TECHNOLOGY

Google Inc is likely to emerge as a top mobile play, according to Wall Street analysts, with several raising their price targets on the stock, some by as much as 10 percent.

Shares of Apple rose only 2 percent to $416.59, in the first half hour of Friday trading, two hours after the iPhone 4S was first handed out to customers in the Eastern time zone.

Apple opened the floodgates of iPhone 4S on Friday, at 8 a.m. local time in US, UK, Canada, France and Germany following Japan and Australia in rolling out the company's flagship phone in retail stores.

Five months after Microsoft said it would acquire Skype for $8.5 billion, the deal was approved and the transaction closed. Is Microsoft now ready to battle Google, whose proposed $12.5 billion takeover of Motorola Mobility is expected to close next quarter?

iPhone 4S has now debuted with the memories of the late Steve Jobs. This is the first time that an iPhone hits the markets worldwide without Apple's legendary co-founder.

Apple Inc's new iPhone went on sale in stores across the globe on Friday, prompting thousands to queue around city blocks to snap up the final gadget unveiled during Steve Jobs' life.

Apple's iPhone 4S, the last product created under Steve Jobs, hits the stores on Friday and the pre-orders for the smartphone were sold out ahead of store launch, reports AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Web sites.

From a server glitch at a Japanese carrier selling iPhone 4S to Steve Wozniak taking his position in a line at an Apple Store in California, and from the spectacle of people braving the weather to others bringing in cattle to stand in the queue, the iPhone 4S launch day is shaping up in colorful way. There ought to be solid reasons why iPhone 4S is a good buy right now. The following are some of them:

Apple's newly released iPhone 4S, labeled to be a flop phone by many when it came out last week, has already become a huge success among customers, even before it went on sale in stores across the globe Friday, with many of them buying it as a tribute to Steve Jobs.

Analysts have predicted that between three and four million iPhone 4S units will be sold during this weekend. Hundreds of thousands of people across the world have taken their position in long lines in front of Apple Stores sand other carrier/retailer stores where the device is being sold.

History repeats itself. Urban campers have already set up their folding chairs and are happily waiting for Apple stores and retail outlets to open at 8 am Friday, with a gleaming new stock of iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S, has already broken the pre-order record of 600,000 held by the iPhone 4, with the first day pre-orders for iPhone 4S the highest for any new product that Apple has ever launched.

Thanks to the beta version of the iOS 5, which was available long before the official launch, some hackers and jailbreakers have been able to instantly offer a jailbreak of the latest Apple mobile operating system.

Research In Motion Ltd. said a server problem has hampered accessing emails for three days by BlackBerry customers worldwide. RIM apologized for the service interruptions and delays and said that there was significant increase in service levels.

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4S sales in stores began in Japan, Australia, France, UK, Germany, Canada and the U.S. on Friday, with fans snapping up the final gadget unveiled during Steve Jobs' lifetime.

Mobile handset maker Sony Ericsson said on Friday it would in future focus entirely on the fast-growing smartphone market as it posted in-line quarterly profits, making no reference to a report electronics giant Sony would take full ownership.

iPhone 4S launch is shaping up as the mother of all launches. Apple Stores worldwide have come alive in a celebratory mood, shaking off the gloom that Steve Jobs' death created , gingerly welcoming the last iPhone that had the dead icon's signature on.

Google registered a revenue growth by a third to $9.7 billion in the past quarter, as net profits grew more than a quarter to $2.7 billion. The figures were announced at a time when technology industry analysts were more or less predicting that Google Plus was doomed to fail.

Samsung's Galaxy S2 and Motorola Droid Bionic are two of the most talked-about smartphones right now apart from the iPhone4S. They are both Android devices from Samsung and Motorola, which are offering blazing performance at the hand of dual-core processing power. At the same time there still could be a thing or two that would make you choose one over the other.

Apple Inc's new iPhone went on sale in stores across the globe on Friday, with fans snapping up the final gadget unveiled during Steve Jobs' lifetime, many buying the phone as a tribute to the former Apple boss.

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson will focus entirely on the booming smartphone market, going head to head with rivals like Apple and underlining the importance of a tie-up with Sony amid reports the electronics giant is preparing a buyout.

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4S, which was unveiled on Oct. 4, has already become a huge success among customers, even before it went on sale in stores across the globe Friday.

Apple Inc's new iPhone went on sale in stores across the globe on Friday, with fans snapping up the final gadget unveiled during Steve Jobs' lifetime, many buying the phone as a tribute to the former Apple boss.

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4S will be hitting the stores Friday, but iPhone 5 remained a mystery after all. Analysts are anticipating Apple to release a 4G LTE iPhone 5 in 2012.

Japan's Olympus Corp fired its CEO and president over the Briton's management of the camera and endoscope maker, sparking a 17 percent plunge in the firm's share price on Friday.

Internet search giant Google posted a big jump in its profits in the third quarter. Its net income rose to $2.73 billion as its online advertising revenue reached $9.72 billion in the third quarter.

After the pre-orders record breaking sales queues are formed outside many Apple stores this week with customers keen to get hold of the new iPhone 4S.

Mobile handset maker Sony Ericsson's third-quarter profit was in line with expectations on Friday, but it was tight-lipped about a report electronics giant Sony was set to take full ownership of the brand.

Even if you have successfully placed a pre-order at Sam's Club for the Apple's newest iPhone 4S, there is only a slim possibility that you might actually get one on Friday. According to a report in Geek.com, Sam's Clubs nationwide haven't received iPhone 4S shipments expected for Friday's launch. Sam's Club representative confirmed the news that they were notified by Apple that initial iPhone 4S shipments would not be arriving as expected.

The pre-orders for iPhone 4S are sold out for Apple and all the carriers, which is meaning that there will be a few weeks of delay before an order placed online will be delivered to the customer leaving behind the only option of going to the local store to get it.