Our growing ability to use the Internet as a giant database, apply that information in a creative way to build interesting mash-up applications, and then apply them to markets — stock, real estate or fantasy — is an area that holds a lot of fascination for me. But while a few efforts have produced rudimentary, data-based mashups that are good, so far none have been truly game-changing.
Softbank Corp. this week. said that it will offer Apple Inc.’s iPhone device to Japan consumers.
The phone is expected to be available in the territory later this year. Release date, price, and exclusivity of the product was not disclosed.
Softbank purchased Vodafone Group PLC’s Japanese mobile phone business in 2006.
It currently third in mobile phone subscribers in Japan, behind the market leader NTT DoCoMo Inc..
That’s the quick and not entirely complete explanation for why Nvidia moved last Sunday to counter Intel’s foray into processors for mobile devices with an expanded low-power processor line of its own, dubbed Tegra.
The longer explanation is that both companies see the markets for their processors going where Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs is busy building an empire: mobile devices that combine computing, connectivity and multimedia content. Build the chips, and someone, whether it is Jobs or Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, will help turn them the gadgets consumers will crave.