Almost half of all Americans now own a smartphone, and the number of smartphone owners is rising every day. But carriers are struggling with the cost of subsidizing smartphone sales and looking for less expensive ways to attract new customers. Enter the low-end smartphone:...
Nokia on Wednesday announced planned changes at its smartphone manufacturing factories in Komarom (Hungary - 2300 jobs), Reynosa (Mexico - 700 jobs) and Salo (Finland - 1000 jobs), thereby impacting 4000 jobs by the end of 2012.
Smartphones are now the majority of mobile phones in countries such as the United States, and at the end of 2011, nearly 15% of U.S. consumers went online using a tablet,
Not sure which model to pick next time you upgrade your smartphone? Your carrier may soon let you "try before you buy" by leasing you a smartphone. TMNG Global (TMNG), a software and services provider to carriers, is now offering its clients a business...
The case for deploying smaller cell configurations – such as picocells, microcells and femtocells – to supplement traditional macro-cell-network architectures, both for LTE and existing 3G networks, is becoming more compelling as traditional macro cells will soon not be able to cope with traffic demand in urban areas.
Device subsidies associated with the launch of Apple’s latest iPhone at the beginning of the fourth quarter had a pronounced impact at Verizon Communications (VZ) with the company just missing earning per share estimates and margins taking a sequential hit.
Verizon Wireless reported that smartphones...
Apple's appetite for chips is shaking up the semiconductor industry. Research giant Gartner, Inc. says Apple is now spending more on chips than any other company, surpassing rivals Samsung and Hewlett Packard as the number one chip buyer for 2011. Gartner says Apple spent...
Shares of Nokia bounced back today after a steep sell- off yesterday on news that its orders to chip supplier ST-Ericsson were sluggish. “The revenues of Nokia have collapsed and this is why the revenues of ST Ericsson are not what we expected," Carlo...
Samsung Electronics Thursday announced that it has started producing embedded multi-chip package (eMCP) memory for use in the rapidly expanding market segment for entry-to mid-level smartphones.
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reader Forum section. In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers, we have created this forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but we...
As we turn the page into 2012, we believe it is an opportune time to offer our own version of a Top 10 list to take a page out of Mr. Letterman’s playbook.
AT&T Mobility (T) stirred up the market late yesterday announcing changes to its mobile data plans that increases both the cost and yield of those packages.
The carrier said that its formerly entry-level data package that provided 250 megabytes of data for $15 per month...
During the last two years we’ve seen an increase in attacks on smartphones and mobile devices. We’ve run across rootkits, botnets and other malware. Attackers have moved on from simple destructive malware to spyware and malware that makes them money.
A report by research firm Deloitte has predicted that 500 million smartphones with a retail price of $100 or less will likely be in use worldwide in 2012.
Although smartphones seem like old news, their impact on the wireless industry is only beginning. In 2012, as these phones become truly mainstream consumer devices, sales volumes and data network traffic will skyrocket, forcing the wireless industry to completely rethink how it designs, sells, deploys and operates wireless services.
Low-power wireless technologies will gain a foothold in the smartphone: In 2012 over 35% of smartphones will be shipped with dual-mode Bluetooth low energy (also known as Bluetooth Smart Ready). In addition, a third major phone brand will incorporate ANT, with this in mind, over 10 million ANT+ enabled phones will be shipped in 2012.
Smartphone sales as percentage of total sales will break the 20% barrier in 2012, with Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile having especially important increases in smartphone adoption. Smartphone adoption in the region will be driven by increased vendor competition, fuelled by Chinese manufacturers that offer affordable Android phones and operators trying to increase their smartphone base to increase data revenue.
2011 was a transitional year for the mobile space as consumers began to look at their wireless devices more as a connection to the Internet than as simply a phone. Sure, that foundation had been laid out over the previous years, but they all...
In 2011, MEF accurately forecast that the proliferation of smartphones would drive mobile consumer engagement with a number of other predictions also coming to fruition. MEF’s success in anticipating and addressing key industry issues, combined with its increased representation of the wider mobile content and commerce industry, place it in a strong position to forecast the top mobile industry trends for 2012.
IDC Latin America followed the company's global predictions in forecasting that 2012 will be the year of mobile and cloud platform wars as IT vendors vie for leadership while the industry redefines itself. The market intelligence firm also added the consumerization of IT, which...
Although IT consumerization is a relatively new phenomenon, it cannot be ignored by chief information officers. IBM is taking steps to address enterprise-class requirements with a series of new mobile apps.
As the holiday shopping season gets under way this week, merchants can expect to see more transactions completed using wireless devices. A survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that 45% of respondents expect to increase the amount of time they spend using mobile phones to...
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reader Forum section. In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers, we have created this forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but...
Smartphones were the fastest-growing handset category across Latin America, with sales of 31 million units sold and U.S. $6 billion in revenue, continuing the trend of the region's increasing share of the global market, according to a report by consulting firm Pyramid Research.
