This week Chinese officials got into a war over Warcraft, and signs of a recovery strengthened.
Chinese government agencies slugged it out in public for the right to be the overlord of online games. The Ministry of Culture said publications body GAPP had no right to revoke the license of the hugely popular World of Warcraft game.
Cisco’s quarterly income fell 19% but was upbeat after an unexpectedly strong recovery in demand.
In more good news, Q3 semiconductor sales also beat expectations with a 20% rise, while handset shipments were up 6% over Q2.
Other vendors are feeling the pain, however. Nokia Siemens’ new CEO announced a restructure that will cut headcount by up to 5,800. Alcatel-Lucent fell back into the red as revenue slid 9%, although it still expects to break even over the full year.
In a busy week for Cisco, it announced a joint venture with EMC to sell enterprise cloud and data center products, and acquired Chinese set-top box maker DVN for $45 million.
Microsoft and Chunghwa Telecom also hooked up to offer cloud services.
China’s Ministry of Health banned physical punishment at internet addict boot camps and declared that the term “internet addict” had no medical basis. Months after violence on the streets of capital Urumqi, Xinjiang residents still have no internet access.
India’s communications minister Andimuthu Raja called for a cut in mobile termination rates.
Nokia shut its N-Gage platform and will close down the game at the end of 2010.
Sony Ericsson unveiled its first Android phone, the Xperia X10. LG admitted it was behind in smartphones and app stores but said its first Android device will be sold in Asia by Christmas.
The Google-invested Unity consortium landed its trans-Pacific cable in Japan.
Google increased its share of Asia’s search market by 11 points this year, ComScore found. India clocked up 500 million fixed and mobile subs.
Google introduced a dashboard that brings together the personal data it has collected on users and allows them to adjust privacy settings.
The closure of file-sharing site The Pirate Bay has sparked a 300% increase in sites offering copyright material, according to McAfee. But people who download music illegally are also the biggest buyers of music CDs and MP3s, a survey found.
Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission will extend its review of the merger between Taiwan Mobile and cable firm Kbro for another 30 days. Skype’s creators, its former owner and its new owner appeared close to a legal settlement.
Telstra dropped an unpopular A$2.20 ($2.00) charge imposed on customers who paid their bills non-electronically.
Wireless networking firm Nomadia offered an app that turns Windows 7-powered PCs into Wi-Fi hotspots.
And hundreds of residents of Sussex, southern England, were left without their landline phone service after thieves stole 1km in copper cabling from out of the ground.