Fresh off his trip to North Korea — and right behind Apple CEO Tim Cook’s trip to China — Google chairman Eric Schmidt joined a panel discussion at the “Geek Park” conference in Beijing, according to Tencent Tech.
Schmidt reportedly reminded the developers in attendance that despite Apple’s popularity in China — the iPhone 5 sold more than 2 million units in one weekend — Android is still the top dog in the Middle Kingdom.
Schmidt stressed that it’s no harder to monetize on Android than iOS, and focused on the monetization possibilities for Android apps, according to Tech In Asia.
Apple’s Cook recently made his second trip to China in less than a year.
Chinese Browser King Heads to Africa, Middle East
A deal with Telecoms outfit Orange will help Baidu, creator of China’s top Web browser, to launch its mobile browser in Africa and the Middle East, according to ZDNet.
Orange, a mobile subsidiary of France Telecom, will pre-install Baidu’s browser on mobile phones in the Middle East and Africa, where the company has some 80 million subscribers.
Baidu has an 80 percent share of the search market in China. Aggressive domestic competitors have thus far been unable to take a sizable chunk of Baidu’s Chinese users, but Baidu nonetheless seems eager to expand its operations.
France Telecom, likewise, has made an overseas push of its own.
WeChat Maker Denies Censorship
Tencent, the Chinese Web giant, has denied that there is global censorship of its popular chatting platform WeChat, according to the BBC.
Following up on posts from The Next Web and Tech In Asia that allege censorship of WeChat, the BBC reported that WeChat will have problems expanding overseas because information will be subject to monitoring — and, presumably, subject to censorship — from the Powers That Be in China.
WeChat has 300 million users worldwide.
RIM Flooded With App Submissions
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion received 15,000 app submission in less than two days after offering US$100 for any app approved to its app store, according to All Things D.
It is unlikely, according to All Things D, that all of the apps will be approved, but the article nonetheless chalks this up as a win for the BlackBerry 10 ecosystem.
Judge Acquits Nortel Execs
On Monday, a Canadian judge acquitted of fraud charges three former Nortel Networks executives, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The trio, each of whom faced two counts of fraud and up to 10 years in jail, were found innocent of flubbing Nortel’s financial results between 2000 and 2004. The erroneous numbers entitled them to about $13 million in bonuses, so it was a valuable mistake.
Nortel, a former telecommunications equipment manufacturer, announced that it would cease operations in 2009.
Norway to Present Anti-Piracy Plan
The Norwegian government will present a new anti-piracy plan later this month, according to Torrent Freak.
Torrent Freak writes that piracy has long been a hot topic in Norway. In 2009, for instance, the country’s largest Internet service provider was pressured by movie studios to block The Pirate Bay. The ISP, Telenor, refused, but that didn’t stop efforts to enact stiffer anti-piracy policies, which will be taken up in court this month, according to Torrent Freak.
Other European countries, including the UK and the Netherlands, have enacted anti-file-sharing legislation in the last year.
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