THE WRAP: The Foxconn suicides, an Apple milestone

Robert Clark | May 28, 2010

telecomseurope.net

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This week, Apple hit another milestone, while Dell unveiled its first handheld device.

Contract manufacturer Foxconn considered hiking workers’ wages as the spate of suicides in its Shenzhen plants continued unabated. A public apology from chairman Terry Gou appeared to have no effect.

In a sign of the times, Apple overtook Microsoft to become the world’s biggest tech company by market cap. The US Department of Justice made early inquiries about possible anti-competitive behavior by Apple in the online music market.

Dell unveiled the Streak a Sony PSP-sized smartphone, which will launch in the UK in June.

Most of the 11.7 million Android handsets sold have been to US buyers, while two-thirds of the 27 million iPhones sold have been outside the US, according to AdMob.

AT&T is encroaching on BlackBerry’s turf, revealing that 40% of new iPhone sales were to business users.

Up to 60,000 BT staff will be balloted about strike action if the telco doesn’t resolve a pay dispute by June 1.

New York-based Allied Fiber began building a $690 million (€555 million) dark fiber network across the US.

German authorities and Google were at a standoff over a disk containing personal data collected by Google’s Street View program.

Eircom became the first ISP in Europe to implement a three-strikes rule for illegal file sharers.

Google said it had helped add $54 billion in value to the US economy last year.

Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s entertainment chief and the prime mover behind the Xbox, said he would step down in 2011.

Yahoo and Nokia struck an alliance to combat Google and Apple in content, mapping and mobiles.

A £143 million (€168.5 million) writedown on pension liabilities flattened Cable & Wireless Worldwide’s result, its first since the breakup of the old C&W.

IBM bought B2B transaction firm Sterling Commerce for $1.4 billion. Pace became the world’s biggest set-top maker.

Australian customs officers were given the power to search incoming travelers' laptops and mobile phones for explicit content.

And Bulgarian cellco Mobitel retired the number 0888 888 888 after its three successive owners died suddenly.

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Robert Clark