Corporate-speak is designed to be opaque, so when Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications issued a release today stating that President Miles Flint was stepping down and would "take a short career break," it would be legitimate to question whether he resigned voluntarily or was asked...
Telecom carriers traditionally have been among the nation's biggest advertisers. Through the years, those advertisements have educated us about rate plans, weekend calling, in-network calling, call quality and the joys of texting. They've also introduced us to some pretty cool phones. The advertisements playing...
After years of demurring on its marketshare ambitions, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. has shifted from declarations of "profits first" to emphasize its "credible aspiration" of overtaking one if not two of its three larger rivals.The asterisked caveat: no timeframe provided. A wise distinction,...
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications this week eliminated one job in its North American operations-sidelining VP for Corporate Communications Cherie Gary-in an effort to realign its global public relations efforts, which in turn will help it realize its ambitions as a top handset vendor, according...
An aggressive pricing strategy to reduce inventory enabled Motorola Inc. to perform significantly better in global sales to end users in the second quarter than in the oft-cited, unit-shipment metric, according to data from Gartner.The upshot: Motorola, based on sales to end users, remained...
The smartphone market in North American is in flux, with Research In Motion Ltd. rapidly gaining ground by successfully crossing over into the consumer market from its traditional enterprise role. RIM has grabbed market share while competitors struggle with products and channels. One...
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. has tapped Mobile Complete to power a remote testing service of Java applications on mobile phones.The handset maker launched a "Virtual Lab" that allows application developers to test their wares online across Sony Ericsson handsets that have yet to...
The W-CDMA baseband chip business is morphing in real time, as various market pressures push and pull the players to partner, diversify their customer base or pursue less-demanding technologies.Data from Forward Concepts (see chart) shows that last year Texas Instruments Inc. was the global...
Network operators increasingly will partner with small handset vendors to offer low-margin, ultra-low-cost handsets, particularly in emerging markets where new subscriber growth remains strong, according to ABI Research. Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. currently dominate the sub-$50 handset space, in part due to their...
The inexorable pressure to launch a handset-as scheduled-for maximum impact-has created a growing market for mobile device management (MDM) products, including firmware over the air, or FOTA.As network operators increasingly rush to introduce new revenue-generating services and applications, market growth from a modest field...
There's good news for a beleaguered American handset giant named Motorola Inc.The company's Razr handset-beefed up on functionality and spun off in customized form in myriad colors for all four of the top-tier network operators-represented two of the top five bestselling handsets last quarter...
Editor's Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.--Femtocell manufacturer...
Like a crash by leading contenders in the Tour de France, any stumble by a leading handset vendor creates an opening for competitors.Nokia Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications apparently have instantly gobbled up the market share ceded by Motorola...
As the two, next-largest handset vendors fling themselves at the dual prospects of entry-level phones in emerging markets and upgrade cycles in mature markets, all in an effort to compete with Nokia Corp.'s breakaway, a few rivets are coming loose. Motorola Inc.'s historic stumble...
Welcome to our new Friday feature, Week in Review. Every Friday, RCR Wireless News will run through the major events of the past week, outlining what happened and speculating on what to look for in the coming weeks. Check below for news about carriers,...
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications grew by between one-third and one-half in the three key metrics for the second quarter, posting huge jumps in revenue, profit and volume shipments. The results may well confound analysts who have wondered whether the joint venture could sustain its...
Motorola Inc. warned investors that its sales, earnings and unit shipments would all fall below previous guidance. The company also announced that Stu Reed, current head of the vendor's supply chain operations, would take the reins of Motorola's mobile device business.The company also postponed...
The wireless industry has watched since 2001 as Sony Corp. and L.M. Ericsson joined forces to tackle the handset market. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications focused on profitability first and has attained fourth place in global handset-vendor rankings. The JV's financial success has been reflected...
Powered by brand equity and brilliant media manipulation, Apple Inc. has parachuted into the handset business. Look out below!The company's first foray into mobile handsets has captured so much attention-the proverbial "mind share" in tech-speak-that incumbent handset vendors must respond to the challenge, according...
Hedge*hog*ing v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube.In the "I'd change the channel, but the remote control is too far away" department, always-thinking Sony Ericsson unveiled a trio of Bluetooth-enabled wristwatches that the company...
Speech-recognition company Nuance Communications Inc. announced it will purchase Tegic Communications Inc., which supplies the popular T9 predictive-text software for cellphones, in a deal worth $265 million. Nuance said the transaction will allow the company to build a "multimodal" input product for cellphones that...
Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. could overtake Motorola Inc. in market share for the second quarter, according to projections from analyst Ittai Kidron at CIBC. The share shift would be remarkable, based on 2006 results, which had Motorola at nearly 22% global market share for...
Sony Ericsson has tapped Gracenote to power a sideloading-enabled mobile music platform.The new platform includes features such as search and discovery, song identification and playlisting, and is designed to allow the easy transfer of tunes between home music libraries, online music stores and mobile...
