BROWSING: Wireless Application Developers

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. eked out a slim lead in market share over Motorola Inc. in the United States last year, in part due to the latter's fading fortunes, according to new numbers from IDC.Where Samsung showed 15.5% year-on-year growth between 2007 and 2008,...

Mobile application retailer Handmark announced a deal to acquire FreeRange Communications, a Portland, Ore.-based mobile technology firm, for an undisclosed amount.FreeRange offers a publishing platform designed to help media companies and content owners to create branded, downloadable smartphone applications. The company also offers mobile...

Facebook has joined the board of the OpenID Foundation and will host an OpenID Design Summit later this month, according to a post on the social network's developer blog.

Although the 15-seconds of Internet fame surrounding games and videos parodying the George W. Bush shoe throwing incident have probably passed, an interesting new nugget about the iPhone App Store's policies have come by way of an application that just got rejected.

Bebo launched a program designed to help operators, handset manufacturers and mobile application developers to reach its 50 million registered users.The social networking site - which was acquired by AOL last year for $850 million - unveiled Bebo Open Mobile, a suite of tools...

Businesses in nearly every industry seem to be adopting a bunker mentality and shedding workers in an effort to weather an increasingly brutal economic storm. But wireless software developers are more bullish than ever on their industry.Evans Data last week released a report indicating...

Forum Nokia unveiled 11 finalists in a developer contest designed to spur the development of environmentally friendly applications.Nokia Corp.'s developer community said its "Calling All Innovators" site generated submissions from nearly 1,000 developers vying for one of three $25,000 first-place prizes. Submissions included a...

The next upgrade to Apple's iPhone will have a strong focus on gaming, analysts and developers agree.

Texas Hold'em and the iFart may be, they're not going to change the world. Nokia's mobile application developer community, Forum Nokia, recently called on enthusiasts to create applications that will do more than quell boredom.

AdMob unveiled a new ad network designed to help developers to monetize their applications on the Android platform.The San Mateo, Calif.,-based mobile ad startup said it already serves ads on mobile sites on Android, receiving more than 27 million ad requests last month. The...

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.From an outsider's point of view, it's easy to say mobile applications should be a slam dunk...

VeriSign Inc. announced plans to acquire Certicom Inc. just days after Research In Motion Ltd. dropped its takeover bid of the Canadian software developer.VeriSign will pay either $40 million net of Certicom's existing cash and short-term marketable securities or a flat $73 million, the...

Research In Motion is opening its doors to would-be Blackberry application developers. The company on Tuesday announced that it is now accepting submissions for its upcoming Blackberry application store. RIM announced its intent to create the software service in October.

The engineering director who helped Google create its mobile operating system Android is leaving the company to join recession-friendly Coupons Inc. as CTO.

Australia's first smartphone to run on Google's Android, the Kogan Agora Pro, has been delayed indefinitely, with its distributor citing its low-resolution display as the reason for not shipping the handset in its current form.

Andrew Shebanow didn't imagine that asking for feedback about how Palm's app store should work would open up a flood of input. He also didn't expect the move would change his job description. But now both have happened.

As he fills the CES keynote duties formerly handled by Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer aims to show that Microsoft can tackle a dominant Google, a resurgent Apple and a weak economy.

Apple continues to draw flak for keeping a tight rein on its App Store, but T-Mobile USA is learning that Google's free-for-all marketplace can be a dangerous place to play.The latest offering to get the boot from Apple is a mobile version of "Knife...

Mozilla is targeting developers with an upgraded alpha version of its mobile browser.Fennec - which takes its name from a small desert fox - is a zooming browser that features bookmarks, a smart URL bar, popup blocker and tabbed browsing. The Mountain View, Calif.-based...

Social networking applications that take advantage of location information could become a key driver for growing the location-based services market, according to a new report from ABI Research.The firm predicts the market for fully mobile location-based social networking sites will support more than 82...

Elevation Partners, the VC firm that invested $325 million last year to revive Palm, left $100 million under the tree for the handset pioneer.But that tree is bedecked with candycanes in the shape of question marks. The cash infusion announced Monday comes just two...

Some deep-winter intrigue is due at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, if only because Palm Inc. is expected to unveil a new operating system, dubbed Nova, on Jan. 8 at The Venetian Hotel.Given Palm's dire straits - analysts are talking in terms...

The weeks following the release of the Research In Motion's first touch screen BlackBerry , the Storm, on November 21 , were unfortunately filled with complaints from users, reviewers and critics alike regarding the extremely poor quality operating system that shipped with the device.

Palm is suddenly making some impressive moves. Unfortunately for the handset maker's shareholders, it's making them about a year too late.The Silicon Valley-based manufacturer this week took the wraps off a striking new application storefront that already boasts 5,000 offerings - 10 times the...