Engadget reports that a tipster has alerted them that starting on August 22nd Telefónica, a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America, will begin scaling back there iPhone stock. The reduction will take place through September 12th and “will of course prepare us for the launch of a new smart phone“, according to the source.

Last week there was a rumor floating around that Apple would be holding a media event on September 7th where they would announce the iPhone 5. The rumor was later debunked by Dim Dalrymple of The Loop, where he stated:

“Reports began to surface yesterday that Apple would hold a special event on September 7 to launch the new iPhone, but that’s not happening.”

It should be noted that Dalrymple only debunked the date of September 7th. Theoretically Apple could still announce the iPhone 5 any other day during the month, which puts it on track for an October release, which was also speculated last week.

When do you think the iPhone 5 will be announced? Will it even be called the iPhone 5? Let us know your thoughts.

This move’s rather significant.  For starters, eBay’s already one of the first sites many people visit when shopping for something online, and with 22 million customers, O2 is the second-largest mobile telecommunications provider in the UK.

It’s not exactly like they do this sort of thing every day, either.  The two organizations are in fact calling this "the first mobile pre-load deal agreed by eBay anywhere in the world, and the first time Telefonica has selected an app to make available to its O2 smart and feature phone customers across the board."

So on to the details.  An official statement announced, "Starting later this year the eBay mobile app icon or a link to the eBay mobile site will appear on either the home page or two subsequent pages of most Android, Windows Phone 7, Symbian, RIM and bada devices sold by O2 in the UK over the next two years.  The company will work with device manufacturers to pre-install the application."

It should be interesting to see how this turns out.  The two-year timeframe of the deal indicates a fair amount of confidence on both sides, although five- and ten-year deals have occurred before.

No financial details relating to the partnership were disclosed, by the way.

The Telefonica-Yahoo relationship actually goes back a couple of years, since in late 2007, Telefonica made Yahoo oneSearch the main search service on 15 other mobile portals.  This is just a big step forward in terms of people affected and money at stake.

Scott Ellison, IDC’s Vice President of Mobile and Wireless, explained in a statement, "The expansion of Yahoo!’s mobile search partnership with Telefonica into Spain continues to demonstrate Yahoo!’s ability to provide highly personalized and localized mobile search experiences and further establishes its position as a leading mobile customer experience provider.  Building a significant European market presence is essential toward executing a successful mobile strategy."

Strengthening its relationship with Telefonica might be essential to keeping Yahoo out of court, too.  Telefonica’s CEO has expressed an interest in getting money from Google – "search engines use our network, without paying anything for it," he said about a month ago – but the expansion of this partnership increases the odds that he’ll leave Yahoo alone.

Unfortunately, the terms of this deal haven’t been disclosed.

As reported by John W. Daly, Alierta told Spanish newspaper El Pais, "Search engines use our network, without paying anything for it."  Installation, maintenance, and customer service costs are among the things for which he’d like to be compensated.

Considering that Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are sure to ignore (or perhaps laugh off) this idea, it’s necessary to consider where Alierta will go from here.  Lawsuits always seem to represent an option, of course, or Telefonica could try to employ some traffic shaping techniques (which might well outrage consumers and cause the search engines to file their own suits).

Or – we’re not trying to sensationalize anything – the whole issue could get dropped if Alierta finds that his proposal doesn’t have any traction.  Daly wrote, "El Pais reports Alierta is the first CEO of a carrier to openly declare he wants to send bills to content providers."

So far, neither side’s hinted at making another move.

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The European Court of Justice ruled against Spanish music rights holders association Promusicae and in favor of Spain’s’ largest telecom operator Telefonica. Telefonica maintained that under a national law based on EU rules, it only had to release the name of an Internet subscriber for criminal actions, not civil ones.

"Community law does not require the member states, in order to ensure the effective protection of copyright, to lay down an obligation to disclose personal data in the context of civil proceedings," the court said.

Promusicae requested the names of Telefonica Internet users who shared copyright material on the Internet using the KaZaA file exchange software so it could bring civil suits against them.

Civil proceedings are less expensive than criminal proceedings, which require a higher burden of proof.

"There are several community directives whose purpose is that the member states should ensure, especially in the information society, effective protection of industrial property, in particular copyright," the court said.

"Such protection cannot, however, affect the requirements of the protection of personal data. The directives on the protection of personal data also allow the member states to provide for exceptions to the obligation to guarantee the confidentiality of traffic data."
 

Reuters said Yahoo’s Marco Boerries thinks Google is being distracted by technology instead of focusing on the advertising that provides virtually all of their revenue.

Meanwhile, Yahoo has been able to close deals with several hardware makers to place its oneSearch product on handsets. They signed up Telefonica and its 100 million-plus subscribers, a big win for oneSearch.

Yahoo received praise for its strategy from RBC Capital Markets analyst Jordan Rohan, who suggested to Reuters the strategy of focusing on distribution deals looks like the right approach.

In contrast, Boerries believes Google could run into issues when negotiating revenue sharing with carriers who may end up with a Google-powered phone in their lineups.

That point falls in with our line of thinking about Google, and the way its mobile product can matter if Google runs the network, something they seem to have the resources to accomplish. Right now, Yahoo has some momentum on the mobile side, even if it isn’t accompanied by the same hype as Google’s work.

More than 100 million Telefonica subscribers, representing 15 countries in Europe and Latin America, will soon find their mobile Web experience infinitely more efficient and rewarding.

That’s a nice, healthy chunk of the global population that will see Yahoo oneSearch on its mobiles every time they use it to look for weather, news, and other information. They will also be able to use Yahoo Mail and the Flickr photo sharing service through the service.

Boom did leave out one little detail about the deal. OneSearch delivers advertising to the screen. Maybe he thought it would be unseemly to mention this revenue aspect of the Telefonica arrangement, but picking up a hundred million mobile users in one deal is the kind of win Yahoo needs to tout.

The deal revolves around Yahoo oneSearch, which has a habit of undergoing huge growth spurts.  This new development won’t disappoint; oneSearch product should be made “the main search service on Telefonica’s mobile portals in 15 countries in Europe and Latin America, potentially reaching more than 100 million consumers worldwide,” according to a press release.

That’s impressive.  And Steve Boom, the senior vice president of Yahoo’s broadband and mobile division, later revealed in a Yodel Anecdotal blog post, “As of today, oneSearch is the priority search service for over 200 million mobile consumers through seven major mobile operators in nearly 30 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.  Our ultimate goal is to connect one billion mobile users worldwide, so you can count on more to come.”

In the meantime, Yahoo’s sitting pretty.  Telefonica also seems pleased about whatever benefits oneSearch may bring to its users.  There appears to be a bit of an imbalance in the relationship, though, so we should note that the deal’s financial details were not disclosed.  It also remains unclear how long the deal may last.

Finally, there’s no telling if Telefonica could draw Yahoo into F1.  But if oneSearch continues to spread so quickly, it’s almost inevitable that the two will meet at some point.