Google's Andy Rubin (left) and T-Mobile's Cole Brodman discuss Google's Android smartphone operating system at a press conference Friday.
(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET)SAN FRANCISCO--Among the many questions raised in the wake of Google's announcement of Chrome OS is exactly how the project fits in with Google's Android mobile operating system.
Essentially, nothing has changed, said Google's Andy Rubin at a press conference Friday morning highlighting Google and T-Mobile's partnership on the launch of the new MyTouch 3G smartphone. "You need different technology for different products," Rubin said, explaining that Google's approach to product development means that projects that might overlap aren't necessarily scuttled to protect the one that got there first.
Android is first and foremost a smartphone operating system, found on products such as the new MyTouch, the older G1, and others scattered around the world. But companies such as Acer and Asus are planning to put Android on Netbooks later this year, and several others are rumored to be following suit.
Chrome OS, however, is supposedly going to arrive on Netbooks first when it's scheduled to be ready in the second half of 2010. So how should companies thinking about alternatives to Windows on Netbooks navigate about Google's operating system strategy?
Google's blog post announcing Chrome OS acknowledged the overlap. "Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to Netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the Web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small Netbooks to full-size desktop systems."
After a panel discussion, Rubin declined to get into specifics about how Android and Chrome would be presented to Google partners once both are on the market. But during the discussion he noted that Android is capable of handling complicated, specialized tasks that a browser-based OS may not be able to tackle.
For example, Android handles the complicated process of handing off an Internet connection between cell towers as you drive down the highway, and carefully manages the power consumption of the system to extent the battery, Rubin said.
Google is also planning to make social-networking technologies a big part of a future Android release, he said. Google just released Android 1.5, known as Cupcake, and plans to keep the sweet desert theme going into the future with code names such as Donut, Eclair, and eventually Flan, but Rubin didn't specify which release will introduce heavier integration with social technologies.
And work continues on making Android suitable for things like set-top boxes and even refrigerators, Rubin said. "Our team is working hard to define those profiles. We've done a good job defining those profiles for cell phones."
But the Netbook situation remains murky. Is Google going to support two different operating systems for the mini-notebook market? As of yet, no Open Handset Alliance type of partnership exists for Chrome OS, meaning that unless that changes Google will have to do almost all the heavy lifting on Chrome development and support itself.
This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.
Sprint Nextel will outsource its network to Ericsson in a seven-year deal valued at $4.5 billion to $5 billion.
The deal, announced Thursday, allows Sprint to offload the costs associated with running its network. Sprint will transfer 6,000 employees to Ericsson.
Ericsson will now handle all the day-to-day operations and maintenance. The transfer of the network and the employees that go with them is set to happen by the end of the third quarter.
Steve Elfman, Sprint's president of network operations and wholesale, said on a conference call that Sprint still owns its network and is responsible for strategic plans and investments. Elfman added that the goal is to improve the quality of the network and deploy next-generation technologies. Sprint will keep its customer service operations.
Sprint didn't disclose exact numbers on savings. Elfman said Sprint expects to cut cost per labor unit. Sprint will also avoid investment in the tools that Ericsson already has. Economies of scale will enable Sprint-Ericsson to cut costs on software licenses and other expenses. Those savings will be invested in expanding network coverage.
Among other key parts of the deal:
• Sprint chooses technology platforms and vendors.
• Ericsson maintains Sprint's wireless and wireline networks.
• Ericsson will optimize Sprint's inventory of network assets.
• Ericsson and Sprint will focus on improving processes.
• No layoffs are anticipated due to the deal and Ericsson will set up shop in Overland, Kan., Sprint's headquarters.
The summer of the smartphone is heating up as Research In Motion is set to introduce on Sunday its latest BlackBerry device, called the Tour. But will it be enough to keep RIM king of the smartphone market?
BlackBerry Tour
(Credit: CNET )The BlackBerry Tour is hitting store shelves at an important time for RIM, which has been reportedly taking a sales hit as carriers promote exclusive phones, such as the Palm Pre on Sprint Nextel's network and the Apple iPhone 3GS on AT&T's network, according to Michael Walkley of Piper Jaffray.
Walkley said in a research note published this week that BlackBerry sales declined in June at AT&T and Sprint as these carriers focused marketing dollars and sales attention on iPhone and Pre over older BlackBerry handsets. Sales of BlackBerry devices remained solid at T-Mobile USA, but they were slightly down at Verizon Wireless, after the carrier ended its "buy one, get one" promotion, Walkley also reported.
But now it looks like RIM has a new device to excite its base of business users and consumers, especially those looking for a smartphone they can take overseas.
Unlike its smartphone competitors, the BlackBerry Tour is not offered exclusively on a single carrier network. Instead it will be available on two carrier networks: Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless. Each carrier is set to launch the device on Sunday. Making its phone available on multiple carrier networks is not unusual for RIM, which sells its products on all four major carrier networks. But typically carriers don't make the devices available on the same day. In some ways, the non-exclusive arrangement could help RIM sell more devices because it greatly increases the potential sales base. But it might also hurt, if carriers focus more marketing attention and budget on promoting their exclusive phones.
It's yet to be seen how popular the new BlackBerry Tour will be. But at this point any new device from BlackBerry is likely better than none.
"Sales of the Tour are key in our opinion, as our checks indicated RIM may need strong July and August sales to meet its guidance," Walkley said in his research note.
The new phone, which sports Bluetooth, GPS, a 3.2-megapixel camera, a full QWERTY keypad, and a high-resolution screen offers everything that BlackBerry lovers have come to expect. And it also comes equipped with a Quad-band radio that allows the phone to be used internationally on both CDMA and GSM networks. The addition of the 800MHz and 1900MHz radio for CDMA is particularly important for users traveling to Latin America and parts of Asia where CDMA is available on these frequencies.
The device is likely to appeal mostly to business customers, particularly those who travel, and existing BlackBerry users. While Sprint Nextel also plans to market the phone to consumers, the carrier plans to target these customers first.
"Clearly there is already a strong base of BlackBerry customers, and many of them are business users," said Tim Donahue, vice president of business marketing for Sprint. "And we want to make sure they have access to the latest and greatest BlackBerry device out there."
Targeting BlackBerry base
Going after the business or enterprise customer is a smart move for Sprint. Business customers account for about half the subscribers on the Sprint network. But Sprint has also been pushing the Palm Pre as a business-friendly device. Donahue explained that there is room for multiple products to address the same market.
"There is no silver bullet when it comes to devices in this industry," he said. "It's more of a cadence and it's about building a portfolio."
For Verizon Wireless, the Tour is its major smartphone launch of the summer. The company hasn't made much noise about the Windows Mobile smartphones it has recently launched. And its last big smarpthone campaign was the exclusive deal for the BlackBerry Storm, RIM's only touch-screen phone.
The BlackBerry Curve and the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition phones have been big sellers for Verizon. But the BlackBerry Bold, which is only available on AT&T's network in the U.S., is considered by many BlackBerry aficionados to be RIM's most desirable BlackBerry. The Bold, which gets its name from its screen, has a high-resolution screen that has been described as eye-popping by CNET reviewer Bonnie Cha.
The BlackBerry Tour's design is a nice combination of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (pictured here) and the BlackBerry Bold.
(Credit: CNET)The BlackBerry Storm uses similar screen technology. But now with the BlackBerry Tour, Verizon is able to offer a device with a high resolution screen and a QWERTY keypad.
"If you take the keyboard and international reach of the BlackBerry 8830 and the screen quality of the Storm and combine them, you have the Tour," said Dan Mock, director of marketing for Verizon Wireless.
Walkley believes that the pent up demand for a BlackBerry Bold-like experience on Verizon's network will help make this a popular device for existing Verizon customers.
"We expect the Tour will sell very well to Verizon's installed BlackBerry subscriber base, as this is Verizon's first product that is competitive with the Bold at AT&T," he said in his note.
While the device will certainly be an important cornerstone of Verizon's smartphone line up, it's not an exclusive deal. So it's unlikely that the device will attract many new customers to Verizon. But Mock said that doesn't matter.
"It's never been our stance to go out and base our business on one iconic device," he said. "It's always been about the network for us. Still, I'd say we also have a strong portfolio of smartphones and mobile devices on our network."
For RIM the real question is whether the Tour can get enough momentum in the market to boost sales in July and August to reach its sales targets. The launch of so many other hot smartphones at one time presents a challenge for the company as it tries to push the Tour to the forefront of customers' minds.
And the pressure could continue to intensify as T-Mobile USA still launches its next Google Android phone, the MyTouch, in early August. T-Mobile has made the MyTouch its flagship smartphone, and the company is throwing a lot of money and marketing muscle behind the device. And even though carriers, such as AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile all claim that their sales reps are just as happy to sell a BlackBerry as they are any of these exclusive devices, it's hard to argue that these big marketing campaigns do not have an effect on sales of other devices, such as RIM's BlackBerrys.
The Symbian Foundation has released its first open-source software package, the first step in the organization's plan to eventually open-source the entire Symbian mobile operating system.
The Symbian Foundation was set up by in June 2008 by Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, NTT DoCoMo, Texas Instruments, Vodafone, Samsung, LG, and AT&T to oversee the development of the Symbian OS as an open-source platform, licensed under the Eclipse Public Licence (EPL). The OS had previously been developed as proprietary software by the Symbian Foundation.
On Wednesday, Symbian made available its first package covered by the EPL, the OS Security Package, according to Symbian developer Craig Heath.
"The OS Security Package source code is now available under the EPL, and it is the very first package to be officially moved from the closed Symbian Foundation License (SFL) to...the EPL," Heath wrote in a blog post.
Heath said the EPL would allow the security package to bypass export regulations in the U.K., where the Symbian code is legally based.
"There is an exemption for software 'in the public domain,' meaning that open-source software isn't export-controlled, so moving it from SFL to EPL was the most straightforward way to make sure that the complete cryptographic functionality would be available to all," he wrote.
The move is also intended to demonstrate that Symbian is "serious" about both open source and security, according to Heath. The next step will be to open source the Symbian kernel, along with a basic set of components and drivers, according to Symbian chief architect Daniel Rubio.
"It has to be accompanied by all other components and drivers to run a shell with full I/O--for example, a Board Support Package, a hardware vehicle and, of course, a freely available toolchain," Rubio said in a blog post. "The good news is that we are working hard to make this happen in the short term, which in my mind is a three-month horizon."
Alongside the shift to open source, Symbian is working to integrate several components of the old software into a new operating system that will be released under the name Symbian ^2. The new OS is to be based on version 9 of the Symbian OS and will integrate the S60, UIQ, and MOAP user interfaces, according to Symbian. It is planned to begin beta testing in the next few weeks, and could appear in handsets in the first half of next year.
In March, Symbian said it plans to release a new version of the OS every six months, with Symbian ^3 planned for the middle of this year. Symbian competes with a number of mobile operating systems, including Apple's iPhone OS, Google's Android, and Microsoft's Windows Mobile.
Matthew Broersma of ZDNet UK reported from London.
The developers of the LiveAndroid project have released the second alpha version of their software, which allows users to try out Google's mobile operating system without having to install it on a handset.
LiveAndroid, a project based in Beijing, released its first alpha, or prototype, in May. Version 0.2, released on Monday, added major functions such as a mouse-controlled cursor, keyboard functionality and Ethernet connectivity. Other functions, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and audio, remain to be added, according to the developers.
In a Twitter update, the developers said a version running from a USB memory stick may also be released this week.
"LiveAndroid gives you a taste of a Google phone on your computer," the project developers said on their Web site. "We would like LiveAndroid to be a real OS for your computer, but for now it is only a toy."
To use the software, a user downloads and burns it onto a CD, then reboots their PC. Android then runs directly from the CD, leaving the user's hard disk unchanged. LiveAndroid can also run in virtual environments, such as those provided by VirtualBox or Microsoft Virtual PC, the developers said.
Screenshots of LiveAndroid are available on the project website.
The system is based on Android 1.5 and is designed to work on x86 systems, such as desktop PCs or Netbooks. It is hosted on the Google Code Web site and uses an Apache 2.0 license.
Android is Google's Linux-based operating system for mobile phones. On Tuesday Google announced the creation of the Google Chrome OS project, with the goal of releasing a Linux-based OS for netbooks and other PCs in the second half of 2010.
Matthew Broersma of ZDNet UK reported from London.
NEW YORK--T-Mobile USA is betting big on its second Android smartphone, the MyTouch 3G, as it officially launches the device making it its flagship smartphone to compete against Apple's iPhone on AT&T.
(Credit: T-Mobile USA)The company announced the MyTouch 3G, which is essentially the same phone as the Google Ion or the HTC Magic, last month. And on Wednesday T-Mobile made the device available for pre-orders to its existing customers. The device will be generally available starting August 5.
The MyTouch is the second smartphone the carrier has introduced that uses Google's open-source mobile operating system, Android. T-Mobile introduced the world's first Google Android phone, called the G1, last fall. And so far the company claims it has sold more than 1 million devices.
Thinner and slightly smaller than the G1, the MyTouch features a large 3.2-inch touch screen with 3G and Wi-Fi support. The device comes loaded with several applications including integrated Google Apps, but it also can access the Android Market, a virtual application storefront where users can have their pick of some 5,000 applications for downloading.
Executives at an event here Wednesday made no bones about pitting the MyTouch against Apple's popular iPhone, which is sold exclusively for AT&T's network in the U.S.
"My hope and expectation is that this device will be compared to the iPhone," said Denny Post, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at T-Mobile USA.
It's easy to see the similarities between the phones. Like the iPhone, the MyTouch has a touch screen with a virtual keyboard. And it has access to a lot of very cool applications.
But executives also point out what they consider important differences between the MyTouch and the iPhone.
Personalization is the big buzzword the T-Mobile marketing folks have used in launching the new phone. They claim no two MyTouches will be the same since users can customize their devices to tailor their own lifestyles and needs. The customization goes beyond the ability to download different applications, and also includes the ability to change the background on the phone's home screen and the ability to organize application icons on the home screen.
While iPhone users can drag and drop icons and customize their sleep mode screens, the home screen essentially looks the same on all iPhones.
Whether or not this differentiator is a big deal to consumers is yet to be seen. Another possibly more important differentiator is the fact that the Android software on the MyTouch allows users to easily switch between multiple applications that are open on the device. The software also allows information from one application to be fed or viewed in another application. For example, there is a little user bar at the top of the phone's screen that shows the temperature and weather. It also has alerts for new e-mails and text messages as they come into the phone, without interrupting the application that is going.
Of course, the MyTouch is not the only smartphone that offers this kind of application multitasking. The Palm Pre announced earlier this summer for Sprint Nextel's network has gotten high marks for its ability to multitask. But Andrew Sherrard, vice president at T-Mobile, says that what sets the MyTouch apart from the Pre is the Android Market mobile application store, which already has 5,000 applications.
At the heart of the MyTouch is the open platform Android software, which was developed by Google. And because it uses the same operating system developed for the G1, the features and functionality available on the MyTouch are not much different from the G1.
And it's likely that other Android devices that will be launched on T-Mobile's network and other operators' networks later this year will also be similar in terms of functionality because they use the same operating system.
But instead of lumping multiple Android devices together, T-Mobile will be focusing much of its marketing on the MyTouch as its flagship device. This makes sense from a competitive standpoint as other wireless operators highlight their own exclusive handsets. Apple has the iPhone. And Sprint has the new Palm Pre. Now T-Mobile will focus its marketing on the MyTouch.
The G1, the first Android phone to come to market, launched in November last year and has been a major success for the carrier. But the phone has mostly appealed to early adopters, Post said. The MyTouch will be targeted at the mass market.
"It will appeal to the same consumers that are interested in the iPhone," she said. "But the applications used on this phone won't be just for show. They won't simply be a novelty. Instead they will be very useful and purposeful."
As part of its push to make the MyTouch its premiere smartphone, T-Mobile has put extra effort into training retail staff to help new customers customize their phones and add new applications.
And even though the Android Market today is only a tenth the size of Apple's App Store, it's expected to grow rapidly as more Android devices come to market. And when that happens, Post says there will be a great need to help consumers to sift through the chaos and discover new applications.
"It will become increasingly important for us to recommend and help highlight applications we think consumers will find most useful," she said. "Customers need a guide to help them find useful apps, and move beyond simple novelties. So you will see us creating bundles for recommendations to make discovery easier."
But going up against the iPhone will not be an easy task as the latest version of the device, the iPhone 3GS, seems even hotter than previous generations. In its first weekend, Apple and AT&T sold more than 1 million units. But consumers are hungry for alternatives, and Post believes consumers will also be swayed by T-Mobile's value proposition. The carrier's unlimited data package is priced about $5 less per month than a comparable data package from AT&T.
Kids from two to 11 years of age are spending 63 percent more time online than they did five years ago, says a report released Monday from Nielsen Online. Children in that age range were online an average of 11 hours in May 2009 versus just 7 hours in May 2004.
Over the past five years, the total number of kids surfing the Net has shot up 18 percent to 16 million, says the report, while the overall Internet population has risen only 10 percent. The younger set now represents 9.5 percent of the online community.
Online use among kids surged despite a projected decrease of 1 percent in the population of children under 14 for 2004 to 2010, says Nielsen, citing an estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Results were split pretty evenly by gender. For May 2009, boys 2-11 spent 7 percent more time online than did girls in the same age group, though girls surfed 9 percent more web pages than did boys.
Online video has proven popular among kids, especially boys. Among all children, boys watched 61 percent of videos on the Net in May 2009, accounting for 57 percent of the time the children spent viewing online video.
If you thought a $99 Netbook was a bargain, Sprint Nextel's plan to sell Netbooks for a buck is a real steal.
Sprint has teamed up with mega-retailer Best Buy to sell the Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX Netbook for 99 cents with a two-year service contract. The offer is good at participating Best Buy stores.
Best Buy plans to sell the same Netbook for Verizon Wireless and AT&T for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Without any service contract, the Netbook costs $389.99, according to Best Buy's Web site.
Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX Netbook
(Credit: Compaq)The Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX Netbook features a 1.6GHz processor and 160GB hard drive.
Sprint's 3G wireless service is $60 a month for 5GB of data monthly, making the true cost of the Netbook with two years of service $1,440.
Verizon offers two tiers of data service. The $40 a month plan offers 250MB of data monthly. And the $60 a month plan offers a maximum of 5GB of data. With the current pricing, Verizon Netbook users can expect to spend $1,160 to $1,640 during the life of the contract for the service and Netbook, depending on which plan they choose.
AT&T offers similar pricing for its data service. For up to 5GB of data per month, the service is $60 a month, plus it offers free access to AT&T's 20,000 nationwide Wi-Fi hot spots. A service that offers 200MB of data per month costs $40 a month. In addition to the current offering for the Compaq Mini, AT&T also offers other Netbook deals. The subsidy price on a variety of Netbooks, including the Acer Aspire One, Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and Mini 12, and LG Xenia, ranges from $50 to $250.
Netbooks are becoming a hot business for carriers that are looking to get consumers using their wireless data services. The wireless operators are taking a page out of their old playbooks by subsidizing the devices to spur adoption.
But it's unclear so far if the plan will work. Already consumers are being asked to pay more per month for regular cell phone service. And the expensive data plans could deter some consumers who do the math and realize they don't actually need to be spending over a $1,000 for one of these mini-laptops when these devices and laptops can be used for a very low cost or even free when using Wi-Fi hot spots.
O2 will be the exclusive carrier of the Palm Pre in the U.K., Palm announced Tuesday.
The operator already has U.K. exclusivity for the iPhone. It is also set to bring out an Android phone soon, in the shape of the Samsung i7500, but that may not be an exclusive release.
The Palm Pre.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)"We are fast becoming the home of the smartphone with the addition of the hotly anticipated Palm Pre to our already extensive portfolio," Telefonica Europe chief executive Matthew Key said in a statement. "Our customers will be the first outside of North America to experience one of the most successful mobile devices of the year."
The phone was launched in North America at the start of June, and today's Europe-wide exclusivity contract with O2 parent Telefonica marks the first foray for the Pre into the rest of the world.
The Pre is also coming to Ireland and Germany via O2, and to Spain via the Movistar network. Palm has already said that the phone will arrive in Canada in the second half of the year.
O2's pricing for the Pre has not been revealed, nor has the handset's precise release date. The operator will only say that the Pre will be out before Christmas.
The Pre is a crucial handset for Palm, as it is the first to use the new WebOS software, Palm's first new operating system since 2002. The phone is notable for its multitasking ability, which allows applications to run concurrently.
Palm is hoping to attract developers with the fact that WebOS applications use Web standards such as HTML and CSS.
David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London. CNET News' Jonathan Skillings contributed to this story.
I got my first SMS spam message last week and it infuriated me.
The mortgage-related text message was more than just a nuisance, like e-mail spam is. It also was a strong indication of how marketers have managed to invade every private communication space consumers have.
And it was frustrating that I didn't know what to do about it. Being an AT&T customer, I tried to register on AT&T's site figuring I could learn what to do and take action there. Unfortunately, it kept telling me that it didn't recognize my password, so I had to call customer support. The support representative directed me to a different URL where I was able to log in and she tried to walk me through the site to the place where I could set spam-blocking settings, but was unable to because of some technical issue on her end. So she just changed the settings for me.
I called the four major U.S. wireless carriers to find out exactly what they suggest their customers do when they get SMS spam. Here is what they said, along with some other basic questions and answers people may have about mobile spam.
AT&T
Customers can block text messages or calls from a specific phone number on its Web site here, as well as restrict the sources of e-mail that reach your phone on this site. Customers can also reply to text messages by typing in "BLOCK" or "STOP" to prevent future messages from that sender, and call a customer service representative if further help is needed, said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel.
Sprint
Sprint wants customers to call customer service to report all spam messages so the company can modify its spam-filtering technology to block the phone numbers that are sending it, said Sprint spokesman John Taylor. Customers should not reply to the messages, otherwise it verifies to the spammer that the phone number is valid, he said.
T-Mobile
Postpaid and FlexPay customers can create their own filters and block chargeable text messages, MMS (multi-media service) messages, instant messages, and e-mail from being sent to their phones by calling customer service, spokeswoman Cara Walker said.
Verizon
Customers can log into the site and sign up for Usage Controls ($4.99 a month) that allow them to block certain numbers from calling or sending text messages to the phone. And if customers text only with a few people they can create an alias address here for free and receive only text messages sent to that address, said Verizon spokeswoman Debra Lewis.
Verizon has filed eight to 10 lawsuits against SMS spammers over the past four to five years, and 20 lawsuits altogether involving telemarketers, she said.
What can I do to prevent unsolicited phone calls to my mobile phone?
To block spam phone calls, customers should register their mobile numbers with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call Registry.
What are the carriers doing to block spam?
The mobile service providers said they are using antispam filters and antivirus technology to protect against the different types of mobile spam. They did not want to go into too much detail as to what technologies they are using.
Why am I getting spam?
Some people may be inadvertently opting in to receive text messages when they sign up for other services with merchants. Many free ringtone download sites are used to harvest mobile numbers. Spammers also use auto-dialers that randomly generate numbers or try them sequentially. Because mobile phone numbers do not appear in public directories people should be careful who they share their numbers with. Be wary of sites that promise to remove numbers from spam lists because they are often set up to collect the numbers instead. Also, read terms and conditions of sites and services carefully before giving out a mobile number.
Do I get charged for spam messages?
In general, consumers will not be charged for spam text messages and can get a credit if they report it to the company, on a case-by-case basis.
Is spam illegal?
While Verizon is suing companies for violating the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which makes it illegal to use an auto-dialer to make calls to wireless phones, there is no explicit measure outlawing SMS spam, yet. Measures in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate were introduced this year to rectify that. The m-SPAM Act, introduced by Sens. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, would expand the regulatory authority of the Federal Communications Commission and the FTC to intervene against SMS spammers and would explicitly bar marketers from sending text messages to any mobile number in the national Do Not Call registry. A similar measure was introduced by Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Georgia Democrat, in March after his antispam effort last year failed.
How big a problem is this?
While people in the U.S. might receive two SMS spam messages a year, things are worse in other countries like Europe where one a week is typical; India where people receive as many as two per day; and China where it's more like five to 10 each day, according to Ferris Research. Last year, Ferris Research estimated that wireless users in the U.S. received more than 1.1 billion spam text messages in 2007, up 38 percent from 2006.
