Chris Foster has been named CEO, Fallon North America. He will have operational responsibility for Fallon’s headquarter operations in Minneapolis and is scheduled to assume his new role on April 1. Foster comes over from Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, where he’s been executive VP/global equity director, heading up the global business for P&G’s laundry and home care business. Prior to that he was CEO for Saatchi’s offices in Japan and Hong Kong. He is a Canadian and started is career in Toronto working for Bozell Worldwide, Leo Burnett, and FCB….Bicoastal edit/post house Lost Planet has hired Alec Sash as executive producer for its New York office. A noted freelance producer, Sash has worked on spot shoots worldwide from Thailand to Europe to South America….Editor Inome Callahan has joined San Francisco-based editorial/post company Umlaut. She formerly edited at Radium, San Francisco….
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More