Mobile & Wireless
22 May 2009
North Korea starts 'limited' mobile internet service New Zealand Herald
North Korea has begun limited internet service for mobile phone users, a government website reported, months after launching an advanced network in cooperation with an Egyptian telecommunications company.
19 May 2009
Mobile phones do not cause stress, study shows The Age
The apparent scourge of the 24/7 lifestyle, the mobile phone, keeps users "perpetually available" but does not make people any more rushed or pressured for time, according to a study of more than 1000 workers.
11 May 2009
Mobile internet spending up, overall revenue down PC Advisor
While one of the fastest growing revenue segments for mobile operators is mobile internet, driven by access fees and data traffic, mobile user ARPUs (average revenue per user) dropped between 5 percent and 15 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007.
09 May 2009
Out of Africa: the blood tantalum in your mobile phone The Age
Tantalum is a rare metal with unique properties. Chief among these is that with a melting point of 2996 degrees Celsius it's a superlative thermal conductor.
AT&T Plans for a Proliferation of Wireless Gadgets New York Times
Glenn Lurie doesn't know what the future looks like. But he's in a hurry to get there. Mr. Lurie is president of emerging devices for AT&T, which on Thursday announced a partnership with Jasper Wireless. Under the arrangement, Jasper plans to provide technical infrastructure to AT&T to support a new generation of wireless devices, like e-readers, netbooks and navigation systems.
08 May 2009
More American Mobile Phone Users Drop Landlines Entirely Wall Street Journal
For the first time, the number of U.S. households opting for only cellphones outnumber those that just have traditional landlines in a high-tech shift accelerated by the recession.
Internet Service in the Air Is Slow to Take Off Wall Street Journal
The World Wide Web works well at 30,000 feet. But first you have to find it.
06 May 2009
Mobile Phone Gaming on the Rise Wall Street Journal
... In a survey of 1,100 AT&T wireless customers, 57% said that they play games on their mobile devices, and half those gamers admitted to playing during work hours.
03 May 2009
Spam to go - the UK's new mobile menace The Observer
One in eight mobile phone users receive text "spam" each month and it's costing them 10p a time to stop the messages, Cash has learned.
Sound familiar? Apple launches a revolution - and then gets overtaken The Observer
It happened when the Mac bought a mouse to every desktop. Now, with the iPhone, it's happening again.
02 May 2009
Global mobile sales 'in record decline' BBC News
Mobile phone sales have plummeted by a record amount in the first quarter of 2009 as the global financial crisis sapped demand, a research firm said.
29 April 2009
The Fog of Mobile Phone Wars New York Times
All the chatter about Verizon's talks with Apple and with Microsoft seem to be off topic for what is the important development over the next year in the mobile phone industry.
Apple iPhone Owners Favour Personal Uses, Not Business New York Times
... A new report from Compete surveying the behavior of 600 smartphone users found that 73 percent of iPhone owners used their mobile devices primarily for personal reasons, like entertainment. By comparison, 59 percent of owners with other types of smartphones -- from manufacturers like HTC, Research in Motion and Nokia -- primarily used their devices for business and work-related needs.
Microsoft and Verizon Plot an iPhone Rival Wall Street Journal
Microsoft Corp. and Verizon Wireless are in talks to launch a touch-screen multimedia cellphone on the carrier's network early next year, in an ambitious effort to challenge Apple Inc.'s iPhone, according to people familiar with the matter.
28 April 2009
Australia's CSIRO developing 100Mbit wireless broadband CIO
Wireless technology currently in development by the CSIRO may be the key to bringing a cost effective National Broadband Network to regional and rural Australia, according to the national science organisation.
In China, Knockoff Mobile Phones Are a Hit New York Times
The phone's sleek lines and touch-screen keyboard are unmistakably familiar. So is the logo on the back. But a sales clerk at a sprawling electronic goods market in this Chinese coastal city admits what is clear upon closer inspection: this is not the Apple iPhone; this is the Hi-Phone.
26 April 2009
Why the iPhone is giving Apple telephone-number profits The Observer
Nokia has just announced its worst-ever results. The mobile phone business is having to adjust to the idea that perhaps markets don't expand indefinitely. Gloomy forecasts abound. But then Apple unveils second-quarter profits of $1.21bn (£822m) and $8.16bn in sales - way ahead of Wall Street expectations. And this despite the fact that sales of the company's desktop and notebook computers were down by 3% - which could be a reflection of general economic conditions, or of the growing popularity of netbooks, a product-genre that Apple executives currently affect to despise. (So stay tuned for the Apple netbook.)
25 April 2009
In Defense of Baby Shaking on the iPhone New York Times
There is already an uproar over a 99-cent game for the iPhone that involves shaking an image of a baby until it dies. The "Baby Shaker" application went on sale Monday, and it appears to have been removed from Apple's App Store on Wednesday.
23 April 2009
Cost of roaming texts, calls and data services in Europe to plummet from 1 July EUROPA
[news release] A text message sent from abroad in the EU will cost no more than €0.11 as of 1 July, instead of €0.28 today. The times where consumers had to expect "bill shocks" for downloading a picture or a movie with a mobile phone while roaming in the EU are over. The European Parliament, in its plenary session in Strasbourg, today voted by a large majority in favour of new EU rules on SMS and data roaming, proposed by the European Commission in September 2008.
17 April 2009
Despite Profit Decline, Optimistic Words at Nokia New York Times
Profits at world's largest mobile phone manufacturer fall by more than 90% as cash-strapped consumers hold on to their existing handsets
10 April 2009
iPhone Skype may be tip of the iceberg for carriers Computerworld
Though mobile operators say they want more open phone platforms and are moving toward packet-based 4G networks, they are stuck between a future of being "dumb pipes" like DSL or cable operators and a present in which the bulk of their revenue still comes from the sale of voice minutes.
Fall in number of global new mobile subscribers Financial Times
The number of net new mobile phone subscribers in the world fell sharply in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the growth of mobile data revenues stalled for the first time, providing further evidence of the impact of the global economic downturn on the mobile telecoms sector.
07 April 2009
Gore: Wireless access to info means power CNET
Former Vice President Al Gore sought to link the democratic effects of information sharing with the growth of the wireless industry as the solution to all of life's problems.
04 April 2009
Why Korea Isn't Rushing To 4G Forbes
Super-wired South Korea easily outranks the U.S. in most measures of broadband. But that might just change. In a surprising twist, with help from Korean companies, the U.S. could win the race to upgrade cellular networks to faster mobile broadband speeds.
RIM Sells 50 Millionth BlackBerry PC World
Research In Motion Limited (RIM) stock soared in after-market trading after the company posted solid financial results and said it sold its 50 millionth BlackBerry smartphone.
