This week Nokia went after the iPhone in court while Twitter struck deals with Google and Microsoft.
Handset leader Nokia set its lawyers after Apple, suing the US firm for allegedly using its WLAN, GSM and W-CDMA technologies in the iPhone without permission.
In the wake of a poor quarterly result, Nokia also set up a dedicated smartphone group as it searched for a champion that can take on the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
There was some good economic news: Apple boosted its quarterly net 46% thanks to surging iPhone and Mac sales. Yahoo increased profit threefold but was forced into an apology over lap-dancers at a Taiwan event.
Gartner said global telecom spending would rebound to 3.2% growth next year after contracting by 4% in 2009. The Economist said it was more likely the economy was leading the tech sector out of the recession than the other way around.
Chipmaker ST Microelectronics and its ST-Ericsson JV narrowed their losses while in China increased competition dragged China Telecom’s profit down by a third and kept China Mobile flat.
Twitter struck long-awaited deals with Google and Bing, giving them access to its live feeds. Windows 7, the successor to Microsoft’s disastrous Vista OS, hit the market in a low-key launch.
CIA investment arm Q-Tel put some cash into Visible Technologies, whose software specializes in monitoring social media.
Indian authorities raided the Department of Telecom offices in search of “irregularities” from the sale of 2G spectrum last year. India’s 3G prospects look even more remote as the DoT squabbled with the defense ministry over spectrum.
Siemens is looking for an exit from the embattled Nokia Siemens JV, according to Financial Times Germany.
Ofta called time on the 20 year-old PNETS licenses, merging them into a single services based operator (SBO) license.
Equinix bought rival Switch & Data for $689 million. The Italian government splashed $1.2 billion on universal broadband.
Pacnet added another 3.6Tbps to its EAC-C2C cable system, just six months after its last upgrade. Fourteen operators will launch LTE next year, Infonetics predicted.
Barnes & Nobles launched a new e-reader, the Nook, to rave reviews.
And Hollywood studios began inserting “no Twitter, no Facebook” clauses in actors’ contracts.