Vodafone’s Scandalous Act, Qualcomm’s New Snapdragon SDK
Today’s mobile news roundup features Vodafone’s latest scandal, Qualcomm’s announcement of Snapdragon SDK for Android, and Box’s OneCloud for Android.
Vodafone’s scandalous act
Vodafone Group, a global mobile phone company, allegedly shaved off over £1 billion in UK taxes over the past decade because of unseen accounting factors in other European countries. Tax authorities in Germany, Spain and other European countries raked in billions of euros except for the UK by incurring UK tax in recent years. Vodafone racked up tax credits so that they will not have to pay any tax for their UK operations for the foreseeable future.
“This is yet another tax scandal,” said Member of Parliament Margaret Hodge, chair of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, which scrutinizes public expenditure and revenue-raising.
“It may be legal, but it’s completely immoral. They make money out of Britain, and they should put money back into Britain.”
Vodafone Ltd, Vodafone’s UK unit, borrowed credits from companies within the Vodafone Group and was profitable from 1998-2003 but after that, though revenue remained high, profits plunged. In 2001, they began making large interest payments for the money they borrowed. Interest payments are tax deductible so by making large interest payments, they were able to shave off more than a few pounds in UK taxes.
Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon SDK for Android
Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon SDK for Android at the Uplinq 2012 developers conference. The Snapdrgon SDK for Android enables mobile developers to access next-generation technology and features of Snapdragon processors via APIs, which are otherwise is not available. The SDK will initially support devices with the Snapdragon S4 8960 processor, and it is anticipated that the SDK will support future Snapdragon processors across multiple tiers over time.
“The most powerful applications in mobile are those that are tightly integrated with the underlying hardware,” said Rob Chandhok, president of Qualcomm Internet Services and the company’s senior vice president for software strategy.
“Qualcomm is always striving to enable developers and device makers to differentiate their offerings via the unique capabilities found in its industry-leading Snapdragon mobile processors. With the Snapdragon SDK for Android, developers and manufactures can now more easily utilize these features as they work to set their products apart in a crowded ecosystem.”
Box’s cloud offering for Android
Cloud storage provider, Box, unveiled OneCloud – its first mobile cloud for the enterprise, to Android devices.
“Box OneCloud offers the most complete suite of productivity tools for today’s post-PC enterprise,” said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box. “The way people work is radically changing. With Box, IT departments and the mobile workforce now have a unified platform to securely manage applications and content from any device or location.”
The announcement is accompanied by 50 new Android app integration partners, which joins the existing 50 iOS app integrations.
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