WITH THE EMERGENCE OF NEW PLAYERS in mobile from the information technology space and the dominating importance of applications to drive revenue in wireless, the battle over who controls the customer is expected to heat up, analysts say.Reuben Chaudhury, director of Oliver Wyman's communications,...
J.D. Power announced Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications' handsets scored highest in overall customer satisfaction among U.S. and Canadian consumers in the consumer research firm's latest survey.SEMC ranked highest in features, battery life, physical design, operation and durability among U.S. consumers. Najmi Jarwala, president of...
The wireless industry usually teems with laugh-inducing sniping and enjoyable acrimony. But last week, it was all about the love.The mobile space in the past couple of years has become an "us vs. them" showdown as entrenched carriers struggle with the rise of...
It appears Nokia Corp. has learned a few lessons from its doomed Club Nokia mobile content business. But that doesn't mean the direct-to-consumer waters are getting any easier to navigate.The world's No. 1 handset manufacturer last week scored a huge win, inking a deal...
Like rival Nokia Corp., Sony Ericsson is stepping up its direct-to-consumer content business.The London-based handset manufacturer said it will expand its PlayNow business, adding a song-identification application and "millions of music tracks and thousands of mastertones from both major and independent labels." Sony Ericsson...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our Monday 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 Jupiter Research's Julie Ask, iGR's Iain...
If you've ever tossed a strand of spaghetti against a refrigerator to see if it sticks-and, therefore, is fully cooked-then you have a sense of what handset vendors and carriers go through each fall. The analogy is inexact because the issue isn't whether that...
If you own the platform, you control the message.That's not some esoteric, technological mumbo-jumbo-though you'll hear plenty of that this week-but one take on Symbian Ltd.'s position as sponsor of the Smartphone Summit, which allows the company to spin the data on its fortunes.While...
Motorola Inc. apparently kickstarted its ongoing efforts to broaden its smartphone offerings and bring Internet-based services to them by buying 50% of UIQ Technology last week from rival Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.The rivals actually will each own...
L.M. Ericsson warned yesterday that third-quarter sales would total about $6.8 billion, with operating profit of $875 million, sending its shares down almost one-third. CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg said the company had "underestimated" the "market dynamics," which included fewer network upgrades and expansions by its...
Nokia Corp. will answer the iPhone's splashy user interface with advancements in its own Series 60 UI that runs its smartphone offerings, the Finnish giant said at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London.Nokia will offer the upgraded UI to rivals on a licensing basis,...
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications earned $380 million in its most-recent quarter, reflecting the first results of its recent push on low and mid-tier priced devices. The handset manufacturer shipped 25.9 million devices, up 1 million from the previous quarter and an increase of more...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new 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...
Verizon Wireless is covering its bases. The nation's second-largest carrier unveiled four new phones today, including a touchscreen-with-QWERTY keypad model from LG Electronics Co. Ltd., without mentioning prices. You'll have to wait for prices until the phones launch sometime before Thanksgiving. The LG touchscreen...
TODAY BEGINS THE FOURTH QUARTER-the crazy, blow-out-the-pipes holiday season for most retailers, including those in the wireless industry. Financial numbers for the past three months are due soon.The numbers, of course, may answer some questions about how well companies delivered the goods in the...
Here's one of those pop quizzes you dread:Quickly, what do PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Nike Inc., Heinz, Procter & Gamble, Nintendo, Pizza Hut, Mars Inc. and Sara Lee Corp. have to do with wireless?Answer: marketing executives with long experience at these mega-brands are now serving...
Nokia Corp., two handset rivals and semiconductor companies active in the memory space are pursuing an open standard dubbed universal flash storage that could smooth the uptake path for a variety of converged mobile and consumer electronics devices.The standard is expected to be finished...
Apple Inc. continued its weeklong roll through Europe today as Deutsche Telekom AG's wireless subsidiary T-Mobile in Germany announced that the iPhone will launch Nov. 9 at $566. The companies offered no word on monthly service costs, or on the length of an expected...
Gracenote expanded on its offerings with the acquisition of interactive voice response technology from Musicphone Inc.The Emeryville, Calif.-based firm said the platform allows music fans to dial a short code and play a snippet of music into the handset to receive information about the...
It must be tough to give a daylong presentation to financial and industry analysts in New York when your take-aways essentially are "meet the new team," "we can do it" and "stay tuned."The latter two messages are acquiring such a familiar ring that one...
Carriers in the United Kingdom are hoping to get users to PayForIt with their phones.The operators launched a standardized payment scheme designed to provide a consistent user interface regardless of carrier for mobile transactions of roughly $20 or less. Users are identified via the...
With music and imaging an increasing aspect of mobile phones' feature sets-the engines driving network operators' ARPU growth-more than 50% of this year's $32 billion in worldwide accessory revenue will come from multimedia-related memory cards, headsets and data connection kits, according to data from...
Miles Flint, president of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, is stepping down Nov. 1 based on personal, family issues, sources said last week.The company said that the move was Flint's decision, but SEMC's carefully worded statements, Flint's successful tenure and near-simultaneous news that the vendor...
Carriers in the United Kingdom are hoping to give mobile transactions a boost with a new, standardized payment scheme for consumer purchases. PayForIt, which launched Saturday, provides a consistent user interface for mobile transactions of roughly $20 or less regardless of carrier. Users are...
