Briefly: Cunliffe on copper, Lumia 1020, Asus Memo Pad

Bill Bennett -

Labour leader and communications spokesman David Cunliffe has thrown his weight behind the report from Network Strategies showing consumers will pay hundreds of millions if the government plan to keep copper broadband prices high goes ahead.

Cunliffe says: “Network Strategies estimates taxpayers and consumer will have to pay even more to Chorus to enable it to complete its roll-out of ultra-fast broadband.

“Chorus posted a $171 million profit this year. It doesn’t need a corporate hand-out courtesy of the New Zealand taxpayer.”

  • Telecom NZ is now selling the Nokia Lumia 1020. It’s a 41 megapixel Windows Phone 8 smartphone with image stabilisation –  we’ll have a first look at the device online later today. The off-plan price is $1149 or $149 up front if you commit to a $139 24 month plan.
  • Windows Phone is gathering momentum in Europe. Kantar WorldPanel ComTech reports Microsoft’s phone OS accounts for 9.2 percent of sales in  Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. That’s up from five percent a year ago. It is still a long way behind Android which has a 70 percent share, but fast catching up on iOS which now sits at 16 percent.
  • Asus execs might bristle at the description, for the rest of us the company’s Memo Pad HD 7 is best described as a cheap, no-frills seven-inch tablet. It sells in New Zealand for $279. That money buys a quad core processor, front and back cameras and a 1280 by 800 screen. The specification is close to that of the Nexus 7 and like the Nexus it uses Android.
  • Samsung invested $4 million in New Zealand’s PowerbyProxi. The deal will see Samsung licence wireless power technology to use in consumer electronics and home appliances.
  • Research firm Gartner pronounced BlackBerry dead and recommends the company’s enterprise clients “take no more than six months to consider and implement alternatives”.