If, at first blush, associating the Sony Ericsson brand with prepaid handset offerings at Cingular Wireless L.L.C. seems like a mismatch, look at it this way: the link simply illustrates a number of ways in which carriers and handset vendors do business, though-shocking!-explanations from...
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.—American consumers spent about $4.4 billion on 67 million mobile phones in the first half of the year, according to The NPD Group. Motorola Inc. captured 32 percent market share, or nearly one-third of those sales, double the market share of its...
SunCom Wireless Holdings Inc. became the latest carrier to step onto the full-track download playground, teaming with digital music provider Napster L.L.C. to offer a relatively vast library of 2 million tunes. SunCom subscribers can download songs to both a PC and a mobile...
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—SunCom Wireless Holdings Inc. became the latest carrier to step onto the full-track download playground, teaming with digital music provider Napster L.L.C. to offer a relatively vast library of 2 million tunes. SunCom subscribers can download songs to both a PC and a...
SAN DIEGO—Hey, it’s all about my life, not your network. That’s the disruptive thinking that Sony Electronics—not Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P., the wireless handset maker—is following in launching a Wi-Fi-only device (no monthly cellular service fees!) for Voice over IP communications, instant messaging...
If the growth in handset sales in mature markets such as the United States slowed somewhat at mid-year, as some market and financial analysts have suggested, one explanation may be the dearth of new product launches. That has opened a window of opportunity for...
A well-worn maxim has it that "politics make strange bedfellows," which might be tweaked to reflect the wireless industry's sometimes odd match-ups. Companies that compete also cooperate, often at the nitty-gritty level of critical intellectual property that enables devices, networks and services to perform...
Location-based services seem to encompass consumer applications that generate plenty of excitement among consumers, yet somehow, uptake of LBS applications is not exactly booming-except in cars. Cell-phone users in the United States have been slow to adopt mapping and tracking services, but drivers are...
The Symbian operating system, championed by Nokia Corp. in its smart phones, currently has a majority of OS market share, a state of affairs likely to continue for the foreseeable future, according to projections from market research firm IDC. This is likely despite the...
BOSTON—The Khronos Group continued to gain steam as high-profile players including Apple Computer Inc., Dell Computer Corp. and Google Inc. joined the association’s effort to develop open standards for mobile phones and computers. Khronos aims to define open standards for the development of dynamic...
When discussing the disappointing results for the second quarter by South Korean vendors Samsung Electronics Co. or LG Electronics Co. Ltd., one has to begin by noting the robust performances by Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp., which together account for well over half the...
CUPERTINO, Calif.—Rumors of an "iPod phone" gained further traction after an Apple Computer Inc. executive hinted at an iTunes-friendly handset during a conference call with analysts Wednesday. Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, when pressed by an analyst to respond to Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications...
Business forecasts are integral to industry, wireless or otherwise. Vendors crunch them, analysts parse them, investors fret over them, bloggers disparage them and reporters write about them. Early in the year, forecasts typically are up, down or mixed. And by mid-year, there's enough hard...
The competitive landscape for the world's top five mobile-phone vendors at mid-year has come into clearer focus with second-quarter earnings already reported or expected this week. The plot has thickened perhaps, while not varying much from earlier episodes of this long-running, global industry serial....
LONDON—Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. announced that its earnings for the second quarter—$181 million—nearly doubled its earnings from the year-ago quarter, while revenue increased more than 40 percent and handset shipment volumes increased by 33 percent. The results exceeded financial analysts’ expectations. The handset...
The good news is that about 80 percent of the world's population is covered by wireless networks, and only about one-quarter of those actually subscribe to a wireless service, which means emerging markets offer opportunities for handset vendors to grow market share and, possibly,...
Touting brand and pursuing differentiation is in vogue with nearly every original equipment manufacturer now chasing Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. over the rainbow, looking for the proverbial pot of gold. LG Electronics Co. Ltd. is no exception and its newly released Fusic phone...
LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.—Kyocera Wireless Corp. selected Bitfone Corp.’s Device Management Client Suite software for use in its mobile devices, said Bitfone. The suite includes Bitfone’s mProve and Mobile Variance Agent solutions. MProve will allow Kyocera handsets to have their core software and applications updated...
BOSTON—Place your finger on the pulse of U.S. consumers desperately seeking a mobile phone this summer and you find all the attributes that makes anything a success in America: It’s got to standout from the crowd and it must be stylish and/or "free"—after subsidies...
ESPOO, Finland-A U.S. district judge has found Suplimet Corp., a Florida-based supplier of mobile-phone accessories, in contempt of a prior injunction that prevented the firm from trafficking in counterfeit Nokia Corp. products. In the civil proceeding, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez of the Southern...
ESPOO, Finland—A U.S. district judge has found Suplimet Corp., a Florida-based supplier of mobile phone accessories, in contempt of a prior injunction that prevented the firm from trafficking in counterfeit Nokia Corp. products. In the civil proceeding, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez of the...
Mobile-phone users in the United States are incrementally more satisfied with the operation of their handsets than in the past, suggesting that vendors in general are improving user interfaces, according to a study released by J.D. Power and Associates. Sanyo Electronics Co. Ltd. received...
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.—Mobile phone users in the United States are incrementally more satisfied with the operation of their handsets than in the past, suggesting that vendors in general are improving user interfaces, according to a study released today by J.D. Power and Associates. Sanyo...
Nothing kills a party like running out of food and booze. And, when guests show up in droves, beyond expectation, you check your supplies and commandeer friends for a mad dash to the store, right? Especially if each and every guest feels compelled to...
