retail

   REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.—Wherify Wireless Inc. will retail its Wherifone GPS Locator phones through Toys ‘R’ Us outlets nationwide starting Oct. 1, after a long delay during which the firm twice re-engineered the product. Wherify will sell the phone under …

Resellers of inexpensive cellular phones risk being targeted as terrorists these days, since local and federal law enforcement officials are on the look-out for purchases of large numbers of prepaid cellular phones. Five men of Middle Eastern descent were recently …

Sprint Nextel Corp. had a rocky second quarter, with plummeting retail postpaid net customer additions and negative net additions through its wholesalers. Carrier executives acknowledge the problem and blamed it on a tightening of the company’s credit requirements for customers, …

LONDON-The Walt Disney Co. has opted to delay the launch of its mobile virtual network operator phone service in the United Kingdom. “We have decided to postpone the launch of the Disney Mobile service,” said Disney Mobile U.K. spokeswoman Sandra …

The global, mobile handset business is a rough-and-tumble arena that requires players to succeed in a daunting number of areas that include technology, design, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and relationships-most factors obscured by the shipment and market-share numbers provided on this …

HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. was set to launch its fourth flagship store last week, taking the wraps off a multimedia retail outlet in its home country. The world’s largest handset maker planned to open the doors Aug. 18 at the new …

Sprint Nextel Corp. tweaked its Fair & Flexible price plans, leaving the dollar amounts the same on the basic voice plans but changing the number of minutes for three of its mid-range plans and increasing the cost of overage minutes. …

HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia Corp. is set to launch its fourth flagship store this week, taking the wraps off a multimedia retail outlet in its home country. The world’s largest handset maker plans to open the doors this weekend at the new …

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Sprint Nextel Corp. has tweaked its Fair & Flexible price plans, leaving the dollar amounts the same on the basic voice plans, but changing the number of minutes for three of its mid-range plans and increasing the cost …

LONDON—The Walt Disney Co. has opted to delay the launch of its mobile virtual network operator phone service in the United Kingdom. “We have decided to postpone the launch of the Disney Mobile service,” said Disney Mobile U.K. spokeswoman Sandra …

PLAINFIELD, Ind.-Brightpoint Inc. said it has signed a three-year master services agreement with T-Mobile USA Inc., which calls for its Brightpoint Services L.L.C. business unit to provide all of the carrier’s handset logistics in the United States. Brightpoint said it …

U.S. Cellular Corp. released limited operating results for the second quarter, reporting a churn rate that ticked upward and net overall customer activations that were about half of what the carrier achieved during the same period last year-however, the company …

PLAINFIELD, Ind.—Brightpoint Inc. said it has signed a three-year master services agreement with T-Mobile USA Inc., which calls for its Brightpoint Services L.L.C. business unit to provide all of the carrier’s handset logistics in the United States. Brightpoint said it …

   SAN DIEGO—Hey, it’s all about my life, not your network. That’s the disruptive thinking that Sony Electronics—not Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P., the wireless handset maker—is following in launching a Wi-Fi-only device (no monthly cellular service fees!) for Voice …

Polar opposite pictures of the second quarter emerged last week from Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. as the industry’s No. 2 and No. 3 operators reported financial results. Verizon Wireless’ parent company, Verizon Communications Inc., encountered what its executives …

The Symbian operating system, championed by Nokia Corp. in its smart phones, currently has a majority of OS market share, a state of affairs likely to continue for the foreseeable future, according to projections from market research firm IDC. This …

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Sprint Nextel Corp. shares were down sharply after the company reported a scant 708,000 net subscriber additions in the second quarter, most of which were prepaid customers. Sprint Nextel added just 210,000 postpaid subscribers in the quarter. The …

NEW YORK—Vodafone Group plc plans to keep its 45-percent stake in Verizon Wireless for the foreseeable future, Verizon Communications Inc. chief executive officer Ivan Seidenberg told analysts in a conference call Tuesday. Seidenberg said he met last week with Arun …

CHICAGO—U.S. Cellular Corp. and its parent company, Telephone and Data Systems Corp., reported their much-delayed fourth-quarter figures for 2005 and updates to their 2006 guidance. U.S. Cellular saw its customer base expand by 11 percent compared to 2004; its retail …

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.-Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA Inc. tied for the top spot in the most recent J.D. Power & Associates survey of wireless carrier customer care performance. Both carriers scored 104 points on the company’s scale, while the industry …

BASKING RIDGE, N.J.-Verizon Wireless is using the launch of the new Chocolate phone to tout upgrades to its Vcast Music service. The highly anticipated handset from LG Electronics Co. Ltd. makes its U.S. debut this week after gaining substantial traction …

Regional carriers SunCom Wireless Holdings Inc. and Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. continued to stabilize their operations during the second quarter, while NII Holdings Inc. showed positive growth and recently spun-off Embarq Corp. is betting heavily on its recently launched wireless operations. …

ROSEMONT, Ill.-Though much pent-up interest was focused on Motorola’s handset announcements, company execs talk about operations, supply chain, finances, product roadmap and whether Motorola could sustain its recent robust performance-in sum, both the “vision thing” and the nitty-gritty. CEO Ed …

ROSEMONT, Ill.-The answer to industry’s and investors’ lingering question-what the heck is Motorola Inc. going to do to follow up its monster handset hit, the Razr?-came last week in this Chicago suburb as the company unveiled new phones and boasted …

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.—Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA Inc. tied for the top spot in the most recent J.D. Power & Associates survey of wireless carrier customer care performance. Both carriers scored 104 points on the company’s scale, while the industry …