Tech frenzy over mobile - Seattle Times

BARCELONA, Spain — The crowd outside the auditorium at Mobile World Congress on Monday was a restive mass of executives waiting to hear Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. It was worse than the dressing-room line at Nordstrom Rack.

The pushing and shoving among men in suits to get a seat were a microcosm of the fierce competition and frenetic pace of a wireless industry here for its largest annual gathering. It was a stampede of the electronics industry to mobility.

The Mobile World Congress trade show, which started Monday, could draw as many as 53,000 attendees and 1,400 companies setting up booths and battling for sales and partnerships with hardware makers, software developers and wireless carriers. That compares with 49,000 attendees and 1,300 booths in 2010.

In addition to Ballmer, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo also spoke Monday.

With the industry drawing much of tech world's attention, the world's largest software company still had a lot of explaining to do about Windows Phone 7, the mobile operating system that started selling in October. The platform is growing slowly and has shipped 2 million copies to phone makers — the largest metric it has disclosed so far.

"We're off to a strong start; we know we've got a lot of work to do," Ballmer said in his speech.

But, no matter how Windows Phone 7 sales are characterized and despite Microsoft's eyebrow-raising partnership announced Friday with Nokia, the platform faces huge challenges.

Software update

Ballmer's speech was, at the end of the day, mostly a software update for an industry hungry for big technology leaps. This crowd has been spoiled by Apple's steady stream of new products and Google's stratospheric growth in mobile.

In fact, Google's mobile platform, Android, seems ubiquitous at the show, the launchpad for new products from all corners.

Samsung, for instance, announced both a new Galaxy smartphone and tablet, only a few months after releasing its first one. Sony Ericsson announced a smartphones running PlayStation games is coming in March. The platform common to all of them: Android.

Chip maker Qualcomm promoted software-development kits for new technologies such as augmented reality, also running on Android. An example of augmented reality is the yellow first-down line TV viewers of football games see on their screens.

Apple, too, looms large over the show, even though it is not at the conference in an official or public way, with many companies showing software built on the iPhone and iPad.

By contrast, Microsoft had no new devices running Windows Phone 7 to show here, and Nokia has not said when its first Windows Phone will be ready.

Even more telling is both Apple and Google are the platforms for tablets most developers here are targeting — and tablets are the hot topic at the conference.

Microsoft had no specific news about an operating system for tablets. The last update came at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, when the company showed a very rough chip prototype for the next version of Windows on tablets.

With this as a backdrop, Ballmer drummed on the phrase "fast paced" in his speech to describe Microsoft's mobile progress over the past 12 months.

The company announced plans for Windows Phone 7 about 12 months ago, began selling devices in the fall and on Friday announced the exclusive deal to put Windows Phone 7 on smartphones for the world's largest phone maker, Nokia.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, formerly president of Microsoft's Business division, joined Ballmer in the Monday appearance.

"The world is shifting from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems," he said. "... Microsoft and Nokia together represent a natural partnership."

Ballmer shared a laundry list of updates coming to Windows Phone 7 this year in his speech. One, planned for March, will add a copy-and-paste feature for Windows Phone 7 users.

Later this year, Windows Phone 7 will get Twitter integration into its People Hub, its address book. When people pull up their address books on the phone, they will also see their most recent tweets. (Facebook is already integrated.)

Multitasking between programs is also coming to Windows Phone 7. Corporate Vice President Joe Belfiore showed the ability to pause and switch between two games on the phone.

Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft's Web browser in progress, will have a version ready for Windows Phone 7 this year. The browser is a major update for Microsoft because it supports HTML5, a Web programming standard that lets developers build richer, more applike websites.

Microsoft will also expand the integration of SkyDrive on Windows Phone so people can access Office documents created in Office Web Apps on their phones.

Kinect connection

Microsoft also showed Windows Phone 7 working with Xbox Kinect. In a video, a Windows Phone user controlled balls in an Xbox "Kinect Adventures" handball game while another player tried to hit them in a game.

"My sense is they're doing better than people expected," Will Stofega, an analyst with Framingham, Mass.-based IDC, said of Windows Phone 7. "People said they would sell 10,000 copies."

He said the key is for Microsoft not to let Nokia get in the way of other phone makers such as Samsung and LG, which are already selling Windows Phones.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com

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Balance of power still in WA Dems favor - Seattle Times

OLYMPIA, Wash. —

Voters overwhelmingly rebuked taxes passed by Washington state's large Democratic majorities in the Legislature. But while they may have been unhappy with the job Democrats did earlier this year, they appear to be letting them retain control of state government.

Republicans made gains in both the state House and Senate in this week's election, won an open U.S. House seat and were optimistic of their chances in a too-close-to-call race in another.

While they're not expected to take the majority in the Legislature as they did in 1994, Republicans have cut into Democrats' comfortable margins and ran competitive races in other districts. And voters sent a clear anti-tax statement, rolling back increased snack taxes, rejecting a $2 billion income tax on the rich and making it harder for the Legislature to raise taxes in the future.

"They're going to return Democratic majorities to the Legislature, but they clipped their wings with respect to the budget process," Democratic strategist Christian Sinderman said.

State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser said the passage of Initiative 1053 - which requires a higher bar for legislative votes to raise taxes - plus the addition of more Republican lawmakers "is like a belt and suspenders."

"Voters said 'I'm taxed enough already,'" Esser said. "Hopefully that will chasten many of the Democrats who do remain."

All 98 state House seats and 25 of 49 Senate seats were on the ballot this fall. Many positions were considered safe for either party, leaving intense battles over a relatively small slice to decide which side controls the Legislature.

The GOP steadily lost ground during the last decade, finally giving up its one-seat control of the state Senate in 2004. Before Tuesday's election, Democrats controlled the House with a 61-37 margin and the Senate with a 31-18 majority. As of this weekend, Republicans had moved their margin up to more than 40 seats in the House with a handful of races still too close to call. In the Senate, Republicans appeared to have gained at least four additional seats, with additional close races showing Democrats holding on to three seats needed for the GOP to take the majority.

Washington Democrats' key victory this week was in the competitive U.S. Senate race with the re-election of Sen. Patty Murray over Republican Dino Rossi. Her victory preserves a small cushion for Democrats in the Senate. Republicans made inroads there Tuesday, handing Democrats a slimmed-down majority, and took control of the House.

Republican Jaime Herrera's victory Tuesday night in the open 3rd District in southwestern Washington was part of the Republican wave in the U.S. House. Herrera became the first Republican to represent the district in a dozen years and her win narrowed the state's Democratic majority in the House delegation to 5-4.

Republicans also were closely watching the state's northern 2nd Congressional Democratic incumbent, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen held a slim lead over Republican challenger John Koster.

Larsen won his last re-election bid in 2008 with 62 percent of the vote.

If Koster ultimately overtakes Larsen, it would be the first time Washington's House delegation had a Republican majority since the late 1990s.

Republican consultant Chris Vance points to gains in the Legislature, the Herrera win and the closeness of the Larsen race as proof that Washington state benefited from a nationwide trend in favor of Republicans.

"Did a wave hit here, yes. Was it a massive tidal wave like hit the U.S. House, obviously not," Vance said. "I think now we're returning back to what we used to be, which is a very, very competitive state that can go either way."

State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, also saw a clear message. Murray, who is co-chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, said the election shows Republicans are too conservative for many suburban voters, particularly on social issues. But he also faults Democrats for not making the case for changes in the state's tax structure.

"One of the lessons here, post-Obama's election, is this is still the age of Reagan," Murray said, noting that Republicans have been able to make the argument for smaller government and low taxes "on their terms."

"We have not been able to articulate a vision that voters understand," he said.

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AP writer Curt Woodward contributed to this report.

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Murray lead in King County grows; more vote totals coming - Seattle Times

UPDATE 4:58 p.m. Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray slightly widened her lead over Republican challenger Dino Rossi as counties statewide counted about 143,000 more ballots this afternoon.

In King County, which counted 50,716 ballots, Murray's lead grew from 88,751 votes to 105,639. That gives her a lead of 62.6 percent to 37.4 percent -- a spread that widened slightly with the new votes. Based on King County's estimated voter turnout of 68 percent, there are may be 300,000 or more ballots still to count here.

The trend that bodes poorly for Rossi. He took 40 percent of the King County vote in his 2004 virtual tie with Gov. Chris Gregoire.

With results still trickling in, Rossi picked up a net gain of 3,262 votes out of Spokane County today, which counted an additional 23,218 ballots. That county, which Rossi is leading 56.4 to 43.6 percent, has about 80,000 more ballots to still to count.

In Pierce County, Rossi continued to lead Murray slightly. With about 20,000 more ballots counted today, Rossi led Murray by 1,920 votes out of 195,390 counted.

Snohomish County expects to release a count of about 15,000 votes later this evening. Murray is leading slightly there. We'll update as new numbers come in, and as we reach the campaigns for comment.

Statewide, Murray now leads 50.8 percent to Rossi's 49.2.

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