| Amazon's Android App Store Launching Tomorrow (Report) Amazon may be launching its Android App Store tomorrow, according to a new report, just in time to kick off this week's CTIA Wireless 2011 conference in Orlando, Florida. An unnamed "trusted source" told Wired that the store will launch Tuesday, March 22. Customers will be able to purchase apps both online via the Amazon website and through a native application designed for Android devices. Thanks to a post on the Amazon AppStore Developer blog, we already know that the store's launch will come with at least one major exclusive: the latest in Rovio's Angry Birds lineup, Angry Birds Rio, will launch first in the Amazon App Store before being distributed to other online outlets.
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Google Accuses China of Interfering with Gmail Service Google and China are again at odds, this time with accusations by Google that China is interfering with Gmail. Internet users in China have reported difficulties with Gmail over the last few weeks, complaining that the email service is slow or unavailable. While it's been made to look as though it's a technical problem on Google's end, the search engine giant says that the Chinese government is responsible. "There is no technical issue on our side. We have checked extensively," says a Google spokesperson. "This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."
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Sprint Fully Integrates Google Voice Google Voice has long felt like it could become a real competitor to the major phone carriers. With its mobile phone apps and recent ability to port existing phone numbers to the service, the VOIP service has been moving closer to being a viable alternative. But today Google announces that it's found a partner, not a competitor among the major carriers. The company has just announced that Google Voice will be fully integrated with Sprint. This means that all Sprint phones and all Sprint users will be able to tap into Google Voice's features without needing a special app.
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E-Books Sales Up 115%, But Does It Come At the Expense of Print? The Association of American Publishers (AAP) released its figures from January 2011 book sales, and the news echoes what we've come to expect: more readers are turning to e-books, and they're doing so in droves. In face, e-book sales have more than doubled since the same time last year. According to the AAP, e-book sales are up 115.8%, from $32.4 million to $69.9 million year-over-year. But how does that impact the rest of the publishing industry? Do more e-book sales mean more books are being sold? Are e-readers and iPads engaging a new audience of readers (or at least book buyers)? Or are consumers simply making the switch from print to digital?
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On the Path to 1 Billion Users: Facebook's Feature Phone Strategy The Israeli mobile startup Snaptu confirmed on its blog today that it has been acquired by Facebook. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed for Facebook's first acquisition outside the U.S., but the sum was pegged at $70 million. Snaptu builds applications for feature phones, and the startup worked with Facebook to develop its feature phone app, released at the beginning of this year. That app expanded Facebook's mobile app availability beyond just smart phone users, bringing a Facebook app to over 2500 different mobile devices.
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AT&T Buying T-Mobile for $39 Billion AT&T has just announced its intention to buy T-Mobile USA from parent company Deutsche Telekom in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $39 billion. Both boards of directors have approved the deal, which would make AT&T the largest wireless company in the United States, assuming the deal passes regulator approval. The acquisition will allow AT&T to improve network quality for both companies' customers, says AT&T, while also enabling it to expand its 4G/LTE deployment to 95% of the U.S. population.
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Cartoon: My Brand, My BFF There's nothing like air travel to drive home just how broadly social media has permeated the marketing psyche. I drew this on my way to NTC last week in DC. At every turn on the trip, I saw Twitter and Facebook icons: littered throughout the in-flight magazine, plastered on the now-ubiquitous illuminated billboards in the terminals, on the cash registers at newsstands and restaurants. I visited a few of those Facebook Pages and Twitter feeds, and most of them actually do have an active presence: tweets, updates and content designed to engage me.
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SXSW: Accelerator Finalists and Winners At last week's SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, 32 companies presented at the SXSW Accelerator awards, sponsored by Microsoft's BizSpark. The companies spoke in front of a panel of judges, one of which was ReadWriteWeb's editor, Richard MacManus, who helped in judging the news applications. By day two, 32 finalists were narrowed down to just 12, all competing for the top spot in one of four categories: news related technologies, innovative Web technologies, entertainment technologies and social media and social networking technologies. So, who won?
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What Digg Was Really Like at Its Peak Digg, the one-time king of the user-driven online news sites, saw its founder Kevin Rose announce his departure yesterday and was written up as dead by several leading publications. Top among the requiems was Sarah Lacy's article on TechCrunch, RIP Digg. Lacy articulates one perspective on the news very well. It really is just one, very rosy, perspective though. "Revisionist history, if there ever was one," Tweeted Guardian-exited media industry scribe Rafat Ali about Lacy's article. Lacy's coverage is good from the perspective she comes from, as a writer of compelling business narratives, but there's more to the whole story of Digg than that. Here's a little more to consider.
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Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible Our readers know ReadWriteWeb as the blog that's ahead of the technology curve. Our sponsors know us as that, too. Once a week we introduce our sponsors to our readers and let them know a little more about who they are and what they do. You can say thanks to the companies that make ReadWriteWeb happen by tweeting them (see the link below each sponsor) or following them using our Twitter list. Interested in being a ReadWriteWeb sponsor? Our readers are smart, tech-savvy decision makers; 40% have a graduate degree or PhD, and over 45% play a key role in information technology purchasing decisions. More than 1 million people on Twitter follow us to stay abreast of the latest Web technology trends from around the globe. To find out more about our sponsor packages, visit our advertising page or email our COO.
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