The loss-making African operation of Bharti Airtel is expected to dent near-term earnings of India’s biggest mobile operator, which posted a bigger-than-expected 31,5% net profit drop in the March quarter.

Bharti’s prospects in its main market in India, the world’s second-biggest and fastest-growing by mobile customers, have improved after call prices steadied last year following a vicious price war that led to sharp drops.

Companies including Bharti have recently started rolling out third-generation (3G) networks and are eyeing a pickup in premium data services to boost margins after they spent a total of $15-billion at auctions last year to buy costly radio spectrum.

But Africa continues to weigh on Bharti’s earnings. Read all…

The experience of buying and owning automobiles is being remade in mobile channels. Apps, tablets, and new interoperability are changing how manufacturers and dealers connect with customers, and how we connect with our cars.

Henry Ford Would Be Amazed The race is on. So, you want mobile computing? Apps, tablets, and new devices are being built into cars at supersonic speed by automakers. Some of this is just good marketing in a new medium. But mobile is also driving changes to the experience of buying and owning automobiles – and through interoperability, even using them.  I’ll call out a few noteworthy examples, and hope you will add more examples of mobile computing in cars.

Audi’s CarMonitor Audi’s CarMonitor app uses the car’s OBD-II port to give users access to real-time performance data, including fuel efficiency, speed, and emissions information. Beyond monitoring the data, the app also analyzes and stores the information in order to help you reduce CO2 emissions through smarter driving. You

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Heres some perspective: history, demand and supply.

Brief history of gold price: Gold had sold for $35 an ounce, then shot up to $675 during the last bubble, peaking in January 1980. (Im using monthly averages throughout this article.) Thats cool, buying at $25 and selling at $675. However, as gold was shooting up, plenty of new investors were buying, and there were plenty of people who got in on the boom at above $600.

Within two and a half years, gold had lost half its value. It finally hit its trough in 1999, 19 years after the peak, at $257 an ounce. That would have been a good time to buy, but who would have thought? Gold had slumped for nearly two decades. It appeared to be a stupid time to buy.

Now were up over $1500 an ounce (Im writing on April 28, 2011). Isnt that great? Lets stay with the history for a bit. Lets go back and adjust that 1980 peak for inflation. In terms of dollars with 2010 purchasing power, that peak was $1,892 per ounce.

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Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has halted all applications for licences to prospect for shale gas in the Karoo using the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) method, her department said on Friday.

Until the conclusion of a feasibility study, no new applications would be accepted, nor would existing ones be finalised.

“Given the intensity and scale of the issue and the fact that this [shale gas exploration] has never been done before on our shores, my department will conduct a comprehensive study which will assist us to formulate our approach, after which we will go back to Cabinet,” Shabangu said in a statement.

She was considering sending a team of experts to other jurisdictions so that they could “draw lessons with regard to shale gas exploration”.

There was initial confusion that a recent moratorium applied only to new applications.

Many South Africans have voiced concern about fracking, particularly the agricultural sector, saying it could affect the economic survival and quality of life in rural communities.

Cabinet endorsed the department’s decision to place a moratorium on licences. Read all…

Some of the most interesting data to be added to the recent edition of the Internet Statistics Compendium includes fresh research from IAB on how Europeans use mobile internet at the same time as other media. 

‘Media meshing’ is evident across the continent, but some countries are more keen to mix the mobile web with traditional information sources than others.

The latest white paper from IAB Europe offers a comprehensive look at the state of mobile internet across the continent. But it is the way Europeans are surfing the mobile web at the same time as watching TV, listening to the radio, using desktops and laptops, and reading the printed word, behaviour which IAB is calling ‘media meshing’, which is of particular interest. 

In short, Europeans are first rate ‘media meshers,’ but from country to country the degree to which mobile internet is used at the same time as other media can vary greatly.

Somewhat surprisingly, here in the UK we are fairly conservative with how we mix mobile internet and other media. While nearly

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