The Week in Review

Welcome to our new Friday feature, Week in Review. Every Friday, RCR Wireless News will run through the major events of the past week, outlining what happened and speculating on what to look for in the coming weeks, months and years. Check below for news about carriers, handset makers, content companies, infrastructure vendors and more.
Carriers
–Consolidation continues: Canada’s top two telecom vendors are discussing a merger. Although carrier consolidation in the United States likely is on hold for the foreseeable future, it appears the trend will continue in other countries.
–AT&T Mobility commercially launched its Video Share offering, one of the carrier’s flagship services for its W-CDMA/HSDPA network. It’s unclear what else the carrier has planned for its 3G network since all eyes are now turned to the carrier’s forthcoming EDGE-capable iPhone.
Handsets
–Nuance said it will pay $265 million for Tegic, which makes predictive-text software for cellphones. The deal foreshadows Nuance’s plans to develop a “multimodal” input system for cellphones that will combine text, voice and touch. The question now is whether the world’s cellphone makers will sceed control over their input systems to a third party.
–Nokia reorganized its business units to focus more heavily on services. The news further underlines Nokia’s plans to evolve from a cellphone vendor and into a software and services provider, an area that likely will carry much higher margins.
Content
–Qualcomm nabbed another European customer, Hutchison Whampoa’s 3 Group, for its BREW application-download service. For Qualcomm, the deal seems to signal yet more weakening of European resistance against the CDMA pioneer. For BREW developers, the deal marks another notable distribution channel.
–In other BREW news, announced in conjunction with the company’s BREW developer’s conference, Qualcomm said it will enable off-deck BREW services. The move stands as yet another acknowledgement of the growing importance of off-deck content sales, and also more closely aligns BREW with its rival platform Java, which is already available in off-deck systems.
Infrastructure
–Verizon Communications introduced several fixed-mobile convergence products, news that may give hope to the range of vendors selling such offerings that additional service launches are planned for the future.
COMING IN MONDAY’S ISSUE OF RCR WIRELESS NEWS
–Phil Carson takes a look behind Nokia’s reorganization plans, Colin Gibbs sheds light on the rush of companies launching private-label GPS offerings, and Kelly Hill outlines all the wireless happenings from this week’s NXTcomm 2007 trade show.