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Ericsson, Samsung settle lawsuits Auction 96: $400 million and growing ARPU be damned! Leap set to slash per-line price on family plans | Mobile Minute: Apple may be getting into a new business. Reports out today say the company is starting a mobile payments unit. Apple already has an app called Passbook that stores movie tickets, gift cards and airline boarding passes, and it already has millions of credit card numbers saved in iTunes. So mobile payments would be a logical next step. Other players in the space include Google with Google Wallet, the PayPal mobile app, which is owned by EBay, and Isis, an app that is pre-loaded onto Android phones sold by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile US. In other mobile news, the CEO of Motorola has said he wants to push for $50 smartphones. Already some analysts report that at least one Chinese manufacturer is making smartphones for less than $50. Motorola is the only manufacturer making smartphones in the United States. It’s unlikely that Motorola could actually make a smartphone for $50 but it could potentially sell a phone for that amount. Motorola is owned by Google and could take a loss on smartphone sales to boost market share. |
