A handful of forces appear to be shaping a year to come that is likely to include numerous device launches featuring the fledgling Android operating system. Whether that will spell success for the license-free, Linux-based, open source OS is far from assured, though at...
Swedish smartphone user interface vendor UIQ has filed for bankruptcy, according to media reports.Indeed, the move was foreshadowed in June when UIQ announced it would layoff 200 of its 375 employees and seek new lines of business. However, it seems the company's efforts did...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly 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.The migration to mobile messaging and data was the story of the first half of...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile indU.S.try to give their insights into the marketplace.While it was good to see some retailers reporting stronger than expected sales for Black Friday and...
You know that dusty smell you experience when you open a book that hasn't been picked up in decades? That's the feeling I get lately when I think of Microsoft's Windows Mobile.Smartphones - and the applications that run on them - are at the...
NEWS LAST WEEK THAT MOTOROLA INC. HAD SETTLED ON Windows Mobile and Android as handset platforms in an effort to simplify, focus on innovation and manage costs underscored the unknowns involved in such choices. Because leading OSs come with "patrons and politics," with unknown...
The "OS wars," as some would have it, are alive and well - at least in the data on the various contenders' shifting market share."Symbian is still by far the most popular operating system for smartphones, with about 50% global market share," said analyst...
LG Electronics Co. said today it will work more closely with Microsoft Corp. on converged devices, likely smartphones the Korean vendor is pursuing. The two parties announced the signing of a "memo of understanding" for "strategic collaboration in mobile convergence" on the occasion of...
BOSTON - A day after the release of the first cellphone powered by Google Inc.'s Android software, the founder of the startup that initially developed the software took the Mobile Internet World keynote stage to explain the reasons behind the search giant's much-hyped effort."It's...
Mozilla released an early mobile version of its Firefox browser in an effort to get feedback from developers and wireless Web users.The Mountain View, Calif.-based developer unveiled Fennec, a "zooming" browser that features bookmarks, a smart URL bar, popup blocker and tabbed browsing. The...
The most important weapon in the war against the dumb-pipe scenario may just be the cloud.Cloud-based services - hosted applications "in the sky" and accessible through the Internet, as opposed to native apps - are suddenly all the rage in mobile. The concept is...
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 RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
SAN FRANCISCO -- Nine more companies have joined the Symbian Foundation as its group members work toward developing an open and complete mobile software platform that will be free for its members.Acrodea, Brycen, HI Corp., Ixonos, KTF, Opera Software, Sharp, TapRoot Systems and UIQ...
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.The mobile communications industry is turning the page on its history of proprietary, closed development. Today, mobile...
The LiMo Foundation announced nine new members today and said that more handsets with its operating system are launching in North America and Japan. The organization is a leading proponent of an open-source, Linux OS for handsets, and said that its latest members represented...
Purple Labs has purchased Openwave Systems Inc.'s mobile-phone software business for $30 million in cash, the two companies said today. The sale, which includes browsing and messaging products and related personnel, will allow Openwave to pursue its stated goal of focusing solely on network-based...
Suddenly, it's all about consolidating handset platforms. Today, LiPS said it would jump on the LiMo. Earlier this week, Nokia Corp. said it would buy out its partners in Symbian Ltd. in order to drive innovation and consolidation of that handset platform. The drivers...
Nokia Corp. will acquire total ownership of Symbian Ltd., buying out current partners in a deal valued at about $411 million, the company said today.Nokia said it would combine its own S60 platform with the Symbian platform and provide the results - a single...
GOOGLE INC.'S OPEN HANDSET ALLIANCE has attracted plenty of attention in the hot mobile Linux space, but the LiMo Foundation is assembling an impressive coalition of its own.Verizon Wireless last week threw its weight behind the open-source community, filling the final seat on LiMo's...
For the 700 MHz C-Block license and perhaps other frequency bands, it's mostly a matter of cagey competitive ambition. For the D Block, it's mostly a matter of desperation. No matter. Getting more input - outside of the sometimes self-limiting marketplace of ideas -...
Google Inc.'s Open Handset Alliance has attracted plenty of attention in the mobile Linux space, but the LiMo Foundation is assembling an impressive coalition of its own.Verizon Wireless has thrown its weight behind the open-source community, filling the final seat on LiMo's board of...
Nearly one-fifth of mid- and high-end handsets will run Linux by 2013, according to a new forecast from ABI Research.High-profile backers such as Google Inc.(whose Android initiative is based on Linux) and Nokia Corp. (which earlier this year spent $153 million to acquire Trolltech...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly 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 Current Analysis' Peter Jarich, NPD Group's...
The brave new world of handsets includes no comfort zones (watch out, Nokia!), disruptive influences run rampant, software transcends hardware and micro-segmentation is likely. These were among the conclusions drawn by analyst Stu Carlaw at an ABI Research session that covered the industry in...
