Recent Cellular News


  • AT&T showcases wide range of embedded devices

    May 20, 2010

    AT&T Mobility yesterday unveiled several new embedded devices--ranging from a dog collar to an intelligent pill cap--during a press event held at the CTIA Wireless 2010 conference. The company emphasized that these products, which were demonstrated by Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T Mobility's emerging devices division, are just an example of the potential from this new category.

    During the luncheon event, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega reiterated some of the messages he highlighted in his keynote address Tuesday--how the U.S. wireless industry leads in mobile broadband, mobile applications and smartphone penetration--and also talked about how AT&T believes that emerging devices could drive 10 times the growth in wireless in the next 10 years. "This is an area that is exploding," de la Vega said. During the fourth quarter, AT&T reported that it had connected 1 million embedded devices to its network.

    The new devices mentioned by Lurie include a pet tracking collar, a truck tracking pallet (for shipment tracking), a low-cost 3G gaming device from Zeebo, Vitality Glow Caps intelligent pill cap (which uses light and sound to remind users to take their pills), and the OpenPeak tablet computing device, which Lurie called "a game-changing device."

    Specifically, the OpenPeak tablet will have 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Consumers will be able to use the device for social networking, downloading books, navigation, email, instant messaging and photo sharing. The tablet is 9 inches by 5 inches and weighs 1.15 pounds. Pricing information was not available, but the device is expected to launch later this year.

    Also at the event, de la Vega once again mentioned that the company is upgrading its network to HSPA 7.2 and will consider deploying HSPA+ on a market-by-market basis before it migrates to LTE in 2012. De la Vega first mentioned the possibility of deploying HSPA+ in some markets during an interview with FierceWireless earlier this month in Atlanta.

    Source: (www.www.fiercewireless.com)

  • AT&T Touts U-verse Quad-Play With Up To $60 Monthly Savings

    May 20, 2010

    AT&T is completing the grand slam with a price break of up to $60 per month on a four-service bundle -- with U-verse TV, phone, Internet and wireless phone -- which the telco emphasized most cable providers can't match.

    The U.S.'s largest telephone company on Tuesday said it is introducing the U-verse Choice Plus and Choice Premium bundles with four services, offering $45 to $60 in savings per month for 12 months. AT&T in March introduced U-verse Choice bundles, which let customers choose three out of four services for their bundle, picking either home phone or wireless as their voice option.

    "With more than three-fourths of our U-verse customers taking a triple or quad-play bundle, we know this is an option consumers want and can't get from cable," Joey Schultz, vice president of consumer marketing for AT&T's Mobility and Consumer Markets unit.

    To receive the special pricing for the quad-play bundles, customers must commit to a one-year contract. An early termination fee of up to $180 may apply if U-verse services are terminated before the 12-month period is up.

    AT&T is offering two quad-play configurations (in offers that end Nov. 6, 2010):

    The Choice Plus bundle starts at $172 a month for U-verse TV U300 with whole-home DVR capability; U-verse High Speed Internet Elite (up to 6 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream); AT&T Nation 450 wireless voice with unlimited messaging; and unlimited nationwide home phone calling with U-verse Voice Unlimited. When purchased together, the four services are $45 less per month than the standalone services.

    The Choice Premium bundle, at $192 a month, includes U-verse TV U450 with whole-home DVR capability and HD service; U-verse High Speed Internet Max (up to 12 Mbps downstream); AT&T Nation 450 wireless voice with unlimited messaging; and unlimited nationwide home phone calling. The Choice Premium bundle represents a savings of $60 per month, AT&T said.

    Source: (www.mulitchannel.com)

  • IPhone Is Big in Japan

    May 20, 2010

    Apple Inc.'s iPhone has cracked the Japanese market, quickly becoming the best-selling smartphone here and challenging the long-held notion that this country's large cellphone market is hostile to foreign brands.

    Overseas cellphone makers have almost no presence in Japan even though it is one of the world's biggest mobile-phone markets, with 110 million subscribers. Finland's Nokia Corp., the world's largest handset maker, has all but pulled out of Japan, while South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. and Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd., of Canada, have been unable to gain a significant share.

    The iPhone sold 1.7 million units in Japan, or 72% of all smartphones sold, in the fiscal year ended March 31, and its popularity has pushed the smartphone segment to double in size from a year earlier, according to Tokyo-based MM Research Institute Ltd. While the overall handset market in Japan is essentially flat, Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., said iPhone sales in Japan nearly tripled in the latest quarter.

    The iPhone's success is starting to change the landscape of Japan's market by lifting the fortunes of its exclusive Japanese supplier Softbank Corp., which has added new subscribers at nearly three times the pace of market leader NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. since the iPhone was released here in 2008.

    "There were skeptics who predicted that the iPhone would fail in Japan. But they have been proven completely wrong," Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said at a recent news conference. Softbank has about 22 million subscribers but doesn't disclose how many have iPhones.

    Apple's handset has been helped in part by a combination of aggressive pricing from Softbank and an industrywide shift to cut subsidies for new handsets in recent years. As a result, the iPhone can sometimes be the less expensive option for a new mobile phone.

    A rich supply of iPhone applications developed in Japan, such as comic books featuring classic Japanese manga characters like Astro Boy, also has helped.

    Apple still accounted for only 5% of Japan's 34 million new handsets sold in the past fiscal year, but its market share of phone shipments climbed, while those of bigger rivals Panasonic Corp. and NEC Corp. fell.

    For Softbank, the iPhone and its heavy data traffic is helping the carrier buck an industry trend in Japan and world-wide of declining average revenue per user. Softbank's revenue rose 60 yen to 3,890 yen per user in the latest quarter, while DoCoMo's fell 6% and KDDI's dropped 9%. Softbank will also be the exclusive provider for Apple's iPad when it is introduced here later this month.

    The iPhone's success has surprised analysts because Japanese phones are already more sophisticated than most U.S. smartphones. Not only do most handsets here push email to the devices, they also come with advanced cameras, GPS, and receive digital television signals.

    "The iPhone is not as advanced in terms of hardware, but the user interface is something to behold," said Takeshi Natsuno, a Keio University professor and a former top executive at NTT DoCoMo.

    Source: (www.online.wsj.com)

  • AT&T's Stankey defends carrier's pace on HSPA+, LTE moves

    May 20, 2010

    AT&T Mobility's (NYSE:T) decision to move ahead with a nationwide rollout of HSPA+ technology makes sense from a business and technology standpoint, said AT&T Operations CEO John Stankey. He also took another shot at rival Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), claiming the LTE ecosystem is not mature enough yet for a commercial rollout, and that Verizon's first LTE phones will be clunky.

    In an interview with GigaOM, Stankey said AT&T's upgrade from HSPA 7.2 to HSPA+ will cost around $10 million--a fraction of the $18 billion to $19 billion AT&T will spend on its wired and wireless networks this year. The carrier expects to cover 250 million people with HSPA+ this year, and the upgrade will boost the carrier's real-world download speeds from 3.5 Mbps (on HSPA 7.2) to around 7 Mbps (on HSPA+). Stankey said the action will give customers a speedy network to fall back to from LTE, once AT&T deploys that technology.

    AT&T remains committed to deploying LTE in 2011.

    Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam made waves recently by announcing the carrier will launch up to five LTE handsets by next May, possibly from the likes of Motorola (NASDAQ:MOT), HTC, LG and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM). Verizon plans to launch 25-30 commercial LTE markets in the fourth quarter, covering 100 million POPs.

    Stankey also reiterated AT&T's criticisms of Verizon's LTE plans, claiming LTE will not be mature until 2014, and that mass-market LTE handsets will not appear until then. "The vendors are experiencing some challenges on certain features and software, and first implementations in 2011 will be ... pretty vanilla," he said.

    Source: (www.fiercewireless.com)

  • iPhone 4G to Double Memory for Multitasking, Mobile Computing

    May 20, 2010

    Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturing firm that makes the iPhone for Apple, is preparing to ship 24 million units starting in June, according to a report by the Taiwanese publication Digitimes, which cited sources from Taiwan-based component makers.

    With the company gearing up to sell 4.5 million units in June alone, that might alleviate the expected demand from iPhone 3G users whose contracts are up this year. Each iPhone launch has seen more demand than Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) could initially fulfill, resulting in waiting lists.

    But there's even better news for iPhone fans. The redesigned phone will reportedly come with the peppy A4 processor found in the iPad and 512MB of memory, double the amount of memory in previous generations of the iPhone and the iPad. The memory expansion aims to support the multitasking that Apple plans to introduce with iPhone OS 4, according to Digitimes Senior Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

    Digitimes also repeated a rumored change in the new phone, popularly described as the "iPhone 4G," surrounding its display. The "4G" is expected to double its resolution, from 480x320 to 960x480. It will also use new panels with in-plane switching and fringe-field switching that will make for a wider viewing angle and improved screen quality in sunlight.

    This is designed to help Apple beef up its e-book reader offerings, which the company is also planning for the iPad. HTC's Hero smartphone already uses this technology.

    Kuo also said the new iPhone's screen is 33 percent thinner than in previous versions to allow for a larger battery module.

    Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

    Normally the most secretive company in Silicon Valley, Apple has had a very hard time keeping this new iPhone under wraps. One test unit was lost in a Valley bar in a snafu that resulted in a major legal action against the gadget site that allegedly purchased the prototype. A second, more functioning unit showed up in Vietnam. By requesting the return of the first phone, Apple confirmed it was indeed an iPhone prototype, but it has not commented on the second phone.

    Apple is expected to introduce the new iPhone, whether it's called the 4G or something else, at the Worldwide Developer Conference, taking place in San Francisco from June 7 to June 10. CEO Steve Jobs will make a rare non-Apple conference appearance the week before at the D Conference, hosted by AllThingsD Editor Kara Swisher and Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg.

    Source: (www.enterprisemobile.com)

  • Wireless Health Care Holds Promise for Innovative Solutions

    May 20, 2010

    In the past, home health agencies interested in keeping track of their mobile caregivers had few options at their disposal.

    That is, until companies such as CellTrak Technologies Inc. came along. In 2004, the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company introduced a GPS-enabled software as a service that tracks worker whereabouts, accounts for their mileage, and replaces paper reports with point-of-care cell phone-based monitoring.

    “Anytime you eliminate paper and manual processes from any organization, you are going to increase productivity,” Scott Hermann, senior vice president of CellTrak, told an audience of investors last week at the fifth annual Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance Convergence Summit. The event drew 200 attendees to the Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa from May 11 to 13. The event was organized by TripleTree LLC, a boutique investment banking and research firm based in Edina, Minn., that recognizes winners based on innovation, insight and initiative.

    CellTrak was among 12 finalists invited to give an eight-minute presentation to investors showcasing how its technology solves one of health care’s many problems. CellTrak received the TripleTree I Award for Best Operational Effectiveness Solution.

    Newton, Mass.-based Zeo Inc. nabbed the Best Consumer Experience award for its alarm clock-sized bedside device that measures sleep quality. Users wear a lightweight headband at night that tracks brain waves and transmits the information to a bedside digital display.

    The Best Clinical Application award went to Calgary Scientific Inc., based in Calgary, Alberta. The Canadian company is a developer of cloud-based software applications that allow users to view medical images from any standard Web browser.

    Emerging Industry

    The annual event, which convenes innovators, scientists and policymakers each year in La Jolla, began as an informal affair that has grown to include big-name supporters such as AT&T, Qualcomm Inc. and St. Jude Medical Inc.

    “When we started our first meeting, I think we had 40 people sitting around a big, square table,” said Rob McCray, who assumed the role of chief executive officer of the San Diego-based Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance this year. Last year, he said the event attracted 120 attendees.

    Many of the companies in the wireless health care industry are early stage companies testing business models, concepts and ideas and forming partnerships with major health care providers. A TripleTree survey of mobile health companies recently found that 94 percent were private and two-thirds generated less than $1 million in annual revenue. The report’s data was based on 32 companies that responded to its query, most of them based in the United States. Altogether, the TripleTree report on Wireless and Mobile Health identified 250 wireless health companies spread across the U.S., Europe and Canada.

    Regulatory guidelines are still forming around the many advances in wireless health, such as combining diagnostic capabilities with cell phones. Before widespread adoption of wireless health technology occurs, industry analysts said it will need a clear regulatory path, along with reimbursement processes.

    McCray acknowledged the industry’s relative youth, which he compared to that of Internet commerce in the late 1990s and wireless data in the early part of the millennium.

    Solving Health Care Problems

    “For at least five years, we’ve been at year zero in wireless health,” he said. “I think we’re at year one. We’ll test that and we’ll be able to measure that next year.”

    Wireless health care, industry leaders said last week, is ripe for growth. Some of the trickiest problems facing health care delivery today, they said, can be solved using wireless technologies.

    The Joint Commission, an independent nonprofit organization that certifies more than 17,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, identified communications breakdown as the single greatest contributing factor to sentinel events and delays in care in U.S. hospitals. Communication errors are commonly cited as a major source of clinician dissatisfaction in medical staff surveys.

    Terrell Edwards, CEO of PerfectServe Inc. of Knoxville, Tenn., said the company has aimed its software as a service at the pervasive problem among hospitals, clinics and other care facilities.

    “When a message or call comes in, we’re able to analyze the rules for that doctor and route that call accurately for that specific moment in time,” Edwards said.

    Edwards cited anecdotal evidence demonstrating how medical-surgical nurses with a 600-bed St. John Hospital in Detroit saved more than an hour a day by eliminating the need to search for the appropriate physician contact information.

    “For hospitals, we’re able to help them improve the coordination of care, which is really the heart of what health reform is all about,” he said.

    Souce: (www.sdbj.com)

  • Verizon Says 4G Phones Are Coming In May 2011

    May 20, 2010

    Verizon Wireless is working to quickly build a 4G wireless network, but it can’t beat Sprint (NYSE: S), which is launching its first 4G phone on June 4.

    Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York that the company won’t be ready to launch phones until May 2011. At that time, it envisions having at least five 4G handsets available. He said the phones will likely be from Motorola (NYSE: MOT), HTC, LG (SEO: 066570) and RIM (NSDQ: RIMM). In the meantime, many of those same players with the addition of Samsung, will build tablets, running Google’s Android software, that could be ready as soon as the fourth quarter.

    Both Verizon and Sprint will have to convince consumers to bite on the new gadgets despite far inferior coverage maps. By the fourth quarter, Verizon hopes to cover 100 million people in 25 to 30 markets including New York City. Right now, Sprint’s partner Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) has built a 4G network in 32 markets and has many more on its way in the remainder of 2010.

    Source: (www.moconews.net)

  • Android smartphone shipments top 65,000 per day

    May 20, 2010

    Google announced that shipments of smartphones running its Android mobile operating system now exceed 65,000 per day, up from about 60,000 a month ago. Speaking at the digital services giant's annual shareholders meeting Thursday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Android now powers 34 mobile devices in 49 countries. "It looks like Android is going to be either the number one or number two player" in the mobile device market, Schmidt said. "Our partners are shipping about 65,000 Android handsets per day, but if you check the blogosphere you'll discover there are some reports that that number might be quite low." Schmidt also took a shot at rival Apple, noting "We're trying to build an entire ecosystem of openness--the inverse of the other guys."

    Google co-founder Larry Page, also on hand at Thursday's meeting, said the company's open-source Android licensing strategy supports the firm's longterm revenue ambitions, providing benefits "through more searches and other things that we do. I think you'll see that as those products mature, we'll figure out how to make more money from them." Schmidt agreed, adding "While it's true that we're very happy to give away Android, the applications and the services that can be provided on a very large, very broad framework can be enormously valuable over the next five or 10 years."

    Buoyed by strong consumer interest in devices like the Motorola Droid, Android now represents 28 percent of smartphone unit sales in the U.S.--behind only Research In Motion's BlackBerry (36 percent) and moving past Apple's iPhone (21 percent)--according to data issued last week by market research firm NPD Group. Carrier distribution and promotion are critical to Android's growth, NPD said: "In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones," said NPD executive director of industry analysis Ross Rubin in a prepared statement.

    Source: (www.fiercemobilecontent.com)

  • Rural carriers open to Verizon's LTE licensing plans

    May 20, 2010

    Associations representing rural wireless carriers have so far reacted with a mixture of skepticism and cautious enthusiasm to Verizon Wireless' (NYSE:VZ) announcement that it is in discussions with a number of rural carriers to license them its 700 MHz LTE spectrum as part of an effort to build out the network.

    Under the proposed deals, Verizon would license the spectrum to the local carriers for a small fee; the local carrier would then sell the service. Either Verizon or the other carrier would be responsible for the network equipment. Verizon is also looking to strike data roaming deals with the carriers. No deals have been announced so far.

    "While the concept of such a close collaboration between small and large carriers sounds promising, the history of Verizon is such that there is little track record to suggest anything will come of this proposal," the Rural Telecommunications Group, which represents carriers with fewer than 100,000 subscribers, said in a statement.

    "We'd be open to working with Verizon," Carrie Bennet, RTG's general counsel, told FierceWireless. "Our members are anxious to get LTE deployed in 700 [MHz]. I think Verizon knows it's sitting on a lot of spectrum in a lot of rural areas that isn't being utilized." Bennet said that none of RTG's 60 carrier members have been contacted by Verizon regarding the spectrum licensing proposal. Additionally, Bennet said RTG members would most likely want access to equipment and devices Verizon is using for its LTE network, as well as the ability to use Verizon's brand or enter into some kind co-branding partnership.

    Steve Berry, president of the Rural Cellular Association, said several of RCA's members have been contacted by Verizon regarding spectrum licensing. However, he said he was caught off guard by Verizon's proposal, which was laid out by Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam in an interview earlier this week with the Wall Street Journal.

    "I was a little surprised at the statement, because I have been in discussions with Verizon and other large carriers to try and find a common-sense, non-regulatory solution to data roaming, which would include 3G and 4G," he told FierceWireless. He said he is pleased Verizon is moving forward with a plan to bring 4G to rural America. RCA members consist of regional carriers with fewer than 10 million subscribers.

    However, Berry said that because many RCA members have already purchased 700 MHz spectrum in the A and B Blocks, he was not sure why they should have to pay Verizon to get access to its C Block spectrum. Berry also said some RCA members have been approached by Harbinger Capital Partners, a private-equity firm that wants to build a nationwide, wholesale LTE network.

    "I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and then not take it," he said of the Verizon proposal. "If there's an opportunity there, our guys want to take it." He said Verizon has a standing invitation to brief the entire RCA board on its proposals.

    Nancy Stark, a Verizon spokeswoman, told FierceWireless Verizon has had talks with a number of rural carriers over the past several months, and has also seen interest from rural carriers since the Journal report. However, she declined to name any of carriers or say when any deals might be reached.

    Stark said the carriers Verizon has been talking with have signed non-disclosure agreements, meaning that associations would not know if they were in touch with Verizon. "This obviously has to be something that the carrier wants," she said. "It's an opportunity for rural carriers to be on the cutting edge of a brand new technology. We've seen a lot of interest in it."

    Source: (fiercewireless.com)

  • Nearly a quarter of U.S. homes only use cellphones

    May 20, 2010

    Fifteen percent of households have standard plug-in phones but almost never use them, the National Center for Health Statistics found.

    The NCHS, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, relies heavily on telephone surveys to gather health information about the U.S. public. The figures also have implications for the mobile telephone industry.

    Stephen Blumberg and Julian Luke of the NCHS examined data from surveys of 21,375 households that included 40,619 civilian adults and 14,984 children under the age of 18.

    "One of every four American homes (24.5 percent) had only wireless telephones (also known as cellular telephones, cellphones, or mobile phones) during the last half of 2009 -- an increase of 1.8 percentage points since the first half of 2009," the report reads.

    "In addition, one of every seven American homes (14.9 percent) had a land line yet received all or almost all calls on wireless telephones."

    The report, available at www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless201005.pdf, also found that 23 percent of adults, or 52 million people, lived in households with only wireless telephones.

    Nearly half of adults aged 25 to 29 lived in households with only cellphones, the study found.

    Source: (www.reuters.com)

  • Verizon in Talks With Rural Firms

    May 20, 2010

    Verizon Wireless is in talks with a number of rural telephone carriers to license its wireless spectrum, potentially helping to bring faster wireless broadband service to remote areas of the U.S.

    Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said the move—unusual because carriers typically guard spectrum, which is expensive and scarce—will help it more quickly expand the reach of its new fourth-generation network, which it plans to launch in 25 to 30 cities by the end of the year. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, paid $4.7 billion in 2008 for the nationwide 700 MHz spectrum.

    The move could also pay political dividends at a time when U.S. regulators are proposing to bring broadband networks under some of the same regulations that tightly govern telephone lines. The Obama administration has made it a priority to extend fast Internet connections to rural areas, and the Federal Communications Commission's push to regulate broadband networks is intended in part to carry out that mandate.

    "These rural markets would take us a while to get to," Mr. McAdam said in an interview.

    Under the proposed arrangements, Verizon would license spectrum for a small fee to local carriers, which would sell the service. Either Verizon or the carrier could handle the job of installing the equipment. Verizon is also striking data roaming agreements with the rural carriers to let their customers use the rest of Verizon's network when they're traveling.

    Agreements would let Verizon Wireless cover more of the country with its 4G network, which runs on Long Term Evolution, or LTE, technology. "All rural carriers need to figure out how they're going to get into LTE, period," says Pat Riordan, CEO of Cellcom, a carrier based in Green Bay, Wis. Verizon has been in talks with the 250,000-customer carrier but has yet to sign a deal.

    But because the number of carriers in rural areas is small, the deals aren't something from which Verizon expects to make a windfall, according to Mr. McAdam. "This is not something we're looking to make a lot of money from," he said.

    The FCC recently caught the ire of telecom and cable companies when it announced that it is considering applying more-stringent regulation to broadband Internet providers. The regulatory uncertainty has worried the nation's communications companies that foot the bill for the industry's billions of dollars in capital expenditure every year, raising questions on what the FCC's move will mean for continued investment and jobs.

    Source: (www.online.wsj.com)

  • Confirmed: Apple and AT&T signed five-year iPhone exclusivity deal -- but is it still valid?

    May 20, 2010

    The term of Apple and AT&T's iPhone exclusivity deal has long been a mystery -- although USA Today reported a five-year arrangement when the original iPhone came out in 2007, that number has never been independently confirmed, and it's been looking suspect in recent weeks as Verizon iPhone chatter has gotten louder. But we've been doing some digging and we can now confirm that Apple and AT&T entered into a five-year iPhone exclusive in 2007, based on court documents filed by Apple in California. Read on!

    Here's the deal: an ongoing California class-action lawsuit filed in 2007 claims that Apple and AT&T illegally exerted a monopoly over iPhone service by telling customers the iPhone's required service contract was two years long when the Apple / AT&T exclusivity deal was actually for five years -- thus requiring buyers to re-up with AT&T for three years (and not, say, T-Mobile) if they wanted to keep using the iPhone. Obviously Apple had to respond to these allegations, and in addition to arguing that no one was ever promised an unlocked iPhone after two years, the company's lawyers repeatedly confirm the existence of the five-year agreement while noting it was publicly reported in USA Today. It's extremely black and white -- check these choice quotes from Apple:

    "The duration of the exclusive Apple-[AT&T] agreement was not 'secret' either. The [plaintiff] quotes a May 21, 2007 USA Today article – published over a month before the iPhone's release – stating, "AT&T has exclusive U.S. distribution rights for five years-an eternity in the go-go cellphone world."
    ...
    "[T]here was widespread disclosure of [AT&T's] five-year exclusivity and no suggestion by Apple or anyone else that iPhones would become unlocked after two years... Moreover, it is sheer speculation – and illogical – that failing to disclose the five-year exclusivity term would produce monopoly power..."

    Now, this all went down in October of 2008, and while it's sort of amazing we hadn't seen it earlier, the real question is whether or not the exclusivity deal is still on the books. (The case is ongoing, but most of the relevant bits have been under seal since 2009.) Contracts can be canceled, amended, and breached in many ways, and AT&T's spotty recent service history plus the explosion of the iPhone and the mobile market in general have given Apple any number of reasons to revisit the deal. In addition, the two companies obviously hit the negotiating table again to hammer out the iPad's pricing plans, and there's no way of knowing whether that deal involves the iPhone as well. But it's nice to finally know for certain that AT&T's initial iPhone exclusivity period was booked until 2012 -- now we just have to see if all this recent chatter means something's changed.

    P.S.- Oh, and this case also covers some other relevant and controversial ground: the plaintiffs argued that Apple exerted illegal monopoly power over the iPhone applications market by barring third-party apps from iPhone OS 1.0, and the court ruled the argument was valid enough to go forward. Pretty prescient for 2008 -- we're guessing Adobe and the Federal Trade Commission are very interested in what's going down in California's Northern District right around now.

    Source: (www.engadget.com)

  • Women cite smartphones to be the cause for poor love lives?

    May 8, 2010

    If there is something that can cause a rift in a relationship, one wouldn't have to look far as it can be clearly found in the connected smartphones that somehow are tethered like a leash on some people. Now it's not to say that they are all evil things that can ruin relationships, but a new research conducted by pharmaceutical firm Bayer finds that 28 percent of women blame connected devices, like smartphones, are ruining their love lives. For some, there is this unwavering aura around smartphones that makes some people want to be around its cool embrace even though it could potential lessen one's love life. Just think about it for a second, how would you feel if you constantly find your significant other right before bed still glued intently on their smartphone's screen? And to make things worse, they are sometimes too busy to take notice of anything else around them. As we continue to see devices become integrated in certain aspects of our daily lives, sometimes we have to just sit back and disconnect to get ourselves in sync with our surroundings – and our significant others as well.

    Source: (www.phonearena.com)

  • HTC continues to show growth in Q1 2010

    May 8, 2010

    HTC's stellar track record doesn't look to slow down any time soon – especially when we're constantly greeted to devices like the HTC Incredible and EVO 4G. Although it remains unclear whether or not the global economy has recovered from the downturn that seemingly crippled many companies, HTC remains to be competitive as it's found that they were able to ship out approximately 2.8 million devices in Q1 2010; according to Canalys. In a period of uncertainty, that 1 percent increase is still significant as HTC's own figures sheds light on 3.5 million devices shipped. Additionally, HTC intends to see more growth during Q2 2010 as they expect to see a rise in shipments between Q1 and Q2 by roughly 36 percent. Using the approach of saturating the market by rapidly releasing new devices, it looks as though this strategy is proving to be successful, but Apple's release of the next iPhone this summer may prove to be a challenge for the Taiwan based manufacturer. However, there is still some good news down the road towards the end of the year as they're expected to release their very first Windows Phone 7 handset. In the mean time, it'll be interesting to see how the HTC EVO 4G will perform as it looks to compete head-on with Apple's juggernaut.

    Source: (www.phonearena.com)

  • Investor Sues to Block HP's Palm Buy

    May 8, 2010

    A Palm investor is suing the company over the treatment of common shareholders in the proposed HP buyout of the WebOS maker. Specifically, Business Week is reporting that investor Steve Ubaney believes preferred stock shareholders, including Palm investor Elevation Partners LP, got a much higher price for their preferred Series B shares. Ubaney claims that these share should have been valued the same as common shares in a Palm buyout, and he is suing to block the purchase and for unspecified damages.

    Source: (www.phonescoop.com)

  • Samsung presents W960 AMOLED 3D - the first phone with 3D display

    May 8, 2010

    It was only in a matter of time before we see the first mobile phone with 3D-capable display and it’s hardly a surprise the device comes from Samsung. The SCH-W960 AMOLED 3D doesn’t require glasses for proper 3D visualization, but for now its availability is limited to the South Korean market.

    The Samsung W960 AMOLED 3D is a CDMA mobile phone packing 3.2-inch AMOLED capacitive touch display with WQVGA resolution, 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, 3G support with HSPA, DMB-T TV tuner, Bluetooth and microSD card slot. It’s powered by the proprietary Samsung TouchWiz 2.0.

    The 3D capable display doesn’t require special glasses. There is a dedicated 3D shortcut key on the phone for switching on/off the 3D mode any time you want.

    Samsung AMOLED 3D will be limited for Korea only through all the operators – SKT, KT and LGT. The device is expected to launch Q2 this year.

    Source: (www.gsmarena.com)

  • Sprint HTC Hero and Samsung Moment getting Android 2.1 in Q2

    May 8, 2010

    Today Sprint said in its forums that the HTC Hero and Samsung Moment will be upgraded to Android 2.1 sometime during the second quarter. The official post said: "Hello community members, we wanted to let you know that Sprint continues to work closely with Samsung and HTC to deliver the highly anticipated Android 2.1 upgrade for the Samsung Moment and HTC Hero. We are on track for the upgrade to be available in Q2. Sprint had hoped to have this resolved by now - we thank our customers for their patience as we work to bring them a positive experience with this upgrade."

    Source: (www.mobileburn.com)

  • Google Preps E-Book Service

    May 7, 2010

    Google plans to start selling electronic books in late June or July, throwing the Internet search giant into a competitive arena that already includes Amazon.com, Apple and Barnes & Noble.

    The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said its new service, called Google Editions, will be stocked with in-print works from a wide range of Web sites that people can read across an array of devices, including Apple's popular iPad tablet PC.

    "It is a different approach to what most readers today have," said Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesman. "This e-book service will be device agnostic."

    Unlike Amazon and Apple, which use proprietary products and software, Google and its partners would make books compatible with any Internet-connected device, from smartphones and e-book readers to desktop computers.

    Google also plans to set itself apart by giving book retailers -- and independent publishers -- the ability to sell Editions on their own Web sites, and get the lion's share of the revenues.

    "It's much more of an open ecosystem, where you find a way for bricks-and-mortar stores to participate in the future digital world of books," said Dan Clancy, the Engineering Director for Google's Book Search Project. "We're quite comfortable having a diverse range of physical retailers, whereas most of the other players would like to have a less competitive space, because they'd like to dominate."

    To date, Google has scanned over 12 million books, both in- and out-of-print, giving it a larger selection of material than either Amazon or Apple. The company hasn't revealed how much it will charge users to access digital books through the service.

    Editions is separate from a controversial Google project to create the world's biggest digital library of out-of-print books. That effort has been mired in legal action for the last few of years.

    Source: (www.mobiledia.com)

  • Apple Seeks Patent for Heart-Monitoring iPhone

    May 7, 2010

    Scientists at Apple have filed a U.S. patent application for a way to monitor the activity of the heart using electrodes on an iPhone, similar to methods found in high-end electrocardiogram, or EKG, sensors.

    Apple's invention makes use of sensor leads, embedded underneath the surface of an iPhone, to detect and analyze electrical signals of the heart, the company said in an application filed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

    "The leads can detect a user's heartbeat, heart rate, or any other signal generated by the user's heart from a user's thumb and fingers," Apple said in the patent application. "The heart sensors can serve as an EKG monitor."

    The Cupertino, Calif.-based company also looked at using the patterns of a person's unique heart beat for biometric identification.

    The application process is lengthy, typically taking around six years before a patent is granted by U.S. authorities. And that is no guarantee the invention will eventually end up on the market.

    In the past, handset makers have attempted to patent everything from iPhones with solar panels and mobile phones that recharge through kinetic movement to handsets that use fuel cells to generate power from water.

    Source: (www.mobiledia.com)

  • iPad Expands Overseas

    May 7, 2010

    Apple says its iPad will be available in nine more countries beginning May 28, with pre-orders beginning May 10.

    The tablet will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K. by the end of this month.

    Apple also said it plans to release the iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July. The company will announce availability, local pricing and pre-order plans for these nine additional countries at a later date.

    Apple already has sold more than 1 million iPad devices in the United States. The company says iPad users have downloaded more than 12 million apps from the App Store and more than 1.5 million eBooks from the iBookstore.

    Source: (www.wirelessweek.com)

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