retail

BELLEVUE, Wash.—InfoSpace Inc. reported a net loss for the third quarter and announced plans to halt investment in its direct-to-consumer content business, including its recently launched Moviso storefront. Instead, executives said, InfoSpace will refocus on bringing its success in online …

IRVINE, Calif.—Boost Mobile L.L.C. is bringing its pay-as-you-go service to rural areas, after traditionally concentrating on urban strongholds. Boost, which is a division of Sprint Nextel Corp. and runs on the carrier’s iDEN network, will begin to offer service in …

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—Motorola Inc. has reiterated its concern over a proliferation of counterfeit accessories, particularly Bluetooth headsets, purported to be made by Motorola and reaching consumers in the United States and, likely, worldwide. Motorola warned that the counterfeits are cheap fakes …

LONDON—MobileMail Inc. said it signed a letter of intent to acquire Oy Tracebit AB, a mobile content and entertainment provider and publisher. Tracebit was founded in 1996 and focuses on Java and BREW games. The company, which is based in …

NEW YORK—Verizon Wireless continued its domination of the postpaid wireless market and outpaced larger rival Cingular Wireless L.L.C. in net customer additions during the third quarter. Verizon Wireless brought in 1.9 million net subscribers for the quarter, compared with Cingular’s …

WASHINGTON-Consumer groups and wireless carriers last week said AT&T Inc.’s proposed conditions to its $79 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp. are inadequate, creating uncertainty over whether the Federal Communications Commission can pull off a planned Nov. 3 vote on the …

The fourth quarter-a seasonally hot quarter for handset sales-is well underway. Time for the crystal ball and a word from a couple of gazers. The outlook remains positive for fourth-quarter shipment volumes, based largely on historical trends and the remarkable …

Over the Razr’s unprecedented two-year run, the retail price of the device has plummeted from $500 to $50, drawing new volumes of consumers at each price point along the way. In the process, this game-changing handset has sold more than …

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.-U.S. consumers are increasingly focusing on devices when considering wireless services, according to a survey from J.D. Power and Associates. The market research firm found that 19 percent of customers cite the type or brand of cell phone …

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.—U.S. consumers are increasingly focusing on devices when considering wireless services, according to a survey from J.D. Power and Associates. The market research firm found that 19 percent of customers cite the type or brand of cell phone …

DALLAS—The holiday retail season kicked into high gear as T-Mobile USA Inc., Virgin Mobile and others introduced a bevy of new handsets. First up was Bang & Olufsen, best known for high-end consumer electronics, which launched a mobile handset developed …

WASHINGTON-The Bush administration is moving aggressively to integrate radio-frequency identification technology into homeland security, defense and immigration policies, a posture expected to catalyze private-sector investment while inviting increased security and privacy concerns as the emerging wireless application gains traction. The …

Maybe it was too much caffeine, but it seems the wireless industry did a lot last week to get our editorial staff talking/critiquing, cheering and the like-in other words, hedgehogging. Here are a few of our favorite rants from last …

Cingular Wireless L.L.C. is reaping the benefits of its acquisition of the former AT&T Wireless Services Inc., company officials said-even as the company prepares for the merger of its two parent companies and a return to the AT&T Wireless brand. …

ATLANTA-Helio L.L.C.’s operating costs pushed parent company EarthLink Inc. into an overall loss of $3.2 million for the third quarter, the company reported. EarthLink shares plunged nearly 10 percent on the announcement as Wall Street reacted to the news. Mobile …

Measuring a strategy’s effect on customers is a crucial part of figuring out what works best to reduce customer churn. SoundBite Communications Inc., based in Burlington, Mass., provides wireless carriers with a service that places automated voice calls to customers …

ATLANTA—Helio L.L.C.’s operating costs pushed parent company EarthLink Inc. into an overall loss of $3.2 million for the third quarter, the company reported. EarthLink shares plunged nearly 10 percent on the announcement as Wall Street reacted to the news. Mobile …

SINGAPORE—Wireless casino software developer Spiral Solutions Ltd. said it has acquired the Ki-Bi card content distribution business. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Spiral subsidiary Spin3 took over Ki-Bi from Zone-IP Ltd. and will retain the Ki-Bi brand. Ki-Bi …

Sprint Nextel Corp. is doing a fair job of imitating a punching bag, getting pummeled left and right by sliding stock prices, gloomy predictions and integration issues. But while things look rocky for the carrier in the short term and …

Having helped triple his company’s year-on-year profits in the third quarter, Najmi Jarwala, Sony Ericsson’s chief executive officer for North America, can afford to wax philosophical about his company’s future. “Innovation is our differentiator,” he said last week. “If we …

Under pressure to assure the market that it can expand its traditional, enterprise customer base, Palm Inc. made a high-profile announcement last week in New York at the DigitalLife 2006 conference that it would launch a Treo 680 model for …

BOSTON—Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston unleashed the city’s wireless initiative today, announcing that a square-mile Wi-Fi network is being built in Roxbury’s Gove Hall and Dudley Square neighborhoods. Menino also unveiled two public hot spots, one in the city’s Quincy …

NEW YORK—Palm Inc. launched its quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE Treo 680 smart phone running on the Palm OS platform. The slim phone features e-mail, Web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar and contacts capabilities and includes a full keyboard and a color screen. The …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P., at five years old, is pursuing two trends in the rapidly changing mobile handset market—a worldwide thirst for music and imaging—and is profiting handsomely in its chosen markets. The partnership between the Japanese consumer …

Leap Wireless International Inc. offered insight into its plans for the spectrum it won in the FCC’s advanced wireless services auction, outlining a buildout that should start next year and ultimately cover about 24 million potential customers at a cost …