"Consolidation" is a well-worn phrase in business circles because it politely masks the fact that someone probably is going to get it in the neck.Typically, that means workers get hurt, though the game of executive heave-ho remains popular, particularly after a difficult quarter or...
Verizon Wireless launched its streaming mobile TV service last week with little of the expected fanfare. The service, dubbed Vcast Mobile TV, uses MediaFLO USA Inc.'s technology and network, with Verizon Wireless initially offering the service in 20 markets across the country. The service...
The squeeze is on as the mobile handset business matures, growth slows and the pace of consolidation picks up.One sign of the increasing pressures, even at the world's largest handset vendors, is the shuffle of executives leading the charge. While the departure of Ron...
Three of the top six handset vendors in the world lost market share last year, as did the "other" category that captures the multitude of second-tier vendors determined to swim upstream against a strong current. That current is generated by the momentum that scale...
Verizon Wireless has launched mobile TV service using MediaFLO USA Inc.'s technology and network, initially offering the service in 20 markets across the United States from Richmond, Va., to Portland, Ore. The service is priced at $15 per month for mobile TV only, which...
Verizon Wireless will begin offering mobile television on March 1, according to coverage maps on the carrier's Web site. No further details were offered, and the maps offered the caveat that mobile TV would be available only in "select markets" on March 1. The...
Slim, shiny, clever devices dazzle and delight-impressions that all the major handset makers are capable of producing in a mobile phone. As carriers manage their handset portfolios, they see in those devices the means to capture the imagination of consumers and draw them into...
Sprint Nextel Corp. this past week made increased efforts to work its online retail handset angle. The carrier added at least four new handsets in the entry- and low-tiers, cut prices on smartphones and toyed with pricing on its iDEN handsets.Between Feb. 12 and...
Sprint Nextel Corp. this past week made increased efforts to work its online retail handset angle. The carrier added at least four new handsets in the entry- and low-tiers, cut prices on smartphones and toyed with pricing on its iDEN handsets.Between Feb. 12 and...
BARCELONA, Spain-While Cingular Wireless L.L.C.'s announcement last week that it planned to use Qualcomm Inc.'s MediaFLO network to launch a mobile television service later this year cemented the technology as the de facto leader of streaming TV in the States, the company likely will...
The search for hotties never ends.Hot wireless markets, that is, with potential growth in first-time subscribers and prospects for high volumes of relatively low-cost handset sales, market share and, possibly, profits.A couple of currently hot markets will remain in contention-think China and, particularly, India-and...
At the 3GSM World Congress, as at other major industry confabs, there are gadgets galore. And then there are the market-based strategies and financial plans behind them. Attempting to translate one into the other-reading the gadgets' features for clues to a vendor's strategies or...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. touted a handful of high- to mid-tier handsets at the outset of the 3GSM World Congress and duly gained attention for its technical prowess. Tucked away on the vendor's 3GSM-dedicated Web site was more: four tri-band (GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 900/1800/1900 MHz) handsets...
Cox Communications has launched converged services in two markets in partnership with Sprint Nextel Corp., offering consumers in Arizona and San Diego a bundle that includes wireless service and mobile access to some cable content.Sprint Nextel has introduced similar services in Boston and Portland,...
Tween-focused mobile virtual network operator Kajeet Inc. has begun selling phones and service via its Web site, with coverage maps that appear to match up with the Sprint Nextel Corp. network. The MVNO is offering three handsets, all of them flip-phones: the 225 from...
It's official. Twelve global network operators have chosen LG Electronics Co. Ltd.'s KU250 handset as the winner of the GSM Association's low-cost, 3G handset campaign. That means LG will ship perhaps millions of units to those operators, which should provide the Korean handset vendor...
Yahoo Inc. announced that LG Electronics Co. Ltd. will be preloading the search giant's mobile applications on its mobile phones in more than 70 countries, beginning later this year. The applications that will be preloaded to most of LG's handset are set to include...
Qualcomm Inc.'s MediaFLO USA Inc. mobile TV business racked up another major customer win as AT&T Inc.'s Cingular Wireless L.L.C., the nation's largest wireless carrier, announced it expects to introduce commercial mobile TV services in "late 2007" using the MediaFLO network. Details of the...
Cingular Wireless L.L.C. plans to deploy its Video Share product in the first half of this year, in what will constitute its first deployed IMS-supported application. The deployment of the Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem platform opens up new avenues for services and convergence for...
Texas Instruments Inc., established in 1930 to develop oil exploration technology, has grown into a predominantly wireless-based powerhouse with $14.3 billion in annual revenue last year. Its main customer for its digital signal processors is Nokia Corp., the world's largest cellphone vendor. By revenue,...
It's all about messages and audiences these days. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. sent forth multiple messages in the past two weeks, all emphasizing that the Japanese-Swedish joint venture is on the move in the wake of an impressive performance last year. The messages...
German chip maker Infineon Technologies AG crowed yesterday that it will supply Nokia Corp. with baseband and RF chips for the handset vendor's entry-level phones in GSM markets.Details of the deal were not disclosed, so the relative impact of the move to Texas Instruments...
Ericsson Mobile Platforms AB and LG Electronics Co. Ltd. announced that LG will license an HSPA platform from Ericsson for "ultra-small," mass-market 3G phones.Ericsson's U360 platform includes a reference design, platform software, application-specific integrated circuits and development boards and tools, and is designed to...
Wireless UAs if the costs of tuition and books weren't enough, some students are finding wireless technology is causing their student fees to increase. Students at the University of Maryland may have to pay an additional $292 in room and board costs next year,...
