2009. Since more people are buying laptops, notebooks and PCs, home networking is becoming essential. At the same time, the demand for high speed broadband is increasing with the popularity of services such as IPTV and online gaming. New market data from ABI Research shows that global broadband service revenue has continued increasing over the past few years regardless of the recessionary pressures.

According to ABI Research market data, fixed broadband service revenue totaled $164 billion in 2009, an increase from $145 billion in 2008. ABI Research practice director Jason Blackwell comments, “The increasing demand for broadband helps increase subscriber numbers as well as service revenue. Global fixed broadband service revenue is expected to exceed $210 billion in 2014.”

Among the broadband technologies, DSL still maintains the largest market share, followed by cable and fiber broadband. Service revenue for DSL broadband totaled nearly $100 billion in 2009. ABI Research expects DSL broadband service revenue to reach just over $103 billion in 2014 with a CAGR of 0.6% from 2009 to 2014.

Recently, many operators are improving DSL broadband by deploying VDSL, which is cheaper to deploy than fiber as carriers can use existing copper infrastructure. “The higher speed of VDSL broadband helps operators to provide more services such as video on demand and interactive gaming. That can help to generate more revenue for operators,” notes research associate Khin Sandi Lynn. “Some operators currently offering VDSL are Telus Canada, O2 Czech, OTE Greece and Tele2 Netherlands.”

Fiber broadband service revenue is increasing fast, with a forecast CAGR of 23.3% between 2009 and 2014. ABI Research forecasts service revenue for fiber broadband to reach $24.4 billion in 2010.

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After a Rough 2009, Mobile CAPEX Is Expected to Grow in 2010 Tweet

After a rough two years, mobile operators will look to increase their capital expenditure on improving their networks in 2010. ABI Research expects mobile CAPEX to grow by more than 4% YoY in 2010, after contracting by 2.7% in 2009.

Driving this growth will be investments in 3.5G technologies such as HSPA and HSPA+, along with the rollout of 4G LTE networks by large operators such Verizon Wireless and Telia Sonera. The fastest growths in capital expenditures are expected to be in South America, with a CAGR of 10% between 2009 and 2015.

Aggregate service revenue also bounced back in 2009, which will help fund the operators' CAPEX plans in 2010. Globally, mobile service revenues grew 5.9% YoY between 3Q 2009 and 3Q 2008. The rapid growth in the use of mobile data services drove an 8.8% growth of service revenues in North America in the same period.

”The rapid adoption of smartphones will drive service revenue growth in 2010, as more consumers adopt data plans to take advantage of their handsets’ features,” says analyst Bhavya Khanna.

Developed markets such as North America and Western Europe saw more than 17% YoY growth in mobile Internet revenues, a trend that is likely to continue into 2010. Smartphone sales were brisk in 2009, even as the overall shipment of handsets dropped.

“The growing popularity of Internet-capable handsets will drive the increasing adoption of mobile data among consumers,” adds vice president and CRO Stuart Carlaw. “ABI Research forecasts mobile Internet service revenues to grow at a CAGR of 9.4% between 2009 and 2015.”

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Business Continuity/Disaster Data Recovery Market to Reach $39 Billion by 2015 Tweet

Accidents happen. Natural or man-made emergencies can shut down computers and servers and can make offices (and entire buildings) uninhabitable or unsafe for extended periods. To compensate for the unexpected and account for the unpreventable, prudent organizations utilize business continuity products and services plans to keep their enterprises up and running in emergencies, and implement disaster recovery plans and programs against the possibility that a computer, server, office or entire building becomes unusable as a result of a catastrophe.

ABI Research forecasts that the global market for business continuity and disaster data recovery solutions will grow from $24.3 billion in 2009 to exceed $39 billion in 2015.

“As a result of their growing reliance on electronic data and the need for backup, storage and security, industries such as financial services and healthcare now operate under federal mandates requiring them to have disaster recovery and business continuity programs in place,” says ABI Research director Larry Fisher, “In many other industries, such programs are not legally required, but savvy companies always prepare for the worst.”

Fisher notes that business continuity and disaster recovery technologies are becoming less expensive and easier to use, in part because they are being integrated into larger IT systems, and also because they’re increasingly taking advantage of aspects of Cloud Computing and virtualization. Even so, he notes, “Vendors will need to keep their offerings as simple as possible, and to provide customers the broadest possible response, in order to minimize the complexity that could challenge increased acceptance of these technologies.”

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ARPUs Continue To Fall Globally As Mobile Voice Usage Nears Saturation Tweet

Mobile end-user ARPUs (average revenue per user) dropped between 6% to 9% globally, year-over-year in 3Q-2009, compared to 3Q-2008. India, the world’s second-largest market in terms of subscribers, saw ARPUs dropping more than 10% YoY in the same period, as new operators and the introduction of per-second billing put heavy downward pressure on voice revenues. In Europe the ARPU contraction was in the range of -5 to -8%, with Austria seeing a contraction of more than 9%. However, ABI Research estimates that ARPU decline is likely to flatten out in developed markets in Europe and North America as mobile data revenue increasingly replaces falling voice revenue.

Globally, the growth in Minutes of Use has also peaked, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of only 1.4% between 2009 and 2015. Much of this growth is driven by developing markets in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

“With the decline in voice revenues, mobile operators must aim to increase the uptake of mobile Internet services and revenues to defend their ARPU,” says analyst Bhavya Khanna. “Mobile data traffic has exploded in the past two years, and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 40% from 2009-2015. Operators can cash in on this demand by enlarging their mobile broadband coverage, thus increasing their user-base. This has started to happen in developed markets such as the UK and US, where mobile Internet service revenues have grown over 12% and 8% YoY respectively.”

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RFID Market to Reach $5.35 Billion This Year Tweet

Despite the economic doldrums which required downward adjustments to ABI Research’s RFID forecasts for 2009 and 2010, the outlook is good for steady growth through the next five years, according to new market data just released by the firm.

Practice director Michael Liard reports: “We expect the overall RFID market to exceed $8.25 billion in 2014, or approximately $7.46 billion with automobile immobilization excluded. That would represent a 14% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years.”

(Automobile immobilization is the largest single RFID application and has a low growth rate which impacts overall market size, so it is often excluded when examining market trends.)

This year alone, the RFID market appears set to reach a size of $4.47 billion (without automobile immobilization), 15% more than the adjusted 2009 figure.

“Not all segments of the RFID market are created equal,” adds Liard. “To 2014, the greatest growth will be found in RTLS (Real Time Location Systems), baggage handling, animal ID, and item-level tagging in fashion apparel and retail.”

Other key opportunities include Electronic Vehicle Registration, continued penetration of RFID-enabled e-ID/e-government documents (including health cards), and continued expansion of library systems. Also worth watching: slowed but continued progress in retail CPG supply chain management, and multiple flavors of asset management that leverage RFID technologies, including specialty passive UHF tags.

“Modernizing” applications for RFID will grow more rapidly than their “traditional” predecessors such as access control, automobile immobilization, electronic toll collection and others that account for slightly more than 61% of the total market today. These applications are expected to grow 6% compounded annually from 2010 through 2014. In contrast, modernizing applications – animal ID, asset management, baggage handling, cargo tracking and security, POS-contactless payment, RTLS, supply chain management, and ticketing – are forecast to grow roughly 19% in the same time period.

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Mobile Networks Snapshot: LTE and WiMAX Deployments Go Head-to-Head as the 4G Technology Battle Begins Tweet

December 2009 saw the first commercial launch of LTE networks, with TeliaSonera the first service provider in the world to offer the service in Stockholm and Oslo. 2010 promises to see the commercial launch of several LTE networks, including large operators such as Verizon Wireless in the United States and NTT DoCoMo in Japan. With voice standards still in development and a lack of compatible handsets, however, we can expect these networks to carry only data traffic for some time to come.

As LTE deployments begin to pick up pace, WiMAX continues its steady progress. ABI Research analyst Bhavya Khanna says, “While LTE does promise data speeds greater than 50Mbps, they have yet to be achieved by live or trial networks, whereas mobile WiMAX is now a tried and tested standard.” Several operators, including Sprint in the United States, have chosen to go with WiMAX as their 4G network of choice. ABI Research reports 164 mobile WiMAX networks in trial or commercial operation at the end of 2009, compared to just over 100 LTE trials.

In addition, the total number of network contract announcements for mobile WiMAX tracked by ABI research was 242, compared to only 38 for LTE. With the planned launch of several WiMAX devices in 2010, including handsets from smartphone maker HTC, it looks likely that this technology will co-exist with LTE for some time to come.

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Motorola Tops New ABI Research Passive UHF Handheld RFID Reader Vendor Matrix Ranking Tweet

Motorola Inc. has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research.

Convergence Systems Limited (CSL) and Psion Teklogix Inc. claimed the second and third spots in the company’s new worldwide evaluation of passive UHF RFID handheld reader vendors.

The Vendor Matrix is an analytical tool developed by ABI Research to provide a clear understanding of vendors’ positions in specific markets. Vendors are assessed on the important parameters of “innovation” and “implementation” across several criteria unique to each vendor matrix. Although taken into consideration under certain criteria, product performance benchmarking is not a focus of this Vendor Matrix.

”Mobile computing, bar code scanning, and RFID are highly complementary technologies and major strengths for Motorola, helping drive handheld product innovation within the organization,” states Michael Liard, RFID Practice Director. “The company’s global reach, partner/customer support capabilities, installed base, and an approach to RFID that cuts across many industries while addressing the needs of verticals all helped bolster the overall implementation score relative to the competition.”

For this particular matrix, under "innovation," ABI Research examined the vendor’s product offering mix and the readers’ overall designs, GUI and/or user input configuration, and critical performance enhancements such as battery life expectancy, antenna design, and wireless connectivity options. The vendors’ industry leadership, influence, and knowledge transfer were evaluated, as well as their perceived strength and innovation in engineering.

Under "implementation," ABI Research scrutinized the vendors according to the following criteria: manufacturing capabilities and strategy; pricing strategy and perceived price-to-value quotient; overall market position, leadership, and strength; perceived strength within verticals and/or applications targeted/served; persistent market presence and experience; partner strategy, approach, and support capabilities; scope of distribution channels; and go-to-market strategy and approach.

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Nearly 846 Million Pay TV Subscribers in 2014 Tweet

Despite a depressed economy, global pay TV markets continue to grow. According to the latest market data from ABI Research, they will expand by a quarter from 2009 to 2014.

Industry analyst Michael Inouye says that, “Cable will remain the largest pay TV platform, satellite the second-largest and telco TV the smallest (DTT aside), but the latter will show the fastest growth, more than doubling its share by 2014, albeit starting from a much smaller base. Most of the subscribers captured by telco TV will be lured away from cable services.”

The growth of pay TV services is driven by three major factors: the ongoing digital transition and a parallel rise in demand for premium content, new operators and offers, and new features such as interactivity, video on demand (VOD), and personal video recording (PVR).

“Interactivity is a feature mainly found in mature markets,” notes Inouye. “It’s a way to try and keep subscribers who have other options. While one might expect advanced services of this kind to spread gradually from these mature markets to developing ones, the relatively low per-subscriber revenue available in some countries like China and India may prove to be a hurdle to the expansion of additional features/services.”

Pay TV market growth is occurring in spite of some opposing factors. Chief among these is the availability of low-cost alternatives and substitutes such as digital terrestrial television (DTT) especially those that pair free-to-air (FTA) content with broadband content/VOD. Online content such as that provided by Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, Vudu, and the BBC iPlayer also poses challenges.

“Pay TV providers will ultimately develop strategies best suited to their respective markets,” Inouye concludes. "Generally speaking, however, in still-developing markets often the focus is on areas such as offering additional digital channels and HD content, as well as VOD, pay-per-view, and PVR. In more mature markets, there is growing interest in developing new features and services including interactivity and in-home networking.”

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Spending on Retail Technology Systems Will Exceed $20 Billion in 2014 Tweet

Even as the recession has taken its toll on retail sales, retailers have continued to invest in retail technology. The retail technology hardware market, consisting of integrated point of sale (POS) systems, payment terminals, POS barcode scanners, POS printers, and electronic article surveillance systems, managed to continue growing during 2009, while many retailers experienced declines in sales as consumers tightened their purse strings.

In its new market study “Next Generation Point of Sale Systems and Retail Technology,” ABI Research forecasts that growth in this market will continue for the foreseeable future as retailers invest in the latest technology. ABI Research anticipates retail technology spending will grow to nearly $21 billion in 2014, from $14.8 billion in 2009.

The study finds that continuing growth in retail technology systems shipments and revenues will be driven by global demand for technologies needed to meet rapidly evolving security standards, as well as retailers’ demands for highly efficient and customer-friendly technology.

According to research director Larry Fisher, “Retailers look to technology to enhance the customer experience, drive customer loyalty, reduce costs, and to become more efficient at managing inventory, space and human resources. It is also a way to stay competitive as peers look to achieve the same goals.”

Fisher continues, “Retail technology vendors fared well despite the recession, as retailers maintained their long-term technology investment plans. Additionally, the outlook is positive for retail technology, as retailers in emerging countries look to emulate the successful implementation of technology in more-developed nations.”

The new market study focuses on several key retail technologies, and examines the market drivers behind the growth in this large market sector. Much of the report is focused on the hardware aspects of the technology market, including customer-facing systems such as point of sale systems, payment terminals and peripherals. It includes forecasts through 2014.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 - Games - Part two Tweet

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 - Games - Part two

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Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 (Unlocked): Unboxing and Hands On Tweet

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 (Unlocked): Unboxing and Hands On

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U.S. CELLULAR TOPS J.D. POWER AND ASSOCIATES CALL QUALITY RANKING FOR THE NINTH CONSECUTIVE TIME Tweet

U.S. Cellular customers in the North Central Region continue to enjoy the highest quality calls on their wireless phones, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Wireless Call Quality Performance StudySM – Volume 1.

For the ninth reporting period in a row, U.S. Cellular has received the J.D. Power and Associates award for overall call quality in the North Central Region, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. In addition to experiencing less static/interference, U.S. Cellular customers in this region have fewer problems with initial call connection and dropped or disconnected cell phone calls, according to the study.

"Our customers depend on us to keep them connected to loved ones every single day," said Mike Irizarry, executive vice president and chief technical officer for U.S. Cellular. "What’s more, reliable service is an absolute necessity for businesspeople on the go, emergency first responders and so many others across the U.S. Our customers trust us to deliver the absolute best experience."

Conducted twice a year, the J.D. Power and Associates Wireless Call Quality Performance Study measures the number of problems experienced with wireless call quality in seven customer-impacting factors: dropped/disconnected calls; static/interference; connection on first try; voice distortion; no echoes; no immediate voice mail notification; and no immediate text message notification.

"This is certainly an achievement to be proud of. But at the end of the day, awards and statistics aren’t what is most important to our customers,” said Irizarry “What matters most is that when they need their cell phone to work, it does."

About J.D. Power and Associates
Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services company operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, performance improvement, training and customer satisfaction. The company's quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually. For more information on car reviews and ratings, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone ratings, and more, please visit JDPower.com. J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

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SECOND TENNESSEE SCHOOL CLAIMS $100,000 VICTORY IN U.S. CELLULAR’S CALLING ALL COMMUNITIES Tweet

A.H. Roberts Elementary School becomes ninth 2010 champion.

Livingston, Tenn. – When more than 30 cheering U.S. Cellular associates burst into their gym today, A.H. Roberts future scientists discovered something amazing was about to happen. The school’s 600-plus students and faculty had gathered for a special preview of the science fair when they learned it had become the ninth school to receive $100,000 in the company’s 2010 Calling All Communities campaign.

"This is a once in a lifetime thing," said A.H. Roberts Principal Bridgett Carwile, who got the $100,000 call one day before the surprise announcement. "We knew we had done well, but we had no idea we had won. This is such a small community but when we saw all of the support we were getting, we knew we could do it."

Word of the win spread quickly through the town. Community members and parents joined the celebration as U.S. Cellular associates tossed t-shirts and 100 Grand candy bars to the excited students. There were glitter, tears and squeals of joy everywhere.

Each year, 10 schools that garner the most community votes during the campaign split $1 million from U.S. Cellular to use any way they choose. A.H. Roberts broke into the Top 20 early in the campaign before slipping out in December. The Overton County elementary school worked with businesses to hold drawings and even raffle off a Wii video game system to encourage support. Their efforts helped the school rebound in the final weeks to win.

Carwile said the school hasn’t decided how to spend the jackpot, but it definitely needs a technology upgrade. "Our computers are refurbished and dying. They need to be replaced."

A.H. Roberts became the second Tennessee school to take home the prize this year and the fourth Tennessee champion in the campaign’s history, resulting in $400,000 invested in schools within the state. Seymour High School’s win was announced on Feb. 9. Heritage High School in Maryville and Bearden High School in Knoxville came out on top in 2009.

"I’m not surprised that the tremendous heart of Tennessee communities has lead to another win," said Jack Brundige, director of sales for U.S. Cellular. "Our associates experience the power of these communities every day and we were thrilled to be able to give back to our local schools."

Calling All Communities voter participation this year nearly quadrupled with 430,000 votes cast for 6,800-plus schools nationwide. The final winning school will be announced this week, completing the Top 10 winner’s circle that also includes schools in Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. Visit uscellular.com/callingallcommunities or U.S. Cellular’s Facebook page to view the results.

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CHICAGO SCHOOL CASHES IN ON FINAL $100,000 PRIZE IN U.S. CELLULAR'S CALLING ALL COMMUNITIES CAMPAIGN Tweet

Nationally-recognized Nettelhorst Elementary School named 2010 champion.

Chicago, Ill. – Nettelhorst Elementary School students had much more to celebrate today than just the end to a week of ISATs. More than 150 U.S. Cellular associates stunned the North side school with the news that they are the 10th and final winner in the 2010 Calling All Communities campaign. Nettelhorst is the first ever Chicago public school to win a coveted $100,000 prize awarded to 10 schools who received the most community votes.

"I would like to commend U.S. Cellular for inspiring schools and communities across the country to join forces by supporting children and their education," said Mayor Richard M. Daley. "It is programs like Calling All Communities that truly lead by example showcasing how one person or one community can make a difference in a child's life."

For what would be the final time of this year, cheering U.S. Cellular associates tossed t-shirts, hurled 100 Grand candy bars and congratulated ecstatic students and teachers. Brightly-colored confetti filled the playground as television cameras jockeyed for position to catch the excitement. Teachers embraced U.S. Cellular associates and each other, crying tears of joy.

"I'm in shock but it's a good shock," said Nettelhorst Principal Cindy Wulbert, after U.S. Cellular officials reached out to their more than 43,000 Facebook fans for help track her down the night before the big surprise. "This is unbelievable but we have the best parents in the world. You wouldn't believe how many late nights they spent gathering support for our school. They all pulled together to make this happen."

Located in the East Lakeview neighborhood, the CPS Magnet school has received national attention for the high academic achievement of its more than 600 pre-K through 8th grade students. Nettelhorst is often cited in the media as an example of innovation and renewal in urban public schools and has been featured on CBS, PBS, NPR, 60 Minutes and The New York Times and the Chicago papers.

Nettelhorst was in 17th place when the campaign's last Top 20 list was posted in December. In the end, the school beat out more than 6,800 contenders across the country, joining nine other champions that received the most community votes during the two-month-long campaign.

Winning schools in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, Washington, and Oregon also received $100,000 to use any way they choose. Wulbert said the school is still deciding how to use its jackpot, but most likely portions of the funds will be invested into the Community Schools Program and renovating the science lab.

"Though a Chicago school had not won before, we always knew our schools had the heart to do it," said Derek Estes, director of sales in Chicago for U.S. Cellular. "Our Chicagoland associates couldn't be more thrilled to celebrate with such an inspirational school."

Calling All Communities voter participation this year nearly quadrupled with 430,000 votes cast for 6,800-plus schools nationwide. All 10 winning schools in this year's campaign have been announced. Visit uscellular.com/callingallcommunities or U.S. Cellular's Facebook page to view the results.

Continuing its commitment to investing $4.5 million in schools in 2009-2010, U.S. Cellular will launch its popular Calling All Teachers campaign this fall, funding $1 million in classroom projects through DonorsChoose.org.

About U.S. Cellular
The 9,000 associates of U.S. Cellular believe a wireless phone enhances people's lives and a wireless company should be in the business of bringing people together. U.S. Cellular has a wide range of monthly plans, including those with unlimited nationwide calling, unlimited free incoming calls and options to prepay. The company made the commitment to invest more than $4.5 million in teachers and schools during 2009 and 2010. Based in Chicago, U.S. Cellular is the nation's sixth-largest wireless carrier, serving 6.2 million customers across the country. To learn more about the company visit one of its retail stores or uscellular.com.

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Skype Names Technology Leader Adrian T. Dillon as Chief Financial and Administration Officer Tweet

Skype announced that it has hired Adrian T. Dillon as the new Chief Financial and Administration Officer. He replaces Laura Shesgreen, who will remain at Skype as Vice President of Finance. Adrian brings more than 30 years of finance experience to this role.. He will join Skype in early April and report to Josh Silverman, Skype’s CEO. Adrian will be based at Skype's headquarters in Luxembourg.

“We are delighted to have Adrian join the Skype management team. His world-class financial management and technology acumen will be a strong addition to Skype,” said Josh Silverman, Skype’s CEO. “His global experience in overseeing complex and diversified financial systems will enhance Skype’s management bench as we enter the next stage of Skype’s mission. I’d also like to extend my gratitude to Laura Shesgreen for her outstanding work and the critical role she has played in helping get Skype to this stage.”

Adrian joins Skype from Agilent, where he served as Executive Vice President, Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer. Agilent is the world’s premier measurement company. Agilent provides measurement tools and technologies for everything from home entertainment to homeland security, from food safety to network reliability, and from communicating wirelessly to discovering the genetic basis of disease.

“The opportunity to manage Skype’s globally diversified revenue portfolio is extremely interesting,” said Adrian Dillon. “As Skype moves deeper into mobile and enterprise environments and its consumer base grows steadily by the day, managing the pace of change in this dynamic industry and overseeing Skype's robust growth across geographies is a challenge that I truly relish.”

Prior to Agilent, Adrian had a 22 year career at Eaton Corporation, an Ohio-based diversified industrial manufacturer. Adrian held a variety positions at Eaton, joining as senior economist, moving to CFO and EVP during his tenure. Dillon is a summa cum laude graduate of Amherst College with a B.A. in economics. He is on the Board of Williams-Sonoma, Inc, where he chairs the Audit & Finance committee.

About Skype
Skype is software that enables the world's conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Everyday, people everywhere also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. Download Skype to your computer or mobile phone at skype.com.

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AXTEL Partners with fring to Extend Fixed VoIP Services to Mobile Tweet

Mexican telco AXTEL integrates fring to route home phone calls and PC- communication on GoogleTalk™, facebook and more to subscribers’ mobile devices.

London, United Kingdom; Monterrey, Mexico. AXTEL, S.A.B of C.V. (BMV: AXTELCPO; OTC: AXTLY) ("AXTEL"), a Mexican telecommunications company, announced the launch of its voice over internet service "AXTEL Conmigo" in partnership with fring™, the multi-award winning mobile application that lets users enjoy rich internet communication over mobile internet on their mobile devices.

With fring, AXTEL Conmigo becomes the first Mexican telecommunication service enabling subscribers to receive fixed telephone line calls to mobile devices. AXTEL customers with fring will receive their home phone calls as well as personal computer correspondence with popular social networks such as Skype®, facebook®, GoogleTalk™, Twitter and others, directly from their mobile devices. fring also enables subscribers to share internet experiences including live chat, video calls, file transfer and more from mobile devices for free over Wi-Fi or 3G data packages.

Avi Shechter, Co-Founder & CEO of fring said, "We are proud to complement AXTEL Conmigo’s new service by extending their fixed-mobile convergence to enable users to also share internet experiences from their mobile devices, including services such as VoIP calls, Skype, facebook and more, that were previously confined to their home phones and PCs."

Tomas Milmo Santos, AXTEL’s Chairman and CEO stated, "fring is a natural extension for AXTEL’s offering, enabling our subscribers to not only receive their home calls to their mobile, but also communicate and share experiences with their online friends from all the popular social internet networks, from the convenience of mobile devices. Partnering with fring helps us realize our vision to enable AXTEL subscribers to seamlessly stay in touch with their friends wherever they are at home and on the go, in Mexico or around the world."

fring on AXTEL is supported on variety of Smartphones and PDA’s including iPhone, iPod touch, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android devices. AXTEL subscribers can download fring software from www.axtelconmigo.com.mx



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About AXTEL

AXTEL is the second largest integrated services of fixed telephony in Mexico and one of the largest operators of virtual private networks in the country. AXTEL provides integrated telecommunications services to all sectors, from residential and small and medium enterprises to large corporate, financial institutions and government entities. AXTEL Mexico brings to basic telecommunications infrastructure consists of a world

AXTEL is the second largest integrated services of fixed telephony in Mexico and one of the largest operators of virtual private networks in the country. AXTEL provides integrated telecommunications services to all sectors, from residential and small and medium enterprises to large corporate, financial institutions and government entities. AXTEL Mexico brings to basic telecommunications infrastructure consists of a world class network that integrates different access technologies such as point to point, point to multipoint and fiber optic to deliver a broad portfolio of services tailored to the needs of its customers, their size and line of business. AXTEL services include fixed wireless, long distance and international, as well as advanced solutions for voice and data, web hosting, information security, virtual private networks and a full range Internet services, among others. Its value-added solutions on IP technology enable convergence of services, including voice, data and images.
AXTEL on the Internet: http://www.axtel.com.mx

For further information about AXTEL please contact:
José Manuel Basave Benítez
Corporate Communication and Social Responsibility, Director
Tel. +52 (81) 8114 1144
E-mail: jmbasave@axtel.com.mx

About fring™

fring (www.fring.com) is a multi-award winning mobile application that lets users communicate and share web-based experiences from their mobile devices. fring operates as the users’ mobile social communication hub.

Friends talk, chat, video, share files & experiences on fring and other integrated communities and social networks including Skype®, Facebook®, GoogleTalk™, Twitter, AIM®, ICQ®, &Last.fm, all through one central profile.

fring lets users share experiences across social networks, mobile operators, device platforms and internet access connections. fring is completely free to download and free to use

fring requires no additional hardware, is pc-independent, has no geographical or location limitations and operates on any available mobile internet connection (3G, Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE &WiMax). fring supports thousands of devices on multiple platforms including Symbian S60, iPhone/ iPod touch, Android, Windows Mobile, J2ME & Linux devices. fring continues to grow exponentially with millions of users across more than 200 countries, with about half a million new users joining fring every month.

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Palm Reports Q3 FY 2010 Results Tweet

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Mar 18, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today reported that total revenues on a GAAP(1) basis in the third quarter of fiscal year 2010, ended Feb. 26, 2010, were $349.9 million. Gross profit and gross margin on a GAAP basis were $47.0 million and 13.4 percent, respectively. In accordance with two recently released accounting standards related to revenue recognition, these results include the effects of accounting for multiple-element arrangements, including ratable revenue recognition for the future deliverables for Palm(R) webOS(TM) products as required by GAAP.

To facilitate comparisons to Palm's historical results, Palm has included non-GAAP adjusted measures, which exclude the impact of accounting for multiple-element arrangements, stock-based compensation and other items detailed in the notes section of this release. The company believes this information will help investors better evaluate its current period performance and trends in its business.

Non-GAAP Adjusted Revenues in the third quarter totaled $366.0 million, and non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Profit was $63.5 million. Non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin was 17.3 percent and was impacted by a $45.3 million charge taken in the quarter for reserves for inventory purchase commitments, which exceed current forecasted demand. Excluding the impact of the inventory purchase commitment reserves, non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin in the third quarter would have been 29.7 percent.

"Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong," said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. "The work we're doing to improve sales is having an impact, we're making great progress on future products, and we're looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners. Most importantly, we have built a unique and highly differentiated platform in webOS, which will provide us with a considerable - and growing - advantage as we move forward."

The company shipped a total of 960,000 smartphone units during the quarter, representing a 23 percent increase from the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 and an almost 300 percent increase versus the third quarter of fiscal year 2009. Smartphone sell-through for the third quarter was 408,000 units, down 29 percent from the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 and down 15 percent year-over-year.

On a GAAP basis, net loss attributable to common stockholders for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 was $(22.0) million, or $(0.13) per diluted common share. This compares to a net loss attributable to common stockholders for the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 of $(13.7) million, or $(0.09) per diluted share, and to a net loss attributable to common stockholders for the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 of $(98.0) million, or $(0.89) per diluted common share.

The company's net loss attributable to common stockholders on a GAAP basis reflects accounting guidance, effective in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010, which requires the anti-dilutive provisions of Palm's series C preferred shares and related warrants to be treated as derivatives for financial reporting purposes. The fair value of the derivatives was estimated as of the first day of fiscal year 2010 and is marked to market on a quarterly basis, with any change in value reflected in the company's financial results for the period. The series C derivatives balance was $82.1 million at the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 compared to $178.7 million at the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2010. This reduction in fair value resulted in a $96.6 million non-cash gain on series C derivatives and was reflected in the company's third quarter GAAP financial results. With regard to the series C derivatives, any future increases in Palm's stock price from period to period will be reflected as a non-cash loss on these derivatives in the company's financial results, and any future decreases will be reflected as a non-cash gain in the company's financial results.

Non-GAAP Net Loss for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 was $(102.8) million, or $(0.61) per diluted share. This compares to a non-GAAP Net Loss for the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 of $(45.5) million, or $(0.29) per diluted share, and to a non-GAAP Net Loss for the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 of $(94.7) million, or $(0.86) per diluted share.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 totaled $(5.7) million. EBITDA, adjusted to exclude the effect of ratable revenue recognition, stock-based compensation, net other income (expense), restructuring charges, a casualty recovery, a gain on the sale of auction rate securities and a gain on series C derivatives, or Adjusted EBITDA, totaled $(90.2) million.

The company's cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balance was $591.9 million at the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2010. Cash used from operations for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 was $(0.5) million.

Explanatory Note

During the third quarter of fiscal year 2010, Palm elected to early adopt updates to revenue recognition standards issued in October 2009 and revise all prior financial information to include the adoption. Palm has included in this release selected quarterly financial schedules reflecting the impact of retrospective adoption of the new accounting standards and reconciling the application of old and new accounting standards to historical statements of operations, balance sheets, cash flows from operations, non-GAAP items, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA. These financial schedules will also be available at http://investor.palm.com.

The updates to the method of revenue recognition result in a substantial portion of Palm webOS product revenues being recognized upon delivery. The remaining Palm webOS deferred revenues, which are related to future services and unspecified software, will be recorded as deferred revenues on the company's balance sheet, and amortized into earnings on a straight-line basis over the estimated product life, which is currently 24 months. Under the new standards, all related cost of revenues are recognized upon delivery. Under the previous accounting standards, Palm was required to account for sales of Palm webOS products using subscription accounting because Palm indicated it may periodically provide services and unspecified software free of charge to customers of Palm webOS products. Under subscription accounting, revenues and related direct product cost of revenues for Palm webOS products were deferred at the time of sale and recognized on a straight-line basis over the estimated product life. This resulted in the deferral of significant amounts of revenues and cost of revenues related to Palm webOS products. As of Nov. 30, 2009, the day prior to Palm's adoption of these updates, total deferred revenues were $550.8 million and total deferred cost of revenues were $332.7 million.

Palm adopted these updates by retrospective application as if the updates had been applied in all prior periods. Consequently, the financial results of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 through the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 have been revised. Palm believes retrospective application provides the most comparable and useful financial information for users of its financial statements, is more consistent with management's evaluation of the business and better reflects Palm's underlying economic performance.

Click to read full press release

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