T-Mobile USA Inc. pushed past the 30 million subscriber mark during the first three months of the year, adding 981,000 net customers and ending the first quarter with 30.8 million customers. The net customer growth was inline with the 980,000 customers the carrier added...
Total annual spending for advertisements on mobile devices will exceed $1 billion this year and could increase to about $7.6 billion by 2013, according to a report from Juniper Research. The firm said mobile streamed and broadcast TV services will become the most lucrative...
TEXT MESSAGING HAS BECOME A CASH COW for mobile operators desperate to generate revenues in mobile data. But instant messaging may be poised to change that.Mobile instant messaging, or MIM, is used by only 8% of mobile consumers worldwide, according to a recent study...
Can you smell me now?Multimedia messaging could soon become multi-sensory. A German syndicate including a sensory analysis and marketing consultancy and an interactive value-added services specialist have filed for a patent for technology that allows users to send scents with their MMS messages to...
NEW YORK CITY -- The tears, deafening screams and all-around giddiness were nonstop last night as Madonna played a six-song set at the Roseland Ballroom for a select group of wireless subscribers, promotion winners and hardcore fans.The "Material Girl" took the stage shortly after...
Sprint Nextel Corp. hopes to clean up the direct-to-consumer content business by hitting wayward partners where it hurts.The carrier last month told off-deck content aggregators that it will be "strictly enforcing" new revenue-share penalties for vendors who violate Mobile Marketing Association guidelines. Partners who...
Pepsi-Cola has tapped Hong Kong's MyClick Media to handle the mobile extension of a cross-platform marketing campaign targeting young consumers in China. The contest encourages users to upload photos as well as personal information such as name and mobile number to one of six...
Mobile entertainment community Limbo inked a year-long deal with Virgin Mobile USA Inc. to offer mobile promotions to customers.Limbo, a 2-year-old startup headed by founders of the mobile marketing firm Enpocket, will stage monthly and quarterly promotions through text-message blasts and on the VirginXL...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we'll review a new wireless application or service from the user's point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and...
Perhaps no other player has invested as much in the speech-recognition market as Nuance Communications Inc. The Burlington, Mass.-based company has spent more than $1 billion in the past two years as it acquired competing firms and broadened its portfolio. We talked to Steve...
Considering its 100-year-plus history, Major League Baseball's mobile efforts are pretty cutting-edge. MLB.com offers a host of ways for fans to follow the sport on their phones, from text alerts to radio broadcasts to video highlights, which debut this year. We talked with Dinn...
The controversy over whether the Federal Communications Commission should regulate short code-related text messaging has opened a floodgate of weighty policy questions - from network management to consumer protection to free speech - that could make resolution of the matter far more difficult than...
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.Bubble Motion: Sequoia Capital US and Sequoia Capital India participated in a $14 million round of funding into Bubble...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks look...
Mobile Media Unlimited Inc. and Guardian Angel Group Inc. announced a $6 million joint venture aimed at delivering targeted marketing campaigns via Guardian's proprietary text-messaging system.Mobile Media, which claims it can provide access to more than 300 million opt-in mobile contacts, will receive 50%...
It's no secret that trying to find content or information on a mobile phone is a daunting task for most consumers.Carrier deck layers can seem like concentric circles of hell, wireless Web searches are often ill-suited for wireless devices, and the screen sizes of...
Advertisers are already tightening their belts as the economy downshifts into a possible recession. And the mobile ad space -- which is struggling to move beyond the embryonic state -- is sure to feel the pinch.Google Inc. first reported "anecdotal" advertiser cutbacks last September...
I've always found it odd that carriers charge for voice, charge for data and then charge separately for text messages. Isn't text data? It's words after all, from a user's point of view.But no, SMS somehow is a bridge between voice and data (indeed,...
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...
When you turn on the tap, water simply flows out, right? Nothing to it. The same assumption holds true for many if not most BlackBerry users, who tend to rely on the device and the service from Research In Motion Ltd., for uninterrupted, 24/7...
Anyone who has traveled abroad and decided to use their cellphone to call home or check e-mail knows how shocking the total on your subsequent wireless bill can be. Short of owning an unlocked GSM device and carrying multiple SIM cards - each serving...
Anyone who has traveled abroad and decided to use their cellphone to call home or check e-mail knows how shocking the total on your subsequent wireless bill can be. Short of owning an unlocked GSM device and carrying multiple SIM cards - each serving...
The New York Times launched a service that delivers news, features and columns to mobile phones via text message.The free service allows users to send a text to the short code 698698 (NYTNYT)with one of dozens of keywords -- the word "Latest" will result...
Sun Microsystems Inc. raised eyebrows and garnered splashy headlines when it announced plans to acquire MySQL Inc. for $1 billion. But what the deal means in mobile - or just about anywhere else, for that matter - is far from clear.A Swedish outfit with...