Williams did credit Apple with one thing — a knack for design:  ”They pioneered new ground by taking this beautiful display size and doing a display-only product. That was pioneering”.  Symbian software is used in about two-thirds of all smartphones but of course not in the hugely popular Apple iPhone.

                                                                                                                        Apple introduces iPhone

                                                                                                                        3.0 OS software 

                                                                                                                        development kit in 

                                                                                                                        March 2009 

  Fixed-line phone provider Telefonos de Mexico was an old, rusty government-run mammoth when businessman Carlos Slim bought it two decades ago. In a matter of a few years, and with the help of billions of dollars to deploy a nation-wide, state-of-the-art network, Telmex became Slim’s cash cow.
    But times change fast. The expansion of cell phone services across Latin America, led by sister company America Movil, has dented Telmex’s domestic revenue in recent years. The arrival of new technologies, which allow international calls at very low prices, hit Telmex’s long-distance sales too.
    And let’s not forget the new players in the market.
    The company bets Internet services will help it keep business charging ahead. Chief Financial Officer Adolfo Cerezo told the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit that in five years Telmex could become a mostly-web focused company. 
    The one thing holding back even faster growth is that only a quarter of Mexican families own a computer.

 With presence in all key Latin American markets, a comfortable debt payment schedule for the next 10 years, and an undisputed lead in the region, what’s left for America Movil to do? The Mexican cellphone provider, part of the empire of billionaire and Forbes list fixture Carlos Slim, will focus on growing its 3G services in the 18 countries where it operates.
    Chief Financial Officer Carlos Garcia-Moreno spoke with Reuters during the Latin American Investment Summit in Mexico City, where he forecast that data traffic could make 25 percent of the company’s overall revenue within three years. 
    He bets that the arrival of new, cheaper cellphones with catchy web-surfing features will help the company’s data traffic rise. The company is also planning to sell netbooks across the continent to help lift its 3G income.

Sirius XM Radio Chief Executive Mel Karmazin was literally wearing his passion for XM on his sleeves as he showed off his cufflinks to reporters at the Reuters Media Summit on Wednesday in New York.

The head of the satellite radio provider also said that unlike other media companies, Sirius will be able to boost revenues in 2009 but he also expressed concern about the potential of a bankruptcy in the auto industry.

Can you drive really fast around tight corners? Do you lose your temper and burst into tears when other drivers cut in front of you?  If you answered yes to both questions, NASCAR might want to hear from you.

The motor racing sport could do with more exciting, emotive personalities, NASCAR Chief Executive Brian France told reporters at the Reuters Media Summit in New York.

France said some drivers might feel restricted by their sponsor contracts and not want to show too much emotion when they step out of their cars -- even after a major incident like a crash.

"What we need to do more with our athletes is to bring out their emotions because one of the things [that's] a drawback is we're so sponsor-dependent and [the drivers] represent all these companies, their merchandise sales are based on doing the right thing," France said.

People like to see the emotion in athletes, he said. "If you're running 200 miles an hour, racing somebody who wrecks you and spins you out, you don't need to hop out of the car and act like you're in the library."

NASCAR is perhaps best known for the stoic, monochromatic personalities of some of its best known drivers, such as Jimmie Johnson.

"He's a very nice guy, a cool customer, obviously very talented in our sport... but he's not gonna do a lot of things that are gonna wow you or stun you or surprise you in the way that sometimes other athletes make their mark. "

Of course, character cuts both ways. One imagines that other sports commissioners would be grateful to have a boring Jimmie rather than an exciting Plaxico.

It’s not every day that you have a top executive in big business talk about how nice it will be to see the back of the Bush administration. Republican presidencies typically tout their adherence to free markets, unbridled capitalism and, most importantly, a smaller pile of what corporations often consider burdensome regulations. That isn’t what they usually expect from Democratic administrations, even ones led by Barack Obama.

That’s why we thought it so interesting that Time Warner Cable’s chief financial officer, Rob Marcus, is happy for some turnover at the Federal Communications Commission. It is the FCC, after all, that has to approve some key licenses for Time Warner Cable’s split from its majority owner, Time Warner Inc. For some reason, the FCC can’t seem to find room on its schedule to do that, and that seems to have irked Marcus. It is, after all, preventing the two companies from separating by the time Time Warner Cable said it would.

“There’s nothing substantive that has currently arisen in connection with the FCC approval. They just haven’t put it on the agenda,” he told the Reuters Media Summit in New York on Monday.

The FCC has made no special demands, he said. Rather, it just hasn’t seen fit. He did note that Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, seems to be the stick in the mud, but declined to talk more about why he thinks this.

So what is he looking for from a commission where three of its five members are selected by the upcoming Obama administration?

“We’re looking forward to a little more rationality.”

Ernst & Young’s Howard Bass joins us to preview the themes likely to top the agenda at the Reuters Media Summit which will take place December 1 through December 3 in New York.

Are broadcast networks seeing a slowdown in advertising revenue? What’s likely to be the impact of the highly-anticpated launch of the new MLB Network? What’s likely to top the FCC’s agenda under the incoming Obama administration? Speaker: Howard Bass Sr. Partner, Ernst & Young

Presenter: Ruben Ramirez New York

Mexican cell phone giant America Movil, which does business in 17 countries across Latin America and the United States, plans to add another 20 million subscribers this year to its client base. 
Chief Financial Officer Carlos Garcia-Moreno chat with Reuters during the Latin America Investment Summit about keeping the doors open for more acquisitions outside its core region although he said the company is in no rush to do so.

America Movil is owned by Carlos Slim, one of the richest men in the world.

New technologies that enable a wider distribution of basic communications in Mexico are taking longer than expected to take off amid struggles between companies interested in accessing cheaper networks and high launch costs.
   A vast fiber optic network owned by Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), good for transporting data all across the country,  is currently used by just a handful of telephone firms seeking to bypass what they often criticize as very high fees from the dominant fixed-line phone company.
   CFE’s chief Alfredo Elias Ayub told Reuters said during the Third Latin America Investment Summit that in a couple of months there could be news about fiber optic rentals to new companies.
    He also shared his views about why power line communications, which carry information over the powerline, are stalled due to the high price of modems and the lack of sufficient research in countries like Mexico.

 Mexico’s lax regulation has encouraged the unabashed growth of monopolies in the last few decades, ranging from telecommunications to beer empires. Cable television is no stranger to conflict as Televisa, the world’s biggest producer of Spanish-language content, sets its eyes on triple play amid cries from smaller rivals struggling to keep afloat.
   Eduardo Perez Motta, the head of Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission, sat down with Reuters during the Third Latin America Investment Summit to talk about a much-expected decision on a Televisa acquisition that would give the broadcaster a key push in the triple play market, where companies can offer cable TV, Internet and phone services using a single broadband link.
    Perez Motta set a series of requirements that Televisa should meet, including sharing its content with rivals, if it wants to buy a 49 percent stake in Cablemas, one of the biggest cable companies in Mexico.