Category: Mobile

Qualifying for the Indy 500 is always an interesting affair, but the IRL’s latest attempt to spice up the proceedings wasn’t that great. Cutting the numbers of days that qualifying takes—from four to two—made a lot of sense, but the additional 90-minute session at the end of the first day’s qualifying for a shootout between the fastest nine qualifiers seemed contrived to me. And a little unfair, too.

Alex Tagliani did a great job for the new Fazzt team, lining up second after the initial round of qualifying. To give a measure of how well they performed, Tagliani outqualified the entire Andretti and Ganassi teams, as well as two of the three Penske entries. But having done the hard work in the morning, Fazzt then had to try again in the Fast Nine session in the afternoon and slipped to fifth place on the grid. It’s still a great result, but one gets the feeling that the amount of extra running that people like Penske and Ganassi can afford gives them a lot more data to comb through when they need to make setup decisions, which is especially vital at Indy, where track conditions can completely change how a race car feels to a driver. In the end, Helio Castroneves blitzed everyone to take pole and it’s hard to see if anyone can stop the Brazilian or teammates Will Power and Ryan Briscoe from winning the 500.

Indy qualifying was always great to watch because drivers could drop a time they had posted and attempt to go faster later on in the day. Of course, if they went slower, they had just said goodbye to their initial grid position. Luckily, Bump Day on Sunday continued that tradition and was utterly compelling. Both Jay Howard and, of all people, Paul Tracy outguessed themselves when they decided to throw away a decent qualifying effort and go out again in order to try to post a faster lap—which, in Tracy’s case was unnecessary because the qualifying speed he threw away would have gotten him into the field. In the end, both of them failed to make the field.

By the way, did anyone notice that Indy veteran Danica Patrick got outqualified by two rookies, both women? Ana Beatriz went quicker than Simona de Silvestro, which was something of a shock, along with the Andretti team’s deeply average performance. With Tony Kanaan just scraping into the field and the other cars gridded 16th, 17th, and 23rd, there must be a lot of head scratching going on. Especially when two cars that hadn’t turned a wheel prior to Indy—Graham Rahal’s and Bruno Junquiera’s—posted laps that were good enough for seventh on the grid and fastest qualifier from day two. Indeed, Junquiera’s time would have been good enough for seventh if he had run on the first day of qualifying. After just 14 laps of running.

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The Volkswagen Group has bought a 90.1-percent stake in Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A. The new partnership between the German automaker and the storied Italian design works will see Italdesign taking on a bigger role in styling future Volkswagen products, beginning with the forthcoming Volkswagen Up!

Founded in 1968 in Turin, Italdesign has a long history of creating futuristic concepts and groundbreaking production cars. The company’s production-car legacy includes classics like the original Lotus Esprit, Lancia Delta, DMC DeLorean, Maserati Quattroporte, and Lamborghini Gallardo, and more ordinary cars like the Saab 9000, Hyundai Sonata, Subaru SVX, Lexus GS300, and Fiat Punto. The company also designs commercial trucks, tractors, and forklifts.

VW and Italdesign first hooked up in the 1970s, when the latter penned the Golf I, Passat, Scirocco, and (later) the Audi 80. Since then, Italdesign has created dozens of concept and production designs for VW as well as subsidiaries like SEAT and Lamborghini. Buying a large stake in the company likely gives VW a bigger say in new styling projects and keeps the Italian group from courting other manufacturers.

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Formula 1 racing is returning to the U.S. with Austin, Texas, set to host races from 2012 to 2021. The last U.S. Grand Prix was held in Indianapolis in 2007. Austin isn’t currently home to any racetracks, so a brand-new F1 track will be built over the next couple of years. Local officials say Austin is a large enough city to play host to a major international event like an F1 race, and claim the track will be located “in close proximity” to the city’s downtown area and airport.

We’d been hearing rumors about F1 returning to the U.S. for some time now, although most of the speculation said that the race would be a street course in Manhattan or New Jersey. While Austin was a bit of a surprise, we’re just glad to know F1 is returning to the States. Just one question remains: Will the locals understand an auto race where cars turn left and right?

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At a time when Microsoft is facing challengers to its desktop operating system, productivity suite and handsets, you wouldn’t think the company would be changing up officers on its front lines, yet that’s exactly what’s happening. Robbie Bach and J. Allard, both of whom were both instrumental in creating consumer products through Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, both are leaving the company as part of a broader reorganization, reports TechFlash. As a result, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, will initially gain greater control over the division, which includes the Xbox, Zune and Windows Mobile products.

Details on what led to the shakeup are sketchy, but more concerning is what the restructure means going forward — the departure of Bach and Allard is a huge loss for Microsoft. Add in the fact that Ballmer is often out of touch with what consumers actually want and the loss is potentially magnified, depending on how much involvement he actually has in these product areas going forward. Perhaps the best example of Ballmer’s “perception risk” comes from a 2007 interview with USA Today, in which he’s quoted as saying:

“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.”

Given Apple’s 10.8 percent share of the worldwide smartphone sales last quarter — and Microsoft’s declining presence in that same market — it’s safe to say that Ballmer’s prognostication skills are lacking. And Windows Mobile is only just this year morphing into a more competitive Windows Phone. It’s difficult to look forward when you’re two or three years behind your competitors.

While the Windows Mobile group has been slow to respond to the fast-changing mobile market, the Xbox area has been a beacon of success for Microsoft, largely due to Allard. Incidentally, it was a 25-year-old Allard who in 1994 penned a 16-page memo titled “Windows: The Next Killer Application on the Internet,” the main thesis of which was to integrate the web within Windows, as Allard already saw the web-connected future. Between the Xbox design, 40 million consoles sold, and foretelling of the web’s importance, how does a company like Microsoft let a person with talent like this go? TechFlash says that Allard will stay an adviser to the company, so it’s not a total loss, but perhaps he should be moved up in the chain of command — not out of it.

The plan instead is for Ballmer to take the reigns, with key current leaders Andy Lees and Don Mattrick reporting directly to him. Lees has his hands full as the senior VP of Microsoft’s Mobile Communication Business, the area responsible for Windows Phone and Kin devices. As senior VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business, Mattick can build off the the Xbox successes while trying to push Zune into the limelight — a tough challenge in a world filled with iPods. And maybe an even tougher challenge the longer Ballmer runs the show.

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Hit play for an audio recording of a mystery car’s exhaust note, and then share your guesses or get a few hints from other visitors in the comments below. Be sure to check back on Thursday for the answer!

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No FourSquare deal (at least yet)—but Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has purchased Koprol, a location-based social network, which has attracted a following in Indonesia. With Koprol, users “check-in” to their current location from their phones and can then see what other users are nearby; members can also start discussions and review the establishments they are visiting.

The site is currently active in about 200 cities in Indonesia—but Yahoo says in a statement it will now expand the service to “new markets.” The company also says it will use information shared on Koprol to “make its properties and applications … more locally relevant.”

The deal comes as Yahoo—which has said for a year now that it is interested in making social networking-related acquisitions—has also been reportedly considering making a bid for U.S.-based “check-in” service FourSquare. In early April, Yahoo had been said to be close to offering as much as $100 million for that startup, although chatter has since died down.

No financial terms of the Koprol deal were released.

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Google with its annual developer conference, Google I/O, dominated the technology conversation last week. Whether it was taking jabs at Apple, launching a competitor to H.264 video technology or simply offering its own version of Amazon S3, the Big G didn’t disappoint its fans (though some remain skeptical of certain initiatives, such as Google TV).

All that hoopla aside, the focus of the conference was Google’s Android OS and the mobile ecosystem it’s spawned. Add Google TV to the mix and it’s safe to say that Google devoted nearly a quarter of its stage and talk time to Android. CEO Eric Schmidt, VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra and the co-founder of the Android movement himself, Andy Rubin — all waxed eloquent about the OS. Chrome, meanwhile, appeared to have become little more than an afterthought for the company.

Android’s Adaptability

Yes Google held a press conference where co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin talked up the Chrome Web Store, but that was pretty much it. That’s because while Chrome is still waiting for its day in the sun, Android has taken on a life of its own. By the time the Chrome OS becomes available via devices on store shelves, who knows where Android will be.

Just look at some of the most recent Android-specific stats:

• 100,000 Android-based phones are activated every day.
• It’s on 60 devices from 21 OEM makers on 59 carriers in 48 countries.
• There are 50,000 apps in the Android Market Place.
• In the first quarter of the year, it was the second-best selling smartphone OS after RIM’s BlackBerry.

“I am delighted to see Android in places I didn’t expect to see it in,” Rubin said at Google I/O. A good example is Google TV — which is comprised of Android running off an Intel x86 processor with a browser on top of it. Indeed, as I wrote at the time of Android’s launch, what makes Android special is its adaptability. From e-readers to set-top boxes to cars to even refrigerators, the OS has shown tremendous adaptability. By offering it for free (with some strings attached), Google has made it possible for all sorts of hardware makers to tinker with it.

And as such it makes perfect sense for Google to marshal all its resources behind Android the way Apple has done with the iPhone OS. But what of Chrome?

Chrome’s Tablet Future?

“Android has evolved over the past four years and Chrome OS hasn’t launched just yet, so it’s an unfair comparison,” Rubin said in response to a question at last week’s conference in which he was asked to do just that. I took his comment to mean that Google was purposefully following a dual strategy, and when I asked why, Gundotra candidly admitted it’s a strategy the company may adjust down the road — specifically, that there may be a way for the two technologies to converge.

Now that would make sense in a touch-centric, tablet-based world. Imagine Android running the Chrome browser in order to offer a panoply of web apps via the web-based app store that co-founder Sergey Brin described at Google I/O. Though when veteran scribe Dan Gillmor asked about an Android Tablet, both Rubin and Gundotra dodged the question.

Our own Kevin Tofel thinks one of the reasons Chrome OS is taking a back seat to Android may be hardware-related. After all, Chrome OS was initially introduced as a platform for the netbook form factor, but if the market is shifting to tablets, Google will have to make some significant changes to it in order to make it finger-friendly.

Folks in the know tell me that Google bought Canadian user interface innovator BumpTop so that it can build a unique user interface on top of Android for Google’s GPad, which could offered to hardware makers as reference design. That could be just what Android needs in order to compete with Apple and its iPad in the tablet space.

I’ve long been wary of Chrome OS because I think it would suffer from Google-itis in that its underpinning would be the company’s identification system and would always prefer Google web apps. And given that Google doesn’t have a presence in the social web, it would lack social sense and sensibility.

For comparison, look at the JoliCloud OS, which is completely socially aware and uses Facebook Connect as a way to bridge various components with a user’s social graph. That’s what a modern OS for cloud clients should look like.

Now don’t get me wrong — I don’t want to hate on Chrome OS. I just think Google needs to pick a winning horse. And the winner here is clearly Android.

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T-Mobile today announced availability of its HSPA+ network in three new Northeast corridor areas comprised of upstate New York (Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse), Connecticut (Hartford, New Haven, Milford and Stamford) and Providence, R.I. The carrier says that Washington, D.C. and Boston are next on the HSPA+ implementation list “in the coming weeks.”

Perhaps more interesting than the actual network news is the language T-Mobile uses to describe it — the carrier states that its 3.5G HSPA+ network offers speeds comparable to the 4G networks of its competitors. From the press release:

“Our competitors are asking consumers to pay more for faster wireless service with limited coverage and very few capable devices,” said Neville Ray, senior vice president of Engineering and Operations for T-Mobile USA. “In contrast, T-Mobile is already delivering 4G speeds today to customers and we continue to make major leaps in expanding our HSPA+ mobile broadband footprint.”

Clearly Ray is pointing a finger at Sprint, which is the only U.S. carrier offering and marketing a 4G network, the nationwide WiMAX network it’s in the process of implementing with Clear. The “asking customers to pay more” is a likely reference to Sprint’s $10 premium data charge for the first 4G handset, the Sprint EVO.

So does the HSPA+ network offer 4G-like speeds? I’ve had some hands-on time with both the HSPA+ and the WiMAX networks and based on my experience, I’d generally say yes. Download speeds of 10 Mbps aren’t uncommon when using hardware like T-Mobile’s webConnect Rocket Laptop Stick in an HSPA+ coverage area, which is as fast, if not faster than what I’ve seen on a WiMAX network. Even my Nexus One and its 3G radio capable of only 7.2 Mbps speeds is as fast as what other hands-on testers have reported with Sprint’s EVO on a WiMAX network — and that’s without a premium data charge. In fact, T-Mobile recently eliminated overage charges on its data plans and instead reserves the right to throttle down service after users consume more than 5GB of monthly bandwidth. As the carrier loses customers, it continues to bet that the HSPA+ network expansion and overage elimination will pay off in the long run.

Here’s a look at my HSPA+ experience on a non-optimized area of the T-Mobile network back in February.

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Lamborghini is recalling 428 Murciélago coupes and roadsters built between 2007 and 2008 because they could leak fuel and start a fire. According to NHTSA, supports for the Lambos’ fuel pumps could break, which could allow fuel to spill from the tank. And as we all know, spilled gasoline plus an ignition source (a hot exhaust, for instance) can start a fire.

Given that Lambo has built just over 4000 Murciélagos ever, that means about ten percent are subject to the recall.

We’ve seen many pictures of flame-engulfed Murciélagos on the internet over the past few years and can’t help but wonder if this recall explains at least some of the fires. We love both fire and Lamborghinis, but definitely not when they inhabit the same space at the same time.

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McLaren Automotive has detailed production numbers and dealership locations for the McLaren MP4-12C supercar, which goes on sale next spring. The company says “up to” 1000 cars will be sold in 19 countries for 2011; over 2500 potential buyers have reportedly registered interest online.

Between 300 and 400 of the first years’ cars are destined for the U.S. Another 400 to 500 will go to Europe, with the remainder divided among the Middle East, Asia, and South Africa. Within the U.S., the company plans to have dealerships in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Tampa. Yes, that’s three dealers in California and two in Florida, a nod to the car’s intended demographic (read: rich people in sunny climes).

The eventual goal is to expand the total number of dealerships to no more than 70 and increase sales to 4000 cars annually once the lineup is filled out. Seems like an ambitious target for a newly reborn car company peddling a car that will cost north of $200K.

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Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental.

This Monday, we flew to London to learn a little more about Nissan’s big bet, the Leaf, which is designed to spearhead the switch to electric cars. The compact four-door has 120 hp, is governed at 90 mph, and can supposedly go 100 miles on a charge. The Leaf will cost about as much as a Toyota Prius or a lavishly equipped VW Golf 1.6 TDI. It shares components with Nissan’s B-platform vehicles, such as the upcoming Juke. Pierre Loing, Nissan Europe’s VP for strategy, tells us that the batteries will last for a long time—retaining 80 percent of their capacity after five years and 70 percent after ten. Commonality with Renault’s electric cars, such as the only slightly bigger Fluence sedan, is not impressive; both companies work on their own cars, and Nissan takes some pride in the fact that its Leaf is a dedicated EV, while the Fluence is just an electrified conventional vehicle.

Nissan’s sub-€30K price is made possible only by various government subsidies, with a scope that is somewhat surprising given Europe’s current economic woes. When will governments start taxing electric vehicles like conventional cars, and what happens to the Leaf then? Nissan didn’t have an answer to that one.

While Nissan talked about the Leaf this week, Alfa Romeo invited a few journos to the Balocco, Italy, proving grounds for a drive of some of the most awesome racers from the company’s 100-year history. Most impressive: the 1930 6C 1750 Gran Sport, the 1952 Disco Volante C52 1900, and the 1965 TZ2. In the distance, there were camouflaged Chryslers and Jeeps all over the proving grounds. Remember how we weren’t impressed with the “Chrysler” Delta that was trotted out at the most recent North American auto shows? Rebadging whimsical Italian cars won’t be enough for the U.S., and we hear the memo has been received by Fiat’s management.

Toyota is launching the hybrid version of its Auris, which is basically a European Corolla. The Auris HSD is a five-door hatchback that uses the Prius’s hybrid drivetrain. Not particularly blessed in the looks department, the Auris blends right into traffic, and your neighbors will never know just how much you care about the planet. On paper, the Auris HSD is extremely efficient; in real life, it will be interesting to see how well it stacks up against the same car with Toyota’s own diesel, which is a powerful and competent engine that puts the Auris ahead of many competitors. The Auris HSD is about €2500 cheaper than the Prius—apparently that’s the price of bragging rights. But just think of all the solar panels this money could buy.

This €2500 premium won’t be enough to bridge the gap between the utterly satisfying Porsche Panamera V-6 and the upcoming hybrid version, which will use the same system that is used in the Cayenne and the VW Touareg. It consists of Audi’s supercharged 3.0-liter V-6, an electric motor, and a heavy pack of batteries. Forgive us if we think the regular V-6 will be at least as much fun as the hybrid, despite the latter’s 80 or so more horsepower. Porsche is considering a diesel-powered Panamera for Europe, and the most likely engine to be offered is Audi’s 3.0-liter V-6 TDI of A8, Q7, and Cayenne fame. It’s a powerful enough engine, and while it doesn’t ooze racing heritage, it will help potential buyers to get their Panamera past the corporate bean counters.

Porsche is not forgetting about its traditional buyers either. We would not at all be surprised to see a Panamera Turbo S, which would make at least 550 hp. If you are set on a Turbo, there is no reason to hold off, but a Turbo S would be sure to give Porsche’s four-door sedan a mid-term boost down the road.

Porsche engineers are convinced that the upcoming, fantastic 918 Spyder needs to be able to drive electrically. We are told that 918 buyers will want to drive short distances on batteries alone, and they will want to tell their neighbors about their responsible choice. For this, they will gladly take a weight penalty of several hundred pounds. Really? We think most 918s will be driven right into their owners’ collections, while others will be taken to the track for serious action. Driving to Starbucks on batteries would not have been on our list of priorities, but it shows you just how much effort and funds electric mobility has hijacked in corporate R&D centers even now.

Autobahn Tested

Having spent more time at airports than behind the wheel—such is the life of the Continental at times—we can only report on the frugal Renault Clio Grandtour Diesel this time around. This Le Car successor has an 85-hp, 1.5-liter turbo-diesel, and what you feel is not 85 hp, but 162 lb-ft of torque. Keeping up with bigger boys doesn’t require much effort, and while we were underwhelmed by the style of this strictly economical device, we were glad to have it as a reliable partner for the week.

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Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel’s shares are soaring after two analysts said Sprint’s actions over the past couple of years are starting to take hold and that the company is likely to post subscriber gains this year.

The stock jumped nearly 9 percent, or 38 cents, to $4.79 a share. Over the past year, the company’s stock has not exceeded $5.78 a share.

Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating on the stock to “Buy,” and raised its price target to $6 price. AP reports that Goldman’s Jason Armstrong said Sprint saw a big drop-off in new contract customers and upgrades in 2008, which means that there are fewer subscribers than before reaching the end of their two-year contracts this year. Michael Rollins at Citigroup, who maintains a “buy” rating, said he believes Sprint can post gains in contract subscribers, excluding Nextel users, as early as this quarter.

The new Audi A8’s technological portfolio expands with an optional accessory that offers mobile internet access for passengers. The system provides Wi-Fi connections for up to eight devices, and uses WPA2 encryption to keep your data private.

Connecting to the outside world requires a SIM card with a data plan—the one from your BlackBerry, for example—or tethering of a Bluetooth-enabled phone to the A8’s infotainment system. There’s no additional fee on top of what your wireless carrier charges for data use.

According to the folks at Audi, details about the system’s U.S. availability and pricing have yet to be determined. However, they say the mobile internet option will very likely be offered on American A8s.

If you can’t afford the A8’s price tag but want to surf on the road, in-car internet is also available with the latest versions of Ford Sync and via dealer-installed accessories in Chrysler vehicles and the Cadillac CTS.

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Samsung today launched its Wave smartphone in the UK and France, less than a week after the device was introduced in Germany. The Wave runs a proprietary operating system called Bada, which Samsung debuted at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year. Samsung has previously stated that over 50 percent of its new smartphones would run on Google’s Android platform, so not only is Bada competing with one of the fastest-growing operating systems in the world, but it means Samsung is now competing against itself as both its consumers and developers will be forced to choose between the two OSes. Maybe Samsung should look closer at the Bada name because the first three letters indicate what kind of idea this is: B-A-D.

It brings to mind an early “Battlestar Galactica” episode in which the then-newly sworn-in President Roslin tries to temper the wish of Commander Adama to continue warring against the Cylons, which had nearly exterminated the human race in a single day. “The war is over,” says Roslyn. Same goes for the mobile platform battles: the top smartphone ecosystems of iPhone, Android and BlackBerry have won.

The shame of it all is that Bada looks like a solid smartphone environment and the Wave device appears potent — the phone runs on a 1GHz chip with an 800×480 resolution AMOLED display and can record video in 720p high-definition. Based on specifications alone, the Wave competes well with the latest and greatest handsets on the market.

But features and specifications by themselves won’t win any wars; ecosystems and developer traction are also required. To that end, Samsung provided a beta version of its Bada SDK to developers earlier this month and will sell apps through a Samsung Apps store. The company is also offering a $2.7 million prize pool to Bada developers in an effort to quickly ramp up the number of software offerings. But its big three competitors already offer more than 250,000 applications combined, and while not all of those titles are what I’d consider “quality applications,” there are more than enough solid software selections to keep people happy.

I’m not suggesting that there will never be another mobile platform that can compete with or dethrone the current incumbents. Instead, I think any new and successful effort will require a unique, fresh approach both for consumers and developers. I don’t see why a developer would create applications for Samsung through Bada when it could create software using Android for Samsung phones and many other handsets as well.

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One of the many changes involved in bringing the Fiat 500 from Europe to the U.S. will apparently be the addition of new exterior badges. A photo posted on the Facebook page for Fiat USA is asking viewers to vote on the logo design for the American-market Fiat 500.

Current Euro-market cars subtly incorporate the “500″ script into chrome trim on the license-plate brow and on the side moldings, whereas the U.S. version will probably carry more obvious badging. The choices are variants of the word “Cinquecento,” Italian for “500″ and employed on Fiats of yore. Based on the current comments, design four seems to be winning. If you want to vote for it or one of the other designs, click here and leave a comment.

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Although they’ve been working together since 2004, the CEO’s of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) held a press conference in Times Square to announce the details of a new level for their relationship. The news, which leaked last week, has Yahoo providing Nokia devices with e-mail, search and services. In outlining the new aspects of the Yahoo/Nokia alliance, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz placed particular emphasis on Nokia’s mobile mapping technology. “Yahoo lost its focus on maps a few years ago—well, not lost it, just invested in other areas, Bartz said. “By partnering with Nokia to build that up, we can still focus on other parts of the business, such as search.” She also noted that is this part of a larger plan for Yahoo to expand its existing partnerships with roughly 100 mobile companies around the world. Nokia will also help it drive growth in other markets including India and Thailand.

Specifically, Nokia will be the exclusive, global provider of Yahoo’s maps and navigation services, integrating Nokia’s Ovi Maps across the internet company’s offerings. In return, Yahoo’s job involves becoming the exclusive, global provider of Nokia’s Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services, which will be branded as “Ovi Mail/Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo!”

The partnership with Nokia will not mean that Yahoo will forget about its iPhone, Blackberry and coming Android apps. For Nokia’s part, CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo feels that Yahoo will help it gain greater market share in the U.S. Yahoo said co-branded services will begin to become available starting in the second half of this year and with global availability expected in 2011.

One area that the two will not collaborate on is advertising. Bartz and Kallasvuo both said that this is strictly about consumer services. “There is no advertising relationship in this partnership,” Bartz said, though she added that at least in directly, their work on location services will help both to better tap local marketers, an area that is increasingly important to Yahoo.

In conversation with Jason Titus, Yahoo’s VP for communications services, and Tero Ojanperä, Nokia’s EVP, services, the two discussed how adding advertising services to the arrangement was unnecessary. Essentially, if the geo-services and social media aspects of the deal work as intended, the ad dollars will flow to both companies respectively, they said. “We’re both moving aggressively in mobile advertising, and bringing the huge reach that Yahoo and Nokia have in combination, we’ll both become much more relevant to local advertisers,” Titus told paidContent.

Asked whether there was a temptation to challenge Apple’s iAd mobile ad system for apps, Titus responded, “Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is doing a lot of interesting things, but I don’t think that anyone should regard iAd as the be all, end all of mobile advertising. The mobile space is still just burgeoning, it’s still experimental. We’ve been doing digital advertising a long time and there’s going to be a lot of different experiences for mobile ads going forward.”

Nokia’s Ojanperä said that the company will continue to use a number of advertising partners in various global markets. “What works in the U.S. is different than what works in China, so it makes sense for us to continue our existing relationships,” he said.

There is one area of advertising that will see some teamwork from Yahoo and Nokia. When the unified services rollout during the second half of the year, there will be an extension of Yahoo’s ongoing branding campaign and Nokia’s promotion of its own new devices. “There will not be a dedicated device related to the Yahoo partnership,” Ojanperä said. “But we do have many exciting devices coming out, including the new N8 [smartphone], and we will advertise around those product launches.”

In making today’s big announcement, Nokia and Yahoo needed to address the judgment that they were both being left behind by Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Apple and even, to some extent, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), as all have their own mobile operating systems. The launch of these new services aren’t really about any new innovations in the space, but it certainly does help in getting both companies caught up. It may seem a little late to industry observers, but as Yahoo Titus noted, the mobile space is still pretty new for most consumers.

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Yahoo and Nokia have unveiled a partnership that will see Yahoo power Nokia’s Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat platforms and Nokia provide mapping services for all of Yahoo’s navigation products. But the deal is a late effort by two companies being leap-frogged by newer, nimble competitors in the mobile space.

Or as my friend Michael Gartenberg, who tweeted just after the announcement, put it: “Yahoo and Nokia deal feels like two brands that have lost relevance seeking to reclaim it.” Indeed, this deal would have held far more promise had it been inked as little as two or three years ago. But at this point, swapping services won’t be enough to slow down the mobile juggernauts of Apple and Google, both of which already provide rich ecosystems and services.

Some numbers to help put this last-ditch alliance in scope:

• Yahoo! Mail has over 600 million members worldwide
• Nokia Ovi has over 9 million mail users
• 100 billion messages sent monthly on Yahoo! Mail
• 81 billion instant messages sent monthly through Yahoo! Instant Messenger

Yahoo, which hasn’t focused on its Maps platform for years — CEO Carol Bartz admitted as much during the webcast detailing the Nokia deal — gains the navigation expertise offered by Nokia both in Ovi Maps and in Nokia’s Navteq assets, which Nokia purchased in 2007 for $8 billion. And given Nokia’s focus on emerging markets, this alliance brings the Yahoo brand to new places around the world — locations poised for growth, so there could be some short-term, marginal benefit.

Ironically, Nokia’s Ovi brand will gain recognition as well, but not in emerging markets. Instead, Nokia’s Ovi name will be seen in the United States each and every time someone uses Yahoo Maps, which will be tagged: “Powered by Ovi.” Although Nokia is the undisputed worldwide champion when it comes to handsets, it wants a foothold in the U.S. to offset lost market share. Nokia President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo called the deal a step toward helping the company “compete in the world’s largest market.” It is a step, but not much of one and not one that the company should have waited until 2010 to take.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Mobile OSes Are No Longer Just About Mobile

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WebKit has gained astounding traction in the world of the mobile web. The open-source layout engine is at the heart of browsers used in Android, iPhone OS, Symbian and webOS — and most recently, BlackBerry. That leaves Opera and Mozilla as the only two mobile browser developers of note to eschew WebKit. But it won’t be the unifying force in mobile data that some wishful thinkers have envisioned.

There’s a lot to like about WebKit beyond its dominant presence in mobile. The technology supports HTML5, which will help lessen the need for proprietary technologies such as Adobe’s Flash and Microsoft’s Silverlight. Its small footprint and high performance make it ideal for mobile, where devices are smaller and less powerful than other platforms. And developers say it’s easier to code for than other mobile browser engines.

Indeed, WebKit has the potential to be a huge force in moving mobile data beyond native apps and toward a standardized world of web-based apps where developers can address huge mobile audiences with a single build and consumers aren’t constrained by the kind of hardware they carry.

But as I point out this morning in my weekly column over at GigaOM Pro, the world of WebKit isn’t quite as unified as it may appear. That’s because there is no single WebKit standard. Companies and developers are free to create and distribute their own individual WebKit browsers, and they alone are responsible for creating and pushing out updates. Which means it’s even more susceptible to fragmentation than Android, which is already struggling to cope with multiple versions of the OS being deployed by carriers and handset manufacturers around the world.

WebKit may eventually serve as a kind of baseline platform for developers of web-based apps, foundations they can then tweak for each WebKit-enabled browser. But it won’t do much to make life simpler for developers with a plethora of mobile operating systems on which to build. Read the full post.

Photo courtesy Flickr user Johan Larsson.

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PayPal doesn’t just want to be in your mobile phone, or behind the transfer of virtual goods in social networks such as Facebook, where it’s one of the options for the new Facebook Credit payment system, according to President Scott Thompson. He told me during an interview in Toronto recently that he sees the company becoming the default payment engine for your television, your car, your DVD player and even your fridge. Thompson also said that the online payment business is exploding with new competitors in a way he has never seen before, but that PayPal is confident it can retain its edge as more and more transactions move online.

Thompson took issue with critics who have suggested that the company hasn’t been as nimble or as aggressive in the mobile space as it should have been. “We’ve been investing in mobile since 2005, and we continue to invest and improve,” Thompson said. “We fundamentally believe that mobile is a big wave, and one we want to be a part of and take advantage of.” However, he added that PayPal doesn’t want to simply focus on the iPhone or Android devices, that its vision is much larger. “Anything that is at the end of a network should have payment ability,” he said, including portable devices but also more prosaic products such as your TV, your DVD player — even your car.

At some point in the future, Thompson suggested during a keynote interview at this week’s mesh conference (disclosure: I am one of the organizers of the conference), cars will have the intelligence to be able to handle encryption and security, and therefore be able to do payments as well. “Companies are building automation into cars, so that when you pull into a parking spot and you park for 62 minutes, you pay for that 62 minutes,” he said. “Why can’t the car authenticate you when you’re dispensing fuel? Why can’t it authenticate you when you go through a toll booth?” All that is required is a secure payment and authentication system, said Thompson, and that is what PayPal aims to provide.

And what about competitors like Square — the mobile payment startup from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey — or Zong, which recently raised $15 million? Thompson said that Square is “a neat little piece of technology that I’m not sure is going to solve a big problem going forward,” but that he likes the company and has “a good relationship” with Dorsey. The PayPal president also said that the competition in the payment sector “is like nothing I’ve ever seen — it’s really intense,” but that it was a sign of the market potential and that it wasn’t likely to be a “winner-take-all kind of game.”

In the short video clip embedded below, Thompson talks about the company’s strategy and its vision of a future with multiple devices handling payments:

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Mobile Market Overview Q1 2010

Feature image courtesy of Flickr user Andres Rueda

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Tesla Motors has partnered with Toyota and will begin building electric vehicles in the latter’s NUMMI factory in Fremont, California. The 5.3-million square-foot NUMMI facility stopped producing vehicles for Toyota and plant partner General Motors in April. Tesla plans to build the Model S electric car at the plant starting in 2012, as well as other potential future models, should the brand thrive enough to build them.

The NUMMI factory has an annual production capacity of about half a million vehicles, and used to build the Toyota Corolla and Tacoma, Pontiac Vibe, and others. (Of course, Tesla will utilize but a tiny fraction of that capacity.) NUMMI is located close to Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto, which the company says “ensures a tight feedback loop” between design and manufacturing.

As for the partnership between the two companies, a press statement said that Toyota and Tesla will “cooperate on the development of electric vehicles, parts, and production system and engineering support.” The Japanese automaker will buy $50 million worth of Tesla stock—a drop in the bucket for a company like Toyota, but much-needed funds for an automotive pipsqueak like Tesla, which has struggled with funding in the past. At some point in the future, the two will collaborate on an electric vehicle.

Why would a behemoth international automaker like the typically conservative Toyota—the progenitor of the mass-production hybrid—partner with upstart Tesla? Toyota President Akio Toyoda said his company can learn from Tesla’s “quick decision-making and flexibility,” citing it as one of the main motivations behind the partnership. Tesla reportedly also reminds Toyoda of Toyota’s early years.

“I think he [Toyoda] really likes the spirit of Tesla and that it’s a young and flexible company,” said Tesla spokeswoman Khobi Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, Tesla believes it can learn a lot about vehicle production from Toyota; Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long admired the Japanese company. The partnership gives Tesla an injection of capital and a production facility. And working with Toyota, the company that champions efficient mass production, may help Tesla someday achieve its goal of making electric cars affordable to mainstream buyers. (Its only current offering, the Tesla Roadster, costs over $100,000.)

More than 5000 workers, most of whom were UAW, were laid off when Toyota ended production at NUMMI earlier this year. Tesla wouldn’t say whether any of them will be rehired, but such a move certainly would help counter the avalanche of negative press in the wake of the plant’s closure.

Related posts:

1. Toyota and Lexus Recalling 3.8 Million Vehicles to Fix Pedals, Floor Mats
2. Toyota Adds 1.1 Million Vehicles to Floor-Mat Recall, Now Includes Pontiac Vibe
3. Toyota to Build Prius in U.S. in 2010; Reducing Truck Output – Car News