Tech Industry

 Remember the Times report which claimed the 3G iPhone will cost £100 in the UK, as it’s to be subsidised? Now comes a new report which adds weight to that earlier speculation.

Telefonica SA’s Movistar brand will be the sole distributor of the iPhone in Spain, the company revealed last night. Local Spanish press reports claim the new device will be sold for under €100 to customers prepared to sign a 24-36-month contract with the company.

The report – straight outta Madrid and carried by Thomson Financial – also informs: "The Spanish telecom group will sell the third generation of the iPhone, which has a video camera and GPS."

…yeah wtf does that mean?

Another day, another tale or two: The 3G iPhone will be thinner and cheaper, confirms Cult of Mac; one analyst doesn’t believe the 3G iPhone subsidy chatter; Apple has officially launched its Back to School promotion in the US, offering a free iPod touch or iPod nano to students;  a batch of new universities join iTunes U; Radiohead catalogue hits iTunes; Firefox to grab 20 per cent or more of the browser market next month. Read on…

3G iPhone

Cult of Mac’s Leander Kahney has the information. Citing a supersecretsource, the veteran Mac writer claims Apple’s new 3G iPhone will be thinner, host GPS and 3G and will be available in 16GB and 32GB versions. Oh yeah, and he claims the iPhone will be subsidized in the US and UK (at least)…

Subsidy no way…

Always rely on an analyst to, well, analystisize the latest topics (did’ja know some analysts get a bonus payment whenever they’re cited in the media?) Not saying that analyst Roger Entner at Nielsen/IAG, got paid, but he’s been quoted saying, "There’s no need to upgrade the device’s capabilities and lower its cost at the same time." He doesn’t think AT&T will subsidise iPhone after all; fortunately a batch of other analysts think it will. We’re heading to the melting pot of rumour now, we reckon. Now let’s begin prognosticating the iPhone nano…

Touching offer

Apple is offering rebates up to $299 against the cost of an iPod touch or iPod nano to education purchasers buying a new Mac between June 3 to September 15. This deal’s going to massively expand the number of iPod touch users on US college campuses, we think. And the deal is available in Canada too, helpful reader Kev Orng let us know.

iTunes U

iTunes U is Apple’s education-focused service offering podcasts, lectures, video and other content from higher education institutions. The service has always had a US bias, but that’s now changed with the addition of content from two UK and one Irish university; three Australian higher education institutions and a batch of new US colleges. If you haven’t spent time exploring what’s available in iTunes U, you should – it’s a rich resource for learning.

Radiohead’s iTunes connection

Yes, it’s true. Radiohead has made its music catalogue available through iTunes in the UK and US (and probably beyond), with much of the band’s music being made available in DRM-free iTunes Plus format. This is a hugely significant step, as Radiohead have determinedly resisted the notion of allowing the band’s music to be sold on a per-song basis, pointing to the album as an art form. 

Firefox wins through

Firefox will grab in excess of 20 per cent of the web browser market by the end of July, Net Applications believes – and could exceed that with the release of Firefox 3 set for this month, and the SpreadFirefox campaign’s attempt to get the release into the Guinness Book of Records as the most software downloaded in 24-hours.

Which other tales have caught your eyes today? Let us know in the comments below.

New research confirms Macs have 33 per cent fewer problems than Windows PCs in a business environment – and that it’s easier to resolve Mac problems than those with Windows.

Nucleus Research has been conducting an in-depth study on Mac versus PC in the enterprise. Ian Campbell, CEO of the company, writes: "We’ve been investigating the ROI from Macs versus PCs in the business environment. I was reviewing the data from a case study one of our analysts is completing and the results are interesting."

He continues: "This particular company has approximately 1700 employees with a mixed environment of PC users and Mac users. Here’s the interesting data point: On a per user basis, for every 3 trouble tickets the help desk opens for PC users they only open 2 for Mac users. In addition, the Mac trouble tickets are closed 30% quicker. To net it out, in this company the Macs have 1/3 fewer problems and the problems are solved a lot quicker."

While the CEO freely admits the data only comes from one company, he calls it a "fair comparison of sophisticated users in a roughly balanced Mac versus PC environment."

The researchers are investigating numerous similar deployments, and will publish additional findings as and when case study work is complete, Campbell said.

The cost of investment is higher for Windows, too, as Computerworld suggested last year when it found that the true cost to put together a BTO Dell laptop to be as well featured as a MacBook Pro cost $650 more from Dell than the equivalent Apple laptop.

Today’s highlights include: iPhone Q1 marketshare impacted as RIM, others engage in pre-3G model fight back, IDC explains; Adobe gets agile with Acrobat; Steve Jobs safe from options fall-out; Safari and Mac usage up; and Intel pushes WiMax and Centrino 2 at Computex. Oh yeah, Microsoft tells Windows users to avoid Safari, citing S.E.C.U.R.I.T.Y., because Windows is so incredibly secure without the Apple browser (yeah, right..).

iPhone Q1 marketshare

IDC reports Apple’s iPhone took 19.2 per cent of the US smartphone market in the first quarter, down from 26.7 per cent in the Christmas quarter of 2007. Research In Motion’s BlackBerry took 44.5 per cent in the first quarter, the analysts said. While being reported as some kind of tragedy, it’s pretty clear that most potential iPhone customers are now simply waiting for the 3G model, so we anticipate the marketshare equation will soon see change, it’s just a blip, we reckon.

Adobe Acrobat

Making another move to develop its online software-as-service platform/offering (AJAX, AIR, Flash et al.), Adobe’s introduced a new version of Acrobat that’s equipped with Flash support and other high-end design features. Boosting the software release, the company’s also opened up its Acrobat.com service, a free beta trial of PDF-based online collaboration, creation, storage, web conferncing and management tools as it keeps pushing the paperless office pipedream.

Steve Jobs – safe?

Well, according to Forbes, Apple CEO Steve Jobs now seems unlikely to be slammed with a US government lawsuit over stock options backdating irregularities at both Apple and Pixar. Seems SEC don’t want to take one of the most famous US businessmen down. Action has been taken against former Apple and Pixar execs, though.

Safari, Mac usage climbs

Safari usage online crossed 6 per cent for the first time last month as Mac use continues to climb online, says Net Applications. The figures? Mac OS takes 7.83 per cent, iPhone 0.16 per cent, iPod touch grabs 0.03 per cent while Safari achieves a record new 6.25 per cent marketshare.

Intel pushing WiMax

We know we’re possibly ahead of the curve in speculating Apple plans to push WiMax in future devices and computers, but with key partner Intel seemingly utterly determined to generate mass deployment of such devices and systems, we can’t believe the two firms don’t discuss it from time to time. This week, Intel will show Centrino 2 laptops equipped with WiMax support at Computex. It’s just a shame the Centrino 2 processor’s been delayed until later in the year.

Microsoft’s anti-Safari security salvo

This makes us laugh. Microsoft’s warning Windows users to avoid Apple’s Safari web browser on their platform. Why? Because a recently disclosed flaw can let attackers fill up a victim’s desktop with malicious .exe files. We reckon a safer bet for Windows users is to "ex-" Windows – and these days the market seems to agree…

IMAGE: We plan on using a picture of Award-winning artist, Adam Reeder ‘s sculpture, Pan With His iPod, which took first place in San Francisco Academy of Art University’s Annual Spring Show this year. Sculptor explains, "In mythology Pan played his flute and danced in the woods. In my sculpture, the flute is replaced with an iPod. The nature of Pan hasn’t changed, but the context in which he is seen has changed. The technology has changed what Pan is doing." (We’re just tinkering with the site at present, and images are a little troublesome…sorry…

No big surprise here…we’ve been telling you about this for months.  Today, however, the iPhone Movistar went official with a webpage and everything.  As per usual, no launch date, specifications or anything of interest.

One more week!

UPDATE: WOOPS!  Looks like someone jumped the gun.  The site is down, Movistar and Apple both quiet.  Ouchy

 Here in the land of Mac we’ve been gleefully wishing May out of the way as we wait in excitement for Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote session at WWDC this year – we all hope the company will announce the next-generation iPhone during the event.

We still do.

However, we’ve just learned that Apple will not be holding an exclusive invite-only media event in London during the keynote session. And while the keynote is expected to be made available on video after the event, there will be no chance in Europe for people outside of Apple to watch what Jobs says as it happens.

This may mean nothing at all, but given Apple’s penchant in recent years for inviting select media to the BBC for a chance to watch a satellite feed of the Jobs-note, we’re beginning to wonder if there’s a reason the company doesn’t plan to invite them this time.

We all anticipate Apple will introduce the 3G iPhone at the show, but Apple has previously only said it intends the keynote to focus on Mac OS X and iPhone software development. What if it meant what it said?

What if the lack of an as it happens satellite feed to European media in London means the 3G iPhone won’t be announced at the show?

In brief we’re saying: There will be no live satellite feed going out from WWDC 2008 to European media. We speculate this could mean the keynote speech will be 100 per cent focused on developers. Makes sense, it’s a developer’s event. We want your opinion on this, drop them into the comments below.

 First signs that investors are beginning to chase the potential gravy train that is iPhone application development emerges in force today with news that New York’s Pinch Media has attracted initial funding from Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital and a few other investors.

Founded in April by Greg Yardley and Jesse Rohland, the company today introduced its first product. Aimed at iPhone application developers, Pinch Analytics is a free hosted analytics service that lets iPhone developers track how their applications are used. Developers must integrate the software within their iPhone SDK application, once it is it will track handy statistics such as the number of unique, active users, the length of time your application is being used, and if enabled, the geographic location of your users. The software should help developers understand how many people actually use their applications.

“We’re ridiculously pleased to get this out to developers, so we can see how it performs on a wide variety of applications. If you’re building something with the SDK, check us out – we’d love your feedback. We’re already working on our next iteration of Pinch Analytics and our additional products for iPhone apps, and getting ready for WWDC in early June,” the company said.

Pinch Media wouldn’t exist without the revolutionary nature of the iPhone and its software development kit – for the first time, mobile is moving unambiguously from a medium that does less than the desktop to one that does more, with the iPhone leading and forcing change throughout the entire market. “We’ll be discussing the implications of the iPhone and its SDK here in much more detail in the weeks ahead,” they explained.

 Apple’s 3G iPhone launch plans may have seen a slight delay, at least, reading between the lines of today’s profit warning from mooted chip supplier, Infineon.

What has occurred? Infineon today warned its profits and sales would be impacted by a delay in a project to supply components to Nokia. The company also said Infineon had also received lower orders than expected for a project to supply HSDPA chips for high-speed internet phones. This immediately generated analyst speculation Apple’s new iPhone would “launch at lower volumes”.

"In our view the profit warning has been caused by ramp changes of next generation iPhone," UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudouis said as reported by Reuters.

JP Morgan analyst Sandeep Deshpande also speculated on a change in Apple’s iPhone launch plan, saying: "It could be possible that the lower volumes in the certain platform ramp cited could be Apple reducing the initial launch volume."

It’s all speculation, of course, as Infineon has never confirmed it will supply chips for the iPhone – but code indicating deployment of one of its chips was found within the iPhone SDK last month. A later report indicated United Microelectronics Corporation had been contracted to produce the chips for Infineon for use in the iPhone. 

This news follows recent “rumours of a rumour” that the 3G iPhone release has been delayed, but the veracity of those claims remains extremely dubious.

Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. was claimed to have secured the manufacturing deal for the 3G iPhone in March.

 The New York Attorney General’s office is urging customers who believe they have been victims of Dell’s deceptive and negligent business practices to get in touch in order to claim compensation.

The Attorney General has launched a website through which customers affected by Dell’s dubious dealings can register their complaints in an attempt to seek compensation.

The move follows this week’s judgment against the computer company in which New York State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Teresi declared Dell had engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business and abusive debt collection practices. The company was also found guilty of a sustained pattern of depriving customers of tech support.

The new website explains itself to be: “Dedicated exclusively to your complaints against Dell and/or Dell Financial Services. To file your complaint, you may complete the Form made available to you online. Additionally, please download your copy of the completed printable Complaint Form, sign and mail it with any related documentation.” 

The site also offers a couple of examples of Dell’s abusive practices, one being particularly telling: “When 67-year-old Barbara Williams, President of the Crochet Sewing Guild, bought a Dell computer, she also purchased 3 years “on site service.” When Ms. Williams’ computer crashed, she called Dell’s technical support. Ms. Williams says Dell simply abandoned her for 2 months before agreeing to send a technician to her home.”

In another stated example, a customer was convinced to purchase a Dell computer using Dell’s own finance scheme. While offered a good rate, the customer was then switched to a different plan with a 29 per cent interest rate – this customer’s regular credit card would have charged no more than 8 per cent.

Dell shares are currently trading at $21.69 with the company scheduled to reveal its Q1 earnings today. Should company founder and now CEO Michael Dell simply sell the company and return the money to company shareholders?

Image: Thanks to Gizmodo, image illustrates a Dell laptop bursting into flames at a conference in Japan in 2006.

 Apple has reached a deal to bring the iPhone to Hong Kong and Macau, the latest in a plethora of agreements to widen the addressable market for the next-generation of the product.

The company will offer the iPhone in Hong Kong and Macau through Hutchison Telecommunications International. More details regarding availability and pricing will be revealed at a later juncture, Bloomberg explains. The device is expected to ship in the new territories later this year. The report observes Apple to also be discussing iPhone launches in China and Japan, through China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo, respectively.

This week it was revealed the company will introduce iPhone in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia through TeliaSonera AB, while Royal KPN NV has confirmed it is also in talks with Apple to sell the iPhone in the Netherlands.

Vodafone will sell the iPhone in India, Australia, and New Zealand, while SingTel and its affiliates will offer the device in Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia.

With deals for Canada (Rogers Telecom), South America (America Movil) and numerous destinations in Africa and Europe already on the table, the only major country so far not to reveal any launch plan is Russia. We have a list of countries claimed so far just here.

 Apple is preparing to announce film download and rental services through iTunes in the UK and Canada.

The company is understood to have reached deals with Disney, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Lions Gate and MGM under which iTunes in both named countries will begin offering popular films for purchase and rental using Apple’s service. The move is likely to help boost Apple TV sales, and to improve the utility of iPod and iPhones.

Despite the lack of costs of manufacture or distribution of physical product, the studios have insisted they don’t want to undercut DVD prices with the move, suggesting prices for films will be set between £6 and £25, depending on the title, according to a report in The Times. The eternal refuseniks, Sony Pictures and Universal Studios have refused to agree the new deal at this point, the report claims.

Disney CEO Bob Iger last year explained his company has sold four million films and 40-50 million videos through iTunes since making its media available through the service in 2006.

In the US, Apple has reached deals to offer films through iTunes on the same day they ship on DVD.

 Another in our series of re-runs, in homage to Ballmer’s appearance at the D: All Things Digital event last night – here’s an old commercial for Windows. Enjoy…(Thanks to ‘9 to 5 Newb’ for the link).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL4hyATkQ74&hl=en]

Samsung has switched to Apple’s Safari browser in its latest Symbian-powered smartphone, the Samsung L870.

The new device was introduced today at Barcelona’s S60 trade show. It runs Symbian v9.3 and S60 third Edition Feature Pack 2, but it’s the alleged use of the Safari browser that’s most likely to raise a stir, as it’s the same browser as used on the iPod touch and iPhone.

That consumer electronic powerhouse Samsung has chosen to adopt Apple’s world class browser for its new device underlines the success of the iPhone. It also reflects the strong relationship between the two firms – Samsung provides much of Apple’s flash memory, for example, and Apple made a $100 million tactical investment in the company for display production in 1999.

Aimed at business users, the 50-x-102-x-13.5mm Samsung L870 has a 2.4-inch colour TFT screen (display resolution 240-x-320). The tri-band L870 also carries an FM tuner, microphone, speaker, and a 3.1-megapixel camera.

L870’s pre-installed applications include an advanced task manager Checkit, PIMs (Personal information manager) homescreen, Team manager and business card recognition function.

"We are happy to compliment our product portfolio with yet another appealing S60 mobile, Samsung L870 that is fully customized with style, performance and user interface," said Jongin Kim, Vice President of Mobile Communication Division of Samsung Electronics. "With S60, we can successfully deliver the latest mobile technology with fully customizable applications and intuitive user interfaces."

The Samsung SGH-L870 will be available in Europe around August this year.

Should other phone manufacturers migrate to Safari, the move may call into question the future for Windows Mobile, though Apple is unlikely to license OS X Mobile for smartphones to other manufacturers, at least, on previous form.

 On strength of the multiplicity of soon-available applications, Apple will sell 20 million iPhones by the end of 2009, selling another 10 million in 2010, says Goldman Sachs.

"Third-party applications will differentiate the iPhone from a growing number of its smartphone competitors,” analyst David Bailey told The Financial Post. The analyst pointed out that deployment of Mac OS X on the device offers a “more robust” application development environment for developers, with the App Store promising a much better user experience, likely to sell more applications than existing smartphone application purchasing systems.

The analyst predicts applications will cost between 99-cents and $29.99, depending on how sophisticated the apps are, he also anticipates some smaller software solutions will be made available at no charge to iPhone users.

Predicting a huge number of applications for the device, the analyst pointed out, “Apple’s expanding addressable market for iPhone applications, in turn, should attract software developers’ interest and development resources, leading to a broader selection of third-party applications available at the App Store.”

Meanwhile, the pre-release hype for the next-generation device and continued anticipation for the upcoming iPhone Software 2.0 remains. The existing model is in ever-shorter supply worldwide, prompting Roger Entner, senior vice president at market research firm IAG Nielsen to observe Apple to be managing supply to prevent disappointing customers. “You can say what you want about Steve Jobs, but he’s learning from his mistakes. They are cleaning out the supply channel.”

A wave of recent deals with mobile telecoms firms suggests Apple hopes to sell millions of units of the device within weeks of its debut, with the only major countries without an iPhone distribution agreement at present being Japan, Russia and China. Apple has otherwise inked deals that mean the iPhone will be available to over 600 million mobile phone users worldwide (estimated). At present, the device, which has sold just over five million units, is available to a potential 153 million users.

Mobile networks now concede iPhone users are colossal consumers of data bandwidth – mainly because the device actually lets them use such connectivity in a useful and approachable way. T-Mobile iPhone customers consume 30 times more data than its other wireless customers, the New York Times claims.

 New York State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Teresi ruled against Dell yesterday, declaring the company had engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business and abusive debt collection practices.

The judge slammed the company for luring customers with ads that offered "no interest" or "no payment" financing options, but its financing arm would charge customers higher rates than those promised.

The company was also slammed for a sustained pattern in which Dell deprived customers of technical support that they bought or were eligible for under warranty. Cited cases included extremely long waits for tech support to answer calls, repeated transfers of calls and frequent disconnections of support calls.

Dell also often failed to provide onsite repairs for customers who bought contracts for such support and often blamed software when hardware was actually the problem, the court found, IDG News Service reports.

In a final flourish, the court also found users who complained of technical problems with their products before the expiration of their free tech support period would then not be offered any succour once their warranties expired.

The courts will now decide just how much Dell will have to pay its customers in compensation, and just how much cash the company must hand over to the State of New York, an amount which must equate to the profits it made through these practices.

That Dell engaged in these dubious acts suggests just how bad a deal consumers in the sub-$1,000 PC segment actually receive.

http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/452319854

Part 2 after the break (We know!)

http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/452319854

 Apple’s MacBook upgrade plans may have hit an obstacle, with news that Intel will delay the release of its new Centrino 2  platform for laptops by nearly two months.

Intel’s delaying the release in order to address problems related to the chipset and the antenna used with the wireless chipset. Centrino 2 is the latest version of Intel’s laptop platform and was originally scheduled to ship in June. The impact of the delay means computer makers – potentially including Apple, should it make good on long-standing rumours claiming it has chosen Centrino 2 for its next scheduled MacBook release – will now have to delay the launch of any new machines.

"We are taking the extra days to address two issues that require us to re-screen our chipsets with integrated graphics, and attend to some terms-and-conditions mistakes while filing and testing our wireless antennas," said Elvin Ong, an Intel spokesman speaking to the IDG News Service.

Centrino 2 includes new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme Mobile processors and also features an updated chipset with integrated graphics. As reported, the system includes WiFi, with WiMax support available as an option. The new processors will ship on July 14, Intel said.

All the same, the delayed release of the next0gen chips could scuttle any chance of Apple introducing new model MacBooks at WWDC next month.

Adobe is denying claims the company plans to launch Adobe CS 4 this October, with the company’s John Nack penning a furious denial on his regular Photoshop blog.

He points to a report from the TG Daily website, which claimed the software to be expected to ship “on October 1”, condemning these claims as fantasy, speculation, “just something made up”.

Nack’s clearly furious with everybody who picked-up on the report, but does concede that the Photoshop technology demo described did take place.

“I didn’t say anything about schedule.  In fact, I never said that any of this stuff is promised to go into any particular version of Photoshop.  Rather, as with previous installments, it’s a technology demonstration of some things we’ve got cooking–nothing more,” he says.

Nack also uses the pulpit to slam journalistic standards. In our experience, it’s not journalists who are reducing standards, but money-hungry publishers, slashing rates of pay while cutting staff down to the bone, effectively making it impossible for high quality investigative journalism.

In related news today Adobe released pre-release beta versions of three applications destined to ship in their final form in Creative Suite 4, which probably won’t ship in October: Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth. These are available from Adobe Labs.

 The iPhone will become the ultimate remote control, capable of interfacing with all-manner of domestic systems, with news that the venture capital company managing the $100 million ‘iFund’ has taken a position in developers building an application called iControl.

iControl is one of two applications named as securing funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The other application is a location-based service from Pelago called Whrrl. One more unnamed developer has also secured funding, with an additional ten “under consideration”, a report claims. In excess of 1,700 applications for funding have been made so far, the report reveals.

Whrrl links the mapping and location-sensing features of the iPhone with the ability to find information about places where you, your friends, or anyone has been. It’s kind of like an active social network for travel information that lets users select between recommendations by their direct contacts and overall ratings by users of the network. That’s an interesting marriage of geo-tagging, location-aware services and the internet.

As revealed in a recent poll in which we asked what would make a good product from Apple, there’s some demand for an uber-remote control of some kind. 21 per cent of 2,286 people who voted in that poll expressed a preferences for iPhone-controlled home automation systems, with an additional 6 per cent stating an interest in a universal remote. That’s where iControl steps in. This solution offers iPhone users remote control over common household systems, including things like air conditioners, lighting, window shades, and more.

The software also offers remote home monitoring and control functionality – you can use your iPhone to check what’s happening at home using the Safari browser, so in the event of a burglary, for example, you’ll be able to alert the authorities and despatch images of the miscreants at the scene of the crime – your home. Unruly children can also be micro-managed remotely using this system.

iControl already faces one competing surveillance system, Mobiscope. This isn’t as well-featured as iControl, but as previously supported offers video surveillance of your office or home.

 The latest unconfirmed iPhone rumour is upon us, and it once again claims the next-generation device will be available in three colours, well, that, or it confirms there’s a lot of rabid iPhone fans prepared to spend a little time creating Photoshop fakes of potential Apple ads…

We’re not sure how much weight to give this latest rumour, which we’re publishing here because rumour’s like this seem set to keep the iPhone world turning as we inch our way toward June 9.

iPhone Hellas reports (this link seems non-functional) the next-gen device will be slimmer than its predecessor, and available in three colours; white, black and (erm) red..

There have been continued mumblings that iPhone may be made available in multiple different models. Whether we’re going to see them all appear next month is open to question. These rumours got a shot in the arm last month when Piper Jaffray said: "We continue to expect Apple to offer a family of iPhones (2-3 separate models) in the first half of 2009, including lower priced ($200-$300) models. Just as the company slowly diversified the iPod lineup and entered lower price points with every new version of the iPod, we expect Apple to launch new models of the iPhone at lower price points in CY09. This expectation, along with the expectation for lower price points, and world wide availability of the phone, is critical to our CY09 iPhone estimate of 45m units.”

Consumers purchasing iPods, iPhones, Macs and an array of similar consumer electronic devices, including VHS and DVD recorders, may soon be required to pay a Europe-wide levy on every sale.

Led by music industry groups, rights-holders in Europe have been pressing local lawmakers and consumer electronic device makers to agree to such a tax. They want money raised through this levy to be distributed to rights-holders.

Today’s news is that consumer electronic companies – after stiff resistance to such proposals – may now be willing to declare a truce in these negotiations, in order to find a mutually satisfactory solution.

Consumer electronics companies including Nokia, Apple and Sony have contacted regulators at the European Commission to that effect.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of Nokia, and Greg Brown, chief executive of Motorola, are among the signatories of a letter to the European Commission saying that they are willing to “explore new ways forward” in a dispute that has been in deadlock since the 1960s, reports the Financial Times.

The levy is intended to compensate content creators for losses they face as a result of private copying of their material. Apple, Nokia and Motorola now reportedly say they would be willing to accept such surcharges, so long as they are set at the same level across Europe. Differing levels of levy are applied on sales of such devices across the majority of the European Union states.

More here.