It looks as though most U.S. retailers won't be getting the merry green holiday they'd hoped for.Despite a last-minute sales bump last weekend, the overall holiday retail scene continued its overall plodding underperformance compared with last year, with only a few bright spots. Among...
Palm Inc. almost looks like two companies these days, depending on which way the light strikes.Palm is focused on keeping the productivity-based Treo line from slipping into irrelevance, while it experiments with form factors and features for a future in the consumer market.This past/future...
AT&T Mobility is spreading the holiday spirit by opening its stores earlier and keeping them open later on the days before and after Christmas. The company said that shoppers should check with local stores, but that most of its 1,800 retail stores will be...
Brightpoint Inc. announced it extended its distribution agreement as an authorized distributor for Nokia Corp. gadgets in the United States through next year. Brightpoint North America L.P., the subsidiary responsible for the company's domestic distribution, sells wireless devices to operators, MVNOs (define), independent agents...
ZTE USA, the American face of the Chinese handset and network vendor, will begin supplying co-branded CDMA handsets to MetroPCS Communications Corp., which offers service to 3.7 million subscribers in major metro areas. The deal is ZTE's second to provide devices to an American...
The latest casualty in the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) space is XE Mobile, which targeted college-age youth and marketed itself as a hip, provocative alternative to traditional carriers with an affinity program and cheap long-distance calling.According to a message on the pay-as-you-go MVNO's...
The day before Palm Inc. delivers its latest quarterly results-for the fiscal second quarter ending Nov. 30-a "key product" it missed delivering earlier in the holiday spending season has arrived at Verizon Wireless.The Treo 755p, priced at $300 online, with contract, will also be...
Editor's Note: In this monthly feature, RCR Wireless News talks to retail managers across the country to get a first-hand view of what's hot in wireless. Verizon Wireless' new Evolution stores emphasize interactivity and give customers a chance to test out applications on dozens...
RULES THAT WOULD MAKE IT EASIER for small businesses to bid for the D-Block license in the upcoming January auction are under attack from the three companies that have entangled the Federal Communications Commission in auctionrelated litigation since last year.Council Tree Communications Inc., Bethel...
Welcome to our Friday feature, Week in Review. Every Friday, RCR Wireless News runs 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...
For Apple Inc., it's all about control and making money. Factor that into your reading of the tea leaves on the news that Apple has quietly raised the limit on iPhone purchases from two back to five.The blogosphere has cogitated on the news for...
The Federal Communications Commission's relaxation of the small-business bidding rule for the commercial-public safety D-Block license in the upcoming 700 MHz auction has come under another attack, this time by the same parties that have entangled the agency in auction-related litigation since last year.Council...
Editor's Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.--MTV Networks announced...
CompUSA, a leading consumer electronics retailer and purveyor of unlocked mobile phones, is going out of business, the company announced. The announcement did not cite a reason for CompUSA's sale. But the electronics retailer, founded in 1984 in Dallas, had announced last fall that...
T-Mobile USA Inc. continues to expand its lineup of handsets serving the carrier's HotSpot @ Home service, with the new Katalyst from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. The quad-band, EDGE slider handset is priced at $80 with a mail-in rebate and two-year contract and includes...
AT&T Mobility isn't wasting any time promoting its products and services in the former Dobson Communications Corp. territories it just acquired. The carrier said that the first phase of its integration of Dobson-a $2.8 billion purchase that closed in mid-November-will start Sunday, as more...
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 RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
Better late than never.Handsets that didn't arrive by "Black Friday" or "Cyber Monday"-the ultimate days for in-store and online shopping, respectively-may still make an impression on harried shoppers.Nokia Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. announced that Nokia's 6263 will be available online, adding a seventh...
A German court has given T-Mobile the go-ahead to lock its German iPhones and require purchasers to buy a two-year contract, nixing a court challenge from rival Vodafone Group plc, according to media reports.In a public relations gesture, T-Mobile said it would unlock the...
Remember the disposable phone? If you answer yes, you're showing your age-they popped up and seemed to disappear a decade ago. But Hop-On Inc., "best known as the inventor of the disposable mobile phone," as the company reminds readers its recent press release, is...
It was no coincidence that Verizon Wireless chose to make two major announcements last week-each one laid out a separate step toward a 4G future driven by connectivity for consumer-electronics devices.Dick Lynch, Verizon Wireless' CTO, said that the two announcements are "inextricably tied ....
VERIZON WIRELESS' DECLARATION LAST WEEK that "any application, any device" will run on its network next year was clearly an overstatement, though executives acknowledged later that itsCDMA network allows only CDMA-based devices. The juxtaposition of overstatement and subsequent qualification in a way reflected many...
Conventional wisdom has American shoppers descending like locusts on brick-and-mortar retail stores on the Friday after Thanksgiving-presumably working off the turkey-and-gravy by lightening their wallets-then returning to work on Monday, where they resume spending online.AT&T Mobility appeared to make the most of "Cyber Monday,"...
Handset distributor Brightpoint Inc. shuffled around some members of its executive team, promoting some veterans within the company to more prominent roles. The moves come as the company continues to integrate operations with Dangaard Telecom, a European handset distributor it recently acquired for $300...
