Google muscles in on Apple

Google and Apple have stepped up their battle to win over publishers, as the two companies vie to become the dominant distributor of newspapers and magazines for tablet computers and other mobile devices, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Apple has told publishers that it will continue to insist that iPad-only subscriptions be sold through iTunes. Some publications say they may choose not to offer an iPad-only subscription, but to bundle access to an iPad app with their own products, so they can use their own billing systems instead.

A similar battle between Google, Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble has already begun to reshape the burgeoning market for digital books, helping publishers win more flexibility in pricing their titles.

Electronic payment systems essential to online shopping are underutilised in Vietnam, states Vietnam News.

About 30 million people nationwide were using the Internet in 2010, with the figure expected to surge to 40 million over the next three years, but few Vietnamese consumers had or used credit cards online.

Business investment in e-commerce remained low, accounting for only 5% of total business expenditure while bringing in up to a third of customer orders, according to a Ministry of Industry and Trade survey of about 2 000 enterprises. Businesses themselves also placed about 28% of their total orders online.

Globe Telecom is set to unveil a mobile payment platform for its cellphone subscribers, says ABS-CBN News.

The listed Ayala-owned firm in the Philippines has signed a deal with California's Zong for a system that will enable users to purchase goods from digital merchant Web sites such as Facebook.

Users need only to log in their mobile phone number, and Zong will automatically charge the user's mobile phone bill or deduct the amount from prepaid credits.