France Telecom CEO on Apple, Android

In addition to carrying one of Apple's iconic smartphones, Richard is as well the CEO of France Telecom, whose networks carry traffic from more iPhones than any other carrier except AT&T. France Telecom, with its Orange brands, sells the iPhone in 15 countries.

"They just created smartphones with the iPhone," Richard said while an hour-long chat over breakfast at the W Hotel in San Francisco last week. "Everybody should be grateful to them to have put such a product in our market."

But, during he praises Apple, Richard is wary of the power that the company holds by having total say in which apps do and don't get on its network.

Unlike withAndroid, where the carrier can largely configure phones the way it would like to, on Apple, the company has to settle for putting various services in the App Store. And, ultimately, it is Apple that controls what makes it into the App Store.

"It as well deals with management of application shops," he said. "If you have people like Apple managing their application store and saying 'This is OK and I don't want to see this app in my shop,' it's a problem."

Richard has been outspoken previously, including calls last year for those flooding networks with data--companies like Apple and Google--to help pay some of the costs of making necessary network investments.

Though RIM and Nokia both face challenges, Richard said in our interview that he is glad that there are after all a number of competing smartphone operating systems duking it out.

The existing landscape in terms of operating systems

"For us we are quite happy with the existing landscape in terms of operating systems," he said. "A world with 90 percent of Android-based devices would not be attractive for us, nevertheless we are far from that."

Oh, and as for that report that France Telecom and Apple are working at the same time on a standard for smaller SIM cards--that's true, Richard said, and it's a compromise designed to appease Apple's desire for something smaller without resorting to a software-only virtual SIM card that Apple had at first been advocating.

The people with pipes

We are the people with pipes. We are supposed to invest heavily in pipes in order to bring the capacity which is necessary to sustain the explosion of consumption and usage and data traffic in our networks. Together, the people that create this traffic...are not in effect incentivized to manage properly, globally, the traffic.

To me, the risk theoretically is more for Google to use releases--Android releases--as a weapon in their relationship with device manufacturers and indirectly with telcos than anything else. So far they have not in effect tried to do it.

So far, we have been able to come to solutions with Apple people, although they are a little tough....We are able to find solutions. We are not at war with the Apple guys. Nevertheless it is true that it can be tough.

Of course, ideally we would like to have those services embedded natively in the handset, which is what we do with Android-based devices like with Samsung or HTC or people of that sort. It is not possible with Apple. We all in all are in a position to bring those apps to our clients through the app stores, provided anyway you look at it we have access to the App Store.

Definitely, if we face these kind of problems we will go to court. Because competition is not only something that should be applied to telcos and to carriers. For us it should be a principle for the whole Internet environment.

This is good evidence we can work properly with Apple people, Apple teams. In that particular case, we have been able to find, I think, a good answer which is good for everyone.

jdolcourt: Back in Feb, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said they'd release 1 MeeGo phone, called it "an possibility to learn." A conf now seems unproductive.

The fake anti-malware ruse

faq Windows users are familiar with the fake anti-malware ruse, nevertheless this is the first time it's been targeted at the smaller Mac market. CNET tells you what MacDefender means for Mac users.

Check out the latest communications research news on CNET News, featuring the latest on cell phones, mobile gear, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), and Internet access via broadband and wireless connections.

Legal battle could for all that be ahead

While a legal battle could for all that be ahead, developers are breathing a sigh of relief afterwards Apple came to their defense against a group seeking licensing fees to use the in-app purchase feature.

In part three of a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Microsoft's new phone software, Ina Fried takes a look at Redmond's massive testing operation.