Ingrid Lunden
Recent Posts
Search engine rankings: Not much of a bang for Bing
Comscore’s latest search engine rankings reveal that Microsoft’s newest effort Bing is taking a little — but just a little — market share from Yahoo in the U.S.
Bing moved 0.4 percent over the last month to account for 8.4 percent of the total search market. Meanwhile, Yahoo declined by 0.5 percent to 19.6 percent. Google, Ask and AOL remained flat at 65 percent, 3.9 percent and 3.1 percent respectively.
The Wall Street Journal notes that Google… Continue Reading
Aloqa raises $1.5M for location-based mobile content
Aloqa, a mobile search company that sends you information about events, friends and other data based on your location, launched its first product today at MobileBeat: an app for Android-based devices.
The company also announced $1.5 million in first-round funding from Wellington Partners and angel investors, and the appointment of a new CEO, Sanjeev Agrawal, an ex-head of product marketing from Google and more recently vice president of products at TellMe Networks (now part of Microsoft).
Given… Continue Reading
Spinvox offers employees shares instead of salary
Spinvox, the voice-to-text startup, has been on a roll: $100 million in funding from an impressive list of backers; then, a key deal with Telefonica covering its Latin America mobile operations, which bump its userbase to 150 milion (with some other contracts it claims it has yet to announce); and just yesterday, 600 registrations for its API set, which is getting the service embedded with other fast-growing mobile applications like Audioboo.
But there are signs that… Continue Reading
Mobile OS company Symbian enters app store fray: Launches Horizon
Symbian, the company that makes operating systems for a large number of the world’s mobile phones, today will be announcing the launch of Horizon, its own path into the thick forest of app stores.
The company will make the announcement later this morning at MobileBeat2009, our application-focused conference today in San Francisco, where Symbian executives such as executive director Lee Williams will be speaking and elaborating on the product.
The service is not a full-fledged application store…. Continue Reading
Amazon’s Kindle in Europe: What’s the holdup?
Amazon is stealing a march on the nascent e-reader market with its Kindle device in the U.S. But as new e-readers enter the market in Europe — just today, Borders launched its eBook product in the UK, made by Elonex — Amazon seems to be missing an opportunity by not extending the Kindle to Europe.
Analyst firm Cowen & Co. estimates that the online retailer has sold 800,000 Kindles to date, and that by 2013 it… Continue Reading
Operators scramble as T-Mobile UK goes up for grabs
Ever since Deutsche Telekom’s chief financial officer Timotheus Hoettges valued his company’s underperforming T-Mobile UK unit at $5.4 billion in May, there have been a swirl of rumors surrounding a possible sell-off. Those rumors have taken off in the last couple of days with reports that rival Vodafone has brought in people to look at a potential purchase. Operators O2 and Orange have also reportedly been interested in T-Mobile’s 16.5 million subscribers and 16 percent… Continue Reading
Cleantech may need to wait a bit longer for stimulus funds
Government-backed stimulus packages are expected to give a major boost to cleantech companies, supposedly starting in September. A total of $184.9 billion has been earmarked for green initiatives worldwide, and some 65.7 percent of that is going to energy verticals like solar and wind, says the New Energy Finance Group. But it may be a while longer before startups and their investors see any of that money.
“There’s only been a trickle of dimes and cents… Continue Reading
SpinVox brings voice-to-text overseas with $100M Telefonica deal
Spinvox, a voice-recognition startup based in London, has landed a deal with Spanish mobile operator Telefonica to provide the mobile giant with voice-to-text technology. The agreement cover’s Telefonica’s operations in Europe and Latin America, which total some 100 million subscribers, and is reportedly worth $100 million.
The news is a major boost to the speech-recognition industry, which has suffered from quality concerns and a lack of sustainable business models.
Spinvox has cleverly tapped into a major painpoint… Continue Reading
Water rises at European cleantech events, VCs take note
European venture capital investments into clean technology companies are small potatoes compared the U.S., but they’re picking up.
More than 20 new funds invest in the European cleantech sector every month, according to a new study from VB Research. And this week, not one but two, well-attended events showcased startups in the space looking for capital.
Here at Barcelona’s HiT World Innovation Summit, water has been the recurring theme (and not just due to the sticky heat)…. Continue Reading
Sony Ericsson goes green on handsets
Sony Ericsson may be late to the game when it comes to launching an app store for its mobile phones, but it’s surging ahead in what it thinks might be another major industry trend: green devices.
The handset maker yesterday announced two new phones, the C901 GreenHeart (see below) and the Naite, each reducing handsets’ carbon footprints by up to 15 percent. The phones will include in-phone manuals (as opposed to paper), less packaging and morerecycled… Continue Reading
Cleantech investing surpasses IT in Europe despite dip
Even though cleantech investing in Europe and Israel is down more than 30 percent from last year’s $1.8 billion, the sector is surpassing IT to become the second largest venture capital category on the continent (biotech remains at the top).
Relatively speaking, cleantech is still in its infancy. With so many capital intensive projects (think manufacturing plants and solar arrays) and a limited number of customers, it hasn’t caught on like the dot-com boom — or,… Continue Reading
Blyk and Vodafone: Possible partners of convenience in mobile ads?
Some business models are so implausible that it’s only a matter of time before they implode, or search for a crutch — as is the case for British company Blyk, a “free” mobile virtual network operator (basically a reseller of minutes bought wholesale from long distance companies) with an advertising-only revenue model. Today, reports emerged that the company is planning to shutter its retail operations in favor of offering its service through other mobile operators… Continue Reading
T-Mobile’s runs into trouble in the U.K.
Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile has banked on being the first operator to launch the much-hyped Google Android phone. But that strategy’s falling short for at least one of its subsidiaries. Today, Deutsche Telekom reported that its mobile division lost $849 million, including a write-down of $2.4 billion in assets at T-Mobile U.K.
This performance does nothing to dispel rumors that T-Mobile U.K. may be put up for sale. The operator has yet to confirm anything, but sources… Continue Reading
Twitter enterprises take off but can they turn a profit?
Twitter traffic is growing by more that 1,000 percent a year, with some pundits estimating the company’s value at up to $1 billion. Monetization remains the sticking point. And while the Twitter folks themselves have yet to present a formal commercial model, plenty of smaller players (even the dogs) are vying to use the service to turn a buck.
There are literally hundreds of new ventures looking to take advantage of Twitter’s API — nicknamed Twisinesses… Continue Reading
European cleantech feels the pinch — looks to distinguish itself from U.S.
European cleantech is finally feeling the funding crunch. Market analysts at the Cleantech Group released a report today showing that investment in the sector during the first quarter fell to $281 million, an 11 percent drop from the previous quarter and a 31 percent drop from last year. Fourth quarter figures for 2008 were also down from the previous quarter.
Given this grim outlook, opinion is split on where green industry in Europe is headed in… Continue Reading