Verizon breaks new ground, ZTE enters the smartwatch race, and HTC goes for the gold (again.)
Verizon breaks new ground
Verizon's Ellipsis tablet represents several "firsts" for the mobile device market. It is the first carrier-branded tablet to hit the U.S. market, the first LTE-only tablet,...
ZTE has tapped Freescale (FSL) to power LTE small cell base stations to be deployed throughout China and Japan. Freescale's QorIQ Qonverge BSC9132 base station on a chip will provide embedded intelligence for a new line of TD-LTE femtocell products.
TD-LTE is the 4G wireless...
China's ZTE is bringing its two flagship smartphones to the U.S., hoping to attract customers who want to avoid carrier contracts. The ZTE Grand S and the nubia 5 will be available through Amazon, Walmart.com, and other third party retailers, but not through any...
The world's largest wireless carrier has awarded more than $3 billion in 4G contracts, with a slice of the business going to non-Chinese firms. China Mobile has tapped Ericsson, Nokia Solutions and Networks and Alcatel-Lucent, along with Chinese equipment vendors Huawei and ZTE, according...
Infonetics said this week that Huawei has earned the top spot in its 2012 Telecommunications Equipment Vendor Leadership Scorecard. Ericsson was a very close second, followed by Cisco. Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Solutions and Networks and ZTE round out the top six telecom vendors. Infonetics says...
Silicon Valley's CEVA (CEVA) says that China's ZTE Corporation has licensed its CEVA-XC DSP to power its multi-mode base station system-on-chips.
Semiconductor companies designing DSPs (digital signal processors) for wireless base stations are increasingly focused on power management. CEVA said it has focused recent...
Ericsson, NSN and ZTE all report improving gross margins, but top line growth remains elusive. Cost cuts are helping these companies become more profitable, and while growth may not be as robust as they would like, contracts appear to be increasingly profitable.
"The second quarter...
ZTE and Telefonica have launched the first Firefox OS smartphone, the ZTE Open. Priced as low as $51 ($90 retail, with $39 worth of free airtime for prepaid customers), the ZTE Open is clearly designed for the mobile phone user who has never before...
Nokia (NOK) is stepping up to buy German industrial giant Siemens out of NSN, taking full control of the most profitable part of its business. Nokia's half of NSN has helped the struggling Finnish phone maker add to its cash reserves in recent months,...
Sprint Nextel reportedly plans to market its own smartphone brand. Engadget reports that ZTE will manufacture the LTE phone for Sprint and that it will be called the Vital.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhq2zuJ3dyE
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Today's Mobile Minute:
The Vital is reportedly an Android...
The ongoing three-way merger dance between Softbank, Sprint Nextel and Clearwire continues to entertain as one part of the tango garnered an important government stamp of approval, while the other continued to urge for shareholder approval.
Sprint Nextel reported today that the Committee on Foreign...
LG, Huawei and ZTE are the up-and-comers in the smartphone market, but they have a long way to go. The latest report on the installed base of smartphones worldwide showed that Huawei and ZTE have yet to break into the top five brands, and...
The world's largest maker of wireless networking equipment has been increasingly focused on software as a service and now Ericsson is reportedly trying to buy Microsoft's IPTV unit. The unit makes software to power set-top boxes, and counts AT&T's U-Verse as a customer.
Microsoft controls...
The most stunning smartphones at Mobile World Congress were not even announced at the show; both Sony and HTC unveiled their new flagship phones before the week began in Barcelona, Spain. Once the show got underway, their handsets were joined by the latest from...
HTC was not shy about using words like "reinvent" and "new standard" when introducing its new HTC One smartphone. "Although smartphones are one of the main ways we stay in touch with the people and information we care about, conventional designs have failed to...
Dominated by the two largest Latin American telecom operators, Peru's wireless market still holds promise. As observers have noted, there is room to grow in Peru as mobile penetration is at 96%, 2G services accounts for 91% of the total market and 76% of...
HTC had warned of a disappointing fourth quarter, but the actual results were even worse than expected. The Taiwanese smartphone and tablet maker reported revenue of NT$60 billion ($2.03 billion) and net profit of NT$1 billion ($34 million), down 91% from the year-ago quarter....
Device demos from CES 2013 were our top videos for January. Google's Nexus 4, Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1, ZTE's Grand S, and Broadcom's LTE modem were among the most popular, as was Broadcom's demonstration of consumer products that use its NFC technology.
1. Samsung Galaxy...
The number of LTE devices and manufacturers is exploding. This special report explores how the transition to LTE networks is changing the device ecosystem from design to test and repair, and the factors that affect a successful LTE device launch. Spectrum fragmentation, the proliferation...
China's ZTE (0763.HK) was the world's No. 4 smartphone vendor in the third quarter, behind Samsung, Apple and Research In Motion. The company's entry-level smartphones have helped it to overtake rivals like HTC, Huawei and Nokia, and now ZTE is launching a high-end offering,...
The world's largest trade show gets underway next week in Las Vegas, and odds are that wireless technology will permeate everything from cars to cameras on the show floor. In addition, we'll see new innovation in traditional mobile devices:
Hybrids Tablets that sport a detachable...
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.em>
How paranoid should we be about Huawei?
Recently, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence published a watershed...
Colombia telecom regulators seem to be moving toward enabling spectrum in the 700 MHz band, internationally known as the digital dividend, to enhance high-speed mobile Internet benefits in rural areas. The National Spectrum Agency (ANE) announced that Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson will conduct tests in...
China's Huawei has become one of the world's largest suppliers of telecom networking gear in part by undercutting its competitors' prices, so those competitors were keenly interested in this week's Congressional warning. The House Intelligence Committee is advising American companies not to buy network...
