The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Belize wants to quiz anti-computer virus guru McAfee in murder probe
- China's financial reformers adapt Party rhetoric in low-key pitch
- Google's Android finally earns respect with developers
| Belize wants to quiz anti-computer virus guru McAfee in murder probe Posted: 12 Nov 2012 05:01 PM PST BELIZE CITY: Police in Belize want to question U.S. anti-computer virus software pioneer John McAfee in connection with the murder of a neighbour he had been quarrelling with, but they say he remains a person of interest at this time and is not a suspect. McAfee, who invented the anti-virus software that bears his name, has homes and businesses in Belize, and is believed to have settled in the country some time around 2010. "He is a person of interest at this time," said Marco Vidal, head of Belize's police Gang Suppression Unit. "It goes a bit beyond that, not just being a neighbour." Police officers were looking for the software engineer, said Miguel Segura, the assistant commissioner of police. Asked if McAfee was a suspect, he said: "At this point, no. Our job ... is to get all the evidence beyond reasonable doubt that Mr A is the one that killed Mr B." "He (McAfee) ... can assist the investigation, so there is no arrest warrant for the fellow," added Segura, who heads the Criminal Investigation Branch. McAfee's neighbour, Gregory Viant Faull, a 52-year-old American, was found on Sunday lying dead in a pool of blood after apparently being shot in the head. McAfee has been embroiled in controversy in Belize before. His premises were raided in May after he was accused of holding firearms, though most were found to be licensed. The final outcome of the case is pending. McAfee also owns a security company in Belize as well as several properties and an ecological enterprise. Reuters was unable to contact McAfee on Monday. Segura said McAfee had been at odds with Faull for some time. He accused his neighbour of poisoning his dogs earlier this year and filed an official complaint. "There was some conflict there between (them) ... prior to the death of the gentleman," Segura said. "But those dogs didn't have a post mortem to see if the toxicology would confirm what type of poison, if any." McAfee previously accused the police Gang Suppression Unit of killing his dogs during the May raid. McAfee was one of Silicon Valley's first entrepreneurs to amass a fortune by building a business off the Internet. The former Lockheed systems consultant started McAfee Associates in 1989, initially distributing its anti-virus software as "shareware" on Internet bulletin boards. He took the company public in 1992 and left two years later following accusations that he had hyped the arrival of a virus known as Michelango, which turned out to be a dud, to scare computer users into buying his company's products. - Reuters
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| China's financial reformers adapt Party rhetoric in low-key pitch Posted: 12 Nov 2012 04:59 PM PST BEIJING: Reform-minded members of China's Communist Party hierarchy this week argued for far-reaching changes to the country's financial system in order to help fix broader social problems, like a divisive gap between rich and poor, and ruin of the environment. Making their pitch at a gathering of the twice a decade party congress which will climax on Thursday when a new leadership line-up is unveiled, the advocates of change warned China's economic star would fade without pro market reforms. Contained in otherwise bland statements meant to project an image of unity, the reformers struck at the heart of state economic planning by urging for market forces to be given more influence over credit allocation, that could increase for example innovation in technology, and for restrictions on cross-border capital flows to be relaxed. To argue their case, the reformists strove to connect their agenda, sometimes tenuously, to broader goals laid out in outgoing President Hu Jintao's keynote speech to the opening of the Congress last Thursday. Addressing the Congress shortly after Hu, the deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, Yi Gang used the president's words to remind the party that the evolution of the financial system was pivotal to the Chinese people's future. "We all know that after 30 years of development, the gap with developed countries in terms of the food we eat and the clothes we wear isn't very large," Yi said. "Where there's still a pretty large gap is in terms of air quality, water quality, and other kinds of pollution and environmental problems. "The construction of a civilised natural environment - this actually involves an incredibly broad range of areas, including how we shape our financial system." Buried in their carefully worded statements, reformers made veiled calls for further liberalisation of interest rates, which could increase private businesses access to capital, as well as increase interest income for China's vast population of savings account holders. Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, zeroed in on Hu's call for the development of "multi-level capital markets", arguing that such development would enable China's economy to move up the value chain. "The real economy is still focused on low value-added production. It is intimately related to the fact that our financial system is not developed. The real economy lags behind because financing is difficult and expensive," Guo told the Congress. Reformers hope to build on some recent progress. China has launched a high-yield bond market, and granted banks more flexibility to set loan and deposit rates, while there are also plans for the country's domestic commodities exchange to begin trading crude oil futures soon. According to industry sources, the Shanghai Futures Exchange has sounded out international trading houses which could be allowed to crude oil futures without having a presence in China. "The speed of internationalisation is going to accelerate over the next few years, both for foreign firms trading into China and Chinese companies going into overseas exchanges," Lili Wang, general manager at Nanhua Futures' International Department, told Reuters. RESISTANCE TO CHANGE Opposed to reform are powerful vested interests who benefit from the status quo. Officials from the big state-owned firms, in their speeches to the Congress, also drew on Hu's speech to argue for the preservation of their near-monopoly position, while calling for more investment in their companies. Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan, widely seen as a conservative associated with disgraced former Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai, highlighted the dangers of financial liberalization by pointing to failings in the U.S. financial markets that led to the global financial crisis. "Everyone has seen what has happened in Western society during this crisis," Huang said. "But it did not happen in China and will not happen." That, Huang said, was because the Communist Party promotes "the scientific outlook on development", referring to Hu's vision that the benefits of economic growth should be increasingly shared with workers and farmers. In contrast, advocates of reform have made scant mention of the vague philosophy, which Hu sees as his lasting legacy. At a media briefing on Sunday chaired by central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, not a single reference was made to any communist theories. Zhou, traditionally a vocal advocate of capital market reform, suggested the pace of interest rate liberalisation should be gradually accelerated. "If I had to choose between a faster or slower pace, I would say a moderate pace is best," said the central bank chief. "However, we have picked up speed." - Reuters
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| Google's Android finally earns respect with developers Posted: 12 Nov 2012 04:51 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO: The mobile video game Kingdoms at War is popular with owners of Apple Inc's iPhone and Google Inc's Android smartphones alike. But for the game's maker, there is a very important difference - it earns more than double the money on iPhones and iPads than it does on Android devices. The disparity is a weakness for Android, which has emerged as the world's most widespread mobile operating system, but has long suffered second-class status among software app developers who prefer the prestige, higher revenue potential and uniformity of Apple's rival platform. But app developers say that is changing fast. Just three years after Google and partners from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to HTC Corp launched a frontal assault on the iPhone, Android is coming into its own with an improved built-in payment system, a growing fleet of high-end devices and a redesigned app store. That translates into increasing revenue for apps developers. "When Android first launched, we didn't even really consider going on Android," said Wilkins Chung, the co-founder of Thinking Ape, which makes the Kingdoms at War app. "Now it's at the point where it makes business sense to invest more resources on Android and try to get there faster. Even though we monetize less, it's still a significant amount of revenue." Smule, another mobile app developer, released its first Android app this Spring, roughly a year after the iOS version appeared, and in July the company launched an app on both Android and iOS simultaneously. Next year, Smule hopes to launch all its new apps on both platforms at the same time, said General Manager Prerna Gupta. The monetization level of the Android apps is not as good as it is on Apple's iOS, she conceded, but added: "We've been pleasantly surprised." A prosperous network of quality app developers is critical for Android as competition among Google, Apple, Amazon.Com Inc and Microsoft Corp in the fast-growing mobile gadget market heats up. Eye-catching design and top-notch hardware components are key selling points for smartphones and tablets, but vibrant digital apps and content are becoming equally essential to a product's overall appeal. "Clearly it's gone from being a device war only, to being an ecosystem battle," said Richard Wong, a partner at venture capital firm Accel Partners, which has invested in Rovio, the maker of the hit mobile video game Angry Birds. PLAYING CATCH-UP During the past year, Google stepped-up efforts to make apps and other digital content into more prominent features on the phones and tablets that use its Android software. In March, Google overhauled its app store and re-branded it Google Play, with a niftier look and a selection spanning digital music, movies, games and apps all within the same storefront. Google Play now boasts 700,000 Android apps, equal to Apple's collection, although analysts say there are more high-quality apps in Apple's App Store. Google has also expanded the number of countries in which developers can sell Android apps, added support for monthly and annual app subscriptions and partnered with wireless carriers such as Verizon Wireless and Japan's NTT Docomo Inc to let consumers charge purchases directly to their cell phone accounts. Roughly three quarters of app purchases on Google Play occur through carrier billing when the option is available, Google has said. "You just need to make it as easy as possible for consumers to purchase that content," said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner. She noted that Android is particularly popular in emerging economies, where credit cards are less pervasive and thus carrier billing is especially important. In China, Android-based smartphones accounted for 87.7 percent of smartphone shipments during the third quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, compared with a 60.5 percent market share in the United States. Yet while Google may enjoy an edge in global market share, Apple and Amazon.Com can draw on years of retail business experience to deftly weave online purchasing capabilities into their mobile devices. With a vast collection of consumer credit cards already on file, both companies have made it a snap for users of their gadgets to quickly buy a digital song, a movie, or an app. "You buy on your phone with pretty much a click and a password entry," said Jason Titus, the Chief Technology Officer of Shazam, one of the most popular apps on Android and Apple phones, referring to Apple. "They've done a great job of doing a deep integration and making that a seamless experience. "On Android the music purchase flow is something that has been steadily improving over time, but it still has a little ways to go to get as smooth and easy as it is on iPhone." Apple has said it has 400 million active accounts with credit cards and that it had paid out a total of $6.5 billion to developers as of October, up from $4 billion in January. Apple takes a 30 percent cut of transactions made in its App store. Google, which has a similar revenue sharing agreement with app developers, declined to provide comparable figures. GOING EXCLUSIVE In April, app maker Pocket Gem released Tap Dragon Park, a video game exclusively for Android. The monetization was lower than it likely would have been on Apple's iOS, said Chief Operating Officer Ben Liu, but he noted that it was still a commercial success, particularly as Google promoted the app in the Play Store. "The game made a lot of money for the company," Liu said, and it was an important learning experience in a market that looks increasingly attractive. The growing number of high-end Android devices - Samsung recently announced it sold 30 million Android-based Galaxy S III phones in five months - is especially appealing for developers. They have often struggled with the many different versions of Android that are available for different types of hardware. "If you look at the high-end part of the market and do apple to apples of high-end Android phones with iPhones, then I think some of the monetization metrics are comparable," said Liu. Smule's Gupta pointed to another benefit of releasing an Android app. Shortly after the Google Play store promoted the Android version of AutoRap, an app that records a person talking and transforms it into a rap song, there was a spike in installations for the iOS version. "It basically enhanced the word-of-mouth growth we were getting for our product and it led to literally millions of downloads," she added. - Reuters
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