Big opportunities come with big risks, particularly in chasing the future of the cellphone business.One opportunity, pursued by the market's two giants and their challengers, is to deliver ultra low-cost handsets into the hands of low-income subscribers in developing markets. The upside to this...
A week after Verizon Wireless tried to under cut the iPhone buzz at Cingular by slashing prices on a handful of smartphones, Cingular bounced back with a variety of pricing changes last week. The most significant change was a $100 price drop for prepaid...
When wireless first came into the picture at The Weather Channel in 1999, it was little more than a couple people working in a corner separated from the rest of the team. A few years later, the network began delivering video clips to mobile...
A study released last week by comScore Inc. found that cellphone subscribers aged 25 to 34 were the most likely demographic to access the Internet on their mobile phone.For purposes of the study, respondents were grouped into three categories: the cellular generation (ages 18...
Is nothing sacred?
The British will answer their cellphone just about anywhere, according to a study conducted by Dial-a-Phone. While most respondents generally agreed that phones should be switched to silent at movies or the theater, nearly half of men admitted to talking on the...
Cingular Wireless L.L.C.'s last quarter before being absorbed by parent company AT&T Inc. resulted in a company-record 2.4 million net customer additions, up from 1.8 million net adds a year ago and beating analysts' expectations. "Our last quarter as a joint venture under the...
AT&T INC. HAS A HISTORY as a highly respected brand. Cingular Wireless L.L.C., its name and image conjured out of thin air just a few years ago, is a young and thriving brand that AT&T has begun to dismantle. So far, AT&T has hinted...
THE MOBILE-PHONE INDUSTRY and disability advocates are at a critical stage in negotiations over whether modifications should be made to a key benchmark in the Federal Communications Commission's hearing-aid-compatibility mandate, with the nation's largest carrier at risk of running afoul of next February's deadline...
As tier-one carriers vie to lure users with eye-catching video clips of hit TV shows and music stars, Patrick Kearney is hoping to draw mobile viewers with monkeys reading the news. Monkey News Network, as it's branded, is one of 20 "FreeBe TV" channels...
Mobile virtual network operators have definite target demographics that they're trying to lure away from mainstream wireless operators with a unique approach to service and handsets. A recent study by Yankee Group and Compete Inc. shows, however, that some of the MVNOs are generating...
Yahoo Inc. is hoping a new online advertising system and an increased presence in wireless can help it close the widening gap between it and rival Google Inc.The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company beat analysts' quarterly expectations for the first time in more than a year,...
Hollywood is no stranger to change. It continues to ride a wave of new mediums, distribution channels and formats. Major television studios and networks have learned to embrace new technologies while still capitalizing on a business plan that has made an empire out of...
Wireless operators increasingly are cutting ringtone aggregators out of the loop, opting instead to make deals directly with recording labels. But as EMI Entertainment World Inc.'s lawsuit against InfoSpace Inc. shows, the ringtone business may not be as simple as it seems.EMI earlier this...
Rarely does a handset launch embody the challenges and strategies of a carrier and its vendor partner as clearly as the recent offer from Sprint Nextel Corp. and Motorola Inc. of PowerSource handsets.Sprint Nextel has acknowledged that the loss of post-paid iDEN subscribers is...
Nokia Corp.'s earnings report last week may well have drawn sighs of relief from many in the industry. The Finnish handset vendor established that winning strategies are possible even as the handset industry is driven by emerging markets, where average selling prices and margins...
The following list details this week's infrastructure awards for the cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX industries. The contracts are broken down by transmission technology, country and vendor. The value of the contract is included when available. Cellular El Salvador and Guyana: L.M. Ericsson won two...
The DVB-H market is set to explode from $60 million in revenues last year to more than $2 billion in 2010, according to new figures from Frost & Sullivan.The market research firm said DVB-H technology, which supports the broadcast of video to mobile devices...
While Sprint Nextel Corp. has faced downgrades in recent weeks from various investment companies, the carrier still is feeling the love from investment-banking firm Raymond James. Analyst Ric Prentiss rated the company's stock as a "strong buy" in a recent research note based on...
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.CarrierMorgan Stanley raised its industry view on the telecom services business to in-line from cautious based partially on positive expectations for AT&T. The company increased...
Palm Inc. finally made good on its vow to offer push e-mail service similar to Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry service.The company announced an upgrade to its VersaMail service for Palm Treo 680 and 700 smartphones that will include Microsoft Corp.'s Direct Push technology....
Openwave Systems Inc., which makes Internet browsers for cellphones as well as software for carriers, reported a 20-percent drop in revenue during its most recent quarter.In the year-ago period, Openwave reported a net income of $8.4 million, or 11 cents a share, but the...
Sprint Nextel Corp. tapped Toronto-based Azcar Technologies Inc. to help it implement its government-mandated spectrum relocation plan. Azcar will provide specialized training services to more than 900 U.S. television stations to help them move their operations off the 1.9-2.1 GHz band.Azcar said the agreement...
The Motorola Inc. Razr v3xx-equipped to run on Cingular Wireless' next-gen network-is "finally here," Cingular's Web site announced breathlessly to the hordes who apparently have been clamoring for it."The Razr V3xx is as hot as it is cool!"That hot coolness will set consumers back...
PalmSource Inc. is getting another makeover. Access Co. Ltd., which owns the operating system vendor, is now in the beginning stages of renaming all products that originally had Palm-based names. When Access purchased PalmSource it made an agreement with Palm Inc. to sell PalmSource's...
