Microsoft Corp. subsidiary TellMe said it added a GPS location feature to its voice portal to give BlackBerry users information about businesses, movies, traffic, weather, maps and driving directions. The "voice in, visual out" way of receiving information is useful to people who are...
Sony Corp. of America said it will pay roughly $260 million for Gracenote, a music metadata and technology firm. Gracenote's database of artists, songs and lyrics is used by online music services such as iTunes, Yahoo Music Jukebox and Winamp; the Emeryville, Calif.-based company...
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its rating on AT&T Inc.'s commercial paper program, which has been raised to $15 billion from $12 billion. --Morgan...
Several major marketers have found themselves stonewalled when it comes to measurable and effective uses for mobile technology, but a National Hockey League team is scoring big with a text-messaging program.Faced with persistently unsold tickets and a bevy of would-be attendees priced out of...
There's a lot of debate these days about what might push mobile television into its next growth spurt, but most seem to agree that offering ad-supported channels can only help.GoldSpot Media, a Silicon Valley start-up, is banking on that strategy with what it says...
Tellabs Inc. reported $16.6 million in earnings in the first quarter, down nearly 35% from the $25.5 million it brought in during the year-ago period. The company's stock was down nearly 17% to $5 per share on the news.Since Tellabs' former president and CEO...
Sunrise Telecom Inc. introduced a monitoring and analysis platform designed to help operators better manage their mobile data services. Mobile X-Ray correlates information from the network, services, subscribers and devices using the Oracle-based Expert Engine. Basically, as wireless operators grow their data offerings, they...
Shares of Texas Instruments Inc. tumbled after the company ratcheted down expectations about the short-term market for high-end phones.The Dallas-based chipmaker reported $3.27 billion in first-quarter revenue, up 3% from the year-ago period, and posted a net income of $662 million, an increase of...
Nokia Corp. bulked up its music offerings, inking a deal with Sony BMG and adding two new handsets to its XpressMusic line.The Finnish company said Sony BMG has joined its Comes With Music offering, a program that packages one year's access to full tracks...
Nearly lost in all post-mortems following the death of Mowser last week was this little tidbit: 80% of the traffic to the site was mobile users looking for adult content, according to founder Russell Beattie.Think about that. Four out of every five actions on...
AT&T Mobility continued its steady growth during the first quarter of the year, reporting customer additions on par with the previous year and gains in customer revenue that helped push the carrier's revenues up more than 17%.For the quarter, the industry's No. 1 carrier...
Editor's Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.--Google is the...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we'll review a new wireless application or service from the user's point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and...
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--Brazil: Ericsson said it won a contract from TIM Brasil...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks look...
APC Wireless announced it closed a deal late last week to purchase the recently bankrupt MVNO Movida Communications Inc. for an undisclosed sum.Movida, which targeted the Hispanic market, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Delaware court earlier this month, blaming a "costly and...
Nearly one-fifth of mid- and high-end handsets will run Linux by 2013, according to a new forecast from ABI Research.High-profile backers such as Google Inc.(whose Android initiative is based on Linux) and Nokia Corp. (which earlier this year spent $153 million to acquire Trolltech...
One of magazines' biggest strengths in the dawning digital age -- that engrossing environment often said to be so conducive to glossy branding campaigns -- isn't much help when the economic downturn is pressing advertisers to cut any ad spending that lacks quick, quantifiable...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from Current Analysis' Peter Jarich, NPD Group's...
Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Christopher Cannon (R-Utah) introduced a bill to foster deployment of a national, family-friendly wireless broadband network with open access, an initiative the mobile-phone industry was quick to pounce on.The Wireless Internet Nationwide for Families Act, which includes components of...
Five years after 50 Cent's "In Da Club" helped launch the multibillion-dollar ringtone phenomenon - and as CD sales continue to plummet - the music industry continues to look for its second hit in mobile. We talked to Sean Rosenberg, director of mobile marketing...
LAS VEGAS - "There is an expression - if there is something that people want to watch, you can broadcast it on a rock in the desert and they will watch it," Frank Nein, co-founder, partner and senior VP at Lexicon Digital Communications, said...
A group of House lawmakers introduced legislation to close a loophole in federal law that makes mobile-phone subscribers potential targets for unsolicited text message advertising."Basically, this adds text messages to banned calls to cellphone numbers listed on the national do-not-call list," said John Shimkus...
