Just Economic Info

Finnish handset maker Nokia Corp. says it plans to introduce this year its first mobile phone using the Microsoft Windows platform.

Chief Executive Stephen Elop said in a speech Tuesday in Singapore that Nokia will start to deliver the models in bulk during 2012.

Nokia also unveiled its N9 smartphone model, which is based on the MeeGo platform. Elop said the N9 would be launched later this year, but declined to specify the date or price.

Nokia is facing steep competition at the top end of the market against smartphones such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Research in Motion's Blackberry as well as Android, and on the lower end against emerging market phone makers who are dropping their prices on devices.

Online search leader Google Inc. is taking yet another stab at social networking, as it tries to go up against Facebook in this wildly popular and lucrative segment of the Internet. This time the project is called Google+ and it aims to make online sharing more like real life.

"We think people communicate in very rich ways," said Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google. "The online tools we have to choose from give us very rigid services."

Other social networking tools make selective sharing within small groups difficult. They don't allow or the nuances that people are used to in offline communication and because they call so many acquaintances "friends," said Gundotra in a blog post announcing the service.

Many Facebook users, for instance, find it difficult to limit their status updates to small groups of people so that their coworkersaren't exposed to party photos or their parents aren't privy to flirtatious posts on their "wall." Though Facebook has tried to address this with a much-hyped "Groups" feature, it's not clear how many people use it.

Gundotra's criticism seems aimed squarely at Facebook, the world's largest online socia network. Facebook has become synonymous with online sharing since its founding seven years ago.

In a prepared statement, Facebook said only that "we're in the early days of making the web more social, and there are opportunities for innovation everywhere."

Google, which dominates Internet search wit a firm hold on two-thirds of the U.S. market, has been experimenting with different social tools since late 2009 with limited success. "Buzz" was one major mishap. The product was a social network attached to Google's popular Gmail service, and it wound up exposing email contacts that users did not want to share. Google eventually agreed to submit to independent audits of its privacy controls every other year for the next two decades as part of a Federal Trade Commission settlement.

Google shut down another attempt at online sharing, Google Wave, last August after unveiling it with much fanfare in 2009. The service, which let users chat, share files and collaborate on documents in real time, didn't gain enough fans.

More than a year in the works, the project Google unveiled Tuesday lets users share things with smaller groups of people through a feature called "Circles." This means only college buddies, say, or your favorite co-workers can see the photos, links our updates that you post.

Another feature called "Sparks" aims to make it easier to find online content you care about, be it news about surfing or barbecue recipes. You can then share this with friends who might be interested in it. In an online video, Google calls it "nerding out" and exploring a subject together.

There's also a group messaging service called "Huddle" and a feature that lets users instantly upload photos that they take with mobile phones. The photos are stored in a private photo album on Google's remote servers, and users can access them and share them as they see fit.

Altimeter Group analyst Charlene Li has high hopes for the friend grouping feature. She said that her biggest pet peeve with Facebook is its existing friend management tools. She noted that millions of people already use Google to share things with others via email, and Google+ looks like a natural extension of this type of sharing, making it more functional and organized.

"I think Facebook is going to have to up its game," she said.

Google+ is undergoing what the company calls a "field trial," so it's accessible by invitation only and not yet available to the public. The company declined to say when it'll be more widely available.

Lou Kerner, a social media analyst with Wedbush Securities, believes the game is over in the competition to become the world's global social network. With 700 million users, Facebook has won, he said.

There's a lot more to the social Web than just creating a successful social network, though, and Kerner thinks that with Google+ the search leader is trying to make its existing product offerings more social.

"I don't think they're seeing this as a direct competitor to Facebook," he said.

Google+ does have its skeptics.

"People have their social circles on Facebook," said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst with research firm eMarketer. "Asking them to create another social circle is challenging."

And Google is still best known for its flagship service, online search.

"The whole idea of a Google social network...they've been throwing stuff against the wall for several years and so forth nothing has stuck." Going to Google to be social, she added, is like "going to Starbucks for the muffins. Or, for that matter, going to Facebook for search."

CHICAGO — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday he'll stay in his job for the "foreseeable future," addressing speculation he might leave the Obama administration following the current round of budget negotiations.

"I live for this work. It's the only thing I've ever done. I believe in it," Geithner said when questioned about his plans by former President Bill Clinton onstage at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.

"We have a lot of challenges in the country and I'm going to be doing it for the foreseeable future," he said.

Geithner, 49, acknowledged the interest in his plans, noting that he'd been commuting back and forth from New York and had a son who was going to be finishing high school there. Earlier a person familiar with his thinking told The Associated Press that Geithner saw an opening to potentially leave once a deal was reached on raising the nation's borrowing limit, but the source emphasized no decisions had been made. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

Geithner reiterated his warnings Thursday of financial chaos if the federal government's debt limit is not raised by Aug. 2. Along with other administration officials, Geithner is deep in negotiations to make it happen alongside spending cuts demanded by congressional Republicans.

Geithner has been at President Barack Obama's side since the beginning of his administration. If he did depart he would be the latest in a series of economic advisers to do so more than halfway through Obama's term, as often happens around the two-year mark of a presidency. Earlier this month the White House announced the departure of Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Prior to joining Obama's administration, Geithner served for about five years as chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a job that put him on the front lines of the central bank's efforts to battle the financial crisis and to get credit flowing more freely. He has a close working relationship with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Geithner also worked at the Treasury Department during the Clinton administration, dealing with international financial crises.

His possible departure was first reported by Bloomberg News.

Australian federal police charged two currency printing firms and several of their former senior managers on Friday with bribing foreign officials to secure bank note supply contracts.

The charges against Securency International Pty Ltd. - one of the world's leading currency printing firms - and Note Printing Australia Ltd. relate to alleged bribes paid to officials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam between 1999 and 2005.

The Australian Federal Police have been investigating the companies for two years. It says senior managers from both firms used international sales agents to bribe the officials to win contracts to print money for those countries.

Police arrested six former senior employees of the companies in a series of early morning raids in Victoria state. Malaysian authorities working in conjunction with Australian police also arrested two people in Malaysia following an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. Australian police did not release the identities of those arrested in either country.

Securency, based in Craigieburn, north of Melbourne, is half-owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia, the nation's central bank. The company is a pioneer in the production of plastic-based bank notes, known as polymer notes, which are used in 31 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Brazil. Note Printing Australia, also based in Craigieburn, is fully owned by the RBA and was the first currency printer in the world to print on polymer substrate.

RBA Gov. Glenn Stevens said no one in the central bank has been accused of wrongdoing, and stressed that none of the people charged are still working for the companies.

"The Reserve Bank condemns in the strongest terms corrupt or questionable behavior of any kind," Stevens said in a statement.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard declined to comment on the charges.

In a statement, Securency Chairman Bob Rankin said the company is considering its legal position. Rankin said its board asked police to investigate allegations of bribery in 2009 and has fully cooperated with the probe since then.

"Securency is committed to the highest standards of ethics and governance and the board and management condemn any form of corrupt behavior," Rankin said.

Australian Federal Police managing officer Chris McDevitt said the investigation is continuing, and additional charges are expected.

The six people charged were expected to appear in a Melbourne court later Friday. They face up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to 1.1 million Australian dollars ($1.2 million) if found guilty.

China's manufacturers suffered sluggish growth in orders in June as inflation-fighting curbs on credit took a toll on demand, according to a survey released Friday.

The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said its monthly purchasing managers index fell to 50.9 in June from 52 in May, 52.9 in April and 53.4 in March. The index has remained above 50, the benchmark for expansion, for 26 straight months.

The report said the trend likely augurs a further slowdown in growth brought on by inflation-fighting curbs on credit.

Declines were greatest in the production, new orders, purchasing volume and prices for raw materials indices, it said. The survey also showed a contraction in production of chemicals, textiles, and transportation equipment. Imports and new export orders also slowed.

The survey "indicates that future economic growth may continue to decrease," federation analyst Zhang Liqun said. But he said the results of the survey did not suggest China would face a "deeper correction."

After months of forecasting that inflation would moderate by midyear, China is expected to announce inflation in June surged above 6 percent, partly due to rising food costs due to drought and floods that have damaged crops across much of the central part of the country.

Many inside China expect authorities to raise key interest rates sometime soon, in a fifth hike since October, to counter surging costs. Beijing has repeatedly ordered state-owned banks to boost their reserves, aiming to curb excess credit.