NEW YORK --

AT&T Inc. is offering a new type of data plan for Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer, to go on sale in a few months.

At $30 per month for unlimited data, with no contract, iPad owners will pay half of what data service costs for a laptop under contract, what the industry calls a "postpaid" plan. There will also be a $15 per month option with limited downloads. The price will include use of AT&T's network of Wi-Fi hotspots, which offloads capacity from the cellular network.

On Thursday's earnings conference call, Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner was asked to explain how the new plans will be profitable.

QUESTION: On the iPad, could you talk about the economics of that?

ANSWER: It is a substantially different model from our typical postpaid customer economics in that we're not subsidizing the device. Customers will buy the device, they'll activate on an online basis, and they will pay for it via a credit card, pay in advance.

So we don't have the normal acquisition costs, setup costs, billing costs, so on and so forth. So then it comes down to forecasts and estimates for usage on the device. Our expectation is that the device is going to be somewhere between our highest-usage integrated devices, say an iPhone, and a laptop.

We believe though, based on where the device will be used - in homes, offices, coffee shops, bookstores, airports ... a substantial amount of time in a Wi-fi environment...

We'll have to monitor this usage as the device gets out there, and if it's substantially different we'll adapt to it. But right now I think the economics will be very positive, because it will be a really low-cost device for us - no cost really, in terms of acquisition.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

BRUSSELS --

European Union regulators Thursday launched an antitrust probe into U.S. software maker Oracle Corp.'s takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc., saying they wanted to make sure Oracle wouldn't hinder Sun's rival open-source database software.

EU approval is the main stumbling block for the $7.4 billion deal, which Oracle had hoped to close this summer and has already been cleared in the U.S. by the Department of Justice.

The European Commission now has until Jan. 19 before it makes a final decision to clear the deal or block it. In some cases, such as with Intel Corp., the EU has been a stricter antitrust regulator than the U.S., and often presses companies to make changes that eliminate antitrust worries, such as selling off parts of their business.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said regulators needed to examine whether customers could have less choice or see higher prices "when the world's biggest proprietary database company proposes to take over the world's leading open-source database company."

Sun bought open-source database provider MySQL last year for $1 billion as a way to find more customers for its computer hardware. Because MySQL (pronounced "my sequel") is open-source, its underlying coding is given away for free, and Sun doesn't sell the software itself. In contrast, Oracle is a leading vendor of database software that gets sold to businesses.

Database software forms the underpinnings of most things people do in business or on the Web. It helps companies manage and retrieve data they've stored, such as payroll or sales information. Typing in a search term, for example, forces a Web site to scour a database and spit out an answer.

The EU officials claim that MySQL, already popular among Web-based companies, will increasingly threaten Oracle's database software as it adds features and attracts more customers. The regulators questioned "Oracle's incentive to further develop MySQL as an open source database."

"In the current economic context, all companies are looking for cost-effective (information-technology) solutions, and systems based on open-source software are increasingly emerging as viable alternatives to proprietary solutions," Kroes said. "The commission has to ensure that such alternatives would continue to be available."

Sun and Oracle had no immediate comment Thursday.

EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said the EU was merely matching the U.S. in launching an in-depth investigation into the takeover. Todd stressed that the EU will use the coming weeks to weigh "serious doubts" about the deal - but that it could pass EU scrutiny unhindered.

The alternative - if the EU finds that its worries are justified - would be for the companies to offer remedies to soothe those concerns, such as selling off MySQL or making binding commitments so that rival developers could still base software on MySQL code.

Whatever the Europeans decide, the holdup represents a surprising setback for a deal that was originally expected to sail through antitrust scrutiny and close this summer. A key reason the deal got done in the first place was because Oracle was seen as a safer suitor than IBM Corp., which also bid for Sun. IBM was viewed as a bigger antitrust risk because of the companies' overlaps in the server and data-storage markets.

The EU described the database market as "highly concentrated," with the three main proprietary software companies - Oracle, IBM and Microsoft - controlling some 85 percent of the market by revenue.

Peter Alexiadis, a partner at the Brussels office of law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, said he was surprised that the EU was taking a different tack from the U.S. on the deal.

"If ever there was a case for the U.S. and the EU seeing eye to eye, I would have imagined that this was an appropriate one," he said, saying he was "hard pressed" to see how the deal would strengthen Oracle's position in a global and very varied database market.

"If the commission goes down the path of defining narrow database markets, they might be going down a path they may regret," he said.

Sun shares fell 17 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $9.15 in morning trading Thursday, as investors tried to gauge the risk that Oracle won't be able to complete the deal. Oracle would pay $9.50 per share if the deal is completed.

Oracle shares fell 41 cents, 1.9 percent, to $21.36.

Oracle's bid for Sun marks new territory for the company, turning it into more of a one-stop technology shop, like IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Sun is the world's No. 4 maker of computer servers, which power Web sites and corporate back offices. In many cases those servers run database software such as mySQL or Oracle products.

AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson contributed to this report from San Francisco.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

In Pictures: 10 Cool Gadgets For New Moms

BURLINGAME, Calif.--Jackie Ashton's first child was born a week late. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Apple ( AAPL - news - people )'s iPhone had just made its debut, and Ashton spent her pregnancy countdown hours enamored with the new gadget. She continued to use the iPhone after her daughter's birth, mainly for e-mailing with other moms and her pediatrician.

Then Ashton's entrepreneurial bent struck. She'd been diligently keeping notes on her daughter's sleep and feeding patterns in a binder, and wondered how her iPhone, which she carried with her constantly, could make it simpler.

In Pictures: 10 Cool Gadgets For New Moms

She asked other San Francisco moms about their baby data-tracking habits, and decided there was a business in it. Ashton's iPhone application, called Baby Brain, is set to launch on Apple's App Store some time in early May. Apple is currently reviewing the software, which will cost $4.99.

The software aims to be a time-saver for new moms who want to track every minute, and moment, in their babies' lives. It has a timer for breast feedings and sleep, and a log to track diaper changes and bottles. The collected data can be shared via e-mail with doctors, spouses and friends. Baby Brain also has features that show trends over time.

"My husband and I are constantly thinking of new business ideas. This one stuck because it was so simple," says Ashton, 33. "We knew there was demand for just talking to moms, and Apple makes it easy to launch applications for the iPhone."

Ashton and her husband, Jay, have worked on Baby Brain part-time since November. She previously worked in software sales, then taught sixth and seventh grades. Jay, 36, ran luxury hotel booking Web site Five Star Alliance, until selling it to Questex Media Group in July 2007. He is now launching a travel software firm.