The mobile-phone accessory market is expected generate more than $40 billion in revenues this year and could grow to more than $80 billion by 2012, according to a new report from ABI Research."Current market trends including the growing adoption of smartphones in the prosumer...
A portrait of success for a handset vendor might contain these elements: Offer a unique product that captures the consumer's imagination (mindshare!) and suits their wallet and watch global sales ignite like a wildfire (market share!). The mainstream media does flashy anatomy-of-a-success stories, while...
CTIA is taking its big show back west this year as the CTIA Wireless 2008 event is set to take place April 1-3 in Las Vegas (and if you haven't made your plans to attend yet, you might want to stop reading this and...
At the end of the day - the verbal pause du jour - a gathering of thousands of industry people bursting with innovative products, some of them handsets, will undoubtedly kick up a little dust in Las Vegas next week.Whether handset vendors are merely...
Ringtone sales are flat and full-track mobile download services are falling on deaf ears. But streaming wireless music offerings may be hitting the right notes.A recent study from TNS Global Telecoms found that 43% of all mobile users listen to some form of music...
Sales of mobile phones to consumers in the United States reached 146 million units in 2007, according to a report from The NPD Group. The market generated $11.5 billion in revenues after rebates and promotions, said NPD. The firm noted some growth in the...
If the incumbent smartphone vendors give you the blues, all you have to do is wait a week for Velocity Mobile.This new smartphone vendor will launch at CTIA 2008 and seems certain to draw the curious. In such a brutally competitive market, some of...
Palm Inc.'s fiscal third quarter yielded revenue of $312 million but a loss in net income of $31.5 million, despite a 13% rise in handset unit sales. Revenue was down 24% from the year-ago quarter and net income dropped even more sharply -- in...
In the hands of well-heeled, early adopters, the iPhone's large touchscreen, user interface and an unlimited data plan lead to high rates of browsing, video viewing, music listening and social networking, according to a new report from M:Metrics.Overall, that's good news for the mobile...
Mobile content vendor Handango Inc. announced it landed a major distribution deal with The Carphone Warehouse, the largest independent mobile-phone dealer in Europe.Calling the partnership the first of its kind for mobile content distribution, Handango CEO Bill Stone said the company will be expanding...
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, IDC's Shiv...
ONCE THE DOMAIN OF EARLY ADOPTERS on high-tech smartphones, mobile RSS is quietly moving into the mainstream.RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, first came to the Internet in 1999, and the format has become a must-have for savvy Web users looking to keep tabs on...
Alltel Wireless, the nation's No. 5 operator, is the latest to join the unlimited-calling bandwagon, quietly launching an all-you-can-talk plan for $100 a month.The Little Rock, Ark.-based network operator followed its bigger rivals, all of whom have launched variations on the unlimited theme in...
The following list includes venture capital and other investments into wireless companies announced during the past week. The value of the investment is included when available.--Handango: Several companies invested $9.5 million into smartphone content provider Handango. Participating in the Series C funding round were...
Nokia Corp. announced plans to embed Microsoft Corp.'s Silverlight technology on its handsets.Similar to Flash, a rival technology from Adobe Systems Inc., Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for rich interactive Web-based applications. Nokia said it will make Silverlight available on Series 40 devices...
A new category of consumer electronics device - the Mobile Internet Device - is expected to appeal to a wide variety of consumers, according to a new study from ABI Research.The report predicts the always-connected devices will grow from less than 3.5 million units...
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...
Research In Motion Ltd. said today that its subscriber growth will be stronger than previously forecast for its fiscal quarter ending March 1. But the BlackBerry maker did not raise its financial projections for the same period. RIM in December had predicted 1.8 million...
One popular handset does not a successful vendor make. But in Palm Inc.'s case, the launch of its popular, $100 Centro smartphone at AT&T Mobility in a GSM, quad-band world format, may help the company recapture mindshare and produce cash flow. The Centro first...
One of the typically opaque aspects of the cellular handset industry erupted into view over the weekend as Motorola Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd. sued each other. The familiar culprit: failed negotiations to renew a cross-licensing agreement. A 2003 agreement expired at the...
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, IDC's Shiv...
What is mobile search? A search for "mobile search" on Merriam-Webster's online dictionary returns only paid search terms. I will refrain from comment. Wikipedia returns the following:". an evolving branch of information retrieval services that is centered around the convergence of mobile platforms and...
Mobile security has been a topic of discussion for many years. Skeptics have always said "mobile security is a solution looking for a problem." True, few mobile security disasters have occurred on the scale of a Code-Red or Blaster, however, mobile data usage has...
Smartphones will come of age as the primary venue for mobile Internet content in the U.S. this year. The proliferation of these devices will reshape the sector and force content companies, operators, and advertisers to retool.Companies in the mobile advertising sector have been busy...