AutoNavi Holdings Ltd, China's No 1 navigation provider by market share, is expecting mobile Internet could drive the growth of the company in the coming years as the number of smartphone users hits nearly 300 million in the country.

"Map and navigation services on mobile devices are set to be a gateway for us to embrace mobile Internet, the next big trend in the industry," said Jiang Derong, co-founder of AutoNavi.

Facing competition in China from Apple, Amazon, and domestic gadget companies, Chinese B2C e-commerce website Dangdang.com announced that it will start pre-sales of its own-branded e-reader product from July 26, 2012.

With a 6-inch display, Dangdang.com's new product will only be available on its official website and the company currently has no plans to launch it via third-party channels. Dangdang.com will reveal details about the new product, including product specifications, functions, and brand name, on July 24.

CHINESE iPhone and iPad users do not seem willing to pay for applications although they may have paid several thousand yuan for the high-end mobile devices.

The downloading of applications in Apple Inc's stores has tripled in the past year and propelled the Chinese mainland to become the second-biggest App Store market but the revenue generated by the apps is limited, a report by a mobile application researcher said yesterday.

A CHINESE technology firm has filed a legal challenge accusing US giant Apple of infringing its patented voice recognition software with its Siri function on the iPhone, the company said yesterday.

The move comes days after Apple paid US$60 million to end a dispute over who could use the iPad name in China.

APPLE Inc has agreed to pay US$60 million to Shenzhen-based Proview to end a dispute over the iPad trademark on the Chinese mainland that started two years ago.

Both sides reached the settlement agreement on June 25 and Apple had transferred the funds to the account of the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province, the court said on its website today.

MORE than half of iPhone and iPad users in China have jail-broken their Apple devices to avoid paying for applications despite Apple making it easier last month for owners to pay using the yuan, research firms said yesterday.

By the end of the second quarter, more than 51 percent of Chinese iPhone and iPad users were found to have jail-broken their devices.

Nokia Corp plans to introduce phones using Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, based on China Mobile Ltd's self-developed third generation (3G) mobile networks in the near future, said the company's executive vice-president on Friday.

Colin Giles, executive vice-president of Nokia Corp, who is in charge of the company's global sales, said Nokia has always been committed to China Mobile's Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) technology - the first globally recognized 3G telecommunications standard, led by China.

A local university teacher has created an uproar by telling his students to bring iPads to class and advising those without the device to give up choosing his class, which he called "a luxury."

His comments on Weibo stirred heated debate and many criticized him for looking down on the poor. University authorities have begun looking into the case after yesterday's public outcry and said they will ban the unreasonable requirement if it is true.

Henry Liang, who teaches finance in English at the Shanghai Maritime University, issued this notice on his microblog last Friday: "In next semester, all PPTs, tests and resources will be presented in iPad format only."

CHINA Mobile is expected to offer iPhone, likely a 4G version, on its network in September, sources said yesterday.

"A new iPhone with China Mobile's network will debut and the cooperation will be announced in September," China Mobile's Beijing-based marketing official Liu Yang said on his microblog yesterday. "People will not need to change their mobile numbers to use iPhone."

Attempts by Google Inc and Microsoft Corp to loosen Apple Inc's grip on the booming tablet PC market will be put to the test this week as PC makers unveil new models at the Computex trade show in Taipei.

Investors and analysts will be looking to see if Google's Android operating system can match the popularity of Apple's iPad, while Microsoft may preview its next Windows platform for tablets a year after Apple's first offering hit store shelves.

CHINA has to move into higher value added production - numerous speeches and articles by ministers rightly stress this.

An examination of 2011's list of the world's most valuable brands, published by international advertising and public relations giant WPP, confirms key lessons for this.

CHINA Unicom offered a cheaper iPhone package amid rising competition with China Mobile Ltd in the world's biggest wireless-phone market.

The Beijing-based company started offering a 66-yuan-a-month (US$10) plan for the iPhone after previously setting the lowest-priced package at 96 yuan, President Lu Yimin said yesterday after meeting shareholders in Hong Kong.

Store, injured parties agree deal following angry scenes

FOR many years, Moore's Law was regarded the sacred rule of information technology. It predicted that industry advances would require a doubling of chip capacity every 18 months.

The law was named after Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel, who first postulated the idea in 1965. Unfortunately for Intel, the company paid too much attention to the law and too little attention to what was really going on in the consumer electronics world. Personal computers, the old industry standard, were becoming eclipsed by mobile Internet devices like tablets and smartphones that required a new kind of chips.

Intel officials attending the annual Intel Developer Forum held in Beijing last week admitted with some embarrassment that Moore's Law no longer holds true.

"It's a pity that we looked forward, but we acted at a slow pace," said Ian Yang, Intel China's president.