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Written By Bersemangat on Selasa, 26 Februari 2013 | 08.37
Analysis: The near impossible battle against hackers everywhere
Written By Bersemangat on Senin, 25 Februari 2013 | 08.37
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dire warnings from Washington about a "cyber Pearl Harbor" envision a single surprise strike from a formidable enemy that could destroy power plants nationwide, disable the financial system or cripple the U.S. government.
But those on the front lines say it isn't all about protecting U.S. government and corporate networks from a single sudden attack. They report fending off many intrusions at once from perhaps dozens of countries, plus well-funded electronic guerrillas and skilled criminals.
Security officers and their consultants say they are overwhelmed. The attacks are not only from China, which Washington has long accused of spying on U.S. companies, many emanate from Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Western countries. Perpetrators range from elite military units to organized criminal rings to activist teenagers.
"They outspend us and they outman us in almost every way," said Dell Inc's chief security officer, John McClurg. "I don't recall, in my adult life, a more challenging time."
The big fear is that one day a major company or government agency will face a severe and very costly disruption to their business when hackers steal or damage critical data, sabotage infrastructure or destroy consumers' confidence in the safety of their information.
Elite security firm Mandiant Corp on Monday published a 74-page report that accused a unit of the Chinese army of stealing data from more than 100 companies. While China immediately denied the allegations, Mandiant and other security experts say the hacker group is just one of more than 20 with origins in China.
Chinese hackers tend to take aim at the largest corporations and most innovative technology companies, using trick emails that appear to come from trusted colleagues but bear attachments tainted with viruses, spyware and other malicious software, according to Western cyber investigators.
Eastern European criminal rings, meanwhile, use "drive-by downloads" to corrupt popular websites, such as NBC.com last week, to infect visitors. Though the malicious programs vary, they often include software for recording keystrokes as computer users enter financial account passwords.
Others getting into the game include activists in the style of the loosely associated group known as Anonymous, who favor denial-of-service attacks that temporarily block websites from view and automated searches for common vulnerabilities that give them a way in to access to corporate information.
An increasing number of countries are sponsoring cyber weapons and electronic spying programs, law enforcement officials said. The reported involvement of the United States in the production of electronic worms including Stuxnet, which hurt Iran's uranium enrichment program, is viewed as among the most successful.
Iran has also been blamed for a series of unusually effective denial-of-service attacks against major U.S. banks in the past six months that blocked their online banking sites. Iran is suspected of penetrating at least one U.S. oil company, two people familiar with the ongoing investigation told Reuters.
"There is a battle looming in any direction you look," said Jeff Moss, the chief information security officer of ICANN, a group that manages some of the Internet's key infrastructure.
"Everybody's personal objectives go by the wayside when there is just fire after fire," said Moss, who also advises the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
HUNDREDS OF CASES UNREPORTED
Industry veterans say the growth in the number of hackers, the software tools available to them, and the thriving economic underground serving them have made any computer network connected to the Internet impossible to defend flawlessly.
"Your average operational security engineer feels somewhat under siege," said Bruce Murphy, a Deloitte & Touche LLP principal who studies the security workforce. "It feels like Sisyphus rolling a rock up the hill, and the hill keeps getting steeper."
In the same month that President Barack Obama decried enemies "seeking the ability to sabotage our power grids, our financial institutions, our air traffic control systems," cyber attacks on some prominent U.S. companies were reported.
Three leading U.S. newspapers, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, Twitter and Microsoft Corp all admitted in February they had been hacked. The malicious software inserted on employee computers at the technology companies has been detected at hundreds of other firms that have chosen to keep silent about the incidents, two people familiar with the case told Reuters.
"I don't remember a time when so many companies have been so visibly 'owned' and were so ill-equipped," said Adam O'Donnell, an executive at security firm Sourcefire Inc, using the hacker slang for unauthorized control.
Far from being hyped, cyber intrusions remain so under-disclosed — for fear leaks about the attacks will spook investors — that the new head of the FBI's cyber crime effort, Executive Assistant Director Richard McFeely, said the secrecy has become a major challenge.
"Our biggest issue right now is getting the private sector to a comfort level where they can report anomalies, malware, incidences within their networks," McFeely said. "It has been very difficult with a lot of major companies to get them to cooperate fully."
McFeely said the FBI plans to open a repository of malicious software to encourage information sharing among companies in the same industry. Obama also recently issued an executive order on cyber security that encourages cooperation.
The former head of the National Security Agency, Michael Hayden, supports the use of trade and diplomatic channels to pressure hacking nations, as called for under a new White House strategy that was announced on Wednesday.
"The Chinese, with some legitimacy, will say 'You spy on us.' And as former director of the NSA I'll say, 'Yeah, and we're better at it than you are," said Hayden, now a principal at security consultant Chertoff Group.
He said what worries him the most is Chinese presence on networks that have no espionage value, such as systems that run infrastructure like energy and water plants. "There's no intellectual property to be pilfered there, no trade secrets, no negotiating positions. So that makes you frightened because it seems to be attack preparation," Hayden said.
Amid the rising angst, many of the top professionals in the field will convene in San Francisco on Monday for the best-known U.S. security industry conference, named after host company and EMC Corp unit RSA.
Several experts said they were convinced that companies are spending money on the wrong stuff, such as antivirus subscriptions that cannot recognize new or targeted attacks.
RSA Executive Chairman Art Coviello and Francis deSouza, head of products at top vendor Symantec Corp, both said they will give keynote speeches calling for a focus on more sophisticated analytical tools that look for unusual behavior on the network — which sounds expensive.
Others urge a more basic approach of limiting users' computer privileges, rapidly installing software updates, and allowing only trusted programs to function.
Some security companies are starting over with new designs, such as forcing all of their customers' programs to run on walled-off virtual machines.
With such divergent views, so much money at stake, and so many problems, there are perhaps just two areas of agreement.
Most people in the industry and government believe things will get worse. Coviello, for his part, predicted that a first-of-its kind - but relatively simple - virus that deleted all data on tens of thousands of PCs at Saudi Arabia's national oil company last year is a harbinger of what will come.
And most say that the increased mainstream attention on cyber security, even if it fixes uncomfortably on the industry's failings and tenacious adversaries, will help drive a desperately needed debate about what do to internationally and at home.
(Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Deborah Charles in Washington; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Jackie Frank)
HP eyes tablet comeback with Android-backed Slate 7
(Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co announced the launch of a $169 tablet powered by the Android operating system, a centerpiece of the company's effort to expand in mobile devices and reduce its dependence on the shrinking personal computer market.
The launch of the Slate 7 marks HP's latest foray into the consumer tablet market. It follows the 2011 failure of its WebOS-based TouchPad, which the company stopped selling after just seven weeks, citing poor demand.
Powered by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Slate 7 offers Google Inc services including search functions, YouTube and Gmail, as well as Beats Audio for improved sound, HP said.
The 13-ounce device also includes access to apps and digital content through Google Play, and cameras on both sides of the 7-inch screen.
HP said it expects U.S. sales of the Slate 7 to begin in April, and said the product offer a "compelling entry point" for people looking to buy tablets.
Google's Nexus 7 tablet costs $199, as does Amazon.com Inc's Kindle Fire HD.
HP also makes the ElitePad tablet for businesses, which is powered by Microsoft Corp's Windows 8. WebOS had been developed by Palm Inc, which HP bought in 2010.
The Slate7 is part of a multi-year plan by HP Chief Executive Meg Whitman to turn around the Silicon Valley icon.
HP in recent years has struggled with costly acquisitions, management turnover, governance issues, and falling sales and margins from PCs, where the Palo Alto, California-based company still has the largest U.S. market share.
Shares of HP closed Friday 12.3 percent higher at $19.20 on the New York Stock Exchange, a day after HP reported quarterly results and an outlook that exceeded analysts' forecasts.
The company's market value has nevertheless dropped by nearly two-thirds since April 2010.
HP announced the Slate 7 on the eve of the Mobile World Congress, a wireless industry trade show taking place this week in Barcelona, Spain.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Maureen Bavdek; )
Written By Bersemangat on Minggu, 24 Februari 2013 | 08.37
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EU sees Google competition deal after August
Written By Bersemangat on Sabtu, 23 Februari 2013 | 08.37
PARIS (Reuters) - EU regulators hope to resolve a two-year investigation into U.S. internet company Google in the latter half of the year, the EU's antitrust chief said on Friday, although a rival expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of any solution.
The European Commission - the EU's executive arm - has been examining proposals put forward by Google to resolve complaints from more than a dozen companies, including Microsoft, that Google was using its market dominance to block competitors.
"We can reach an agreement after the summer break. We can envisage this as a possible deadline," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told a Concurrences Journal conference.
The Commission is closed for its summer break for most of August.
Almunia said there would only be a decision "if everything was okay." Neither Google nor the EU antitrust authority have detailed what concessions the U.S. group has offered. If the EU authority accepts the offer, it would mean no fine for Google.
People familiar with the matter have previously told Reuters that Google offered to label its own services in search results to differentiate them from rival services, and also to impose fewer restrictions on advertisers.
The Commission is expected to seek feedback from Google rivals and other third parties once it completes its examination of the concessions.
However, British price comparison site and Google complainant Foundem had doubts about the efficacy of any proposals from the U.S. company.
"We will withhold judgment on Google's proposals until we have seen them, but everything we have learned about Google makes us sceptical that it would volunteer truly effective remedies until it has been formally charged with infringement," said Foundem Chief Executive Shivaun Raff.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission last month ended its own investigation without any significant action, handing Google a major victory.
EU regulators have said Google may have favored its own search services over those of rivals, copied travel and restaurant reviews from competing sites without permission, and placed restrictions on advertisers and advertising.
(Editing by Dan Lalor and Mark Potter)
Einhorn scores legal victory vs. Apple in cash scuffle
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge handed outspoken hedge fund manager David Einhorn a victory in his battle with Apple Inc on Friday, blocking the iPhone maker from moving forward with a shareholder vote on a controversial proposal to limit the company's ability to issue preferred stock.
U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan granted a motion by Einhorn's Greenlight Capital for a preliminary injunction stopping a vote on that proposal, scheduled for the company's February 27 stockholders' meeting.
The decision could hand Einhorn more leverage as he pursues his pitch for Apple to issue what he has called the "iPref": preferred stock with a perpetual dividend that he contends would reward investors and help boost the company's share price.
Greenlight sued Apple on February 7 as part of a broader pitch to unlock more of its $137 billion in cash. The hedge fund manager has lobbied Apple to issue preferred stock with a perpetual 4 percent dividend, and on Thursday made a direct appeal to shareholders on a teleconference.
The lawsuit itself challenged a measure called Proposal No. 2 that Apple put forward, which would eliminate its power to issue preferred shares without a shareholder vote.
At issue is Apple's "bundling" of that measure with two other unrelated matters into a single proxy proposal.
Greenlight said it supported two of the proposed amendments, but not the one on preferred shares.
In his ruling, Sullivan said Greenlight and another investor who also sued Apple "are likely to succeed on the merits and face irreparable harm if the vote on Proposal No. 2 is permitted to proceed."
"We are disappointed with the court's ruling. Proposal No.2 is part of our efforts to further enhance corporate governance and serve our shareholders' best interests," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. "Unfortunately, due to today's decision, shareholders will not be able to vote on Proposal #2 at our annual meeting next week."
A spokesman for Greenlight called the ruling a "significant win for all Apple shareholders and for good corporate governance."
But not all shareholders were happy. California pension fund CalPers, a major Apple investor and public supporter of Apple's proposal, said implementation of "majority voting and shareholder approval for the issuance of new stock - preferred or otherwise - is worth waiting for."
"We encourage Apple to reintroduce these measures as soon as is practical so that all investors can be heard," Anne Simpson, CalPers' Director of Global Governance, said in a statement.
BUNDLES
The ruling could be a warning for other companies when issuing proxy proposals, said James Cox, a professor at Duke University School of Law.
"It's going to make managers reluctant to bundle things together, because you're never going to know when you send them out if there's an Einhorn out there," he said.
The lawsuit was centered on a narrow issue of whether Apple violated U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules by "bundling" the preferred shares item with two other unrelated matters into one proxy proposal.
Greenlight's lawyers contended the SEC rules were intended to protect shareholders from being forced to vote for a proxy proposal involving materially different issues that the investors might not entirely support.
Apple had argued Proposal No. 2, which only dealt with amendments to its charter, constitute a single matter and wasn't bundled. Sullivan called the company's arguments "unavailing."
"Given the language and purpose of the rules, it is plain to the Court that Proposal No. 2 impermissibly bundles 'separate matters' for shareholder consideration," Sullivan wrote.
Judge Sullivan also found that Greenlight would be irreparably harmed without the injunction, since it would be forced to vote against its own interests. Denying Greenlight's motion would prevent it and other investors for exercising their rights to a fair vote, Sullivan said.
Sullivan separately declined to block a vote from going forward on a separate proxy proposal, Proposal No. 4, which sought an advisory "say on pay" vote on Apple executives' compensation.
The proposal had been challenged by investor Brian Gralnick of Pennsylvania, who contends Apple did not disclose enough details about how it made its compensation decisions.
Sullivan rejected that argument, saying Apple's disclosures were "plainly sufficient under SEC rules."
Arnold Gershon, a lawyer for Gralnick at Barrack, Rodos & Bacine, did not respond to a request for comment.
Apple shares closed up 1.1 percent at $450.81 on Friday.
The case is Greenlight Capital LP, et al., v. Apple Inc., U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 13-900.
(Reporting By Nate Raymond in New York; additional reporting by Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Editing by Martha Graybow, Gary Hill, Leslie Adler and Carol Bishopric)
Sony seeks head start over Microsoft with new PlayStation
Written By Bersemangat on Jumat, 22 Februari 2013 | 08.37
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sony Corp said it will launch its next-generation PlayStation this year, hoping its first video game console in seven years will give it a much-needed head start over the next version of Microsoft's Xbox and help revive its stumbling electronics business.
The new console will have a revamped interface, let users stream and play video games hosted on servers, and allow users to play while downloading titles as well as share videos with friends. Its new controller, dubbed DualShock 4, will have a touchpad and a camera that can sense the depth of the environment in front of it.
Sony, which only displayed the controller but not the console, said on Wednesday the PlayStation 4 would be available for the year-end holiday season and flagged games from the likes of Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Activision Blizzard Inc, whose top executives also attended the glitzy launch event.
It did not disclose pricing or an exact launch date.
Sony's announcement comes amid industry speculation that Microsoft Corp is set to unveil the successor to its Xbox 360 later this summer. The current Xbox 360 beats the seven-year-old PlayStation 3's online network with features such as voice commands on interactive gaming and better connectivity to smartphones and tablets.
But all video game console makers are grappling with the onslaught of mobile devices into their turf.
Tablets and smartphones built by rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd already account for around 10 percent of the $80 billion gaming market. Those mobile devices, analysts predict, will within a few years be as powerful as the current slew of game-only consoles.
"It looks good and had a lot of great games but the industry is different now," Billy Pidgeon, an analyst at Inside Network Research, said of the new PlayStation.
"It'll be a slow burn and not heavy uptake right away."
MIGRATION TO MOBILE
Console makers will also have to tackle flagging video game hardware and software sales, which research firm NPD group says have dropped consistently every month over the last year as users migrate to free game content on mobile devices.
PlayStation 4 will have an app on Android and Apple mobile devices that connects to console games and can act as a second screen, Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said in an interview.
"Playstation 4 ... really connects every device in the office and the smartphone and the tablet out there in the world," Tretton said.
The console, which has been in development for the last five years, will have 8 GB of memory and will instantly stream game content from the console to Sony's handheld PlayStation Vita through a feature called "Remote Play," the company said.
"What Sony is banking on is the ease of the use of this system," Greg Miller, PlayStation executive editor at video game site IGN.com, said.
After six years, Sony PlayStation sales are just shy of Xbox's 67 million installed base and well behind the 100 million Wii consoles sold by Nintendo Co Ltd, according to analysts.
Tretton said it would be a big undertaking to manufacture and distribute the console in Sony's four major markets by the end of the year, adding that it would be a "phased rollout" that starts before the end of the year.
Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia predicted Sony would probably get a couple of million units of the PlayStation 4 out by the 2013 holiday season and 7 million or 8 million out a year later.
Sony also announced a strategic partnership with video game publisher Activision Blizzard to take its Diablo III game to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 consoles.
Activision's upcoming sci-fi shooter game "Destiny" in development by its Bungie Studio will also be available on PlayStation consoles.
(Editing by Gary Hill, Bernard Orr and Edwina Gibbs)
Facebook blocks access to NBC.com after reports site is infected
BOSTON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc has blocked users from accessing the NBC.com website following reports that the site is infected with a computer virus.
Facebook users were told "This link has been reported as abusive" on Thursday when they attempted to access the NBC.com website.
Several security bloggers warned on Thursday that the site was infected with malicious software, advising computer users to avoid the site.
Officials with NBC could not immediately be reached for comment.
(This story is corrected with changes in paragraph 3 to Thursday from Tuesday)
(Reporting By Jim Finkle and Jennifer Saba; Editing by Gary Hill)
Start-up Pinterest wins new funding, $2.5 billion valuation
Written By Bersemangat on Kamis, 21 Februari 2013 | 08.37
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Online scrapbook Pinterest has raised a new $200 million round of funding that gives it a valuation of $2.5 billion, the company said on Wednesday.
Pinterest, which allows users to create online bulletin boards based on various themes such as travel, decorating, or sports, said in a statement it would use the new capital to build new features, beef up its infrastructure, and make "strategic acquisitions of both talent and technology."
Long-short hedge fund Valiant led the investment round, joined by existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital. Valiant has invested in several consumer-Internet companies in the past, including search engines Google and Baidu.
News of the funding round was first reported by AllThingsD.
Pinterest is part of a group of start-ups that offer twists on Internet networking among various groups. They typically have little discernable profit or revenue, but have landed some outsized investments from venture capitalists.
The group includes private social-network Path, which raised $30 million at a valuation of $250 million last year; question-and-answer site Quora, which raised $50 million at a $400 million valuation last year; and microblogging service Twitter, which raised $400 million in new funding and another $400 million to buy out existing investors at an $8 billion valuation in 2011.
Since Facebook Inc's May initial public offering, which saw the stock fall far below its offer price before rebounding in recent months, many investors have cooled on consumer-focused Internet companies.
But Pinterest's rapid growth since its 2010 launch may make it an exception. It now has 48.7 million users globally, according to consultancy comScore.
The company last raised money in May 2012 at a $1.5 billion valuation in a round led by Japanese e-commerce site Rakuten Inc.
(Reporting by Sarah McBride; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)
Sony unveils new PlayStation 4 console
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sony Corp took the wraps off its next-generation video game console called "PlayStation 4" on Wednesday that will allow users to stream and play video games hosted on servers.
The company revealed the new console, which will succeed the seven-year-old PlayStation 3, in New York.
The controller dubbed "DualShock 4" will have a touch pad, Mark Cerny, lead system architect on PlayStation 4, said.
Sony purchased U.S. cloud-based gaming company Gaikai for $380 million in July. Using that technology, the new console will offer a cloud-gaming service, the company said.
The 8GB PlayStation 4 can also instantly stream game content from the console to Sony's handheld PlayStation Vita through a feature called "Remote Play," the company said.
Sony has also revamped the user interface on the new console that keeps tabs on user preferences and added social networking features.
(Reporting By Liana Baker; Editing by Gary Hill, Bernard Orr)
HTC launches smartphone with revamped software to take on Samsung
Written By Bersemangat on Rabu, 20 Februari 2013 | 08.37
LONDON (Reuters) - Taiwan's HTC Corp has unveiled the new smartphone that it hopes will set it apart from the crowd of Google Android devices on the market and help it to make up ground lost to Samsung.
The HTC One is powered by Google's software, but the company has distinguished it from rivals by using new software to replace icons on the home screen with a personalized stream of news articles, social networking updates, photos and video.
Chief executive Peter Chou told reporters in London that the BlinkFeed feature would reinvigorate the smartphone experience.
"BlinkFeed transforms your home screen into a live feed of information that matters to you," he said.
HTC was an early, and successful, maker of smartphones based on Android, but it has been eclipsed by the increasing dominance of Samsung in the Android market.
Android is widening its lead in smartphone operating systems, with devices running the software capturing nearly 70 percent of the market in the fourth quarter, Gartner said last week.
Apple is in second place with 21 percent, while Blackberry and Windows Phone, which Nokia is pinning its hopes on, trailed with 3.5 percent and 3 percent respectively.
HTC, however, has failed to capitalise on Android's dominance. Its share of mobile phone sales fell to 1.8 percent of the market last year, down from 2.4 percent in 2011, according to Gartner, and reported a 91 percent plunge in fourth-quarter net profit last month.
The company, which started as a contract manufacturer, has been outgunned in the marketing stakes by both Samsung, which Gartner said made more than 42 percent of Android smartphones in the fourth quarter, and Apple.
HTC launched its new device, which features a 4.7 inch screen and quad-core processor, days before the mobile phone industry's biggest gathering in Barcelona.
Analyst Julian Jest, of Informa Telecoms and Media, said that the new smartphone would help HTC to differentiate its brand from the typical Android offering.
"The introduction of HTC One has come at an ideal time - iPhone sales are slowing down and advanced users are now desperately looking for more innovative devices to satisfy their appetite to explore the new technology horizons," he said.
HTC said the device would be available in more than 80 countries from March.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by David Goodman)
Sina Q4 sales beat Street despite ad market concerns
(Reuters) - Sina Corp posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue and profit amid concerns about the slowing growth of Chinese online advertising.
Shares in the company, which runs China's largest online portal and the Twitter-like "Weibo" microblogging platform, climbed 6 percent to $56.50 after-hours. They have fallen 13.4 percent since the start of the fourth quarter, underperforming a 2 percent rise in the Nasdaq.
Net profit fell 74 percent in the fourth quarter to $2.4 million, or 3 cents per share, from $9.3 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier. But excluding certain items, non-GAAP earnings were $9 million, or 13 cents a share, versus $14 million or 21 cents a share a year earlier.
That surpassed an average forecast for 5 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
China's online advertising market grew 46.8 percent in 2012, but that was down from 57.6 percent in 2011, according to technology research firm iResearch. The softer advertising market, due to a weaker economic environment, has also hit Sina peers Baidu Inc and Sohu.com Inc.
Analysts say Sina's new "Weibo" advertising products have drawn muted sales.
Sina said it expects first-quarter adjusted net revenue to range between $115 million and $119 million, in line with average predictions on Wall Street for about $117 million. It forecast advertising revenue of $94 million to $96 million this quarter.
Advertising revenue came in at $110.7 million in the fourth quarter, versus a previous company projection for between $110 million and $112 million.
It posted overall fourth-quarter net revenue of $139.1 million, versus an average forecast for $133.9 million according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Non-advertising revenue decreased 4 percent to $28.5 million.
In the fourth quarter, Sina rolled out two Weibo monetization products aimed at increasing sales on its highly popular social media website.
One of the products gives advertisers a chance at promoting their tweet among users who are not following them, while the other is a platform that links popular microbloggers with advertisers.
Sina's push to monetize Weibo comes as Tencent Holdings' mobile social messaging product, WeChat, is beginning to cut into the popularity of Weibo, analysts said.
(Reporting by Melanie Lee in Shanghai; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Carol Bishopric)
Huawei denies work in field linked to U.S. death in Singapore
Written By Bersemangat on Selasa, 19 Februari 2013 | 08.37
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Chinese telecommunications company Huawei said on Monday it had not worked with an institute in Singapore on any projects in the specialist field of an American engineer who died mysteriously last year shortly after leaving the institute.
Britain's Financial Times said on Saturday that Shane Todd had been working on "what was apparently a joint project" between Singapore's Institute of Microelectronics, or IME, and Huawei shortly before he died last June.
His parents have said he was murdered because of his involvement in the project, which they say involved exporting sensitive military technology to China.
IME declined immediate comment.
Singapore police said they were still investigating the death of Todd, 31, and would submit their evidence to a coroner. Singaporean pathologists concluded in an autopsy last June that he died by hanging in his Singapore flat.
"IME approached Huawei on one occasion to cooperate with them in the GaN field, but we decided not to accept, and consequently do not have any cooperation with IME related to GaN," Huawei said in a statement.
Todd's area of expertise was Gallium Nitride (GaN), an advanced semiconductor material which has both commercial and military purposes. It is used in things from blue-ray disc players to military radars.
Huawei said that the development of GaN technology was commonplace across the telecommunications industry.
Reuters reviewed evidence the family presented supporting its theory a few weeks after his death, including emails, other documents and photographs.
Interviews with the family, colleagues and friends revealed conflicting views on Todd's state of mind before his death, the nature of his work and how he died.
Colleagues said that he was increasingly depressed in his last few months, but said that his concerns appeared to centre on a sense of failure about his work, and an ambivalence about returning to the United States.
Researchers in unrelated fields have also questioned how, if his work was so sensitive, he was able to take home computer files from his office. His family retrieved a hard drive which included work files in his flat.
IME is part of a network of research institutes managed by government-run Agency for Science, Technology and Research, or A*Star.
A former A*Star researcher now working in the United States pointed out that IME and other A*Star institutes were not military research organizations.
"AFRAID"
At the heart of the family's theory is that Todd was concerned for his safety because of a project with a Chinese company. They believed, through information from his colleagues and from his computer files, that the company was Huawei.
Reuters can't independently corroborate their views about the role of Huawei or the circumstances of Todd's death.
Huawei is one of the world's largest telecommunication equipment companies, but has been blocked from some projects in Australia and deemed a security risk by the U.S. congress on the grounds that its equipment could be used for spying.
Huawei has routinely denied such accusations and has said it is not linked to the Chinese government.
Todd's parents said in interviews in July that Singapore police and IME had failed to properly investigate his death after his body was found hanging from a door in his Singapore apartment on the evening of June 24, two days after he quit IME.
Singapore police say they have handled the case as they have handled other cases, and their procedures follow high international standards. They said in such cases of unnatural death, "no prior assumptions" were made about the cause.
The parents did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment on the Financial Times report but Todd's mother, Mary, said in a telephone interview with Reuters last July that he had been scared.
"I had been talking to him for months for at least an hour every week and he told us he was afraid of being murdered because of his contacts with the Chinese government," she said.
"He quit his job because of it."
Huawei declined to say whether they had been working on other projects with IME. Colleagues said shortly after Todd's death that he had told them at one point he had been working on a project with Huawei but that it was not sensitive or high-level in nature.
One described it as carrying out "measurement test reports" of semiconductors.
The Financial Times said that Todd had been involved in proposing a joint project with Huawei. While it did not say whether the project was approved, it quoted his parents as saying that subsequently he complained to them of being asked to do things with a Chinese company he did not identify that made him uncomfortable.
(Additional reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Burger King takes down Twitter account after hack attack
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hackers breached the Twitter account of fast-food chain Burger King, posting the online equivalent of graffiti and sometimes making little sense.
Burger King Worldwide Inc suspended its Twitter account about an hour after it learned of the attack at 12:24 p.m. EST on Monday, company spokesman Bryson Thornton said in an email.
"It has come to our attention that the Twitter account of the BURGER KING® brand has been hacked," the company said in a statement. "We have worked directly with administrators to suspend the account until we are able to re-establish our legitimate site and authentic postings."
Several tweets carried the logo of Burger King's larger rival McDonald's, but spelled the latter company's name incorrectly. Others sought to tarnish Burger King, the third-largest U.S. hamburger chain, and its employees.
"Just got sold to McDonalds," one tweet said, adding "FREDOM IS FAILURE".
(Reporting by Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Dale Hudson)
Facebook hacked, social media company says
Written By Bersemangat on Senin, 18 Februari 2013 | 08.37
(Reuters) - Facebook said on Friday that it been the target of a series of attacks by an unidentified hacker group, but it had found no evidence that user data was compromised.
"Last month, Facebook security discovered that our systems had been targeted in a sophisticated attack," the company said in a blog post. "The attack occurred when a handful of employees visited a mobile developer website that was compromised."
The social network, which says it has more than one billion active users worldwide, added: "Facebook was not alone in this attack. It is clear that others were attacked and infiltrated recently as well."
Facebook's announcement follows recent cyber attacks on other prominent websites. Twitter, the microblogging social network, said this month that it had been hacked, and that approximately 250,000 user accounts were potentially compromised, with attackers gaining access to information including user names and email addresses.
Newspaper websites including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal have also been infiltrated, according to the news organizations. Those attacks were attributed by the news organizations to Chinese hackers targeting their coverage of China.
(Reporting By Tim Reid; Editing by Gary Hill)
Intel Israel more than doubles exports, mulls new investment
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Intel's Israeli subsidiary more than doubled its exports in 2012 to $4.6 billion and is seeking to bring manufacturing of the company's next generation of chips to Israel.
Intel's exports, which rose 109 percent from $2.2 billion in 2011, were boosted by the start of production of chips using 22 nanometer technology at its Kiryat Gat plant in southern Israel, which is now operating at full capacity.
Intel, the world's No. 1 chipmaker, will build chips over the next two to three years with features measuring just 14 nm in Ireland and the United States but the company is already thinking about where it will produce 10 nm chips. The narrower the features, the more transistors can fit on a single chip, improving performance.
Intel Israel executives said they would like to see 10 nm production in Israel.
"The average life of a technology is two to six years so we need to be busy to get the next technology, 10 nanometer," Maxine Fassberg, general manager of Intel Israel, told a news conference on Sunday. "We need to get a decision far enough in advance to be able to upgrade the plant. So for 10 nanometer, decisions will need to be made this year."
Fassberg said upgrading the existing Fab 28 plant in Israel would require a lower investment than building a new plant but would still involve several billion dollars.
Intel Israel has in the past received government grants to help with the costs of its investments and Fassberg told Reuters the company was "constantly in talks with the government".
Intel has invested $10.5 billion in Israel in the past decade, including $1.1 billion in 2012, and has received $1.3 billion in government grants.
The company accounted for 20 percent of Israel's high-tech exports last year and 10 percent of its industrial exports, excluding diamonds.
"If Intel had not increased its exports, Israel's high-tech exports would have shrunk by 10 percent," Intel Israel President Mooly Eden said.
Most of Intel Israel's exports - $3.5 billion - came from its chip manufacturing activities.
Intel is Israel's largest private employer, with 8,542 workers, up 10 percent from 2011. The company has two plants - in Jerusalem and Kiryat Gat - as well as four research and development centers.
Eden said Intel was also committed to investing in start-ups, having invested in 64 Israeli companies since 1996. In July its global investment arm Intel Capital said it would expand its operations in Israel.
(Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)
Facebook hacked, social media company says
Written By Bersemangat on Minggu, 17 Februari 2013 | 08.37
(Reuters) - Facebook said on Friday that it been the target of a series of attacks by an unidentified hacker group, but it had found no evidence that user data was compromised.
"Last month, Facebook security discovered that our systems had been targeted in a sophisticated attack," the company said in a blog post. "The attack occurred when a handful of employees visited a mobile developer website that was compromised."
The social network, which says it has more than one billion active users worldwide, added: "Facebook was not alone in this attack. It is clear that others were attacked and infiltrated recently as well."
Facebook's announcement follows recent cyber attacks on other prominent websites. Twitter, the microblogging social network, said this month that it had been hacked, and that approximately 250,000 user accounts were potentially compromised, with attackers gaining access to information including user names and email addresses.
Newspaper websites including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal have also been infiltrated, according to the news organizations. Those attacks were attributed by the news organizations to Chinese hackers targeting their coverage of China.
(Reporting By Tim Reid; Editing by Gary Hill)
Exclusive: News Corp, popular tech blog contemplate split - sources
(Reuters) - AllThingsD, the widely read technology blog run by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, has begun discussions with owner News Corp about extending or ending their partnership, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.
According to these sources, AllThingsD's contract with News Corp expires at the end of the year. One of the sources said Swisher and Mossberg have to deliver a business plan by next week to Robert Thomson, the former Wall Street Journal managing editor who will helm News Corp's publishing unit as CEO after it is spun off.
The fact that AllThingsD's contract is up this year is well known, and sources said the website is receiving a lot of "inbound interest" from potential buyers parallel to its talks with News Corp.
Among the names mentioned as having reached out to AllThingsD were Conde Nast, where Swisher recently signed to work as a contributing writer for Vanity Fair, and Hearst.
Sources also speculated that former Yahoo and News Corp executive Ross Levinsohn might be looking at the website given his new role as Chief Executive of Guggenheim Digital Media, which comes complete with "significant capital to acquire and invest in new media companies." The private equity shop already owns Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, and Adweek.
AllThingsD has reported that AOL expressed interest in acquiring it in the past, but said those talks "were preliminary at best."
Calls to AllThingsD were referred to a News Corp representative who declined comment. A Conde Nast representative declined comment. Calls to Hearst were not immediately returned. Calls and emails to Ross Levinsohn were not returned.
While AllThingsD is recognized as the brainchild of Swisher and Mossberg, News Corp actually owns the website and its name. However, according to provisions in their contract, Swisher and Mossberg have approval authority over any sale, the first source said.
Technically, News Corp could retain the AllThingsD name in the event of a sale, forcing Swisher and Mossberg to start a new venture under a different brand name. But historically in these types of situations a deal is usually worked out to allow the founders to take the company name with them as part of a settlement.
Sources described the website and conference business combined as profitable. It has grown into a technology industry must-read, and features a popular conference division known for snagging A-list corporate executives for intimate interview sessions. Apple's Steve Jobs, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and virtually every other major technology executive has spoken at the D Conference, as it is known.
Earlier this week, AllThingsD's well-regarded media writer, Peter Kafka, led a media-centric conference for the website that included panels with Intel's Erik Huggers, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, and Netflix's programming boss Ted Sarandos, among others.
The website has two more conferences on the docket for this year: a mobile one that was postponed until April due to Hurricane Sandy, and the main D Conference in May.
Sources described the relationship between News Corp and AllThingsD as amicable but stressed.
"Like all partnership, there could be more cooperation between the two," said one source. "There is tension between AllThingsD and the Wall Street Journal, for example."
As a result of management changes, over the last few years the website has reported to numerous News Corp executives, among them Gordon Crovitz, Les Hinton, and now Lex Fenwick and Robert Thomson.
Should the two sides reach a deal on a new contract, AllThingsD would be included as part of the publishing unit in the News Corp split.
(Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by David Gregorio)
(This story corrects the 10th paragraph to show source said website is profitable in combination with conference business, instead of website is profitable. Corrects spelling of Erik Huggers name in paragraph 11 to Erik, from Eric)
Exclusive: News Corp, popular tech blog contemplate split - sources
Written By Bersemangat on Sabtu, 16 Februari 2013 | 08.37
(Reuters) - AllThingsD, the widely read technology blog run by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, has begun discussions with owner News Corp about extending or ending their partnership, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.
According to these sources, AllThingsD's contract with News Corp expires at the end of the year. One of the sources said Swisher and Mossberg have to deliver a business plan by next week to Robert Thomson, the former Wall Street Journal managing editor who will helm News Corp's publishing unit as CEO after it is spun off.
The fact that AllThingsD's contract is up this year is well known, and sources said the website is receiving a lot of "inbound interest" from potential buyers parallel to its talks with News Corp.
Among the names mentioned as having reached out to AllThingsD were Conde Nast, where Swisher recently signed to work as a contributing writer for Vanity Fair, and Hearst.
Sources also speculated that former Yahoo and News Corp executive Ross Levinsohn might be looking at the website given his new role as Chief Executive of Guggenheim Digital Media, which comes complete with "significant capital to acquire and invest in new media companies." The private equity shop already owns Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, and Adweek.
AllThingsD has reported that AOL expressed interest in acquiring it in the past, but said those talks "were preliminary at best."
Calls to AllThingsD were referred to a News Corp representative who declined comment. A Conde Nast representative declined comment. Calls to Hearst were not immediately returned. Calls and emails to Ross Levinsohn were not returned.
While AllThingsD is recognized as the brainchild of Swisher and Mossberg, News Corp actually owns the website and its name. However, according to provisions in their contract, Swisher and Mossberg have approval authority over any sale, the first source said.
Technically, News Corp could retain the AllThingsD name in the event of a sale, forcing Swisher and Mossberg to start a new venture under a different brand name. But historically in these types of situations a deal is usually worked out to allow the founders to take the company name with them as part of a settlement.
Sources described the website and conference business combined as profitable. It has grown into a technology industry must-read, and features a popular conference division known for snagging A-list corporate executives for intimate interview sessions. Apple's Steve Jobs, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and virtually every other major technology executive has spoken at the D Conference, as it is known.
Earlier this week, AllThingsD's well-regarded media writer, Peter Kafka, led a media-centric conference for the website that included panels with Intel's Eric Huggers, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, and Netflix's programming boss Ted Sarandos, among others.
The website has two more conferences on the docket for this year: a mobile one that was postponed until April due to Hurricane Sandy, and the main D Conference in May.
Sources described the relationship between News Corp and AllThingsD as amicable but stressed.
"Like all partnership, there could be more cooperation between the two," said one source. "There is tension between AllThingsD and the Wall Street Journal, for example."
As a result of management changes, over the last few years the website has reported to numerous News Corp executives, among them Gordon Crovitz, Les Hinton, and now Lex Fenwick and Robert Thomson.
Should the two sides reach a deal on a new contract, AllThingsD would be included as part of the publishing unit in the News Corp split.
(The story corrects 10th paragraph to show source said website is profitable in combination with conference business, instead of website is profitable)
(Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by David Gregorio)
Facebook says it was a target of sophisticated hacking
(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Friday it had been the target of an unidentified hacker group, but it found no evidence that user data was compromised.
"Last month, Facebook security discovered that our systems had been targeted in a sophisticated attack," the company said in a blog post posted on Friday afternoon, just before the three-day Presidents Day weekend. "The attack occurred when a handful of employees visited a mobile developer website that was compromised."
The social network, which says it has more than one billion active users worldwide, also said: "Facebook was not alone in this attack. It is clear that others were attacked and infiltrated recently as well."
Facebook declined to comment on the motive or origin of the attack.
A security expert at another company with knowledge of the matter said he was told the Facebook attack appeared to have originated in China.
The FBI declined to comment, while the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Facebook's announcement follows recent cyber attacks on other prominent websites. Twitter, the microblogging social network, said earlier this month it had been hacked and that about 250,000 user accounts were potentially compromised, with attackers gaining access to information, including user names and email addresses.
Newspaper websites, including those of The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, have also been infiltrated. Those attacks were attributed by the news organizations to Chinese hackers targeting coverage of China.
While Facebook said no user data was compromised, the incident could raise consumer concerns about privacy and the vulnerability of personal information stored within the social network.
Facebook has made several privacy missteps over the years because of the way it handled user data and it settled a privacy investigation with federal regulators in 2011.
Facebook said it spotted a suspicious file and traced it back to an employee's laptop. After conducting a forensic examination of the laptop, Facebook said it identified a malicious file, then searched company-wide and identified "several other compromised employee laptops."
Another person briefed on the matter said the first Facebook employee had been infected via a website where coding strategies were discussed.
The company also said it identified a previously unseen attempt to bypass its built-in cyber defenses and that new protections were added on February 1.
Because the attack used a third-party website, it might have been an early-stage attempt to penetrate as many companies as possible.
If they followed established patterns, the attackers would learn about the people and computer networks at all the infected companies. They could then use that data in more targeted attacks to steal source code and other intellectual property.
In its statement, Facebook said the attack was launched using a "zero-day," or previously unknown flaw in its software that exploited its Java built-in protections.
"Zero-day" attacks are rarely discovered and even more rarely disclosed. They are costly to launch and often suggest government sponsorship.
In January 2010, Google reported it had been penetrated via a "zero-day" flaw in an older version of the Internet Explorer Web browser. The attackers were seeking source code and were also interested in Chinese dissidents, and Google reduced its operations in the country as a result.
Attention to cyber security has ratcheted up since then and this week President Barack Obama issued an executive order seeking higher safety standards for critical infrastructure.
Other companies stand to benefit more from comprehensive legislation, which has stalled in Congress. Republicans have opposed additional regulations that would come with mandatory security standards.
(Reporting by Tim Reid.; Editing by Gary Hill, G Crosse and Andre Grenon)
Apple's search technology lawsuit against Samsung may go on hold
Written By Bersemangat on Jumat, 15 Februari 2013 | 08.37
SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday asked Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd whether an Apple patent lawsuit over search technology should be put on hold for several months until after an appeals court resolves a separate lawsuit between the two companies.
Apple won a $1.05 billion verdict last year against Samsung in a California trial court, but U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected Apple's request for a permanent sales ban against several Samsung phones. Apple has appealed and a ruling is not expected until September at the earliest.
Apple also accused Samsung in a second lawsuit of violating a separate batch of patents, including the rights to search technology that is part of the iPhone Siri voice feature. That case is scheduled for trial in March 2014.
At a hearing on Thursday in a San Jose, California, federal court, Koh told attorneys for both companies that a potential resolution of the Apple versus Samsung legal war would cover both lawsuits. Koh asked if the second case should be suspended until after the appeals court ruled on the first.
"I just don't know if we really need two cases on this," Koh said.
Apple attorney William Lee said the cases should proceed in parallel as they involve different patents. However, Samsung attorney Victoria Maroulis said there was substantial "overlap" between the two proceedings.
Koh ordered attorneys for both sides to discuss the idea and report back on their positions by March 7.
"I assume there have been no further settlement discussions," Koh asked, "or at least none that have gone anywhere?"
"The answer to the last question is, that's correct," Lee said.
The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc. vs Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 12-630.
(Reporting By Dan Levine)
Big hedge funds fueled fourth-quarter dive in Apple shares
BOSTON (Reuters) - Some of the biggest hedge funds that helped make Apple Inc a stock market darling lost faith and dumped their stakes in the fourth quarter, fueling the massive drop in the iPhone maker's share price.
Noted stock pickers including Leon Cooperman, Eric Mindich and Thomas Steyer unloaded billions of dollars of Apple shares between September 30 and December 31, according to disclosure documents filed on Thursday.
Shares of Apple rose to an all-time high of $705.07 on September 21 but ended 2012 down more than 24 percent from that peak as investors worried about increasing competition and declining profit margins.
The shares also may have dropped because their price rose too much, too fast.
"The stock just went up so much in early 2012 and then was coming back to earth," said Justin Walters, co-founder of Wall Street research firm Bespoke Investment Group. "Three months from now, we'll be seeing a lot of the people who sold starting to pick it up again."
The fourth-quarter sellers avoided even deeper losses. Apple's shares have lost 12 percent so far this year. The shares lost 42 cents, or 0.1 percent, to close at $466.59 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.
Cooperman's Omega Advisors fund dumped its entire stake of more than 266,000 shares during the fourth quarter, according to its required quarterly disclosure form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mindich, named the youngest partner ever at Goldman Sachs before starting his Eton Park Capital Management fund in 2004, got out of Apple entirely in the fourth quarter after making big sales in the third quarter as well. Eton owned 600,000 shares at the beginning of 2012.
Farallon Capital, the hedge fund founded by Steyer, sold 137,000 shares. Steyer, who once worked on the Goldman Sachs risk arbitrage desk under Robert Rubin, stepped down at the end of the year from the firm, which he founded in 1986. Rubin served as U.S. Treasury secretary from 1995 to 1999.
Jana Partners, an activist fund run by Barry Rosenstein, also unloaded its entire Apple stake of more than 143,000 shares. Other notable sellers included Third Point LLC, which had owned 710,000 shares, Viking Global Investors, which dumped 1.1 million shares and Lone Pine Capital, which sold over 800,000 shares.
A much smaller line up of funds bought shares amid the stock's crash. David Tepper's Appaloosa Management nearly doubled its stake during the quarter to about 913,000 shares. George Soros more than doubled his stake to about 184,000 shares. And David Einhorn, who last week sued Apple in a bid for higher dividends, added 20 percent to his holdings to end the quarter with 1.3 million shares.
PROFITABLE TRADES
Despite the plunge in Apple's stock price, most of the managers likely exited their positions with substantial profits because they bought years earlier.
Rosenstein and Cooperman, for example, both started gathering their stakes in the middle of 2010, when Apple shares traded below $300.
At the time, the company's iPhone 4 was beset by alleged faulty reception, a problem that became known as "antennagate." Apple's then-chief executive, the late Steve Jobs, famously dismissed the issue, saying "we don't think we have a problem." But Apple offered customers a free bumper case that was supposed to minimize any issues.
Customers did not seem to care, snapping up millions of iPhones and sending Apple's share price up almost 50 percent over the next year.
Apple came under further scrutiny last week from Greenlight's Einhorn. Einhorn filed a lawsuit to block changes in Apple's policy for issuing preferred stock. Instead, Apple should issue a new class of preferred stock to share more of its $137 billion cash hoard with shareholders, Einhorn said.
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook dismissed the moves as a "silly sideshow" on Tuesday.
SOME TRIMMED
Not all well-known hedge fund fans of Apple cut ties in the fourth quarter. Some only trimmed their holdings.
Philippe Laffont, who worked under famed hedge fund manager Julian Robertson before striking out on his own at Coatue Management, sold about 18 percent of his Apple shares. Coatue ended the year with a still sizable 643,000 shares.
Chase Coleman, another manager who worked for Robertson, reduced the Apple stake at his Tiger Global Management fund by 19 percent to just over 1 million shares.
Robertson's own Tiger Management LLC fund trimmed its Apple stake by 28 percent to about 42,000 shares.
Large hedge funds are required to disclose their U.S. stock holdings within 45 days after the end of each quarter.
But the filings may not give a complete picture of each fund's moves, since only U.S.-listed shares and options must be revealed. Bonds, foreign shares and derivatives are not included, and short positions, or bets that a stock will fall in price, are not listed.
(Reporting by Aaron Pressman; Additional reporting by Katya Wachtel, Svea Herbst, Sam Forgione and Jennifer Ablan in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and David Gregorio)
No "Plan B" for Microsoft's mobile ambitions: CFO
Written By Bersemangat on Kamis, 14 Februari 2013 | 08.37
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has not made much of a dent in Apple Inc's and Google Inc's domination of mobile computing, but a top executive hinted on Wednesday that it will not stop trying and does not have an alternative strategy.
"We're very focused on continuing the success we have with PCs and taking that to tablets and phones," Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said at the annual Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, which was webcast.
Given Microsoft's lack of success so far, he was asked if there was an alternative strategy or 'Plan B' in reserve.
"It's less 'Plan B' than how you execute on the current plan," said Klein. "We aim to evolve this generation of Windows to make sure we have the right set of experiences at the right price points for all customers."
Microsoft now has two versions of its own brand Surface tablet for sale and released its newest Windows phone software last year. But the company has not made big inroads into either market.
Gartner estimates that Microsoft sold fewer than 900,000 Surface tablets in the fourth quarter, which is a fraction of the 23 million iPads sold by Apple. Microsoft has not released its own figures but has not disputed Gartner's.
Windows phones now account for 3 percent of the global smartphone market, Gartner says, which is almost double their share a year ago but way behind Google's Android with 70 percent and Apple with 21 percent.
To grab more share, Klein said Microsoft was working with hardware makers to make sure Windows software is available on devices ranging from phones to tablets to larger all-in-one PCs.
"It's probably more nuanced than just you lower prices or raise prices," said Klein. "It's less a Plan B and more, how do you tweak your plan, how do you bring these things to market to make sure you have the right offerings at the right price points?"
Klein did not say whether Microsoft itself was planning to move into the growing small tablet market, following the success of Apple's iPad mini, Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon.com Inc's Kindle Fire tablet.
Along with its partners, Klein said only that Microsoft was "well set-up to deliver the most versatile set of experiences across form factors".
Regarding Microsoft's $2 billion loan to Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake to take PC maker Dell Inc private, announced last week, Klein suggested it was simply part of its efforts to support the "ecosystem" of PC makers.
"We have a long history of participating and supporting the ecosystem and that takes different forms. Oftentimes it takes the form of co-marketing, sometimes in helping with development," said Klein. "In a very dynamic industry, our ability to support the ecosystem - particularly the ecosystem that is innovating on our devices and platforms - is a good thing and something we will continue to do."
(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
Apple loses right to use iPhone trademark in Brazil: WSJ
(Reuters) - Brazil's copyright regulator on Wednesday stripped Apple Inc of the right to use its iPhone trademark in that country, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Wednesday.
The agency that oversees patents in Brazil said Gradiente Electronica SA, a Brazilian consumer electronics maker, already owned the rights to the iPhone name, according to the report.
Apple will be able to challenge the ruling in the Brazilian courts.
Earlier this month, sources told Reuters that the regulator, the Brazilian Institute of Intellectual Property, was likely to make the decision that Apple did not have the rights to the trademark.
Gradiente Electronica registered the "iphone" name in 2000, seven years before Apple launched its popular smartphone.
A spokesperson for Apple in the United States was not immediately available to comment.
(Reporting By Erin Geiger Smith)
Apple CEO calls Einhorn lawsuit a "silly sideshow"
Written By Bersemangat on Rabu, 13 Februari 2013 | 08.37
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook said the board is carefully considering David Einhorn's proposal for the company to issue preferred stock and return more cash to investors, but he called a lawsuit brought by the star hedge fund manager against Apple a "silly sideshow."
Waving aside Einhorn's assertion that Apple is clinging to a "Depression-era" mentality, Cook said on Tuesday the company's board is in "very active discussions" on how to dole out more of its $137 billion hoard of cash and marketable securities.
Einhorn and his Greenlight Capital are suing Apple as part of a wider effort to get the iPhone maker to share more of its cash pile, one of the largest among technology companies. They are challenging "Proposal 2" in Apple's proxy statement, which would abolish a system for issuing preferred stock at its discretion.
Einhorn wants Apple to issue perpetual preferred shares that pay dividends to existing shareholders, which he argued would be superior to dividends or buybacks.
Cook gave Einhorn credit for a novel idea, but the usually unflappable chief executive turned slightly impatient when discussing the lawsuit. He was also dismissive of Einhorn's media and legal blitz - which included the lawsuit as well as multiple television and media interviews.
Einhorn seeks an injunction to block a February 27 shareholders' vote on Proposal 2, in what amounts to the biggest challenge to Apple from an activist investor in years.
"This is a waste of shareholder money and a distraction, and not a seminal issue for Apple. That said, I support Prop 2. I am personally going to vote for it," Cook told a packed hall at Goldman Sachs' annual technology industry conference in San Francisco.
The conflict over Prop 2 "is a silly sideshow," added Cook, who on Tuesday traded in his usual casual jeans attire for slacks and a dark suit jacket, in a nod to Wall Street. Cook said he thought it "bizarre that we would find ourselves being sued for doing something good for shareholders."
Einhorn's clash with Apple centers on a proposed change to its charter that would eliminate the company's ability to issue "blank check" preferred stock at its discretion. Apple, which said the change would not preclude future issuance of preferred shares, is recommending shareholders vote in favor at its annual meeting on February 27.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. district court in Manhattan, objects to the bundling of the charter change with two other corporate governance-related proposals in "Proposal 2."
The hedge fund manager, a well-known short-seller and Apple gadget fan, counters that striking the preferred-share mechanism from the charter would make it more difficult to issue such securities down the road.
"If Apple thinks the lawsuit is a waste of resources, it could simply end the matter by complying with existing law and filing a new proxy that unbundles the proposed changes to the charter, so that shareholders can express their views on each matter separately," a Greenlight Capital spokesman said in an emailed statement, responding to Cook's comments.
On Tuesday, influential advisory firm Glass Lewis recommended shareholders vote in favor of Proposal 2, joining ISS and the California Public Employees Retirement System - the top U.S. pension fund - in voicing support for the measure.
Apple and Greenlight appear for oral arguments in U.S. district court in Manhattan on February 19.
DIMINISHING CLOUT
Investors however were disappointed that Cook - who rarely makes lengthy public-speaking engagements - did not provide a "more substantial" view on returning cash.
Apple's share price has tumbled in recent months from a high of just over $700 last September. They finished 2.5 percent lower at $467.90 on Tuesday.
"The only thing that would substantially move the stock would be him saying they were returning cash to shareholders or hinting at a new product," said a manager from a mid-size Dallas hedge fund that owns Apple shares.
"There was a small chance of that happening."
Apple stock is a mainstay of many fund managers' portfolios, with research firm eVestment estimating that 75 percent of U.S. large-cap growth managers had invested more than 5 percent of their portfolios in Apple as of the end of the third quarter of 2012.
But that also increases the pressure on Apple to give away a bigger portion of its cash hoard, which is rising as the share price declines and its outlook grows murkier.
Last March, Apple announced a quarterly cash dividend and a share buyback that would pay out $45 billion over three years. At the time, it was sitting on $98 billion in cash. It has so far returned $10 billion of that, but investors want more.
Apple's own view is that its cash pile is a strategic cushion, offering it more flexibility if a need ever arises, such as a major acquisition. Cook said the company had pondered more than one large acquisition in the past, but none passed its internal test.
The company could well do one in the future if the technology fits, he said.
"We have the management talent and depth to do it," he said. "We don't feel the pressure to go out and acquire revenue."
FREE-WHEELING DISCUSSION
Cook, introduced by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein at the outset, offered other views on topics from screen sizes and the future of the personal computer to Apple's commitment to "great products."
He disputed a popular view that the smartphone market in developed markets may be saturated.
"On a longer-term basis, all phones will be smartphones and there's a lot more people in the world than 1.4 billion, and people love to upgrade their phones very regularly," he said.
The company is also trying to appeal to cost-conscious customers. Apple has moved to make the iPhone more affordable without introducing a specific cheaper phone, by cutting prices of older models.
"We didn't have enough supply of iPhone 4 after we cut the price," he said. "It surprised us, the level of demand for it."
The chief executive, who departed for Washington, D.C after the conference to join U.S. first lady Michelle Obama at the President's State of the Union address later on Tuesday, otherwise stuck pretty much to his regular script - with a sprinkling of lighter, more personal moments.
He grew animated when praising Apple employees or talking about the company's efforts to improve labor conditions across its sprawling supply chain, and touted the Apple store concept for its uplifting ability.
Cook said that when he is down, he just visits an Apple retail store. "It's like Prozac. It's a feeling like no other."
(Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Claudia Parsons and Steve Orlofsky)
Yahoo CEO says Microsoft search deal underperforms
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said the company's search partnership with Microsoft Corp was not delivering the market share gains or the revenue boost that it should.
"One of the points of the alliance is that we collectively want to grow share rather than just trading share with each other," Mayer said at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.
In her first appearance at an investor conference since taking the reins of the struggling Web portal in July, Mayer said she planned to prune a sprawling lineup of mobile apps and she reiterated her focus on enticing consumers to spend more time on Yahoo's online properties, in order to display more money-making ads.
"I'm not confused. Our biggest business problem right now is impressions. Basically can we grow impressions, can we get growth happening here," Mayer said.
Yahoo shares finished Tuesday's regular trading session up 31 cents at $21.21.
Mayer, 37, took over after a tumultuous period at Yahoo in which former CEO Scott Thompson resigned after less than 6 months on the job over a controversy about his academic credentials and in which Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang resigned from the board and cut his ties with the company.
Yahoo's revenue in 2012 was flat year-over-year, at roughly $5 billion, and down from roughly $6.3 billion in 2010.
"We need to see monetization working better because we know that it can and we've seen other competitors in the space illustrate how well it can work," Mayer said of the search deal with Microsoft.
Yahoo and Microsoft entered into a 10-year search partnership in 2010, hoping their combined efforts could mount a more competitive challenge to Google Inc, the world's No.1 search engine. But the partnership has not lived up to expectations.
Google remains the dominant search engine, with a 66.7 percent share of the U.S. market in December, almost unchanged from its 66.6 percent share two years earlier, according to online analytics firm comScore.
Microsoft had 16.3 percent share and Yahoo had 12.2 percent share in December, a reversal of two years earlier when Yahoo's U.S. search share was 16 percent and Microsoft had 12 percent share.
Yahoo's stock has risen more than 30 percent since Mayer took the helm in July, reaching its highest levels since 2008.
Analysts say that part of the stock's rise has been driven by significant stock buybacks, using proceeds from a $7.6 billion deal to sell half of its 40 percent stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group.
Mayer said that she viewed the company's relationship with Yahoo Japan, which is partly owned by Softbank, as "strategic" to the company. Under previous CEOs, Yahoo had engaged in unsuccessful discussions to "monetize" its roughly 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan.
(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
Judge speeds up schedule in Apple versus Einhorn case
Written By Bersemangat on Selasa, 12 Februari 2013 | 08.37
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A judge approved Apple Inc's request to speed up the schedule in a lawsuit filed by star hedge fund manager David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, part of an effort to get the company to share its huge cash reserves with investors.
U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan of the Southern District of New York on Monday brought forward the legal schedule by a few days at Apple's request, which argued that the issue would have a big impact on the upcoming shareholder meeting on February 27.
Apple told the judge that the request to modify the schedule had the support of Einhorn's counsel.
Einhorn, a well-known short-seller and Apple gadget fan, shocked Wall Street last week by suing Apple to stop the iPhone maker from eliminating from its charter the ability to issue preferred stock without shareholder approval.
He wants Apple to return a bigger piece of its $137 billion cash pile to investors, through the issuance of perpetual preferred shares that pay dividends to existing shareholders.
Einhorn is objecting to how the proposed charter change is bundled together with two other corporate governance-related proposals in the proxy document for the annual meeting.
The lawsuit contends Apple violated Securities and Exchange Commission rules that prohibit companies from "bundling" unrelated matters into a single proposal for a shareholder vote.
Apple says removing the board's ability to issue preferred stock at its discretion heightens governance, because future issuances would then require shareholder approval.
The company will file its response to the lawsuit by the end of Wednesday while Greenlight will file its own response papers by Friday. The judge ordered both parties to appear for oral arguments on February 19.
Apple has said that the proposal in its proxy had the support of many shareholders, and striking such a "blank check" provision from its charter would not preclude preferred share issuances in future.
The law firm of O'Melveny & Myers LLP is representing Apple in the case, with San Francisco-based partner George Riley arguing for Apple.
(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
Obama may issue order Wednesday on defense against cyber attacks: sources
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to release a long-awaited executive order aimed at improving the nation's defenses against cyberattacks as early as Wednesday, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The order, drawn up after Congress failed to pass legislation on the issue last year, is meant to improve the protection of critical industries and infrastructure from cyber intrusions.
Concerns about cyber attacks, which have hit a succession of major U.S. companies and government agencies in recent months, also could be raised by Obama in his annual State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday evening.
One of the White House's major goals is to improve information-sharing about attacks among private companies, and between companies and the government.
"Our biggest issue right now is getting the private sector to a comfort level so they can report anomalies, malware, incidents within their network" without undue fear of being "outed" as victims, said FBI Executive Assistant Director Richard McFeely, head of the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch.
Most cyber security experts say the executive order - which does not have the same force as a law - is a step in the right direction and a sign that Obama wants to show that he takes the problem seriously.
"I think this can fairly be described as a down payment on legislation," said Stewart Baker, former National Security Agency general counsel and a past assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security.
Stewart said he thought the executive order would make a difference in policy and practical terms "but whether it will provide practical protection from cyber attacks is still in doubt."
The executive order will make it easier for people at private companies to get security clearances so classified information can be shared, according to earlier drafts that were leaked and posted online.
It will also make companies work with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to come up with sector-specific standards for cybersecurity and then will require companies to engage with their regulators to decide how those standards are implemented.
"Companies aren't going to, at first, be required to do anything. These are voluntary standards, except for a few critical infrastructure companies," said James Lewis, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"If you're regulated, the regulator will be able to say, 'Here are some new standards.' If you're not regulated you won't be touched at all."
(Reporting By Steve Holland, Deborah Charles and Joseph Menn. Writing by Warren Strobel; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Tech wizards honored by Oscars organizers
Written By Bersemangat on Senin, 11 Februari 2013 | 08.37
BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) - Some of the most ingenious behind-the-scenes innovators, whose breakthroughs in computer technology and other fields were key to the making of movies such as "Shrek" and "Avatar," were awarded at an early Oscar organizers' ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
From the team who developed a system to bring to life computerized digital stunt doubles for fantastic creatures in movies such as "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," to the man who simply developed one of the most versatile lighting delivery systems in film production, the Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards showcased emotional speeches and lifetimes of work for those whose lives are spent behind the camera.
The Beverly Hills ceremony honored 25 individuals with nine awards. Unlike the main Oscars ceremony, which will be held on Sunday, February 24 and will only recognize movie achievements from 2012, the Scientific and Technical Awards honored those with a proven record of achievement in the process of making feature films.
The ceremony was hosted by actors Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana, who respectively played Captain James T. Kirk and Uhura in "Star Trek" in 2009 and who will reprise those roles in this May's sequel. Saldana payed tribute to the night's honorees, saying they made it possible for life in front of the camera.
Richard Mall received perhaps the greatest applause of the night, for his invention of the Matthews Max Menace Arm, a portable device which allows studio lights to be moved and positioned all over a set, often where normal lighting cannot be used because of on-site restrictions of other difficult conditions.
"I am a little humbled to be up here with all this technology, because basically I built something in my garage," Mall said to applause and cheers. He thanked his wife for all the strange noises that had come out of that garage. His invention has been sold to over 40 countries and used in more than 300 films.
The evening was also devoted to people who had invented systems such as "Tissue: A Physically-Based Character Simulation Framework," which has made huge advances in bringing to life computer-generated characters such as Gollum in "The Hobbit". An Academy Plaque for Scientific and Engineering went to Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs and Dr. Richard Dorling for this technique.
The team of Daniel Wexler, Lawrence Kesteloot and Drew Olbrich that created the Light system for computer graphics at PDI/DreamWorks was awarded for technical achievement. Their work, which combines light, color and rendering in one, was used in "Shrek," "Madagascar" and other animated DreamWorks pictures.
(Editing by Sandra Maler)
Insight: Apple and Samsung, frenemies for life
SAN FRANCISCO/SEOUL (Reuters) - It was the late Steve Jobs' worst nightmare. A powerful Asian manufacturer, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, uses Google Inc's Android software to create smartphones and tablets that closely resemble the iPhone and the iPad. Samsung starts gaining market share, hurting Apple Inc's margins and stock price and threatening its reign as the king of cool in consumer electronics.
Jobs, of course, had an answer to all this: a "thermo-nuclear" legal war that would keep clones off the market. Yet nearly two years after Apple first filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung, and six months after it won a huge legal victory over its South Korean rival, Apple's chances of blocking the sale of Samsung products are growing dimmer by the day.
Indeed, a series of recent court rulings suggests that the smartphone patent wars are now grinding toward a stalemate, with Apple unable to show that its sales have been seriously damaged when rivals, notably Samsung, imitated its products.
That, in turn, may usher in a new phase in the complex relationship between the two dominant companies in the growing mobile computing business.
Tim Cook, Jobs' successor as Apple chief executive, was opposed to suing Samsung in the first place, according to people with knowledge of the matter, largely because of that company's critical role as a supplier of components for the iPhone and the iPad. Apple bought some $8 billion worth of parts from Samsung last year, analysts estimate.
Samsung, meanwhile, has benefited immensely from the market insight it gained from the Apple relationship, and from producing smartphones and tablets that closely resemble Apple's.
While the two companies compete fiercely in the high-end smartphone business - where together they control half the sales and virtually all of the profits - their strengths and weaknesses are in many ways complementary. Apple's operations chief, Jeff Williams, told Reuters last month that Samsung was an important partner and they had a strong relationship on the supply side, but declined to elaborate.
As their legal war winds down, it is increasingly clear that Apple and Samsung have plenty of common interests as they work to beat back other potential challengers, such as BlackBerry or Microsoft.
The contrast with other historic tech industry rivalries is stark. When Apple accused Microsoft in the 1980s of ripping off the Macintosh to create the Windows operating system, Apple's very existence was at stake. Apple lost, the Mac became a niche product, and the company came close to extinction before Jobs returned to Apple in late 1996 and saved it with the iPod and the iPhone. Jobs died in October 2011.
Similarly, the Internet browser wars of the late 1990s that pitted Microsoft against Netscape ended with Netscape being sold for scrap and its flagship product abandoned.
Apple and Samsung, on the other hand, are not engaged in a corporate death match so much as a multi-layered rivalry that is by turns both friendly and hard-edged. For competitors like Nokia, BlackBerry, Sony, HTC and even Google - whose Motorola unit is expected to launch new smartphones later this year - they are a formidable duo.
THE WAY THEY WERE
The partnership piece of the Apple-Samsung relationship dates to 2005, when the Cupertino, California-based giant was looking for a stable supplier of flash memory. Apple had decided to jettison the hard disc drive in creating the iPod shuffle, iPod nano and then-upcoming iPhone, and it needed huge volumes of flash memory chips to provide storage for the devices.
The memory market in 2005 was extremely unstable, and Apple wanted to lock in a supplier that was rock-solid financially, people familiar with the relationship said. Samsung held about 50 percent of the NAND flash memory market at that time.
"Whoever controls flash is going to control this space in consumer electronics," Jobs said at the time, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
The success of that deal led to Samsung supplying the crucial application processors for the iPhone and iPad. Initially, the two companies jointly developed the processors based on a design from ARM Holdings Plc, but Apple gradually took full control over development of the chip. Now Samsung merely builds the components at a Texas factory.
The companies built a close relationship that extended to the very top: in 2005, Jay Y. Lee, whose grandfather founded the Samsung Group, visited Jobs' home in Palo Alto, California, after the two signed the flash memory deal.
The partnership gave Apple and Samsung insight into each other's strategies and operations. In particular, Samsung's position as the sole supplier of iPhone processors gave it valuable data on just how big Apple thought the smartphone market was going to be.
"Having a relationship with Apple as a supplier, I am sure, helped the whole group see where the puck was going," said Horace Dediu, a former analyst at Nokia who now works as a consultant and runs an influential blog. "It's a very important advantage in this business if you know where to commit capital."
Samsung declined to comment on its relationship with a specific customer.
As for Apple, it reaped the benefit of Samsung's heavy investments in research and development, tooling equipment and production facilities. Samsung spent $21 billion (23 trillion won) on capital expenditures in 2012 alone, and plans to spend a similar amount this year.
By comparison, Intel Corp spent around $11 billion in 2012, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) expects to spend $9 billion in 2013.
But component expertise, cash and good market intelligence did not assure success when Samsung launched its own foray into the smartphone market. The Omnia, a Windows-based product introduced in 2009, was so reviled that some customers hammered it to bits in public displays of dissatisfaction.
Meanwhile, Samsung publicly dismissed the iPhone's success.
"The popularity of iPhone is a mere result of excitement caused by some (Apple) fanatics," Samsung's then-president, G.S. Choi, told reporters in January 2010.
Privately, though, Samsung had other plans.
"The iPhone's emergence means the time we have to change our methods has arrived," Samsung mobile business head J.K. Shin told his staff in early 2010, according to an internal email filed in U.S. court.
Later that year, Samsung launched the Galaxy S, which sported the Android operating system and a look and feel very similar to the iPhone.
STANDOFF
Jobs and Cook complained to top Samsung executives when they were visiting Cupertino. Apple expected, incorrectly, that Samsung would modify its design in response to the concerns, people familiar with the situation said.
Apple's worst fears were confirmed with the early 2011 release of the Galaxy Tab, which Jobs and others regarded as a clear rip-off of the iPad.
Cook, worried about the critical supplier relationship, was opposed to suing Samsung. But Jobs had run out of patience, suspecting that Samsung was counting on the supplier relationship to shield it from retribution.
Apple filed suit in April 2011, and the conflagration soon spread to courts in Europe, Asia and Australia. When Apple won its blockbuster billion-dollar jury verdict against Samsung last August, it appeared that it might be able to achieve an outright ban on the offending products - which would have dramatically altered the smartphone competition.
But Apple has failed to convince U.S. judges to uphold those crucial sales bans - in large part because the extraordinary profitability and market power of the iPhone made it all but impossible for Apple to show it was suffering irreparable harm.
"Samsung may have cut into Apple's customer base somewhat, but there is no suggestion that Samsung will wipe out Apple's customer base, or force Apple out of the business of making smartphones," U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh wrote. "The present case involves lost sales - not a lost ability to be a viable market participant."
Samsung, meanwhile, came under pressure from antitrust regulators and pulled back on its effort to shut down Apple sales in Europe over a related patent dispute.
A U.S. appeals court recently rejected Apple's bid to fast-track its case, meaning its hopes for a sales ban are now stuck in months-long appeals, during which time Samsung may very well release the next version of its hot-selling Galaxy phone.
THE WORLD IS OURS
The legal battles have been less poisonous to the relationship than some of the rhetoric suggests.
"People play this stuff up because it shows a kind of drama, but the business reality is that the temperature isn't that high," said one attorney who has observed executives from both companies.
Still, the hostilities appear to have put some dents in the partnership. Apple is likely to switch to TSMC for the building of application processors, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs, Sanford Bernstein and other firms. But analysts at Korea Investment & Securities and HMC Securities point out that Apple will not be able to eliminate Samsung as a flash supplier because it remains the dominant producer of the crucial chips.
Apple declined to comment on the details of its relationships with any one supplier.
Meanwhile, both companies are deploying strategies out of the other's playbook as they seek to maintain and extend their lead over the pack.
Samsung has developed a cheeky, memorable TV ad that mocks Apple customers, and dramatically ramped up spending on marketing and advertising, a cornerstone of Apple's success. U.S. ad spending on the Galaxy alone leaped to nearly $202 million in the first nine months of 2012, from $66.6 million in 2011, according to Kantar Media.
For its part, Apple is investing in manufacturing by helping its suppliers procure the machinery needed to build large-scale plants devoted exclusively to the company.
Apple spent about $10 billion in fiscal 2012 on capital expenditures, and it expects to spend a further $10 billion this year. By contrast, the company spent only $4.6 billion in fiscal 2011 and $2.6 billion in fiscal 2010.
But Apple and Samsung retain very different strategies. Apple has just one smartphone and only four product lines in total, and tries to keep variations to a bare minimum while focusing on the high end of the market.
Samsung, by contrast, has 37 phone products that are tweaked for regional tastes and run the gamut from very cheap to very expensive, according to Mirae Asset Securities. The company also makes chips, TVs, appliances and a host of other products (and its brethren in the Samsung Group sell everything from ships to insurance policies).
Apple devices are hugely popular in the United States; Samsung enjoys supremacy in developing countries like India and China. Apple keeps its core staff lean - it has only 60,000 employees worldwide - and relies on partners for manufacturing and other functions. Samsung Electronics, part of a sprawling "chaebol," or conglomerate, that includes some 80 companies employing 369,000 people worldwide, is far more vertically integrated.
It is those differences, combined with the formidable strengths that both companies bring to the market, that may render quiet cooperation a better strategy than all-out war for some time to come.
Said Brad Silverberg, a former Microsoft executive who was involved in the Mac vs. Windows wars, "Apple had learnt a lot of lessons from those days."
(Reporting by Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco, and Miyoung Kim in Seoul; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Tiffany Wu and Peter Cooney)
