Nokia Hopes Pair of Cheap Phones Will Help Regain Some Ground in Emerging Markets

The Nokia 110 and 112 both promise basic Internet access, free games, and connections to Facebook and Twitter, for under 40 euros.
Nokia 110

RIM Will Bring Budget BlackBerry to India, Indonesia

Worth a try, right?
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IBM’s Rometty: That Extra $20 Billion? We’re So There, Almost.

IBM’s new CEO gives an optimistic update on the company’s ambitious growth targets for 2015.
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News Byte

Peak Games Raises $11.5 Million for Social Games in Emerging Markets

Istanbul’s Peak Games has raised $11.5 million more in capital to continue to build social games targeting emerging markets, such as Turkey, the Middle East, South America and Mexico. Investors in the round include Earlybird Venture Capital and Hummingbird Ventures. The capital will be used to enter new markets, for game studio acquisitions — including the recent purchases of Umaykut and Erlikhan — and to hire more employees.

VeriFone Willing to Shell Out $1 Billion Annually to Grow Payments Network

As the largest maker of cash registers and other payment processing devices, VeriFone is willing to spend up to $1 billion a year on acquisitions to stay on top.
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Of Course Apple Is Planning a Cheaper iPhone 4 (Updated)

A new report claims Apple has developed a budget-friendly eight gigabyte iPhone 4.
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Intel CEO: We’re Big in Brazil, and Lots of Other Places

When it comes to the PC market research, firms see business growing a lot more slowly than Intel does.
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Voices

Lenovo Net Jumps 25 Percent

China’s Lenovo Group Ltd., announcing its largest profit in two-and-a-half years, said Thursday it is making strong market-share gains in emerging markets, including China–which it forecasts will “soon” become the world’s top personal-computer market.

When He Isn’t Stepping Down as CEO, Eric Schmidt Is Writing About Google’s Mobile Future

While abdicating the Google throne is certainly the big news from Eric Schmidt on Thursday, I’m also intrigued by some comments the outgoing Google chief had to say in a recent guest article for Harvard Business Review. In the piece, Schmidt talks about how mobile stuff is perhaps the biggest thing at Google for 2011, saying the company needed to push for faster networks, better mobile payment options and do its part to help deliver inexpensive smartphones for the developing world.

Gates Foundation, U.S. Government Back Cellphone Banking for Haiti

Digicel has been given a $2.5 million grant for being the first company to establish mobile banking in Haiti. It’s part of $10 million in funding established to boost cellphone-based savings in the impoverished and quake-stricken country. Even before the quake, only one in 10 Haitians had access to traditional banking services.

So Much for SAP's "Teutonic Solidity"