Apple wasn’t the only loser in the ruling. It was ultimately a loss for both parties since the court also disagreed with Motorola’s previous claim that Apple’s iPad design patent was invalid. As a result, both parties have to cover court costs generated by the dispute. Read more »
Struggling British chipmaker CSR is selling its mobile business to Samsung in a deal worth $310 million, in what appears to be the latest episode in the ongoing global patent war. Read more »
The mobile backend as a service market continues to heat up as more developers look to connect their apps to various services and make them more dynamic. That’s prompting more money for startups such like Kinvey, which is announcing that it has raised $5 million. Read more »
As if we needed more evidence that brick and mortar stores are at a crossroads, a study out Tuesday from Paris-based consulting firm CapGemini found that more than half of shoppers globally said they think more physical stores will become merely showrooms by 2020. Read more »
A new startup is hoping to breathe new life into the MeeGo project let loose by Nokia — just one of a rising number of companies breaking out as the Finnish mobile giant stumbles. That’s what happens when you let 40,000 people go inside two years. Read more »
Until recently, revenue from unlimited voice and text plans were profit drivers for mobile service providers. Now, the two largest providers, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, are engaging in some serious price signaling. Rags Srinivasan looks at what’s driving this explicit communication. Read more »
Under the gun to show that it can make big money in mobile, Facebook is reportedly planning to unveil a new product that will target ads based on the apps a consumer has on his phone. Read more »
AT&T could soon let customers sign up lost or stolen devices to a “block” list that will shut off voice, data and texts but not turn off the account, according to The Verge. A device would be unusable, even if the SIM card was swapped out. Read more »
New mobile data service Samba has launched in the U.K. with a novel idea — agree to watch a few ads, and it will give you free data. But while the company hopes it’s on track for glory, the path it’s taking is littered with bodies. Read more »
You’ve got snacks, playlists and a full gas tank. But what about apps? Assuming you’ve also packed your iPhone, here are 25 that will ensure an easier trip — for packing, finding the cheapest gas and the closest Wi-Fi, knowing the weather on your route and more. Read more »
Between February and May, Apple’s iPhone saw a sliver of growth in U.S. smartphone market share at 1.7 percent. Android saw smaller growth (0.8 percent) but is still most prevalent and is on a little over half of all smartphones, according to a report released Monday. Read more »
Although both Google and Facebook have so far had little success with mobile advertising, Twitter says that its mobile ads are seeing huge levels of engagement. Is there something about the real-time information network that could make it a superior medium for mobile ads? Read more »
Since the iPhone’s debut five years ago the mobile industry has been completely transformed: Virtual keyboards are standard; wireless operators changed the way they do business; and an iPhone app sold for a billion dollars. Nothing, however, has changed more in five years than Apple itself. Read more »
A new report shows Sprint customers are less likely to stay with the carrier when looking for an iPhone than customers who subscribe to AT&T or Verizon Wireless. However, Sprint does better a lot better in attracting new iPhone customers from prepaid or regional carriers. Read more »
Apple enjoyed a triumph this week when it persuaded a federal judge to ban a tablet computer that Apple claims was “slavishly copied” from its famous iPad. Is this a game changer that will allow the iPad to dominate for a long time to come? Here’s a simple explanation of what happened and what comes next. Read more »
Foap is a Swedish company started by travel industry veterans disappointed in the availability of stock photo art. Their elegant and easy app lets anyone upload and sell iPhone photos. It also lets stock art shoppers request specific photos through a concept called “missions.” Read more »
News-aggregation services Flipboard and Pulse have both signed deals this week to distribute content from a mainstream outlet — one the New York Times and the other the Wall Street Journal — but they are taking very different approaches when it comes to monetizing those relationships. Read more »
PayPal is undertaking a big reorganization that simplifies the company’s structure around a mobile theme. It’s part of a larger effort to build a more unified experience for customers that is easier to use across the company’s different access points. Read more »
If you’ve ever lost or misplaced your keys, your iPhone or your iPad, the Zomm Wireless Leash Plus can help remind you where you left them. This little multi-function device can also act as a wireless speakerphone. We tried it out, here’s what we found. Read more »
The Philadelphia company is rolling out a new image: gone is the frog-adorned logo, in is a fresher look. But more importantly, TicketLeap has decided what customer base to target: entertainment event organizers, and the growing number of events taking place outside of theaters and clubs. Read more »
Yes, mobile devices and social networks can produce a lot of distractions, and resisting that may be difficult — as critics like Joe Kraus point out. But is this really a disaster in the making, or just another social evolution we need to undergo? Read more »
Declining sales in Spain and France suggest that Europe’s relationship with mobile has reached the ‘it’s complicated’ stage. But what are the reasons for the precipitous falls being witnessed by mobile companies across the continent? And is it actually a bad thing? Read more »
How timely: right as we seem to be reopening the debate over whether or not the iPad is a consumption or creation tool, Martha Stewart, the high priestess of crafty creativity, debuts a brand new iPad app called CraftStudio. Read more »
Tumblr’s iPhone app has gotten a major redesign that introduces more robust blogging features and new speed enhancements. Tumblr still doesn’t have a dedicated iPad app but the new 3.0 update should provide a lot of improved functionality for fans of the mobile app. Read more »
Nailing the mobile experience is essential for online travel services. Orbitz’s new free app aims to make it much easier for leisure travelers to do trip research and book hotel, airfare and rental cars all within one app without going to a mobile website. Read more »
Google is planning to make a significant push into both the consumer market and especially the enterprise market with its Chromebook cloud-based laptops, according to Sundar Pichai. The Chrome VP told GigaOM Structure attendees that Google Apps have opened the door to the cloud. Read more »
GigaOM’s Structure event this week reminds me of the well-documented relationship between economic crises and technological innovation: Hard times bring out the best in entrepreneurs, precipitating a creative destruction that resets the technology infrastructure and transforms business. From my vantage point here in the Silicon Valley, […] Read more »
Igor Zhadanov, 27, is CEO of Ukraine-based Readdle, known for iPad and iPhone apps like PDF Expert and Scanner Pro. As Readdle is about to open its first U.S. office, we talked about staying independent, competing with larger companies, and the challenges of today’s App Store. Read more »
Tandem Entrepreneurs has closed its second fund, raising $32 million, which it will use to further its core mission: investing in early-stage mobile startups. Tandem began in 2007 as a capital fund for mobile startups, but has since expanded to become a small mobile-only accelerator. Read more »
BMobilized, a New York City-based company, is working to help businesses get mobile with the launch of a DIY tool that converts any website into a robust HTML5-enabled mobile site that works on any device and browser combination. Read more »
British mobile operators have come in for criticism recently for ‘overblocking’ — incorrectly identifying sites as adult content and censoring them from ordinary web users. After GigaOM fell foul of one network’s filters, we asked for answers. And now they’re trickling in. Read more »
Vodafone and O2 are joining forces in Britain to share their grid and try to roll out 4G services faster than planned. It’s being painted as a great deal for consumers — but it’s actually being driven by the actions of their rivals. Read more »
Apple’s iPhone will soon arrive on Virgin Mobile, and the announcement should come sometime later this week, The Wall Street Journal is reporting. The plan will be pre-paid, and should be available “as soon as July 1,” though no pricing details were avialable. Read more »
Google announced Tuesday that it has acquired Quickoffice, a suite of office-related mobile productivity apps for iOS and Android. The deal gives Google an established document viewing and editing platform at a critical competitive juncture, as Microsoft remains reluctant to expand Office to other mobile platforms. Read more »
The last-minute hotel booking app has secured a $23 million Series C funding round from U.S. Venture Partners. Hotel Tonight plans to use the money to bring its iOS and Android app to more cities outside the U.S., and add more last-minute destinations at home. Read more »
Privacy was often an afterthought for small companies, but that’s changing in the era of big data. As TRUSTe’s CEO, Chris Babel has seen the impact privacy can have on a startup — for better or worse. Here, he offers tips on how to avoid the pitfalls. Read more »
Less than two months removed from Facebook buying Instagram, and one of the many other mobile photo-sharing services out there is calling it quits. PicPlz put up a notice on its blog that it will be shutting down the service and deleting all photos next month. Read more »
British mobile firms are often accused of “overblocking” — censoring the web for their users in the name of child protection. But after GigaOM was blocked, we’ve discovered first hand how dangerous bad filters can be… and how hard it is to get answers from operators. Read more »
Google has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft and Nokia and is also tattling on the companies with U.S. regulators, accusing them patent-troll-like behavior. The good thing about filing a complaint with the EC is Google doesn’t have to do the legwork. Read more »
It’s the question that has dogged Facebook and likely contributed to its IPO fiasco: does Facebook have a mobile problem? New data shows that it does: but then so does every Internet company trying to figure out how to make money in the mobile landgrab. Read more »
