Smartphones are a common sight on subways all around the world.

Even in places where cell signals are scant or nonexistent, the versatile devices are being used for playing games, listening to music and watching videos.

However, where there is a signal, cellphones are often a lightning rod for controversy: There’s an ongoing debate over how to handle something that can be very useful — and also very irritating to those nearby.

In Taipei, signs and recorded messages encourage commuters to think twice before annoying fellow passengers with loud conversations. A sign depicting a talking cellphone suggests that phone users consider sending a text message rather than talking and, if they must converse, urges them to keep things brief and and use a quiet tone.

On the subways of Seoul, where wireless coverage is strong and ubiquitous, there is plenty of opportunity to talk on cellphones. On the Web site for the Seoul subway system, transit authorities list tips on how to be a polite passenger, starting with using a soft voice and setting cellphone ringers on vibrate.

Instead of talking, many transit passengers opt to use their phones as on-the-go TVs, utilizing Korea’s unique mobile video service, known as Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB).

In both Taipei and Seoul, it was fairly uncommon to hear someone yakking away on their phone — something I hear all the time on the buses and streetcars of San Francisco, even if service here is a whole lot spottier.

Selling more than 13 million devices, the company posted earnings of $625 million (18.7 billion Taiwan dollars), or 73 cents per share, on revenue of $4.54 billion. Sales were notably strong in China, where the company saw sales volume nine times that of a year earlier. The sales and unit numbers were close to, but just shy of, the forecast that HTC issued in July.

“We aim to lead the way as the smartphone market continues to expand and change rapidly,” HTC CEI Peter Chou said in a statement. “We pride ourselves on anticipating market and consumer needs and addressing them before they are realized. We are growing rapidly and responsibly around the globe and continue to expand our leadership in new areas, such as LTE.”

The company’s average selling price of $344 per device was up less than 1 percent from a year ago, and down slightly from last quarter’s $349.

Looking ahead, the company forecasts that fourth-quarter revenue will be about $4.18 billion to $4.51 billion, which would be a 20 percent to 30 percent increase from a year ago, with gross margins of around 28 percent. Unit shipments are expected to be around 12 million to 13 million, a 31 percent to 42 percent increase from a year ago.

HTC plans to expand its presence in China by distributing in 2,000 additional retail locations; a new factory will boost the company’s output capacity by 40 million units a year.

For a day on the streets of Taipei, I took along an iPhone 4S and the HTC Salsa, a touchscreen Android device with a built-in Facebook key.

The day began with a trip to Taipei 101, the megaskyscraper that towers over the city’s skyline. While waiting to go up to the top, I stopped at the upscale electronics boutique, which featured kiosks for all kinds of brands, from Acer and HTC to Canon and Nikon.

Google’s recently updated translate app — with its expanded speech-to-speech capabilities — allowed me and a companion to query a non-English-speaking salesman about the various differences between two Fuji instant cameras.

“What’s the difference between these two models?” I asked.

The phone uttered something that meant nothing to me, but was clearly understandable to the salesman. After pointing at the screen, I convinced the salesman to respond in Chinese. He said something, and the screen translated that to be “outside.” At first I was confused, but then realized that the only difference between the two models was that one had a slimmer external case.

I also had the iPhone 4S with me. The device got most of its use as my primary camera for the day, capturing everything from the colorful flower memorials at the Lungshan Temple to the sights of Studio A — a computer store specializing in Apple gear.

I also tapped the phone’s maps, and asked for an occasional weather update from Siri, the iPhone’s new voice-controlled assistant.

Missing from Siri’s repertoire, of course, is local search outside the U.S. That meant there was no asking her for help finding the nearest noodle joint, though that wasn’t too hard, anyway.

At the Shilin Night Market, there were iPhone cases everywhere, from ones that made the latest in tech look like an old-school calculator to licensed and black-market models for brands like Paul Frank and Ferrari.

There were also products that stretched the boundaries of good taste, such as a landline phone in the shape of a toilet, and the iBooty — a combination iPhone case and stand in the shape of a derriere. But the products that seemed in poorest taste were the hastily created Steve Jobs memorial iPhone cases.

Still, it was definitely fun looking around and sipping bubble tea.

After a long day, I got home and told Siri to set an alarm for 7 am, which she obligingly did.

“Thank you,” I said, feeling like it was the right thing to do, even though I was talking to a computer.

“I live to serve,” she replied.

And then there was Schiller and Gore.

That would be Apple’s SVP of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller and former Vice President Al Gore, who round out the stellar list of speakers at our upcoming AsiaD conference.

Taking place from Oct. 19 to 21 in Hong Kong, the lineup is already impressive, with a mix of speakers from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, as well as Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

The previously announced speakers include: Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma; Google Android head Andy Rubin; Twitter inventor and product guru, as well as Square co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey; Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang; Asus Chairman Jonney Shih; Sony president and second-in-command Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai; Google+ guru Bradley Horowitz; Hollywood big shot Peter Chernin; Huawei’s North American R&D head John Roese; Microsoft’s Windows Phone head Andy Lees; and a panel of Silicon Valley start-up stars — Joyus’ Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, SurveyMonkey’s Dave Goldberg and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky; Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Asia head Rose Tsou; LivingSocial’s Tim O’Shaughnessy, along with founders of two of its Asian units, Daniel Shin and Paul Srivorakul; Samsung mobile head Dr. Won-Pyo Hong; HTC CEO Peter Chou, who replaces Chairwoman Cher Wang.

Schiller, who reports to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook (and before that, Steve Jobs) is a member of the executive team of the tech icon, where he has worked for 17 years. He is responsible for a swath of Apple’s outward-facing businesses, including product marketing, developer relations and business marketing.

Today, in fact, he was onstage at Apple’s iPhone event, outlining some of its new product offerings. In addition, Apple just opened its first retail store in Hong Kong.

Gore, who had a memorable interview at the fourth D: All Things Digital conference in 2006, needs little introduction. The former VP and Nobel Peace Prize winner is now chairman of Current TV and also continues as a prominent environmental activist.

Gore is on the board of Apple, while also being a senior adviser to Google, which is a neat trick. At the same time, he is a partner in the famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins, and co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, a partnership that is focused on sustainable investing.

And, as most people know, he knows a thing or two about the Internet.

Walt Mossberg and I could not think of two better people to add to the lineup we have for AsiaD, which has very few seats left.

See you in China in two weeks!

Built from the ground up by Google, these three facilities will be the first in the Asia-Pacific region to be fully owned by the company. Google expects them to be operational in one to two years, barring any major hiccups.

The investment comes as demand for Internet services in the region soars and competition between local players heats up.

“More people are coming online every day in Asia than in any other part of the world, so locating data centers here is an important next stage of Google’s investment in the region,” Google said in a statement.

The CGI imps at Next Media Animation of Taiwan are at it again, with their unusual take on the controversy over Netflix’s recent pricing changes and its splitting of its video streaming and DVD-by-mail business (now called Qwikster).

Somehow those two businesses are portrayed as mutant Siamese twins. I have no idea why, but it works.

Enjoy:

With AsiaD just a little over a month away, Walt Mossberg and I are adding even more speakers to the list, for what we hope will be an awesome event in Hong Kong.

Taking place from Oct. 19 to 21, the conference lineup is already impressive, with a mix of speakers from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, as well as Silicon Valley and more.

The previously announced speakers include: Alibaba’s Jack Ma; Google Android head Andy Rubin; Twitter inventor and product guru, as well as Square co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey; Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang; Asus Chairman Jonney Shih; Sony president and second-in-command Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai; Google+ guru Bradley Horowitz; Hollywood big shot Peter Chernin; Huawei’s North American R&D head John Roese; Microsoft’s Windows Phone head Andy Lees; and a panel of start-up stars — Joyus’ Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, SurveyMonkey’s Dave Goldberg and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky.

Now, to add to the kitty:

Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang, who will appear with the Internet giant’s Asia head Rose Tsou. For all of the noise around the company these days, Yahoo has a huge footprint in the region, maintains a big e-commerce business there and holds massive stakes in key firms, such as Yahoo Japan and China’s Alibaba. One of Yahoo’s first big investments came from Asian investor Masa Son, in fact, way back when.

Also on deck is LivingSocial’s CEO and co-founder Tim O’Shaughnessy, who will appear with Daniel Shin, the CEO and co-founder of South Korea’s Ticket Monster, which the daily deals site just bought as part of its aggressive move into Asia. Competing there with its U.S. rival Groupon, as well as a myriad of local social buying services, the market is a tough one.

Because of Samsung’s increasing importance as a global player in smartphones and tablets, we thought it was important to have Dr. Won-Pyo Hong. He heads global product strategy for Samsung’s mobile business, which has surged in the past year to make the Korean tech giant a leader in Android-based phones and tablets, and a significant challenger to Apple.

Also key in the mobile arena is Cher Wang, the chairwoman of three Taiwan companies, including HTC, the important and innovative handset and tablet maker which has been a key player in Android’s success story. But just this week she talked about the possibility of HTC buying an operating system, which would further strengthen its hand in the competitive market.

That’s it for now, but we will have more big names to come, as well as some pretty cool demos we will be putting onstage at AsiaD. So stay tuned.

I cannot express my delight at finally getting to appear in a CGI news video by Next Media Animation, in a segment about the CrunchFund controversy.

In it, the New York Times’ David Carr and I attack TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington with paintball guns. He is wearing a green wizard outfit.

Later, a flaming Arianna Huffington and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong make an appearance.

Yes, it is that kind of video.

Enjoy:

The Taiwan personal-computer maker had previously said that it expected a profit in 2011, but Acer Chief Executive J.T. Wang said Wednesday that inventory adjustments, falling demand for notebook PCs and a weakening global economy led to a change in outlook.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

You have to hand it to the CGI folks at Taiwan’s Next Media Animation for this depiction of Google’s $12.5 billion bid for Motorola Mobility.

It includes the search giant’s co-founders riding a pony (it’s a one-trick one); Asian handset makers jumping out of Windows (Phone); and Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Job as a lightsaber-wielding Darth Vader (the helmet looks good with the black turtleneck).

Please enjoy:

And these aren’t the kind of cyber attacks carried out by bumbling troublemakers like the LulzSec gang, which make headlines but really only cause a nuisance for companies like Sony. In these cases, networks were compromised by remote access tools — or RATs, as they’re known in the industry. These tools — and they are tools, because they have legitimate uses for system administrators — give someone the ability to access a computer from across the country or around the world. In this case, however, they were secretly placed on the target systems, hidden from the eyes of day-to-day users and administrators, and were used to rifle through confidential files for useful information. It’s not for nothing that McAfee is calling this Operation Shady RAT.

McAfee says the attacker was a “state actor,” though it declined to name it. I’ll give you three guesses who the leading candidate is, though you’ll probably need only one: China.

Dmitri Alperovitch, McAfee’s Vice President, Threat Research, makes a statement in his blog entry on the discovery that should give everyone minding a corporate or government network pause: “I am convinced that every company in every conceivable industry with significant size and valuable intellectual property and trade secrets has been compromised (or will be shortly), with the great majority of the victims rarely discovering the intrusion or its impact.” He further divides the worldwide corporate landscape into two camps: Those who have been compromised and know it, and those who simply don’t know it yet.

This has been a particularly nasty year on the cyber security front. (I hate to say it, but I told you so.) Prior to this, the big attack whose full impact has not yet been fully sized up was the one against the RSA SecureID system, which uses popular keychain devices that create a constantly changing series of numbers that in turn create a second password for access to system resources. They’re widely used in government and military circles and among defense contractors. Google has been a regular target in recent years.

The RSA attack and Operation Shady RAT are examples, Alperovitch says, of an “Advanced Persistent Threat.” The phrase has come to be a buzzword that, loosely translated into English, means the worst kind of cyber attack you can imagine. Unlike the denial-of-service attacks and network intrusions carried out by LulzSec and its ilk, which require only minimal skill and marginal understanding of how networks and servers work, an APT is carried out by someone of very high skill who picks his targets carefully and sneaks inside them in a way that is difficult to detect, which allows access to the target system on an ongoing basis that may persist for years.

How did these attacks happen? Its very simple: Someone at the target organization received an email that looked legitimate, but which contained an attachment that wasn’t. This is called “spear phishing,” and it has become the weapon of choice for sophisticated cyber attackers. The attachments are not what they appear to be — Word documents or spreadsheets or other routine things — and contain programs that piggyback on the targeted user’s level of access to the network. These programs then download malware which gives the attackers further access. This all happens in an automated way, but soon after, live attackers log in to the system to dig through what they can find, copy what they can, and make a getaway — though they often leave the doors unlocked so they can come back for repeat visits.

Alperovitch notes — correctly, to my mind — that the phrase has been picked up and overused by the marketing departments of numerous security companies. His larger point is that too often those attacked in this way refuse to come forward and disclose what they’ve learned, thereby allowing the danger to continue for everyone else.

Alperovitch says that the data taken in Operation Shady RAT adds up to several petabytes worth of information. It’s not clear how it has been used. But, as he says, “If even a fraction of it is used to build better competing products or beat a competitor at a key negotiation (due to having stolen the other team’s playbook), the loss represents a massive economic threat not just to individual companies and industries but to entire countries that face the prospect of decreased economic growth.” It’s also bad for a target’s national security, because defense contractors dealing in sensitive military matters are often the targets. The best thing that can happen is that victims start talking about their attacks and sharing information with each other so that everyone can be ready for the next one, which is surely coming.

Foxconn has in recent years seen its share of negative press. There was an explosion that killed three people at one of its plants in June. Prior to that there was a disturbing string of suicides that so shocked the sensibilities of Western consumers that it prompted demands for better working conditions and two lengthy cover stories in Wired and Bloomberg Businessweek. The concern was significant, in no small part because of the shadow the matter cast over Foxconn’s most prominent customer, Apple, which has done its best to force Foxconn to make the lives of its workers better.

Manufacturing electronics by the millions isn’t exactly mentally stimulating. The Wired story used the phrase “repetitive, exhausting, and alienating,” and it’s not hard to imagine going stir-crazy after doing it for any length of time. That’s why it’s interesting to see the news out of China today that Foxconn is going to boost the number of robots doing those repetitive tasks on its assembly line.

The story from Xinhua News, China’s state-controlled news agency, is headlined “Foxconn to replace workers with 1 million robots in 3 years,” and relates that the announcement came from Foxconn CEO Terry Gou himself at a company dance party.

Eerily absent is any comment on the reaction of those employees in attendance. Did they cheer at the thought of being freed up by robots from the least-popular jobs on the line? Or did they begin to worry anew, grasping the economic realities that additional factory automation bring with it?

Robots are efficient, they don’t get tired, and aside from routine maintenance, they don’t take breaks. They also don’t complain about soul-killing work conditions. All of this makes them appealing to Foxconn management and its growing list of clients.

But as anyone who knows even the barest details of the history of factory automation in the U.S. auto industry is aware, robots have a funny way of causing job losses. While Foxconn already uses some 10,000 robots now, the story says, the number is going to multiply by a factor of 100, to one million robots within three years. If those numbers turn out to be accurate, there is simply no mathematical way that some portion of the 1.2 million people currently in Foxconn’s employ can avoid losing their jobs. And that can’t help but cause other unexpected ripple effects throughout the Chinese economy.

(The image is a screen grab from the trailer for the 2004 Will Smith film “I, Robot,” which I obviously selected with tongue in cheek. Real robots used in the assembly of electronics look more like the one assembling cellphone speakers in the video below, from a Florida-based company called AccuPlace.)

With its annual meeting this coming Thursday, you’d think Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz would be taking a rest.

Not so!

She has been a regular Carmen Sandiego, in fact, jetting to Yahoo hotspots around the globe from Dubai to Milan to New York and then back to Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ.

As do Yahoos, I get most of the Friday emails she sends out, but I usually don’t bother to post them.

That said, I liked the can-do tone of this one, shades of Bartz early in her term, even in the face of a stock price that’s dropped almost eight percent this month to close at $14.69 on Friday.

(To be fair, the shares of Google are down by a little more in the same time, although its CEO Larry Page seems to prefer to remain holed up in his digital cave in Mountain View and lick his stock wounds.)

No matter, as Bartz writes, it’s nothing a little retail therapy can’t fix!

I myself am off on an international biking vacation in Ireland next week, so while I am gone, please enjoy Carol’s letter to Yahoos:

Last week was a crazy one -– Dubai and Milan in five days! You may not know it, but the Middle East and Italy are two of our hottest markets in the EMEA region (and I do mean hot — it was 114 Fahrenheit and very humid in Dubai — I thought I was going to melt!).

First on the itinerary was Dubai, where I met with government officials, advertisers, the media, and our awesome Yahoos there.

I kicked things off Monday with the Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. Turns out he is a BIG Yahoo! fan. He told me that he’s on our sites every day to check the latest news and sports headlines. It makes sense — we’re huge in the Middle East and North Africa. Since we acquired Maktoob a year and a half ago, we’ve grown from 30 million to 53 million users. That’s impressive in a region with more than 70 million people online today.

We’re tops in entertainment with omg! Arabic, and with our women’s lifestyle site, Helwa. And we’re a strong #2 in News, thanks in part to our new Arabic homepage that launched six months ago. Already, it’s our fourth most popular homepage in the world — right behind the U.S., India and Taiwan. Meanwhile, Yahoo! is #1 in the Middle East and North Africa for display advertising with 40% market share.

Then on Wednesday it was off to Milan, where I visited with advertisers and our passionate Yahoos there. (I love that our Italian headquarters also happens to be located in one of the fashion capitals of the world — so convenient! An hour of retail therapy goes a long way).

We are winning it Italy. In a business review, our folks called themselves the Yahoo! “Italian Racing Team,” and I believe it. They’re firing on all cylinders. The country boasts some of the highest engagement numbers for us in the EU. We reach 66% of the online population in Italy. We’re top three in seven content categories, and #1 in four of them: Mail, News, Answers and Flickr. Plus, these #1 sites are growing faster than the market. And on the ad side, May was a record month for our display advertising in Italy — we’re taking share while growing revenue.

Throughout my trip to Italy and the Middle East, one thing came through loud and clear: Our local teams are able to execute and grow user engagement more quickly than ever before. This is thanks, in large part, to the great work of our Products org.

Take, for instance, our new Yahoo! Publishing Platform (aka LEGO). Our editors have put it to good use on our Italian Movies site. We’ve seen a 90% increase in page views, and a 60% increase in users. And that’s just in the first three weeks! This is exactly what we’ve been working so hard on for the past two years. We’ve completely re-architected our infrastructure, and it’s incredibly satisfying to see it pay off in so many parts of the world.

After all that fun, I headed back across the Atlantic and spent two good, solid days covering a lot of business in the Big Apple — press, investors, agencies and Yahoo! Sales leaders. Then it was back here to Sunnyvale for CEO staff meetings and a great “Coffee with Carol” with 30+ Yahoos.

I’m off to have a good weekend, hope you do too — especially you Dads on Father’s Day!

Carol

Former California Governor and Hollywood action star Arnold Schwarzenegger got the CGI treatment from Next Media Animation, which should come as a surprise to exactly no one.

The Taiwan-based news site does its usual antics about Arnold’s marital woes, with a lot of ladies and some “Hasta la vista, baby” talk.

Enjoy:

In an interview with Mobilized, Lanci said he was pushing the company to become more mobile-focused and more global. Acer, he said, needed to look beyond Taiwan as the world shifted to one in which Intel and Microsoft had less power and computer makers needed to do more work for themselves.

“At that time, I already saw if we want to become a major player in this new world, we needed to do certain investments, mainly on software and on smartphones and tablets, on touch,” Lanci said.

Lanci said the company needed to go from 300 or 400 engineers to 1,000 engineers, with a greater focus on software and hardware integration. The talent the company needed, he said, wasn’t present in Taiwan.

“The real major issue was doing that in Taiwan, this was not possible,” Lanci said. “We needed to go outside Taiwan, be it China or India or even the U.S. or Europe, wherever you can find software resources, software know-how.”

Lanci, who was replaced as CEO in March, said that the interests that control Acer were worried that his plan would lead to a de-Taiwanization of the company.

“I said, ‘Look, it is not de-Taiwanization,’” he said. “It is just globalization. If we want to be in the top three (PC makers) in the next three to five years, we need to be a global company and we need to leverage resources wherever they are.”

Lanci had begun to talk about this strategy in a November interview with Mobilized.

For its part, Acer has placed the blame squarely on Lanci’s shoulders, suggesting he was looking for too much power and control while at the same time not delivering results.

Lanci concedes that the company was late in delivering on its smartphone and tablet vision, but said this was because it needed capabilities it did not have. As for the results, Lanci noted that Acer grew from a $10 billion company to a $20 billion one during his eight-year tenure, delivering consistent profits along the way.

“Last year we made more than $600 million in operating income,” he said. “Let’s see what they are able to do.”

Had the company followed through with his vision, Lanci said he is convinced it would have grown to be a $30 billion company and one that got a third of its sales from smartphones and tablets by 2015.

“People after a few years will decide who was wrong,” he said.

Although today’s tablets are a consumer phenomenon, Lanci said the push by Microsoft to deliver Windows on ARM-based chips will help the devices move solidly into the business domain.

“You can easily think about a tablet thin and light, like the current iPad 2,” he said, but offering everything that the PC offers as well. However, he said that Acer needed to do more to prepare for that world. In addition to boosting its own software capabilities, he said the company needed a different relationship with chipmakers. The PC world, he said, was one of buying and selling components, with pricing and availability based solely on volume. The mobile world, he said, is based on close partnerships and strategic alliances.

As for who is doing things right, Apple is clearly winning, but there are others also making moves to adjust for the shifting world.

“I see Samsung is probably doing the right thing,” he said. “HP, maybe. It depends what they are going to do with software and with WebOS.”

However, he said much of the PC industry is in a similar position where Acer was. Lanci isn’t sure what is next for him personally, but he hopes it will be in the PC industry–a place that has been home since 1982.

“I took two weeks’ vacation,” Lanci said. “Now, I am in the market and looking around. For sure I want to stay in this industry.”

Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White says Apple has been working hard to eliminate Japan-related constraints, proactively securing components from overseas suppliers.

“Our checks are indicating that Apple is aggressively attacking the situation in Japan and immediately sent executives to suppliers to ensure adequate supply of components, while also offering upfront cash payments,” White wrote in a research bulletin. “Additionally, our contacts indicate that Apple has been in Taiwan securing component capacity with a “3 Cover” guarantee (e.g., capacity, stock and price) that could block out competitors, providing the company with further market share gain opportunities.”

White’s report lends further credence to market chatter that had Apple seeking out new vendors in Taiwan to ensure access to key components. The company was recently rumored to have tapped AU Optronics as a secondary source of iPad displays, agreeing to pay a rumored 300 percent to 400 percent premium to guarantee a steady supply. Sources said that the deal would require about half of the capacity of AU’s fifth-generation plant in central Taiwan, which could end up producing 100,000 displays daily for Apple.

Add to this Apple’s long-term strategic supply chain investments and the tendency of its customers to wait for its products rather than buying a commodity substitute and the company would appear to be on solid footing. We’ll find out for certain of April 20th, when Apple reports earnings.