Despite Vodacom’s six-month head start, MTN says it is happy it delayed its third-generation (3G) offering because it was waiting for the right handsets and user experience. During the launch this week, MTN was at pains to defend its much publicised choice of a 2,5G data service called Edge.
After taking on Yahoo! and Microsoft in their own backyards, Google, fresh off its high as the most valued media company in the world, might take its next fight to eBay, the online auction giant. The internet has been abuzz, since <i>The Wall Street Journal</i> reported that Google might launch its own online payment system as an alternative to eBay’s PayPal.
Considering Apple Computers only has about 3% of the global computer market, it punches way above its weight. Fresh from its triumphant switch to Intel for its processors, Apple is collaborating with Nokia to develop a Web browser for the phone-maker’s range of Internet-enabled smartphones, launched recently in Helsinki.
Vodacom barely caused a ripple with its announcement last month that it would start subsidising computers in the same way it has cellphones in an effort to increase data use on its network. Beaming from a 19,5% leap in profit to R27, 3-billion and dividends of 61,9% to R3, 4-billion in the year to March, Vodacom is also hoping to boost its data traffic.
As Google’s share price flirted with $300, the world’s largest search engine shot to top spot as the most valuable media company, eclipsing Time Warner. Just 10 months since Google so controversially listed using an auction share sales method, its stock price hit an all-time high of $293 this week, giving it a market capitalisation of $80-billion.