The New Nation - Internet Edition

Nokia to buy Trolltech for $153M: Nokia hopes to use Trolltech's expertise to improve the interfaces on its S40 mobile phone and S60 smartphone platforms

Peter Sayer

Nokia has offered to buy Trolltech, the Norwegian developer of a widely used application framework, for 844 million Norwegian kroner (US$153 million) in cash. Nokia hopes the Trolltech development team will give its own software efforts a boost.

Trolltech develops Qtopia, a framework used to build user interfaces for mobile and embedded devices, and Qt, a cross-platform application development framework.

Nokia hopes to use Trolltech's expertise to improve the interfaces on its S40 mobile phone and S60 smartphone platforms, but Trolltech targets many software platforms with its application frameworks.

In 2006, Samsung unveiled a reference design for a mobile phone running Qtopia Phone Edition on top of a Linux operating system. And the Trolltech team has been working since late 2006 on a version of Qt for Microsoft's Windows CE and Windows Mobile platforms.

Qt is also used in a variety of widely used desktop software, including Skype's Internet telephony application, the Google Earth satellite photo browser, and Adobe Photoshop Album, now part of the Photoshop Elements image editor, according to Trolltech.

The framework is available under commercial and open-source licenses: it is also used by the developers of KDE, a desktop environment for Linux operating systems. Trolltech recently updated the licensing conditions for Qt, making the code available under the GPLv3 license in addition to the GPLv2 license it already uses.

The Trolltech team will become part of Nokia's research and development group, where it plans to continue its work with the developers of KDE.

Despite the close relationship Nokia will now have with the developers of KDE, the company will continue to use a rival software platform in its Linux-based N800 and N810 mobile Internet devices.

"Our platform for Internet tablets will continue to be based on the Gnome environment," said Kai Öistämö, Nokia's executive vice president for devices.

However, Nokia will use Qt in its S40 and S60 platforms, Öistämö said. He would not say when phones containing the code will reach the market.

Nokia has pledged to continue offering commercial and open source licenses for Qt and other Trolltech products as it continues their future development.

The two companies expect to complete the acquisition in the second quarter. The deal requires the approval of holders of 90 percent of Trolltech's shares. Nokia already has support from the holders of 66 percent of the shares, it said.

Millions of hacked iPhones in market

Olga Kharif and Peter Burrows

It's been dubbed the Mystery of the Missing iPhones. On Jan. 22, Apple reported that it sold 3.7 million units of its smartphones worldwide through the end of 2007. But AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone reseller and by far the largest buyer of the devices, reported that its subscribers activated fewer than 2 million units last year. The big question on the minds of Apple watchers is: Where have the other 1.7 million iPhones gone?

The uncertainty has helped sink Apple's (AAPL) stock price to $130 a share, down 34% since the beginning of the year. That is far worse than the 13% drop for the tech-heavy Nasdaq index. Apple shares were already under pressure over concerns about how weakening consumer spending would affect the company's shipments of iPod music players and notebook computers. Now the worries about iPhone sales have entered the mix. "In the past week the stock has fallen further because of potentially lower iPhone shipments," says Shebly Seyrafi, an analyst at Caris & Co.. A story that recently surfaced in a Chinese newspaper claimed that Apple's iPhone component suppliers are cutting back on production in anticipation of lower U.S. demand.

A January falloff isn't unusual in the cell-phone industry; the holidays are typically when sales peak. But investors who examined the discrepancy between Apple's and AT&T's (T) numbers figured that, with handset sales to European carriers Orange, O2, and T-Mobile Germany (DT) just ramping up, many of the missing iPhones may be languishing in inventory. And an inventory buildup is always dangerous, particularly amid slowing demand. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, figures Apple's first-quarter iPhone sales could be down as much as 30% compared with daily sales rates last year.

So where are the missing phones? Two industry insiders confirm what is only now becoming apparent to analysts: that Apple is selling far more "unlocked" iPhones than previously expected. Those phones are adapted by the user with unauthorized software and phone cards so they run on nonapproved wireless networks.

Some 800,000 to 1 million iPhones had been unlocked by the end of 2007, the sources say. The high end of that range far outpaces most analysts' assumptions of 750,000 unlocked phones. The vast majority of those phones are trickling into nations around the world where Apple has yet to sign up a local carrier-especially China, say industry sources (BusinessWeek.com, 12/4/07).

"In my travels around the world, two out of three iPhones I've seen outside of the U.S. have been unlocked," says Richard Doherty, director at consultant Envisioneering Group. "In China, nine out of 10 phones are hacked."

Financially, unlocked iPhones are bad news for Apple. While its revenue-sharing agreement with AT&T is kept under wraps, Charles Wolf, an analyst wiatth Needham & Co., believes the carrier pays Apple $10 per iPhone-brandishing subscriber per month of the two-year contract. While Apple still earns admirable margins on each iPhone it sells, missing out on this cut of monthly phone bills would cost Apple $300 million to $400 million in revenue and profits for every million unlocked phones sold.

Although Apple posted sales of $24 billion in 2007, such lost revenues could become more significant as the iPhone becomes a bigger part of Apple's overall business. This year consultant Technology Business Research expects Apple to sell 7 million units, booking $1.7 billion in revenues and $340 million in operating income.

Daffodil PC Notebook at Laptop Fair 2008

Daffodil Computers Ltd. has attended with its own and country's only Brand daffodil PC Notebook at 1st Laptop Fair at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Center (BCFCC).Regarding the fair, all customers will get special discount and attractive Gift for purchasing daffodil PC Notebook.

Three new models are available at the fair. The fair will be continued till January 25 to 27, 2008 . This offer will be valid at all Showrooms of Daffodil Computers ltd. Recently the Notebook has obtained customers satisfaction as local brand in Bangladeshi market.

The freshers’ reception held at DIIT

On Sunday, January 27, 2008, the orientation program of the fresh students of September & December Session of DIIT Dhanmondi & Kalabagan Campus & Certificate Distribution Ceremony of Diploma Engineers who attended internship program at DIIT, held at DIIT Dhanmondi Campus Auditorium. In a pleasurable environment and in the presence of guardians the students were given the reception.

The Chief Guest of the program was Md. Sabur Khan, the Chairman of Daffodil Institute of IT & Daffodil Group. The Program was chaired by Mohammad Nuruzzaman, the Executive Director of DIIT.

Among others, Dr. Md. Fokhray Hossain, the Academic Director and Mr. Md. Khaled Sohel, Deputy Director of DIIT & Rathindra Nath Das, Assistant Director of DIIT Kalabagan Campus were also present at the program.

Md Sabur Khan, the Chairman of DIIT in his speech, advised the students to concentrate on their study and also to become careful in career related facts. The Chairperson of the program Mohammad Nuruzzaman suggested everyone to give importance to moral education. Dr. Md. Fokhray Hossain, the Academic Director of DIIT described the importance of International Standard Education.