WASHINGTON-The Bush administration's top two telecom officials said wireless issues will have high priority this year, with policymakers anxious to see wireless networks evolve into a competitive alternative to the telephone-cable TV broadband duopoly and to examine avenues for making more efficient use of...
ISuppli Corp has concluded-without performing a physical teardown-that Apple Inc.'s iPhone can generate 50 percent gross margins, based on a preliminary estimate of the device's bill of materials (BoM).The market upshot? Such a large margin ensures healthy profits per device for Apple and Cingular...
Online movie rental giant Netflix Inc. announced plans to roll out a new feature that will allow subscribers to stream movies and television series to their personal computers. The company eventually plans to expand the service to support any Internet-capable device, including mobile phones.Netflix...
It's easy to see the carriers' logic in dropping the online price of handsets in the holiday season: fire sales attract consumers in droves. Mentioning "free" to an American consumer is like waving a red cape at a snorting bull. At other...
Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to target the growing prepaid/sub-prime wireless market by launching an unlimited local calling service through its Boost Mobile L.L.C. sub-brand, CEO Gary Forsee told analysts at a conference hosted by Citigroup. Although Boost has run on iDEN historically, the local...
Hello!And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR Wireless News to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong...
Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to revamp its pricing plans, emphasizing its early night-and-weekend off-peak calling and mobile-to-mobile calling among either iDEN or CDMA users. The company said it will launch its new "Power Pack" individual and family plans on Jan. 14. Sprint Nextel...
Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to target the growing prepaid/sub-prime wireless market by launching an unlimited local calling service through its Boost Mobile L.L.C. sub-brand, CEO Gary Forsee told analysts at a conference hosted by Citigroup. Although Boost has run on iDEN historically, the local...
In the hard light of early January, the shape of the year unfolding ahead remains somewhat amorphous. What to watch for in the handset space, the wireless industry's most tangible interface with consumers? An informal survey of leading analysts, not surprisingly, takes a multifaceted...
Pump up the mobile motivationPeople who made a get-fit new year's resolution this year can find motivation to stick with their goals on their cellphones. PumpOne, a company that provides visual personal training programs for handheld devices like iPods, is offering a service called...
The good news for mobile marketing is that advertisers can target by location, demographic and create actionable responses. The bad news? More than three-quarters of Americans are annoyed just thinking about it. That's the latest finding in a report from Forrester Research on the...
InterDigital Communications Corp. increased its share repurchase program from $200 million to $350 million.The wireless technology provider said its board voted for the move due to "strong positive cash flow" in 2006 and the anticipation of "high levels of free cash" next year. The...
Editor's Note: Following are the most-read stories from RCRNews.com this year. They have been edited to fit in paper format.1. Vodafone records $41B loss, reworks strategic plansMay 30Vodafone Group plc posted a massive $41.1 billion loss for 2005, mainly from impairment charges over assets...
There's a fair amount of chatter in the wireless industry about a developing technology that promises to add capacity to cellular networks wherever needed. This new technology is referred to as femtocells and one day could come to life as small base stations for...
Editor's Note: Following are the most-read stories from RCRNews.com this year. They have been edited to fit in paper format.1. Vodafone records $41B loss, reworks strategic plansMay 30Vodafone Group plc posted a massive $41.1 billion loss for 2005, mainly from impairment charges over assets...
Wirefly, the online retailer, is offering mobile handsets at prices that defy gravity.Tis the season, apparently, for free or low-cost offers on the market's leading handsets to erode the last bastions of resistance to signing up for wireless service.The Motorola Inc. Krzr, for instance,...
Palm Inc.'s stock remained relatively unchanged after the Treo maker reported revenues of $392.9 million in its second quarter, results due in large part to the company's sale of 617,000 Treo smart phones during the period."We are pleased to report strong Treo sell-through this...
OK, so online shoppers safely ensconced in their comfy chairs at home don't actually drop to the ground so much as they maybe nod off after another frenzied session of online purchasing. But wireless carriers continued to tinker with handset prices as the typically...
Editor's Note: Welcome our Monday feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from Strategy Analytics' Chris Ambrosio, Current Analysis' Peter...
In the world of wireless handset vendors, there's an increasing divide between the haves and the have-nots. In this case, the having or not-having doesn't revolve around bling, but scale. Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. have the scale to invest in research and development...
Mobile marketers are looking to avoid the "pay-per-click" problems that continue to plague online advertising. And many of them are hoping simple phone calls provide the solution.Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other ad-supported online search engines charge advertisers a set amount each time a...
'Tis the season for gifting and Christmas lists a mile long. But what to do if someone's list includes a Tetris download for their cell phone, or a new ringer from Chingy? Some wireless carriers and mobile virtual network operators are seeking to make...
Wireless broadband service provider Clearwire Corp. racked up a deal to build its first municipal WiMAX network in Grand Rapids, Mich., after the city council unanimously approved the company's bid to connect the city's 45 square miles with WiMAX coverage.The deal marks Clearwire's first...
Qualcomm Inc. plans to profit from in-house Bluetooth intellectual property to drive down the cost, power consumption and footprint of chip-based functionality in mobile handsets and consumer electronic devices, the company said last week in the wake of its acquisition of much of RF...
