RCom loses 20.5m customers, Vodafone, Airtel gain

 India's Reliance Communications lost more than 13 percent of its mobile customers in July as it cut off inactive subscribers who have not used their phones for two months, although the firm said the move would have no impact on revenue.

About 95 percent of the mobile phone users in India, the world's second-biggest mobile phone market, are prepaid customers and many have multiple accounts.

For the last year or so, carriers have been cancelling inactive accounts in a clean-up exercise, as focus shifts to increasing revenue rather than flaunting customer base.

Tata Teleservices has reported a decline in customer base several times in the past months after the clean-up began, but the 20.5 million customer cutoff is the first time Reliance Communications reported a fall.

Batman, Spider Man games among top sellers in August

US retail sales of new video game hardware, software and accessories fell for the ninth straight month in August, according to research firm NPD Group.

Overall sales fell 20 percent to $515.6 million.

Software sales - the video games themselves excluding PC titles - fell 9 percent from a year earlier to $237.7 million. Sales of hardware such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 fell 39 percent to $150.6 million. Accessories slid 7 percent to $127.3 million.

Hyderabad to get 50,000 acre IT hub

An Information Technology hub is expected to witness rapid growth in the IT sector with the setting up of investment region around the city.

The central government has agreed in principle to Andhra Pradesh government's proposal for setting up an Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR), a minister announced Saturday.

State IT minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah told reporters that the ITIR would come up over 50,000 acres of land in 25 years. It is aimed at attracting an investment of Rs 2.19 lakh crore in the ITTES sector and providing direct employment to 15 lakh people.

Samsung may be a surprise factor in mobile OS race

Samsung Electronics may become a surprise factor in the battle for dominance of the smartphone software market, Lowell McAdam, chief executive of Verizon Communications, said on Friday.

Google's Android and Apple's iOS operating systems currently dominate the smartphone arena.

But Verizon Wireless, the mobile venture of Verizon, has made no secret of the fact it wants to see a strong third competitor. The biggest US mobile operator has already said it will sell phones based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software later this year to support a third system.

Intel hiring senior execs for tablets

Top chipmaker Intel is recruiting for a new software team focused on tablets, according to a new job ad, underscoring the top chipmaker's efforts to expand beyond the lackluster PC industry. 

The company plans to fill several senior positions this month on the team, which will have responsibility for technology architecture as well as marketing and dealing with suppliers and customers, according to the ad Intel posted Thursday on social networking site LinkedIn.