Google considers China exit

Google is considering closing its China search site and leaving the mainland market because of censorship issues and recent cyber-attacks.

Gartner: Mobile apps spend to hit US$6.2B in 2010

	2009	2010	2013
Downloads (M)	2,516	4,507	21,646
Total revenue (US$M)	4,237.80	6,770.40	29,479.30

Source: Gartner (December 2009)

Consumer spending on mobile application stores will reach US$6.2 billion this year, according to new Gartner figures. Combined with expected advertising revenues of around US$0.6 billion, total app store revenues are forecast to hit US$6.77 billion in 2010. The research firm said that app stores will exceed 4.5 billion downloads this year, and surpass 21.6 billion by 2013. Free downloads will account for 82 percent of all downloads in 2010, and will account for 87 percent of downloads in 2013, the firm said. Download revenue is said to have exceeded US$4.2 billion in 2009 and will grow to US$29.5 billion by the end of 2013.

Verizon and AT&T cut fees as price war escalates

Verizon Wireless and AT&T – the two largest mobile operators in the US – both cut their mobile tariffs late last week amid fears that an escalating price war in the country could affect operator revenue.

Voda outsources M2M services

Machine-to-machine (M2M) specialist Numerex has secured a deal with Vodafone to offer its clients M2M solutions via the operator’s network. The agreement allows Numerex to promote Vodafone M2M services as part of its Numerex DNA (Device, Network and Application) and FAST platform along with an array of other M2M products and services.

Clearwire to launch WiMAX smartphone this year

US-based WiMAX service provider Clearwire says it will launch a dual-mode smartphone in the second half of this year, according to a Financial Times (FT) report.

Femtocell market update

Commercially launched networks
Sprint's Airave (CDMA 1xRTT), September 2007
Starhub's Home Zone (UMTS), November 2008
Verizon Wireless's Network Extender (CDMA 1xRTT), January 2009
Vodafone's Access Gateway (UMTS), July 2009
AT&T's 3G MicroCell (UMTS), September 2009
NTT DoCoMo's My Area (UMTS), November 2009
SFR, December 2009
Expecting
China Unicom 3G Inn (UMTS), expected November 2009
Softbank (UMTS), expected January 2009

source: femto forum (PDF)